�Existence

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Things may exist at three levels: If they are sighted they have original true existence; if they are imagined by us (i.e. seen by the eye of the mind) they have formative, acknowledged existence; and if they are expressed in words (i.e. verbally) they have verbal referential existence. Verbal referential existence expresses the formative acknowledged existence that embodies the original true existence. If things were not sighted they would not have been imagined, and if they had not been imagined they would not have been acknowledged by the human being and hence not expressed in words.

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The Word, the Knowledge, and the Known

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These three things, though ostensibly different, are identical and parallel; each one has its specific characteristics, and so are the name, the named, and the naming. God’s name is Allah; the named, Glory be to Him, is the Exalted Being; as for the naming, either it has been done by the people or by Him, and in either case the name has been known and acknowledged since eternity. When Allah inspired the people to utter His name, the verbal existence was thus established; His Name is eternal, as far as the formative acknowledged existence is concerned because it has been known to Him since eternity, but as far as the verbal existence is concerned it is incidental when it is uttered by the people.

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Divisions of the Known

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Verbal referential existence leads necessarily to the formative acknowledged existence. The word (Allah) connotes God’s existence in minds; any word denotes a Known that is divided as follows: 1) The Impossible in Itself: Is that whose non-existence is not due to any cause save the impossibility of itself, such as the impossibility of the existence of any two contradictory elements at the same time, i.e. we cannot assume the existence and the non-existence of one thing at the same time, this is not accepted by the mind. The Impossible does not exist in minds nor in reality. 2) The Possible by Itself: Is that whose existence and non-existence are due to cause. All the existing things perceptible by our senses are an example for the Possible by itself; they need a cause to exist and another to cease to exist. The existence of the cause must precede the existence of the Possible, and anything that is preceded by non-existence is incidental, hence the Possible is incidental because it is preceded by non-existence. Possible things not only need a cause to exist but they also need a cause to continue to exist. This cause is the originator, the donor of existence, and the true doer; it grants existence to these possible things. As long as the Possible needs a cause to exist, then they need a finder; this finder can neither be an Impossible nor another Possible, so it could only be the Necessary Being, whose existence is the true cause of all existence. 3) The Necessary Being: Is that who is self-existent and whose existence is not due to any other cause save its true presence and epithets; i.e. if this Being is imagined by the mind in an absolute manner, it cannot be anything other than what is imagined.

� � � The Necessary Being must have the following epithets:

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[1] It must be eternal. If we assume anything save this, then this will denote that it has a period of nonexistence, and anything whose existence is preceded by a period of non-existence is an incident and needs a cause to endow it with existence. If the Necessary Being was not eternal, it would have needed an originator, and this is impossible because the Necessary Being is that who is self-existent; it needs no cause to endow it with existence and is the originator of all existing things.

[2] Non-existence can never befall the Necessary Being, otherwise it would be deprived of itself and this is impossible.

[3] It must not be composed of parts, because if this were the case it would have required the precedent presence of these parts, which have an independent existence. Hence it would have needed the existence of something else, and the existence of the Necessary Being is not due to any cause save itself. Moreover, if it had been composed of parts its existence would have depended on the existence of these parts.

[4] It must not be divisible, because if it had been divisible the resultant would have been a number of partitions, consequently a number of existing things liable to non-existence or composition, and this is impossible as aforementioned.

[5] It must be omniscient; its all-inclusive knowledge must precede the acknowledged so that the acknowledged coincides with the eternal knowledge of the Necessary Being.

[6] It must have absolute ability so as to be able to originate and create all the possible and potential things, the means of their existence, their survival, as well as the causes of their annihilation.

[7] It must have an overwhelming will and absolute freedom of choice, as all the possible things exist at a certain time and according to certain characteristics, and it could have been otherwise. Therefore they exist according to the eternal will of their originator and creator.

[8] It must be ever-living in order to grant life to all living things. Its life must be eternal; it is the life that is neither affected by sleep nor slumber, or else its knowledge, ability and will would have been reduced, and this is impossible because all possible beings are in constant need of the absolute existence and presence of the Necessary Being.

[9] It, solely, must have absolute existence, with no other Necessary Being or grantor of existence. If there had been any other Necessary Being it would have been either a helper or a rival. The existence of a helper would mean that the Necessary Being does not have absolute ability, while the existence of a rival would have spoiled the order of all possible things because of differences in wills and choices.

[10] It must have no limited essence, because every essence is restricted to a limited space in which it must either be still or moving; both stillness and motion are incidental, and anything associated with an incident is incidental.

[11] It must have no body. Since it has no limited essence, it must have no body as every body must have a spatial limit and must be made of a number of matters, and all these qualities apply only to incidental things.

[12] It must not require a body to occupy. Anything that occupies a body is temporal and is not self-existent, but requires the existence of this body preceding its own existence. Every body is incidental and needs the precedent existence of its creator. How would the Necessary Being occupy a body if its existence had been eternal? This denotes that this Being is self-existent, has neither a limited essence nor a body; is not temporal and does not need a body to occupy.

[13] It must not be restricted to directions. All directions are incidental and described in relation to the human body; they are either above, below, in front, at the back, to the left or to the right. If the human being had been created in a different shape, e.g. as a sphere, there would have been no directions created. Therefore, it is impossible to assume that any direction can be attributed to the Necessary Being, or that it can be restricted to directions. How could any direction be attributed to the Necessary Being if all directions are incidental?

[14] All the epithets of perfection attributed to any created being must be attributed to the Necessary Being in the most perfect manner because it is quite illogical to assume that the created being is more perfect than the creator.

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Thereupon, the Necessary Being could only be one, having no partner; unique with no equal; self-existent having no opponent. It must be the first with no beginning, subsisting without cessation, eternal and everlasting with no end. Moreover, it is not a formed body and does not resemble bodies neither in form nor in nature. This Necessary Being is ever-living, never seized by slumber or sleep; it can never be affected by death, non-existence or annihilation. It has absolute power, having the ability to create and invent; it is omniscient where its all-inclusive knowledge encompasses every single thing. This perfect knowledge is eternal and is neither altered nor corrected according to events. What occurs is only what the Necessary Being wills, and what it does not will never occurs because its will overwhelms its creatures; it accomplishes everything where nothing can escape its all-inclusive knowledge, nor is anything beyond its power. Thereupon, the mind must perceive the essential inter-relation between the creator of existence and every existing created being. By knowing this co-relation every human being eventually comes to know his creator, his duties, and the wisdom behind his existence. This co-relation must take place through a mediator because it is difficult for the ephemeral to perceive or communicate with the eternal. The mediator must be selected and qualified by the Necessary Being, and must be of the same race as the people to whom he is sent to instruct. This proves the necessity of sending messengers so that God’s existence is revealed to human beings through legislation and conveyance, after His presence is perceived by logic and mental abilities. After the truthfulness of the messenger is proved by the mind through evidences, manifestations, and miracles, then he should be believed and listened to, so that what he has to convey is properly understood; here the mind’s role comes to an end and the believer must totally entrust his soul to Allah and submit to His Guidance. Prophet Muhammad, Allah’s Prayers and Peace be upon him, revealed to us some of Allah’s attributes in which we should believe, such as (the All-Hearing and the All-Seeing Powers, Speaking, and the Firm Establishment on the Throne), as was inspired to him by Allah, “..there is nothing whatever like unto Him, and He is the One that hears and sees all things” (SHURA, 11), “..and to Moses God spoke direct” (NISAA’, 164), “..and is firmly established on the Throne” (A‘RAF, 54).

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The Epithet of the All-Seeing Power: Through this epithet all what is seen is revealed to Allah.

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The Epithet of the All-Hearing Power: Through this epithet all what is heard is revealed to Allah.

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The first verse proves the epithets and attributes them to Allah and negates that these two divine epithets can resemble His creatures’. These two divine epithets do not need an organ but they are two divine epithets of perfection. This is proved in the Qur’an by the story of Abraham, “..why worship that which heareth not and seeth not and can profit thee nothing?” (MARYAM, 42). Nothing can ever escape His All-Seeing and His All-Hearing Powers.

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The Epithet of Speaking: Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, is still speaking His Divine Word through His Divine Will and Power. What is said by Allah is self-existent and cannot be separated from the Exalted Self. Allah’s Word follows His Will; it does not resemble His creatures’ words.

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The Establishment on the Throne: Allah is firmly established on the Throne in a manner far above settlement, location or movement. The Throne doesn’t bear Him but the Throne along with the angels that bear it are subdued by His Omnipotent Grip. We can say what may seem paradoxical: The establishment is not unknown to us, the modality is beyond our logic, yet we must have faith in it.

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Prophet Muhammad, Allah’s Prayers and Peace be upon him, instructed us to other epithets that are mentioned in the Qur’an, “Say: He is God, the One and Only; God, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; and there is none like unto Him.” (IKHLAS, 1- 4). The One and Only (AL-AHAD): Is that Who is too exalted to be compound, multiple, or what these two epithets may require, such as being corporal, space-limited or having a partner. The word Al-Ahad denounces from every aspect that anyone or anything could resemble Allah as a Being, in His Epithets, or in His Divine Acts; Al-Ahad also denotes that epithets of perfection could only be attributed to Him. That is why only Allah could be named Al-Ahad.

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The Eternal, Absolute, Besought of all (AL-SAMAD): Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, is Self-Existent and Besought of all. He depends on no person, but all beings and all things depend on Him.

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He begetteth not: Allah does not need anyone to help or succeed Him.

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Nor is He begotten: This is because He needs nothing, had not been preceded by non-existence, and had been derived from nothing.

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And there is none like unto Him: All epithets of supremacy, perfection and might are attributed to Him.

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Moreover, Allah describes Himself as the Ever-Living and the Self-Existent. The word (the Ever-Living)includes all epithets of perfection of the Supreme Being; the word (the Self- Existent) includes all epithetsof perfection of His Divine Acts.Let us delve in an attempt to reveal lights of the Divine meanings of the Most Beautiful Names of Allah,Praise and Glory be to Him.

