Tradition

اِنَّما قُلْنا «الَّطِيفُ» لِلْخَلْقِ اللَّطِيفِ... وَ ما لا يَكادُ عُيُونُنا تَسْتَبِينَهُ لِدِمامَةِ خَلْقِها، لا تَراهُ عُيُونُنا وَ لاتَلْمُسُهُ اَيْدِينا!

Imam al-Rida’ (‘a) is narrated to have said: “The reason God is called the Subtle (Al-Latif) is because of his creation of very small and delicate creatures… These are creatures that we can’t see and our hands can’t feel due to their extremely small size.”1

Brief Commentary

This is just a small section of a larger tradition which Fath ibn Yazdad Jurjani has narrated from Imam al-Rida’ (‘a). In this tradition, it has been explained that these creatures are so small that our senses cannot perceive them at all. They live amongst the waves of the ocean, the layers of the bark of trees, as well as scattered throughout the deserts and plains. This tradition has been narrated in books that are more than a thousand years old. They were compiled hundreds of years before the birth of Pasteur (1822-1895 AD). This is a clear-cut scientific miracle which has been narrated from Imam al-Rida’ (‘a).

• 1. Al-Kafi, vol. 1, p. 106, Al-Tawhid, p. 185, Uyoon Akhbar Al-Ridha’, vol. 1, p. 127.