Hisham b. Hakam's Understanding of Divinity

Although there was no doubt about God's existence in the early Shi'ite, there was no common opinion about God's nature. In the first period of Shi'a, where tashbīh (anthropomorphism) and tajsīm (corporealism/materialization) were dominant, there were various imaginations of god. Hisham b. Hakam advocated the idea of tajsīm in such an environment. But his conception of tajsim is not a conception of anthropomorphic god. According to him tajsīm means that existence of God and his having a space. Hisham who expresses his views with mental inferences, understood the verses superficially and supported his views with nass (Quran and Sunnah). With the same method he advocated that God's knowledge was not eternal. Although his marginalized ideas were attempted to be purified by Shi'i authors for the later period the fact that these unconventional opinions were passed in the credible Shia sources and existence of different variants of these views under the name of Hishamiyya sect shows that Hisham couldn't be completely purified from his marginal views.