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(1) ALLAH

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The origin of the word is elah, and all what is worshipped is so called, but only the truly worshipped God is named Allah. Is the word Allah a defective noun or a derivative noun? There are three viewpoints: 1) The word Allah is a defective noun because it has no dual nor plural form; secondly, it isn’t derivative because if it had been so, then it should have had a root from which it had been derived and consequently the word Allah would have been recent. In fact the word Allah is ancient and eternal as the Exalted Self, therefore it must be a defective noun. 2) The word Allah is a proper noun designated to the Exalted Self that is described by all the divine attributes; this all-inclusive name comprises all the Exalted Self’s attributes, so we say, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful Allah. Apart from the name Allah, each of the names of the Exalted Self concerns a special singular meaning and is a description of it. Since the Exalted Self must have a name that comprises all the Divine attributes and since this name cannot be designated to anyone save the Exalted Self, therefore this name must be exclusive to the Exalted Self. Moreover this is not an epithet because if it were so, then the profession of faith (There is no god but Allah) would not denote the Profession of Monotheism, just as the phrase (There is no god but the Most Merciful), does not denote Monotheism. 3) The most acceptable viewpoint is that the word Allah is a derivative noun, it had been an attribute at the very start but it became the proper noun that pertains exclusively to the Exalted Self and thereupon, we dispense with any other name to define Him and any other name is added to the name Allah, so we say, the Patient, the Omniscient, and the Subduer are some of the names of Allah, but we cannot say, Allah is one of the names of the Most Merciful, or of the Omniscient. As the name Allah is a derivative noun then it must be derived from one of the following Arabic verbs: a) Aliha: to worship. b) Aliha: to have faith in and to be calm in the presence of someone, because hearts find satisfaction in the remembrance of the Exalted Self, and souls pacify in knowing Him. c) Alaha: to become confused and baffled as minds are bewildered in knowing and comprehending His attributes. d) Alihahu: to be to succoured, as the afflicted person resorts to Him and He protects him. e) Aliha: to be emotionally attached to the mother at the time of weaning, since worshippers are emotionally attached to the Exalted Self, and supplicate to him in times of affliction. f) Laha: to be veiled and high in rank, because the Exalted Self is veiled from perception and vision, and is high above everything. The name Allah is the greatest of the names of the Exalted Self and the most comprehensive. Furthermore, it is said that it is the most eminent name by which if the human being calls upon the Exalted Self, the call is answered, that is why no one else has been called by that name and this is confirmed in the Quranic verse, “Knowest thou of any who is worthy of the same Name as He?” (MARYAM, 65). One of the interpretations of this verse states: Is there anyone who bears a name similar to His name? Allah is the name of the Only Truth, Whose existence is the only true existence, the One Who combines all divine attributes, Who is qualified with all the divine epithets. Only to Allah is attributed the real existence, because every existing being is not self-existent but gains its existence from the Existence of Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(2)

The Most GRACIOUS (AL-RAHMAN)

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The Most MERCIFUL (AL-RAHEEM)

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The Most GRACIOUS and The Most MERCIFUL are two honourable names of Allah denoting that to Him all grace and mercy are attributed, in a way that becomes His Exaltation. The Most GRACIOUS is He whose Mercy prevails over everything in this world, and the Most MERCIFUL is He who distinguishes the believers with His Mercy in the hereafter. The Most GRACIOUS, is denotative of an attribute related to the Exalted Self, whereas the Most MERCIFUL, is suggestive of the attribute’s relationship with those whom Allah has Mercy on, that’s why the name the Most GRACIOUS, is never mentioned in a transitive way in the Quranic verses. Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, said, “And He is Full of Mercy to the Believers.” (AHZAB, 43), and He did not say: Full of Grace. AL-RAHMAN, the Most GRACIOUS, in Arabic, is a noun and an epithet. As an epithet, this name directly follows the name of Allah in, “In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful”, and as a noun it is mentioned in the Qur’an as an entire noun in, “God, Most Gracious is firmly established on the Throne.” (TA-HA, 5), “God, Most Gracious! It is He Who has taught the Qur’an.” (RAHMAN, 1, 2), “Say, call upon God, or call upon Rahman” (ISRAA’, 110). The two names AL-RAHMAN and AL-RAHEEM, are derived from the word rahma, which means mercy. The perfect mercy is endowing the necessitous with favour; the prevailing Mercy is endowing the necessitous and the non-necessitous. Allah’s Grace and Mercy are complete and prevalent; they are complete because He conveys His Grants to those whom He wishes to favour; as for their prevalence, Allah’s Mercy and Grace inundate the necessitous and the non-necessitous, the worthy and the unworthy with necessities, essentials and luxuries, in this world and in the hereafter. To man, mercy is not void of a heart-rending painful tenderness that overwhelms the merciful person, as if by doing a merciful deed he is trying to overcome his own feelings of painful sympathy. Moreover, the merciful person may not be able to convey his help and grants to the needy. Perfection lies in the perfect ability to convey and fulfill the needs of the necessitous. From the word AL-RAHMAN, the Most GRACIOUS, one perceives a kind of Grace inaccessible to mankind’s power; Allah is the Most GRACIOUS, Most Beneficent to people; He endows them with a myriad of favours. He creates them, then He guides them to Faith and to all means of felicity, then He grants them His Bliss in the hereafter; the most perfect bliss is offered to them when they beam in brightness and beauty looking towards their Lord’s Countenance. That’s why AL-RAHMAN is more specific than AL-RAHEEM. Allah, Glory be to Him, says, “God, Most Gracious! It is He Who has taught the Qur’an. He has created man, He has taught him speech”

(RAHMAN, 1, 2, 3, 4). It was said that Allah is the Most GRACIOUS of this world and of the hereafter and He is the Most MERCIFUL of the hereafter. The name AL-RAHMAN can never be attributed to any one save Allah, but Raheem can be attributed to human beings. Prophet Muhammad, Allah’s Prayers and Peace be upon him, said, “When Allah created this world, He wrote there above His Throne (My Mercy precedes My Wrath) ” (Hadith). All disasters, diseases and the like that we perceive in this world are nothing but mercy although they may be covered and hidden from man. In other words, good is full of mercy and is meant in itself; evil may be a blessing covered with a mantle of evil. Any evil that afflicts the human being is not meant in itself and this is one of the secrets of providence and fate that we are ordered to believe in, the good and evil of it, the sweet and bitter. Glory be to Allah Whose Mercy and Grace encompass every single thing, Glory be to the Most GRACIOUS, the Most MERCIFUL, He is Allah.

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(4) The KING

(AL-MALIK)

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The KING is He Who dispenses by His Self, His Epithets and His Attributes with any existing being; and is needed by everyone. Any king of the created beings can not dispense with everything because he is stricken with poverty to Allah, he is in earnest need of his subjects’ support, protection from his foes and enemies, and remedy from diseases and plights. Of course, only some of his people will need his power. There are kingdoms of human beings, Jinn, and animals, and any kingdom is inevitably ephemeral; the king will either die or have his kingdom invaded or demolished by someone else. Allah is the absolute KING; He is needed by every single one of His creatures and He dispenses with everything. His Kingdom is everlasting and eternal, He is the Lord of Power and Authority as He is the Creator of all kingdoms. He possesses this world and the hereafter; on Doomsday all claims tumble and Allah calls, “Whose will be the dominion that day?” as no one answers, He says, “That of God, the One, the Irresistible!” (GHAFIR, 16). He grasps heavens and earth and shakes them vigorously saying, “I’m the KING, where are the kings of earth? where are the tyrants? where are the haughty?” (Hadith). Praise be to the Lord and Possessor of Existence, Glory be to the KING of all kings, the Possessor of every possessor or possessed; praise be to the KING, He is Allah.

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(5) The ALL-HOLY(AL-QUDDOUS)

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The Arabic noun is derived from the word quds, which means pure. The ALL-HOLY is he who is too exalted for any needs or defects; to whom all perfection and sublimity are attributed. Allah is too Exalted for even all the perfect epithets known among human beings, and it is a miscalculation to use any epithets of mankind, whether of perfection or defect, and attribute them to Allah, the ALL-HOLY. Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, is too Exalted for any description perceptible by senses or imaginable by minds or foreseen by consciences. Man’s utmost effort led him to divide the attributes and the epithets into those of perfection and those of defects. In reality, Allah is too Exalted for the most perfect attributes of man. It was said that all what is imaginable and perceptible by your mind is totally different from the reality of Allah. Glory be to Allah, Glory be to the ALL-HOLY.

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(6) The PEACE-GIVER (AL-SALAM)

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AL-SALAM, is He Who is free from fault, Whose Attributes are void of defect, His Deeds free from evil, and is the source of every peaceful thing in the entire universe. Allah’s Divine Acts are free from absolute evil that is meant in itself, as no evil on earth is exempt from a good aspect hidden within it. Allah, the PEACE-GIVER, saves the believers from torture and greets them in the home that will last for ever. Praise and Glory be to Him, He is the PEACE-GIVER, He is Allah.

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(7) The BESTOWER of Security(AL-MU’MIN)

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The BESTOWER of SECURITY is He to Whom all thoughts and ideas of safety and security are exclusively attributed and are derived from His Supremacy. No safety can be best appreciated except in the time of fear and danger, and no fear can be felt but under the overwhelming possibility of non-existence and perdition. The true BESTOWER of SECURITY is He Who is able to provide all the means of safety and peace; He prevents the access of fear to whoever He secures. All creatures are feeble and weak, subject to all sorts of perdition and loss from within, as diseases, and from without, as what befalls them from enemies and blights. Allah endows every creature with all the means of security and safety through senses, medicines, barricades, organs and weapons, and He grants them the secrets of the mode of operating them. The one who is deprived of all these endowments is bestowed with means of flight as wings in birds, and as disguise and changing colors to match their environment in chameleons. The torrential fear is the fear from eternal damnation in the hereafter and to be entrenched against it can only be attained by declaring (There is no god but Allah). These are the words Allah guided us to. The Prophet, Allah’s Prayers and Peace be upon him, says, “Allah says, (There is no god but Allah) are My words and I am Allah; anyone who will say these words enters My Fort and will be entrenched against My Torture” (Hadith). Allah’s name AL-MU’MIN can be perceived as asserting Allah’s evidential consolidation to His messengers whom He had elected, by revealing their miracles and gifts that prove their truthfulness. Allah says, “Yea, God knoweth that thou art indeed His Apostle.” (MUNAFIKUN, 1), “There is no god but He: that is the witness of God.” (AL-I-‘IMRAN, 18). Blessed be Allah, Whose Presence is the Source of Security to the whole world, blessed be the BESTOWER of Security, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(8) The LORD of SUPREME SWAY(AL-MUHAYMEN)

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AL-MUHAYMEN is He Who holds supremacy over His creatures’ acts, sustenance, moment of death and all their deeds. Allah, the LORD of SUPREME SWAY, is the One Who surveys all affairs by His All-Awareness, Preservation and His Sovereign Sway. He is the Guardian of this world, the real essence of it along with all the worlds with everything awesome and delicate therein. He is the Guard Who preserves and protects every single thing, entrenching them against any assault that demolishes, eradicates or transgresses. On contemplating existence, you will find a balance that adjusts everything. To Allah all supremacy and Exaltation is attributed; Glory be to the LORD of SUPREME SWAY, He is Allah.

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(9) The MIGHTY(AL-‘AZIZ)

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The word ‘aziz is denotative of great power and superiority. In the Arabic language, one of the meanings of ‘aziz is the thing that is rare and unparalleled. Other meanings are the unattainable, the peerless and the sought-after. So these different meanings should blend together to give the full and perfect meaning of the epithet ‘aziz. Allah is the absolute MIGHTY, Who is too Exalted for the perception of mental faculties; He is the unattainable by recognition and imagination; He dispenses by Himself with everything. All Might, Supremacy, and Exaltation are attributed to Him; Allah has no peer to equal or resemble Him. To Allah, absolute existence is attributed; no partner has He, so no one is truly MIGHTY save Him; He is Allah.

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(10) The COMPELLER(AL-JABBAR)

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The compeller is the one whose will prevails in a compelling and overwhelming way over everybody; and nobody can escape his grip. The Absolute COMPELLER is Allah, hands are helpless except when provided with His Power, Glory be to Him. It was said that jabbar is derived from the Arabic word jabara which means the setting of something broken and the repair of things. The COMPELLER, AL-JABBAR, is He Who repairs all the affairs of His creatures. Glory be to Allah to Whom everybody yields and submits and by Whom everything is remedied and repaired, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(11) The Most PROUD(AL-MUTAKABBIR)

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A proud person looks upon everything as mean and servile; he sees all supremacy and pride in himself, sohe looks down on everybody, as a king looks upon his subjects. Perfect and absolute pride can only beattributed to Allah.The Prophet, Allah’s Prayers and Peace be upon him, says, “Allah says: Pride is My Wear, Supremacy is My Dress,I will break anyone who vies with Me for them and I do not care” (Hadith).Glory be to the One who rightfully deserves to be called the Most PROUD, He is Allah.

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(12)

The CREATOR (AL-KHALIQ)

(13)

The MAKER (AL-BARI’)

(14) The BESTOWER of Forms (AL-MUSSAWIR)

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Anything that is created from non-existence to existence needs planning and evaluation, then creation, then shape- formation. Allah is the CREATOR as far as planning and evaluation are concerned, He is the MAKER Who brings to existence and He is the BESTOWER of Forms Who gives a definite form to the created being so that it exactly suits the aim of its creation. Divine attributes are either related to the Divine Acts or to the Exalted Self of Allah; examples of the former kind of attributes are (the CREATOR, the MAKER and the BESTOWER of Forms). The accuracy and exactitude of Allah’s Creating Power can not be perceived except by contemplating the universe as an entity then as fragmented sections and minute details. The entire universe can be compared to a body composed of organs co-existing to attain a certain function; these organs are the heavens, the stars and the earth with all that they contain. All these things are organized in such an exact way that any defect in organization or management will lead to the total collapse of the whole universe. Therefore, the first thing they need is planning and evaluation, then the making from non-existence, then the shape-formation, that is, arrangement of the parts, their forms and the links that bind all things together. As the universe with its great parts needs the system of creation, making, and shape-formation, then the most minute parts need them as well; for example the ant, the bee, and even the atom with the exact linkage between the nucleus and its particles. The form of things, their general appearance, the construction of the different parts, the linkage between these parts, the need of the whole to its fractions and the mutual relationship between one fraction and another are scenes that can be conspicuously observed in the celestial bodies and the terrestrial creatures: the animal, the plant, and the human being not to mention earth and its constituents. If we explore matters carefully, we will find that knowledge is but an image of that which is known in one’s mentality; learning is the conveyance of the acknowledged from the instructor’s mind to the receiver’s mentality and this is the Divine Act of the BESTOWER of Forms Who endows the human being with memory and imagination. These attributes, as aforementioned, pertain to Divine Acts; some people said that Allah has been described as the CREATOR before He created anything; others said that He cannot be described as the CREATOR before creation because He had been existing while nothing existed. The most acceptable viewpoint is that the attribute derives existence from the existence of the Exalted Self and this had been taking place since eternity, for Allah had been the CREATOR even before He created. The attribute had been deriving existence from His Existence, so when He created He created in accord with this attribute and He does create what He likes for He is the CREATOR, the MAKER and the BESTOWER of Forms eternally and permanently. Someone may ask: how would He be described as the CREATOR before He created the universe? We would say that water quenches thirst and this is the potential action of water before you drink it, so when you drink water it really quenches your thirst; hence it bears the ability of quenching thirst when it is in a jar, then on drinking it your thirst is really quenched. Furthermore, the sword is sharp and cutting even when it is sheathed; so when you use it, its sharp and cutting quality is proved. Similarly, a grain of weed is, from one aspect, a tree, because if it is thrown on a piece of land a tree will emerge, then the quality of the grain of weed is proved. Allah, Glory be to Him, had been the CREATOR even before He created the universe, He is the CREATOR after creating, and He will be for ever the CREATOR, the MAKER and the BESTOWER of Forms eternally and permanently. Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(15) The FORGIVER(AL-GHAFFAR)

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The original meaning of the Arabic word ghafr is veiling and concealing; maghfira is the veiling and forgiveness of all of our sins with Allah’s Favours and Mercy along with His overwhelming Endowment of repentance. Allah reveals the exquisite and conceals the ignominious in this world then He overlooks them in the hereafter. Ghafir, ghaffour, and ghaffar are also derived from the word ghafr. Allah is Al-Ghafir, Who forgives the sins; He is Al-Ghafour (the Liberal in Forgiving), Who forgives a multiplicity of sins; moreover He is AL-GHAFFAR (the FORGIVER) Who forgives again and again the recurring sin. Veiling has various manifestations: First, Allah veils and conceals the internal ugliness of the human being’s body and He adorns this body with an exquisite outward appearance. Second, Allah veils man’s ignominious ideas and thoughts and hides them in his heart so that no one can ever know them. Third, He veils the sinners’ sins though He possesses the perfect and absolute power to reveal the impact or the effects of these sins on the body or the face. Fourth, He veils and conceals the committed sins, and so will be the case on Doomsday, and He does not let anybody know them; furthermore, He faces the believer with his sins without the knowledge of anybody then He changes the evil deeds into righteous ones and blots the sins out of his Book of Reckoning and makes the believer’s organs along with His angels forget all the committed sins. Glory be to the FORGIVER, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(16) The SUBDUER(AL-QAHHAR)

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The SUBDUER is He Who subdues and vanquishes overwhelmingly everything and anything. Allah,Glory be to Him, says, “He is the Irresistible, watching from above His worshippers.” (AN‘AM, 18).The SUBDUER’s means to subdue and conquer His enemies are amazingly infinite. All existing things inheavens and on earth are in His Grip and this can not be attained save by Allah, the SUBDUER. Allexisting things are helpless, and on the Day of Resurrection the Almighty calls from above “Whose will bethe Dominion that Day? That of God, the One, the Irresistible.”(GHAFIR, 16). Praise and Glory be to Him,He is Allah.

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(17) The Great GRANTOR (AL-WAHHAB)

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The name AL-WAHHAB is derived from the word heba, which means the gift or donation void ofcompensation or purpose. If someone grants without anticipating any compensation and without expectingany benefit, then he is called waheb, which means grantor.No grant, lavish donation or abundant gifts can be bestowed save by Allah Who fulfills all the needs of thenecessitous, He is the Great GRANTOR of bounties Who says: “If ye would count the favours of God,never would ye be able to number them” (NAHL, 18).Praise and Glory be to Him, He is the Great GRANTOR, He is Allah.

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(18) The Great PROVIDER(AL-RAZZAQ)

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Allah is the Creator of subsistence and the ways of maintaining it; He is the Creator of the living beings and all the means of conveying livelihood to them and their enjoying it. The Great PROVIDER endows all the existing beings with all the means that can maintain their forms and shapes. He provides minds with knowledge and wisdom, hearts with insight, souls with revelation, and bodies with sustenance such as food, water, air, and clothes. Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, says, “For God is He Who gives all sustenance, Lord of Power, Steadfast for ever.” (ZARYIAT, 58), “And in heaven is your sustenance, as also that which ye are promised.” (ZARIYAT, 22), “There is no moving creature on the earth but its sustenance dependeth on God, He knoweth the time and place of its definite abode and its temporary deposit; all is in a clear record.” (HUD, 6), “..We ask thee not to provide sustenance, We provide it for thee”(TA-HA, 132). Prophet Muhammad, Allah’s Prayers and Peace be upon him, says, “If someone flees his subsistence, then his subsistence, as if it were a lion, will reach and outstrip him till it enters his mouth” (Hadith), “If you trust in Allah and recommend your souls to Him as you should, He will provide you with the means of subsistence as He endows birds with their sustenance, they leave early in the morning with empty stomachs and return corpulent” (Hadith). Praise and Glory be to the Great PROVIDER, He is Allah.

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(19) The OPENER

(AL-FATTAH)

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Allah is the OPENER Who opens anything that is locked with His Power and Care; He remedies all blights with His Guidance and reveals to scientists and men of intellect the intricate meanings and grants them perception and delicate information. Allah opens the gates of success to His apostles and prophets so they occupy heavenly dominions; He lifts the veil from the hearts of His chosen men. In Allah’s mighty Powers lie the keys of the unknown; He opens the safes of His Mercy and lets them inundate His creatures. Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, says, “Verily We have granted thee a manifest Victory.” (FAT-H, 1), “What God out of His Mercy doth bestow on mankind there is none can withhold” (FATIR, 2), “Our Lord! Decide thou between us and our people in truth, for Thou art the best to decide.” (A‘RAF, 89). Glory be to the OPENER, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(20) The OMNISCIENT(AL-‘ALEEM )

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Allah is conversant with everything; He comprehends all things in His Knowledge: the evident and the hidden, the slightest and the most awesome, the first and the last; He knows the ins and outs of everything. The comprehensiveness and clarity of His all-inclusive Knowledge can not be perfectly estimated or comprehended by the human mentality. Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, is the OMNISCIENT since eternity; He knows everything about His names, His Attributes and His Divine Acts since the beginning of creation and about all the living beings that will be created till Doomsday. Allah’s Omniscient Power differs from the knowledge of His creatures in the following aspects:

-Allah’s Knowledge is infinite and vast.

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His Knowledge coincides and is in perfect conformity with the true nature of the acknowledged.

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His Omniscient Knowledge precedes the existence of the acknowledged, and is not gained through the existence of things, but all things gain existence through His Knowledge.

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His Omniscient Knowledge is prone neither to variation nor alteration; It is neither increased by information nor decreased by forgetfulness. The honour of sciences and knowledge corresponds with the honour of the acknowledged; the most honourable of all the acknowledged is Allah. Therefore, knowing Allah is the best knowledge ever known; He is the OMNISCIENT Who knows everything about Himself and His Attributes eternally and permanently. This Omniscient Power is one of the epithets that are related to His Exalted Self like the Divine Will, that originated events in their eligible time and in accordance with the eternal Omniscient Power that had preordained everything. Glory be to the OMNISCIENT, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(21)

The WITHHOLDER (AL-QABIDH)

(22)

The ENLARGER (AL-BAASIT)

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Qabdh in Arabic means withholding and it also means taking; bast means enlarging, liberally donating, andgranting beyond measures. So scholars said, Allah withholds souls from the body on death, and grantsthem existence in it during life. Charity is taken from the well-off, and provision and means of subsistenceis enlarged for the poor. Allah occasionally withholds or enlarges in the hearts the feelings of hope or fear;He withholds, if He wishes, the evil of the unjust that is meant to befall the weak.The word qabdh, as mentioned in the Qur’an, may also mean having powerful control over things, as in,“..it is God that giveth you Want or Plenty.” (BAQARA, 245), “On the Day of Judgment the whole of theearth will be but His handful.” (ZUMAR, 67).The meaning of bast may also be the spreading or giving with liberality, as in, “..nor stretch it forth to itsutmost reach” (ISRAA’, 29), “..and they raise the Clouds, then does He spread them in the sky as He wills.”(RUM, 48), “..both His hands are widely outstretched, He giveth and spendeth of His bounty as Hepleaseth.” (MA’IDA, 67), “..and hath gifted him abundantly with knowledge and bodily prowess.” (BAQARA,247), “..and gave you a stature tall among the nations.” (A‘RAF, 69).The contrast between the two attributes shows that they can only co-exist as attributes of Allah, Who is thetrue WITHHOLDER and ENLARGER of all things, Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(23)

The ABASER (AL-KHAFIDH)

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The EXALTER (AL-RAFI‘ )

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Khafdh means to cause descending; Raf‘ means to exalt or elevate. Allah says, “Many will it bring low, many will it exalt.” (WAQI‘A, 3), meaning that Allah exalts the believers and abases the pagans, and He says, “And out of kindness lower to them the wing of humility.” (ISRAA’, 24), urging people to treat parents with kindness and affection. Allah says, “..but lower thy wing in gentleness to the believers.” (HIJR, 88), “..We raised over them the towering height of Mount Sinai.” (NISAA’, 154), “And remember Abraham and Ismail raised the foundations of the House” (BAQARA, 127), “..and We raise some of them above others in ranks.” (ZUKHRUF, 32), “By the Canopy Raised High.” (TUR, 5), “..God will raise up to the suitable ranks and degrees, those of you who believe and who have been granted mystic Knowledge.” (MUJADILA, 11). From the previous verses it is manifest that (abasing) and (exalting) can be concrete as well as abstract, for instance, prestige and honour, fame and glory. Of these two names of Allah (the ABASER, EXALTER), it is said that Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, abases the pagans by agonizing them and elevates the believers by bestowing blessings on them; He exalts the believers by nearing them and degrades His enemies by keeping them at a distance. Allah exalts with His Favours and Honours whom it pleases Him to exalt, and degrades with His Vengeance the rank of whom it pleases Him to degrade; He abases His enemies by humiliation, and exalts His worshippers by victories; He elevates the truth and abases the evil. The two names are epithets of His Divine Acts and are related to His Divine Will and Power, Glory be to the ABASER and the EXALTER, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(25) The BESTOWER of Honour (AL-MU‘IZZ)

(26) The DEGRADER (AL-MUZILL)

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Allah gives power to whomsoever He pleases, and takes it away from whomsoever He pleases. Allah says, “..Thou enduest with honour whom Thou pleasest, and Thou bringest low whom Thou pleasest.” (AL-I-‘IMRAN, 26), He honours the obedient and degrades the disobedient; He is the BESTOWER of Honour, He says, “..but honour belongs to God and His Apostle, and to the Believers.” (MUNAFIQUN, 8); whoever is honoured by Allah is mighty, “..and such as God shall disgrace, none can raise to honour.” (HAJJ, 18). The root of the word mu‘izz is azza which means to strengthen, support and give might. Allah says, “..but We strengthened them with a third.” (YA-SIN, 14). The praised might is that of Allah; vain might is that which is full of arrogance as mentioned in the Quranic verse, “When it is said to him ‘Fear God’ he is led by arrogance to more crime.” (BAQARA, 206), here the implied honour is disgraceful and full of arrogance. Moreover, there is praised humiliation; Allah says, “..lowly with the Believers, mighty against the Rejecters.” (MAI’DA, 57). The humiliation mentioned here is void of oppression but is voluntarily undertaken as the believers are humble to Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him. The Arabic word muzill also means to make things submit or yield. Allah says, “It is He Who has made the earth manageable for you.” (MULK, 15), in this verse (manageable) means that Allah has given man the necessary intelligence and has made the earth tractable to that intelligence, “And that We have subjected them to their use, of them some do carry them and some they eat.” (YA-SIN, 72), “..and the branches of fruit there, will hang low in humility” (INSAN, 14). As for the reprehended humiliation, it is disgraceful as it is the upshot of oppression. Allah relates what the rejecters will say,“..before we were humbled and put to shame” (TA-HA, 134). Azalla means to degrade, to put someone to shame, to vanquish, humiliate and demean. Allah says about the rejecters, “..will be among those most humiliated.” (MUJADILA, 20). The two names of Allah (the BESTOWER of Honour, the DEGRADER) are two attributes related to the Divine Acts. It is conspicuous that attributes that are related to the Divine Acts are contradictory showing that the power and might of Allah are infinite; He possesses the actions and the counteractions. Allah grants life and death, inflicts harm and gives benefit, lowers and exalts, degrades and honours; He withholds and enlarges, originates and restores; He has the power to do what He pleases; as some people

said, Allah is obliged to do nothing.It is not logical to assume that it is Allah’s duty to do anything. Duties ought to be done otherwise harmwould happen sooner or later; this is impossible with respect to Allah, because He is the One Who assigns,orders, and prohibits. He has the power to charge us with trusts, and all what occurs in the universe is butHis making, creating, and invention. He created people, their abilities, and all their movements; all actionsdone by any created being are also Allah’s creation; He says, “God is the Creator of all things” (ZUMAR,62), “But God has created you and your handiwork” (SAFFAT, 96).All incidents, knowledge, existence, and non-existence are but His Creation, are known to Him, and happenbecause He wants them to happen; all what He does is never void of wisdom, even if it is concealed. Praiseand Glory be to Him, He is the BESTOWER of Honour and the DEGRADER, He is Allah.

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(27)

The ALL-HEARING (AL-SAMEE‘

(28)

The ALL-SEEING (AL-BASSEER

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Two of the attributes that are related to the Exalted Being. As Allah’s Exalted Self can not be compared to those of His creatures’, therefore, His Attributes can not be compared to those of His creatures’. Some scholars said that the attribute and the described are one and the same, and others claimed that the two are different; a third group said that the attribute is not the described but at the same time they are not different. All what has been said is not permissible, for man should not let his mind think of what is unpardonable to think of, because Allah’s Attributes are beyond the perception of our minds; besides, we can not understand the true essence of Allah’s attributes. Our ancestors, may Allah be pleased with them , perceived these Divine Attributes in accordance with their literal meanings, that is to say, from a linguistic point of view. They did not delve beyond the literal meaning of these Divine Attributes, and they did not wade through comparisons and definitions that are derived from the fact that these epithets are also attributed to the created beings. As the Exalted Being can not be compared to any other being, so are His Attributes, they can not be compared to the attributes of any other being. We should attribute to Him only what He attributed to Himself without interpretation or analogy and assign the knowledge of the true essence of His Attributes to Him. We should say that Allah is All-Knowing having knowledge, Living having a life, All-Powerful having an overwhelming power, Willing having volition, Speaking, ALL-SEEING, and ALL-HEARING having means to speak, to see, and to hear, without letting the mind think about how this could take place. The ALL-HEARING is Allah Whose Knowledge encompasses everything. Nothing can escape His Knowledge even if it were covert, hidden or faint; nothing skips His ALL-HEARING Power; no call can ever occupy or hinder Him from hearing and answering another call. His ALL-HEARING Power encompasses all the misgivings of the souls; this power is perfect in receiving all sounds and voices. Languages are His Creation, so no language can ever be intricate for Him; He is too Exalted for having His ALL-HEARING Power linked to an organ, but it is an epithet through which anything that is heard is revealed to Him. Allah is the ALL-SEEING, nothing can escape His ALL-SEEING Power even what is under the grains of sand; Allah sees the secrets of thoughts; no darkness or veils can conceal anything from His Divine Vision that is too Exalted for being linked to an organ. Allah’s ALL-SEEING Power is a Divine Epithet through which all what is seen is revealed to Him. No glimpse of ideas can escape Him; no existent being can be eclipsed from His ALL-SEEING Power whether it is manifest or covert. Allah says to Moses, “..for I am with you : I hear and see everything” (TA-HA, 46) , and He says, “God has indeed heard and accepted the statement of the woman who pleads with thee concerning her husband.” (MUJADILA, 1), “God hath heard the taunt of those who say: Truly, God is indigent and we are rich” (AL-I-‘IMRAN, 181), “..or they think that We hear not their secrets and their private counsels? Indeed We do, and Our Messengers are by them, to record.” (ZUKHRUF, 80), “By no means! Proceed then, both of you, with Our signs; We are with you, and will listen to your call.” (SHU‘ARAA’, 15) , “For God is He Who hears and sees all things.” (HAJJ, 75). Glory be to the ALL-SEEING, the ALL-HEARING, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(29) The JUDGE (AL-HAKAM)

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The judge is the one who decides between opponents, as mentioned in the Qur’an, “..appoint two arbiters,one from his family, and the other from hers.” (NISAA’, 35) , “Say, Shall I seek for judge other than God?”(AN‘AM, 114); the judge also rules and governs, as in, “..and when ye judge between man and man that yejudge with justice.” (NISAA’, 58).Allah’s Will is carried out according to His Plan, He says about Himself, “..for God doth commandaccording to His Will and Plan.” (MA’IDA, 2), “..and be patient and constant till God do decide, for He isthe Best to decide.” (YUNUS, 109), “..and Thou art the Justest of Judges!” (HUD, 45). The word hakamdenotes the perfection of what is done, Allah says, “..and God will confirm and establish His Signs” (HAJJ,52).The judge is also the one whom people resort to for judgment, “..their real wish is to resort together forjudgment in their disputes to the Evil One.” (NISAA’, 60).The Arabic word hokm, which means judgment, is related to wisdom and judiciousness, knowledge,sovereignty, and deciding between people, “..to each of them We gave judgment and knowledge.”(ANBIYA’, 79), “..We did witness their judgment.” (ANBIYA’, 78).The judge whose judgment can never be turned back is Allah; He says, “..the Command rests with nonebut God.” (AN‘AM, 57), He settles matters between His creatures, decides between truth and falsehood, Herights wrongs, distinguishes between the righteous and the evildoers, treating fairly every soul in accordwith its deeds; never will Allah fail His promises, nothing can blemish His Divine acts; Allah judgesbetween hearts, granting them content and bliss, between souls by guiding them to obedience and to theright way; Glory be to the JUDGE, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(30) The JUST (AL-‘ADL)

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The JUST is He Who is fair and is too exalted for oppression or injustice in His Divine Acts and Judgments; He gives everyone his due, puts everything in its place, and deals with absolute justice. About His judgments concerning human beings Allah says, “That man can have nothing but what he strives for; That the fruit of his striving will soon come in sight.” (NAJM, 39, 40), “As for the Righteous, they will be in Bliss; And the Wicked they will be in the Fire.” (INFITAR, 13, 14). Allah’s Justice can not be properly known unless one perfectly estimates His Divine Acts. The contemplator sees that every single thing is put perfectly in its place, the causes and effects are set in the most perfect and refined pattern; the hidden aspects of the Judgments of the JUST are far more than the manifest ones. Allah’s creatures turn, in this world, between His Justice and His Gracious Favours, if the human being is afflicted with misery then this happens in accord with His Justice; Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, says “..nor is thy Lord ever unjust in the least to His servants.” (FUSSILAT, 46), “..but God never wishes injustice to His Servants.”(GHAFIR, 31). If any good befalls him, this is a favour from Allah as He said, “Whatever good happens to thee is from God; but whatever evil happens to thee is from thy own soul.” (NISAA’, 79), “..for God is Lord of grace abounding” (BAQARA, 105), “And great is the Grace of God unto thee.” (NISAA’, 113). It is Allah Who has endeared the true Faith to the Believers, He says, “But God has endeared the Faith to you and has made it beautiful in your hearts, and He has made hateful to you unbelief, wickedness, and rebellion; such indeed are those who walk in righteousness. A grace and favour from God.” (HUJURAT, 7, 8), and He, Glory be to Him, conferred a great favour on the believers by saying, “God did confer a great favour on the Believers when He sent among them an Apostle from among themselves.” (AL-I-‘IMRAN, 164), and He says of the pagans, “But God wronged them not; nay, they wronged their own souls.” (NAHL, 33).

Allah had been existing while the universe was non-existent, and it is never unjust to rule in one’s kingdom; Glory be to the JUST, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(31) The BENIGNANT(AL-LATEEF)

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The all-knowing Omniscience of Allah encompasses everything; the hidden, the invisible and the manifest; Allah is the All-Aware of the core and essence of things. He is imperceptible and inaccessible to our visions; He is too Exalted for being restricted to locations, places, directions or lands; no mind or idea can ever perceive the essence of His Exalted Self, nevertheless, He is nearer to every being than its own self, and dispels blights and worries when one is afflicted; He is able to mould things in a way so refined that they may appear counter to what is meant of them. Allah knows the most minute details of every secret and all the mysterious aspects of the invisible, then He conveys them benignly and tenderly to the deserving. Furthermore, when benignity of the Divine Acts blends with the subtlety of omniscience, then this is the perfect meaning of the Arabic word lutf which means benignity. The finest details of Allah’s Graciousness and Benignity to His creatures are countless, “..gracious is God to His servants.” (SHURA, 19), “..Verily my Lord understandeth best the mysteries of all that He planneth to do.” (YUSUF, 100). Contemplate the nourishment of the fetus in its mother’s womb, then how it is inspired how to suck its mother’s breast soon after its birth, then contemplate how the emergence of the teeth is delayed till the baby is weaned, and how the teeth are divided into molars, incisors and canine teeth. Have a look at the utilization of the tongue as a shovel and at the same time it is used in articulation. Allah is the BENIGNANT Who imposed upon us what does not exceed our endurance though He granted us more than our need. Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, brings out pearls from oysters, honey from bees, silk from silkworms, and the human being from mingled sperm. Contemplate how Allah grants man his sustenance with no hardship, grants him all the means to utilize its advantageous elements and to get rid of its harmful elements without any intervention of the human being; His Benignity to His creatures is countless; Glory be to the BENIGNANT, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(32) The ALL-AWARE(AL-KHABEER)

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The ALL-AWARE is He from Whom nothing is hidden whether on earth or in heaven; the ALL-AWARE is He Who knows every movement, the apparent and the hidden aspects of things. When omniscience intermingles with the inmost secrets of things then the result will be all-awareness, which is khibra in Arabic; the Master of All-Awareness is Allah, He says, “..and He is the Wise, acquainted with all things.” (AN‘AM, 18), “Ask thou, then, about Him of any acquainted with such things.” (FURQAN, 59) “..soon will I bring you from there some information.” (NAML, 7). The Arabic word khabar means in English, the announcement and information with which a speaker mentions a certain event, “And how canst thou have patience about things about which thy understanding is not complete?” (KAHF, 68), “God hath already informed us of the true state of matters concerning you.” (TAUBA, 94), “Should He not know, He that created? And He is the One that understands the finest mysteries and is Well-acquainted with them.” (MULK, 14). Allah is the the ALL-AWARE, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(33) The Most FORBEARING(AL-HALEEM)

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The Arabic word helm means forbearance, endurance and self-control. The Most FORBEARING is He Who does not hasten to punish; He overlooks sins, forgives the sinners and grants them a delay till they repent. Allah, the Most FORBEARING, is not provoked by the sinner’s sin nor by the tyrant’s oppression; He forgives the sinners though He is perfectly capable of punishing them as they deserve; He witnesses the deeds of the disobedient and sees him breaking His Commands but He is not overwhelmed by wrath and is never exasperated. Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, says, “..and know that God is Oft-forgiving, Most Forbearing.” (BAQARA, 235), “If God were to punish men according to what they deserve, He would not leave on the back of the earth a single living creature.” (FATIR, 45). Praise and Glory be to the Most FORBEARING Who forbears and forgives, He is Allah.

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(34) The SUPREME(AL-‘AZEEM)

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The Arabic word ‘azeem is originally used to describe anything of a big stature. If eyesight fails to catch the end or the limits of something, then it must be greater than anything which can be caught by eyesight. Accordingly the sky is greater than the earth and the earth is greater than a mountain; the sky can not be encompassed by the field of vision yet the brain can gauge its dimensions. Allah is the SUPREME Who is greater than everything, can not be grasped by eyesight and can not be perceived by mental faculties; He can never be seen by the eye, and the mind can never form a mental image of Him; He challenged and crippled mental faculties that can never perceive Him and surpassed the utmost attainment of the mental abilities; He possesses the highest grades of Honour and Glory, and is never in need of a helper. His Supremacy has never been marked by an initiation nor His Glory will ever have a termination, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(35) The ALL-FORGIVING(AL-GHAFOUR)

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As mentioned before the Arabic word ghafr, which means to forgive, is denotative of veiling and screening; hence, to forgive a sin is to veil it, efface it, and to pass it unpunished. Allah said “Who forgiveth sin.” (GHAFIR, 3) “..and He is the Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful”(YUNUS, 107), “..is not He the Exalted in Power, He Who forgives again and again.” (ZUMAR, 5). Al-Ghaffar is an intensive form that suggests recurring forgiveness again and again, hence, it is concerned with the number of times of forgiveness; on the other hand, AL-GHAFOUR, is a form that denotes perfection and inclusiveness of forgiveness, hence it is concerned with the quality of forgiveness, “Tell My Servants that I am indeed the Oft- Forgiving, Most Merciful.” (HIJR, 49). Glory be to the ALL-FORGIVING, He is Allah.

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(36) The Most APPRECIATING(AL-SHAKOUR)

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The Most APPRECIATING is He Who endows abundantly and lavishly even if deeds are minute, and rewards the simple duties; Allah endues people with high degrees and bestows unlimited bliss for the limited deeds. Allah guides people to take heed and to be grateful to Him; in the Qur’an He praises his thankful worshippers, He says, “..how excellent in Our service ever did he turn to Us!” (SAD, 30), “..for Abraham was, without doubt, forbearing of faults, compassionate and given to look to God” (HUD, 75), “Such in truth are the Believers.” (ANFAL, 4). Appreciation could be by praise and could also be by giving something as a reward; when praise is bestowed from someone of dignity, then his praise has its great value; the more the reward the greater the giver. Since Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, rewards the human being lavishly with much greater rewards than his good deeds, then no one can ever imagine a more gracious reward. When He praises His worshippers’ righteous deeds, then He praises His Own Acts because the human beings’ deeds are His creation. As appreciation comprises praise and reward, then the Most APPRECIATING is Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(37) The Most HIGH (AL-‘ALEY)

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AL-‘ALEY is He to Whom infinite Highness is attributed. Compared to Him, everything is mean and servile; Allah is Most HIGH above having partners or foes; His rank is infinitely Great, He is the Supreme over His creatures with His Power and Might. As Allah is Exalted, then His Self can not be grasped or encompassed by human or created mentality. The name AL-‘ALEY is derived from the Arabic noun ‘olow (which means being high), its direct opposite is sofl (which means being low), both the word and its opposite are applicable to concrete as well as to abstract degrees. Anything that has highness in rank or intellectual degrees, must have a high rank in comparison with that to which it is compared, so we say, something is higher than the other, either in place or in rank. The human being is higher in rank than the animal, the alive is higher than the dead, the people who are chosen by Allah are higher than the ordinary people, angels are higher than human beings, and the maker is higher than what he makes. On contemplating Allah’s Attributes, you find that He is the Creator eternally and permanently with no beginning and no end; He had been existing when everything had been non-existent, thus He is the Most HIGH, Glory be to Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him. He is Allah.

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(38) The Most GREAT

(AL-KABEER)

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Allah is the Most GREAT in everything for He is Eternal and Self-Sufficient; He is known to be the Most GREAT through the perception of senses and minds, to Whom all Exaltation is attributed. Exaltation is denotative of the perfection of His Self, the perfection of His Self denotes the Perfection of Existence that is attributed to two main things: First: Allah’s existence is everlasting and eternal. The existing thing is conditional on non-existence that

precedes or succeeds its existence, hence it is imperfect. People usually call the human being whoselifetime is long kabeer, so if the person who lives for a long but limited lifetime is called kabeer, then He,Whose existence is eternal and permanent, Who is everlasting must be called AL-KABIR, that is, theGREAT above all.Second: Allah’s Existence is the existence from which every existence is derived, therefore, He is theEternal Originator, the Most GREAT, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(39) The PRESERVER (AL-HAFEEZ)

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Allah, the PRESERVER is the All-Knowing Whose knowledge is unalterable and everlasting; He is the All-Aware of every single thing in the heavens and on earth and preserves their existence as well. He preserves all His created beings and their bodies with all the contradictory and opposing elements that these bodies contain. This preservation is attained by the following: First, by maintaining and retaining their existence, by preserving them from demolition and extinction. Allah preserves the existing and the created things that span millions of years, such as earth and heaven, as well as the living beings that last for decades, such as human beings and animals. Second, He preserves the existence of things from repulsion and antagonism by maintaining a delicate balance between its contradictory states, such as the balance between heat and cold, moisture and dryness in the bodies that are composed from repelling elements either in the human being, the animal, or the plant. The human being, for example, must retain an instinctive body temperature, the absence of which leads to the loss of his life; moreover, he needs moisture and fluidity that supply his body with nutrients, such as blood; he needs solidity that supports his body such, as the bones. A human being must also have a degree of coldness that helps to maintain his temperature constant. Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, gathers in the human being’s body contradictory elements and if it were not for His Preservation to them, then they would have repelled and demolished one another, for instance, heat would have evaporated moisture, and coldness would have dissipated heat. Preservation makes the contradictory elements within one equal resisting force, thus leading to a balance, by means of which the human being exists. Preservation could also be by supplying what is lacking of the necessary elements; for example, when a man feels thirsty, he knows that he is in need of water; when he feels chilly he warms himself. Allah created a myriad of foodstuffs, victuals, beverages, medicines and other things so that if anything overwhelms another, then it will be neutralized by a third thing to keep a balance between all existing things, which in fact are nothing but a blend of contradicting elements. Preservation is also attained by letting man know all the means of utilizing these provisions that Allah created to preserve man. Perdition can be darted at any creature from external factors, as enemies; Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, gave every creature the means to preserve himself from these external factors. Every creature is endowed with means of defence as senses and weapons, or means of disguise and flight. What is applicable to man and animal can also be applied to plants and inanimate things, even atoms. All the means of preservation possessed by Allah, Glory be to Him, can not be counted save by the PRESERVER Who says, “..for my Lord hath care and watch over all things.” (HUD, 57), Praise and Glory be to the PRESERVER, He is Allah.

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(40) The Powerful MAINTAINER (AL-MUQEET)

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The Powerful MAINTAINER is He Who creates all the bodily and spiritual nourishment, as foodstuffs and beverages, science and knowledge, with which He maintains the faculties of all living things and grants them what suffices the existence of their bodies. Allah’s name AL-MUQIT also denotes that He overwhelms everything with His Power and is responsible for all things with His comprehensive and all-inclusive Knowledge. Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, says, “..and God hath power over all things” (NISAA’, 85). The name, the Powerful MAINTAINER, AL-MUQIT is more specific than the name (the Great Provider) which is denotative of Allah’s Power to provide all created beings with their sustenance. Also, AL-MUQIT is more specific than the name (the Able) because Allah’s Power together with His all-inclusive Knowledge are suggested in the name AL-MUQIT. To preserve means to maintain the life of the living being by preserving its faculties and He Who does this possesses power over all things because He possesses their lives; the Doer of all these things is Allah, the Powerful MAINTAINER, He is Allah.

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(41) The RECKONER(AL-HASEEB)

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The Arabic verb hasaba means to count and number; Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, says, “The sun and the moon follow courses exactly computed.” (RAHMAN, 6). In the previous verse, we perceive that in the great astronomical universe there are exact mathematical laws which bear witness to Allah’s Wisdom. He also counts what His people do to reward them for any good deeds, “Soon will his account be taken by an easy reckoning” (INSHIQAQ, 8). Allah is the RECKONER as all creatures will be called to account at the same time, “..and He is the Swiftest in taking account.” (AN‘AM, 62), where nobody save Allah can do this. The words husban, yahtasib, hassb and hasseeb are also derived from the same verb hasaba. The general meaning of the word husban, is any punishment by way of reckoning as in, “and that He will send on thy garden thunderbolts by way of reckoning from heaven.” (KAHF, 40), where the implied punishment is that of thunderbolts; yahtasib means to imagine or reckon; it could also mean to expect, as in, “And He provides for him from sources he never could imagine.” (TALAQ, 3); hassb means the protector, as in, “But if they turn away, say: God sufficeth me” (TAUBA, 129); whereas hasseeb means the one who suffices, the trustee, and the one who judges, as in, “..but All-Sufficient is God in taking account.” (NISAA’, 6) “..sufficient is thy soul this day to make out an account against thee.” (ISRAA’, 14), and hasseeb also means the honourable and noble. The RECKONER is He Who grants His creatures their sufficient, and this attribute is unimaginable save in relation to Allah. Every existing being is in need of what suffices him to maintain and perfect his existence; Allah is the Sufficer for everything, only by His Mercy things exist, remain and are perfected. If all the means are sufficing such as the mother’s milk for the infant, food for the adult, air for breathing, and money for the wealthy, then one must believe that the Creator of all these means is Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him. He alone is the One who grants everyone and everything what suffices them to maintain their existence, where everything depends on His Power and Ability to create all means according to His Wisdom and Favour. Praise and Glory be to the RECKONER, He is Allah.

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(42) The LORD of MAJESTY(AL-JALEEL)

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The LORD of MAJESTY, AL-JALEEL, is the One Who is perfect in His epithets, the Most Great is the One Who is perfect in His Self, whereas the Supreme is the One Who is perfect in both. Allah is unparalleled; He has no partner or equal neither in Himself, His Attributes, nor in what He does. He is the Exalted One; all beauty, perfection, sublimity and splendour are but glimpses of His Light and traces of His Sublime epithets. Thereupon, to look at His Sublime Countenance on Doomsday is far greater than all the bliss of Paradise, “Blessed be the name of thy Lord, full of Majesty, Bounty and Honour.” (RAHMAN, 78). Glory be to the LORD of perfect MAJESTY and absolute Greatness, He is Allah.

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(43) The GENEROUS(AL-KAREEM)

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The GENEROUS, AL-KAREEM, is He Who forgives the sinners even though He is capable of punishing them, on promising He never breaks His Promises; He Listens and responds to the call of the supplicant when he calls on Him. Allah never fails anyone who resorts to Him and hopes never supersede His Power; He grants without being supplicated. He cares not how lavishly He gives nor to whom He grants; He forbids that anyone is resorted to or called on save Him. Al-Akram, which means the Most Generous or the Most Bountiful, is the superlative adjective of AL-KAREEM, which means the Generous. Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, says, “Proclaim! and thy Lord is the Most Bountiful.” (‘ALAQ, 3); He is the Lord of donation and generosity; He honours His created beings with His overflowing Favours, and grants His chosen people with His flooding Blessings. Allah, Glory be to Him, mentioned in the Qur’an what one of the believers said, “Ah me! Would that my people knew what I know. For that my Lord has granted me forgiveness and has enrolled me among those held in honour.” (YA-SIN, 26, 27). Anyone who is deprived of Allah’s honour will never be honoured by anyone, “..and such as God shall disgrace, none can raise to honour.” (HAJJ, 18). He is, and will eternally remain to be, the Generous. He says, “All that is on earth will perish. But will abide for ever the Face of thy Lord.” (RAHMAN, 26, 27). Glory be to the GENEROUS, He is Allah.

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(44) The WATCHFUL(AL-RAQEEB)

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Allah watches and observes all things, and nothing can escape Him, “..and watch ye! for I too am watching with you!” (HUD, 93). He does not miss a thought, no weight of an atom can escape Him or His Knowledge no matter whether it is in a rock, in the heavens or on earth. No slumber can seize Him, nor sleep; Allah’s Watch is eternal and permanent, this can not be attained save by the WATCHFUL, Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(45) The RESPONSIVE(AL-MUJEEB)

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The RESPONSIVE is the One Who answers the prayers of the supplicant when he calls on Him. Allah says, “..call on Me; I will answer your prayer.” (GHAFIR, 60); He answers the prayers by His loving Kindness so that the supplicant is either granted what he wants and what is more blessed and beneficial to him, or He turns away from him evil equal to the bliss of what he asked for. Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, says “Or who listens to the soul distressed when it calls on Him, and who relieves its suffering” (NAML, 62). He, alone, knows perfectly and fully the need of the necessitous before they supplicate Him, He has known these needs since eternity, so He has planned and created the means for answering prayers before they are even uttered; He is the Bestower of Favours before souls call on Him; Praise and Glory be to the RESPONSIVE, He is Allah.

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(46) The Vastly BOUNTIFUL(AL-WASI‘)

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The Vastly BOUNTIFUL, is He, Who is All-Aware of everything; He is the Most Generous Whose Mercyembraces both the believers and the pagans; Allah is the Self-Sufficient Whose inexhaustible Treasures cannever be depleted; His Sovereignty is unlimited.The adjective is derived from the Arabic noun se‘ah which means vastness; it could be attributed to bothknowledge and favours. The Vastly BOUNTIFUL is Allah, Whose sea of all-embracing and vastKnowledge has no shore, and if you contemplate the favours that Allah grants His people you will find thatthey have no limit. He says, “Say: If the ocean were ink wherewith to write out the words of my Lord,sooner would the ocean be exhausted than would the words of my Lord, even if we added another oceanlike it, for its aid.” (KAHF, 109), “And if all the trees on earth were pens and the ocean were ink, with sevenoceans behind it to add to its supply, yet would not the words of God be exhausted in the writing.”

(LUKMAN, 27).All vastness no matter how extensive must have a limit, but only the vastness of Allah’s Generosity has noend, He says, “Verily thy Lord is ample in forgiveness.” (NAJM, 32), “..but My Mercy extendeth to allthings.” (A‘RAF, 156), “..His Throne doth extend over the heavens and earth.” (BAQARA, 255).Allah’s Knowledge encompasses everything; His Might overwhelms and subdues everything. Furthermore,His Mercy is all-embracing and so are His Treasures, Might, Knowledge, Strength and Beneficence. Praiseand Glory be to the Vastly BOUNTIFUL, He is Allah.

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(47) The ALL-WISE(AL-HAKEEM)

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The wise is the one who has wisdom, and wisdom is the best knowledge of the best of sciences. Wisdom also denotes well-management of things and supreme skill. Allah, the ALL-WISE is the Master of absolute wisdom and knowledge; He, Praise and Glory be to Him, knows the most exalted things of the holiest sciences; for He knows His Exalted Self, His Attributes and His Most Beautiful Names. His Knowledge is permanent, nothing can ever blemish or escape His all-embracing Knowledge that is void of any doubts. As for the well-management and the mastery over all things, Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, says, “He Who has made everything which He has created most Good” (SAJDA, 7), “Such is the artistry of God Who disposes of all things in perfect order.” (NAML, 88), “So blessed be God, the Best to create!” (MU’MINUN, 14), “..He Who gave to each created thing its form and nature, and further, gave it guidance.” (TA-HA, 50). Praise and Glory be to Him, the ALL-WISE, He is Allah.

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(48) The Most LOVING(AL-WADOUD)

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The word wadoud is derived from waddahu which means to love a person. Allah says, “On those who believe and work deeds of righteousness, will God Most Gracious bestow Love.” (MARYAM, 96), where the love mentioned in this verse is His Love to them and their love to Him. He also says, “Thou will not find any people who believe in God and the Last Day, loving those who resist God and His Apostle even though they were their fathers or their sons, or their brothers or their kindred.” (MUJADILA, 22), “And He is the Oft-Forgiving, Full of loving-kindness.” (BURUJ, 14). The Love of Allah to His creatures is great; He bestows His Love on His creatures by making them know Him, His love to the sinners is mantled in forgiveness, and His Love to all the creatures is by the donation of their sustenance; He loves the believers who love Him and He is pleased with those who work deeds of righteousness so He praises them for their deeds. The name AL-WADOUD, The Most LOVING, is near in meaning to Al-Raheem, the Most Merciful, yet mercy is the bestowing of goodness and blessings to the one Allah has mercy on. The Divine Acts of the Most Merciful are directed and granted to the feeble and the necessitous; on the other hand, the Divine Acts of the Most LOVING do not suggest that; what Allah, Glory be to Him, bestows and donates is the result of His Love. He says, “..soon will God produce a people whom He will love as they will love Him.” (MA’IDA, 57). Allah, the Most LOVING, loves them first, then He grants them the ability to love Him. “When Allah loves one of His creatures, He calls Gabriel and says, “O Gabriel! I do love this person, so love him!” so Gabriel loves that person, then he says to the Exalted Assembly, “Behold! Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, loves this person, so do love that person!” So the Exalted Assembly loves him, then his love will enter the heart of everybody on earth” (HADITH). Allah, Glory be to Him, says, “..for my Lord is indeed full of mercy and loving-kindness.” (HUD, 90). Glory be to the Most LOVING, Whose grants are lavish and great, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(49) The Most GLORIOUS(AL-MAJEED)

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Allah, AL-MAJEED, is the sole Owner of perfect and complete Honour, and the extensive vast dominion eternally and permanently; He is extremely perfect in Glory and Honour; He is Exalted in rank and His Divine Acts are full of goodness and His Donation is lavish and abundant. When honour blends with the goodness of the act, then it is called glory; Glory is attributed to Allah since eternity. He, the Most GLORIOUS, says, “..for He is indeed worthy of all praise, full of all glory.” (HUD, 73), “Lord of the Throne of Glory.”(BURUJ, 15). He described His Words in the Qur’an and said, “Qaf, by the Glorious Qur’an.” (Qaf, 1), because the Qur’an is very useful and benevolent, and because as He described it, “It is in Books held greatly in honour. Exalted in dignity, kept pure and holy.” (‘ABASA, 13, 14). Glory be to the Most GLORIOUS, He is Allah.

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(50) The LORD of RESURRECTION(AL-BA‘ITH)

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The Arabic verb ba‘atha means: to send; Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, says, “Now send ye then one of you with this money of yours to the town, let him find out which is the best food to be had and bring some to you” (KAHF, 19), “Then after him We sent apostles to their Peoples” (YUNUS, 74). He sends apostles with laws and legislations; He says, “..and God sent Messengers with glad tidings and warnings” (BAQARA, 213). The word ba‘atha also means: to wake someone up from sleep; Allah says, “It is He Who doth take your souls by night, and hath knowledge of all that ye have done by day; by day doth He raise you up again, that a term appointed be fulfilled.” (AN‘AM, 60), and He, Glory be to Him, said about the Companions of the Cave, “Then We roused them in order to test which of the two parties was best at calculating the term of years they had tarried” (KAHF, 12). Allah, Glory be to Him, resurrects the dead by bringing them out of their graves and will make them alive again on the day of Judgment, He says, “As to the dead, God will raise them up; then will they be turned unto Him.” (AN‘AM, 36), “One day will God raise them all up for Judgment, then will they swear to Him as they swear to you, and they think that they have something to stand upon.” (MUJADILA, 18), “Then We raised you up after your death,” (BAQARA, 56); what the dead will say after their resurrection is mentioned in, “Ah! Woe unto us! Who hath raised us up from our beds of repose” (YA-SIN, 52). Allah, the LORD of RESURRECTION, resurrects creatures on Doomsday and reveals what is locked up in their hearts and raises up those who are in the graves; He also resurrects souls from the death of heresy to the life of faith and Monotheism; He resurrects all existing things from the darkness of non-existence to the light of existence. Resurrection is the creation after death, whereas the present life is the first creation, Allah says, “..and creating you again in forms that ye know not. And you certainly know already the first form of creation, why then do ye not celebrate His Praises?” (WAQI‘AH, 61, 62). We cannot fully understand the meaning of (the LORD of RESURRECTION) unless we know the meaning of (the last creation) and this is impossible before it actually happens. Accordingly no one knows the true essence of the LORD of RESURRECTION except Allah, and someone’s knowledge that he does not understand is a kind of perception. Praise and Glory be to the LORD of RESURRECTION, He is Allah.

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(51) The WITNESS(AL-SHAHEED)

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The Arabic verb shahida means to witness, to be present and notice, or to say or do something in order to give evidence; Allah said, “So everyone of you who is present during that month should spend it in fasting” (BAQARA, 185), “..and one of her household saw this and bore witness” (YUSUF, 26). Shahida also means to swear and take an oath “..their solitary evidence can be received if they bear witness four times with an oath by God that they are solemnly telling the truth.” (NUR, 6). Witness is a decisive statement; Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, says, “..and a witness from among the Children of Israel testifies to its similarity with earlier scripture and has believed” (AHQAF, 10), “And they witnessed all that they were doing against the Believers” (BURUJ, 7), “..and whatever deed ye mankind may be doing, we are witnesses thereof when ye are deeply engrossed therein.” (YUNUS, 61), “..and the witnesses will say, these are the ones who lied against their Lord! Behold! the Curse of God is on those who do wrong!” (HUD, 18), “..and let neither scribe nor witnesses suffer harm.” (BAQARA, 282), “..then write us down among those who bear witness” (AL-I-‘IMRAN, 53); that is to say, among those who assert their belief in Allah. Ashhada means to make someone testify or take witness, as in, “..and made them testify concerning themselves, saying, Am I not your Lord who cherishes and sustains you? They said, ‘Yea! we do testify’.” (A‘RAF, 172), “..but take witnesses whenever you make a commercial contract” (BAQARA, 282). Ashhada also means to make someone present at the time of something occurring to make him notice it and testify. Allah, Glory be to Him, says, “I called them not to witness the creation of the heavens and the earth nor even their own creation.” (KAHF, 51), “..that will be a day of Testimony.” (HUD, 103), where all the creatures will be present and will witness its horrors, and the angels will also be present. Special testimony is borne by the angels who witness and record the believers’ reward, “..and the morning prayer and reading; for the prayer and reading in the morning carry their testimony!” (ISRAA’, 78). The word mashhad means the time or place where evidence is taken, or where people are produced to be judged; it is an adverb of time and place, Allah says, “..and woe to the Unbelievers because of the coming Judgment of a momentous Day!” (MARYAM, 37). AL-SHAHEED means the WITNESS Who sees, observes and witnesses every single thing, nothing escapes Him in His Kingdom, “..is it not enough that thy Lord doth witness all things?” (FUSSILAT, 53). Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, decides between people in the most just way, He says, “Say, what thing is most weighty in evidence? say, God is witness between me and you.” (AN‘AM,19). Allah is the Omniscient, the All-Aware and the WITNESS. He is the Omniscient, because His Knowledge is absolute and eternal; when this supreme Mastery over all things blends with the Knowledge of the inmost invisible secrets, then He is the All-Aware; when all these things intermingle with the Knowledge of the manifest matters, then He is the WITNESS. Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, says, “..for God is Witness to all things” (MUJADILA, 6), He is the WITNESS to all things on Doomsday, Glory be Him, He is Allah.

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(52) The TRUTH(AL-HAQQ)

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Al-haqq means the truth which denotes the undoubted evidential reality. The Arabic verb haqqa means that something is proved or made manifest as mentioned by Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, “One for whom it is right to say nothing but truth about God” (A‘RAF, 105); whereas haqeeq means true, worth of something or keen on it; He says, “The Sure Reality! What is the Sure Reality?” (HAQQA, 1, 2), the sure reality or truth, the event that must inevitably come to pass; the state in which all falsehood and pretence will vanish, and the absolute truth will be laid bare. Al-haqq may also mean the Qur’an, justice, truthfulness, wisdom, resurrection, and the perfection of things. Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, says, “Then the Blast overtook them with justice!” (MU’MINUN, 41), “It is He Who created the heavens and the earth in true proportions” (AN‘AM, 73), “What cause can we have not to believe in God and the truth which has come to us” (MA’IDA, 87), “And now they reject the truth when it reaches them” (AN‘AM, 5), “Such in truth are the believers” (ANFAL, 4). Things are distinguished by their opposite; everything that we are informed of is either exclusively false or exclusively true, or it may be false from one aspect, true from another. What is absolutely false is the thing that is impossible because of its nature, and what is absolutely true is the thing that is possible by itself; Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, says, “That is because God, He is the Reality; and those besides Him whom they invoke, they are but vain Falsehood.” (HAJJ, 62). What is possible by itself and mandatory by something is false from one aspect, true from another aspect. In other words, what can not exist on its own is false and untrue, and once it comes to exist (that is to say when Allah creates it), it becomes true. As it has no existence it is untrue, as it exists through the power of the Creator, it is true and real. From this, we can deduce that as Allah is the only One Who has true existence and had been existing since eternity, then He is the eternal TRUTH. He says “Everything that exists will perish except His own Face.” (QASAS, 88). Glory be to Allah Who has been existing since eternity; He is the TRUTH for ever and ever; everything, save Him, does not deserve to exist in itself; hence the absolute TRUTH is Allah, because He is the only One Who exists without the need of anything to make Him exist, and every truth derives its essence of truthfulness from Him. The best knowledge that deserves to be known is our knowledge of Allah and His Existence; as for knowing anything save Him this can not be attained except for the duration of its existence, once this thing perishes all the data and the information about it becomes false. Speech could be described as true or false; the most truthful of all words are the words we utter on declaring our profession of Monotheism (There is no god but Allah); it is the only true statement eternally and permanently. So we can describe things as (true) if they exist, literally on tongues, picturesquely in minds, or if they are sighted and seen. Yet the only One Who deserves to be the TRUTH is He, Whose existence is eternal and permanent and knowing Him and professing the belief of His Existence had been true eternally and permanently. He is the TRUTH, Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(53) The DISPOSER of Affairs(AL-WAKEEL)

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Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, manages graciously all the affairs of the believers; only to Him could everything be entrusted, as He is sufficient to His creatures; He perfectly protects everyone who commits his soul to Him, and suffices and satisfies with His lavish endowments everyone who dispenses with everything save Him. The trustee could either be entrusted with some affairs, and in this case he is imperfect, or could be entrusted with all affairs, and this trustee could only be Allah; He is the One to Whom every minute thing is committed and entrusted; He is the DISPOSER of Affairs. Moreover, a trustee may be unworthy to be entrusted except when authorized; but He Who deserves, by His Exalted Self, that everything and every single affair be committed and entrusted to Him is Allah, the DISPOSER of Affairs; all hearts are entrusted to Him. Furthermore, a trustee may fulfil some of the affairs committed to him, but Allah will suffice all the needs of His creatures without the slightest defect. Allah protects His creatures for He is the Best DISPOSER of Affairs; He says, “Men said to them: a great army is gathering against you, and frightened them. But it only increased their Faith, they said: For us God sufficeth and He is the best Disposer of affairs. And they returned with Grace and Bounty from God, no harm ever touched them, for they followed the good pleasure of God” (AL-I-‘IMRAN, 173, 174); He disposes the affairs of those who have no trustee, He says, “And He hath power to dispose of all affairs.” (AN‘AM, 102), “No reason have we why we should not put our trust on God. Indeed He has guided us to the ways we follow” (IBRAHIM, 12), “Then when thou hast taken a decision put thy trust in God, for God loves those who put their trust in Him.” (AL-I-‘IMRAN, 159), “Say, not mine is the responsibility for arranging your affairs.” (AN‘AM, 66). The Arabic word wakeel is derived from wakalla which means (to entrust someone to do something), hence wakeel may also mean (the one who helps and protects), “Behold! We shall entrust their charge to a new People who reject them not.” (AN‘AM, 89), “..if ye do really believe in God, then in Him put your trust if ye submit your will to His” (YUNUS, 84). The absolute reliance and submission is the complete dependence on whoever is entrusted to be in charge, and to be contented with the consequences no matter how undesirable; hence the one who is truly and rightfully the DISPOSER of all Affairs is Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(54) The ALMIGHTY(AL-QAWEY)

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Allah is the ALMIGHTY, no weakness can ever affect Him, no feebleness can ever affect His Self, his Attributes, or his Deeds. Qawey, which means mighty, is indicative of absolute power and ability; when someone is powerful he is said to be mighty. Quwah, which means might, can be used to denote concrete meanings, like mind, determination and volition. Allah says, “..then gave you strength after weakness, then after strength gave you weakness and a hoary head” (RUM, 54). It can also denote firm will, and power, “Hold firmly to what We have given you” (BAQARA, 63), and Gabriel was described by Allah in the Qur’an, “Verily this is the word of a most honourable Messenger. Endued with power, with rank before the Lord of the Throne.” (TAKWEER, 19, 20). The word quwah may also have various meanings of power, “He was taught by one, Mighty in Power.” (NAJM, 5), where nobody knows the meaning of that power, save Allah, the ALMIGHTY; the daughter of Shu‘ayb described Moses as being strong and mighty, as was mentioned in the Qur’an, “..truly the best of men for thee to employ is the man who is strong and trusty.” (QASSAS, 26), and Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, described himself in the Qur’an as the ALMIGHTY in the verses, “..for thy Lord, He is the Strong One, and Able to enforce His Will.” (HUD, 66), “..for verily God is Full of Strength, Exalted in Might, Able to enforce His Will.” (HAJJ, 40). If we contemplate all the created powers in the universe as gravity, electricity, chemical reactions, the power of gases, radiation such as laser and the like, we will perceive that the Creator of these sundry powers has a Power that we can not perfectly perceive. The essence of Allah’s Power cannot be known by a creature’s mentality. Glory be to the ALMIGHTY, He is Allah.

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(55) The OMNIPOTENT(AL-MATEEN)

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AL-MATEEN is derived from matana which means being firm, unchangeable and fixed. Allah is the One Who has perfect and unconquerable Power; no one objects His Actions, or prevents His Orders from being carried out. Omnipotence denotes extreme power, the Almighty must be omnipotent, He described himself in the Qur’an and said, “For God is He Who gives all Sustenance, Lord of Power, Steadfast for ever” (ZARIYAT, 58), and He threatened the unbelievers by saying, “Respite will I grant unto them; for My scheme is strong and unfailing” (A‘RAF, 183), which means that His Scheme is unconquerable. The OMNIPOTENT is He Whose Omnipotence is insurmountable and inaccessible. The OMNIPOTENT is not perfectly known save by Him. Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(56) The PROTECTOR(AL-WALIY)

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Allah, the PROTECTOR loves, helps and defends His creatures who are exclusively endowed with His Grace. He says, “God is the Protector of those who have faith” (BAQARA, 257), “But God is the Protector of the righteous.” (JATHIYA, 19), “That is because God is the Protector of those who believe, but those who reject God have no Protector.” (MUHAMMAD, 11), “And He is the Protector, Worthy of all Praise.” (SHURA, 28). One of the meanings of the verb waleya is to protect and keep safe from harm by guarding and covering, and on Doomsday His Protection is the only protection, “There the only protection comes from God, the True One.” (KAHF, 44), “..and the wrong-doers will have no protector nor helper.” (SHURA, 8), “..but when once God willeth a people’s punishment, there can be no turning it back, nor will they find, besides Him, any to protect” (RA‘AD, 11), “For my Protector is God, Who revealed the Book from time to time, and He will choose, and befriend the righteous” (A‘RAF, 196), “..but it is God, He is the Protector, and it is He Who gives life to the dead, it is He Who has power over all things.” (SHURA, 9). Glory be to the PROTECTOR, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(57) The PRAISEWORTHY(AL-HAMEED)

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Allah, the PRAISEWORTHY, is praised in every time and under any circumstance; He is thePRAISEWORTHY as He is praised by His Exalted Self and by all His creatures eternally and permanently;to Him all perfection is attributed.The verb hamida means to glorify someone out of gratitude. Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, says,“Those that turn to God in repentance; that serve Him, and praise Him.” (TAUBA, 112), and He says,“..soon will thy Lord raise thee to a Station of Praise and Glory!” (ISRAA’, 79).Allah, the PRAISEWORTHY, praises Himself in the Qur’an and says, “Praise be to God” (FATIHA, 2),

“Say, Praise be to God, and Peace on His servants Whom He has chosen for His Message.”(NAML, 59). Allah, Glory be to Him, began creation with praise, “Praise be to God, Who created the heavens and the earth” (AN‘AM, 1), and He also ended it with praise, “..and the cry on all sides will be, Praise be to God, the Lord of the Worlds!” (ZUMAR, 75), where that is what the believers will say when they are resurrected, “It will be on a day when He will call you, and ye will answer His call with words of His praise.” (ISRAA’, 52). On perceiving the felicity of the hereafter, the believers say, “..Praise be to God, Who hath guided us to this felicity, never could we have found guidance, had it not been for the guidance of God.” (‘ARAF, 43). The previous words are said by the believers on seeing Paradise, and on entering they say, “Praise be to God Who has truly fulfilled His promise to us, and has given us this land in heritage, we can dwell in the Garden as we will.” (ZUMAR, 74); and when they are saved from hell, they say, “Praise be to God Who has removed from us all sorrow; for our Lord is indeed Oft-Forgiving; Ready to appreciate service.” (FATIR, 34). Praising Allah spreads between heaven and earth, it was said that praise is more exalted than the profession of monotheism because it comprises monotheism, praise and glorification. Actually, the most exalted thing that can be uttered is the profession of Monotheism. To praise is to glorify someone for a volitional favour; but to commend is to praise someone absolutely for his favours. The real praise Allah is worthy of is only known and perfectly estimated by Him, the PRAISEWORTHY Who praised Himself. Prophet Muhammad, Allah’s Peace and Prayers be upon him said, ‘I can not encompass all that I should praise You for, as You perfectly praised Yourself’ (HADITH). It was reported that when a man said, (Praise be to Allah as becomes the Glory of His Countenance and the Greatness of His Throne!), angels ascended and asked Allah how can they register the man’s words, Allah said, “Write the man’s exact words till I retrieve him then he will be endowed with a complete reward”. Glory be to Allah, the PRAISEWORTHY as He praised Himself since eternity, He is the PRAISEWORTHY eternally and permanently, He is Allah.

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(58) The All-Knowing COUNTER(AL-MOHSY)

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Ahsa means to count and register. The root of this Arabic verb is counting by using pebbles as this is how the Arabs used to count. Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, says, “But if ye count the favours of God, never will ye be able to number them” (IBRAHIM, 34), “..and of all things have We taken account in a clear Book of evidence.” (YA-SIN, 12), “..and count accurately their prescribed periods” (TALAQ, 1). Ahsa may also mean to calculate; Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, says, “Then We roused them in order to test which of the two parties was best at calculating the term of years they had tarried!” (KAHF, 12), “..and He surrounds all the mysteries that are with them, and takes account of every single thing” (JINN, 28), “He does take an account of them all, and hath numbered them all exactly” (MARYAM, 94). Allah, the All-Knowing COUNTER, is aware of every existing thing in detail; nothing escapes Him in heavens or on earth; He is the All-Seeing of the evident and manifest things; He is the All-Knowing of the hidden and invisible things; His Omniscience has no limit but is beyond our perception because what He takes account of is unlimited. On Doomsday, those who indulged in sin and crime will be surprised by what they find registered about them; as we are told about them in the Qur’an, they will say, “Ah! woe to us! What a book is this! It leaves out nothing small or great, but takes account thereof!” (KAHF, 49). Allah says about the ancient nations, “All that they do is noted in their Books of Deeds. Every matter, small and great is on record.” (QAMAR, 52, 53). Allah’s power is unlimited; He takes account of all existing things, of the deeds of creatures, and of every single movement; He says, “Not a leaf doth fall but with His Knowledge; there is not a grain in the darkness or depths of the earth, nor anything fresh or dry, green or withered, but is inscribed in a Record clear to those who can read” (AN‘AM, 59). Praise and Glory be to Allah Who comprehends all things in His all-inclusive Knowledge and takes account of every single thing, Praise and Glory be to the All-Knowing COUNTER, He is Allah.

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(59)

The ORIGINATOR (AL-MUBDI’

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The REPEATER (AL-MU‘EED

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To originate is to create an unprecedented thing, but if it had been preceded by something similar, then this would be repeating. Allah, the ORIGINATOR created everything from non-existence to existence; the REPEATER repeats their creation after they perish. Allah, Glory be to Him, says, “It is He who begins the process of creation; then repeats it; and for Him it is most easy” (RUM, 27), “It is He Who creates from the very beginning, and He can restore life” (BURUJ, 13), “..even as We produced the first Creation so shall We produce a new one” (ANBIYA’, 104), “Such as He created you in the beginning, so shall ye return” (A‘RAF, 29), “..and Falsehood neither creates anything new nor restores anything” (SABA’, 49), “..it is He Who beginneth the process of creation and repeateth it” (YUNUS, 4) “See they not how God originates creation then repeats it” (‘ANKABUT, 19). The Arabic verb bada’a is to create something in an unexampled and unprecedented form. Examples of origination and repetition are countless such as the grain and the tree, the egg and the hen. Glory be to the ORIGINATOR and the REPEATER, He is Allah.

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(61) The LIFE-GIVER (AL-MUHYI)

(62) The DEATH-INFLICTOR (AL-MUMEET

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Allah, the Life-GIVER created life in every living being, and He, the Death-INFLICTOR created death in every being on whom He inflicts death. Allah is the Creator of life and death; He bestows life on whom He pleases and inflicts death on whom He pleases, where life-giving and death-inflicting are two Divine Acts that are related to His Will and Power. He is the Creator of life in every living being; He raises to life everything from non-existence to existence, then on Doomsday He resurrects them after their death. Allah, Glory be to Him says, “How can ye reject the faith in God? Seeing that ye were without life, and He gave you life; then will He cause you to die, and will again bring you to life; and again to Him will ye return” (BAQARA, 28). He gives life to the earth, “Then contemplate the memorials of God’s Mercy! How He gives life to the earth after its death” (RUM, 50). Moreover, He bestows life on hearts and souls by endowing them with the light of Faith, “Can he who was dead, to whom We gave life, and a Light whereby he can walk amongst men” (AN‘AM, 122). The Death-INFLICTOR takes away life, “That it is He Who granteth Death and Life.” (NAJM, 44); He inflicts death on living beings by making them sleep and gives them life by waking them up, “..but God caused him to die for a hundred years, then raised him up again.” (BAQARA, 259); Allah differentiated between death and murder, He says “If he died or were slain” (AL-I-‘IMRAN, 144). Moreover, we are forbidden to think of those who were slain fighting for the cause of Allah as dead. He, Glory be to Him, says, “Think not of those who were slain in God’s way as dead. Nay, they live finding their sustenance in the Presence of their Lord” (AL-I-‘IMRAN, 169), “And say not of those who were slain in the way of God: They are dead. Nay, They are living, though ye perceive it not” (BAQARA, 154). Anyone who kills or causes death for instance by hunting, slaughtering or murdering, does not take life nor does it inflict death but it only inflicts damage on the body or destroys it, whereas the true Death-INFLICTOR is Allah. Life and death are created by Allah, “He Who created Death and Life” (MULK, 2). Death precedes life as the universe had been non-existent. Allah said, “..seeing that ye were without life, and He gave you life” (BAQARA, 28). Life-giving and Death-inflicting are inaccessible save to Allah, because life itself is a great secret and death is a far greater secret and a labyrinthine mystery. Forms of life in human beings, animals, plants and all living organisms such as microbes, viruses, bacteria, and minute organisms, are awe-inspiring and thought-provoking. The secret of life in the human being lies in the Spirit, and the true essence of the Spirit is known only to Allah, He says, “When I have fashioned him in due proportion and breathed into him of My spirit” (HIJR, 29), “But He fashioned him in due proportion, and breathed into him something of His Spirit” (SAJDA, 9).

The body’s contact with the spirit and its parting with it are two matters beyond science and the human mentality. Thereupon, no one can ever perfectly know the Life-GIVER and the Death-INFLICTOR save Allah, Who possesses these two epithets. Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(63) The EVER-LIVING(AL-HAYY)

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Allah, the Ever-LIVING, is He to Whom eternal life is designated; His Life is inaccessible to perdition, death, defects or non-existence. To the Ever-LIVING, absolute existence is attributed; His Life had not been preceded and will never be followed by non-existence He accomplishes all what He plans. In life, the degree of sublimity and superiority is gauged according to perception and acts; hence the life of an animal is superior to that of a plant; the life of a human being is superior to that of an animal as acts and perception place man in a more elevated position. The believer is superior to the sinner who is superior to the pagan. Allah, the Ever-LIVING calls the believer: living, and by analogy, calls the pagan: dead. Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, says, “Nor are alike those that are living and those that are dead” (FATIR, 22). As the grades of life vary according to the level of perception and acts, the Ever-LIVING is He, under Whose Awareness all perceptible things are included and to Whose Sovereignty all creatures submit; nothing can escape His Knowledge; no achievement can be fulfilled save by His Own Will. He created perception, mentalities, hearts, judgment, discretion and assessment; He created life itself, and existence in life is derived from His Supreme Existence. Truly, Allah is the Ever-LIVING; He, Praise and Glory be to Him, says, “He is the Living One, there is no god but He; call upon Him, giving Him sincere devotion. Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds” (GHAFIR, 65). Glory be to Allah, the Ever-LIVING, He is Allah.

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(64) The Self-SUBSISTING(AL-QAYUM)

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Allah is the Self-SUBSISTING Whose Existence does not need anything; He is Self-Existing and Self-Sufficient; everybody depends on Him. It is He Who gives existence to every existing thing; He dispenses with everybody and everything, but no one can dispense with Him. He is too exalted to be limited to locations and is far above change; what befalls souls can never befall Him; He is Supreme in perfection and in organizing His Kingdom. This name, the Self-SUBSISTING, is never attributed to anyone save to Him. Allah is the Ever-Living, the Self-SUBSISTING; He says, “All faces shall be humbled before Him, the Living, the Self-Subsisting, Eternal.” (TA-HA, 111), where this will be on Doomsday, “God! There is no god but He, the Living, the Self-Subsisting, Eternal” (BAQARA, 255). That is to say, He is the Ever-Living, the Self-SUBSISTING eternally and permanently. It was said that this name is Allah’s greatest Attribute, and that if someone calls for His Help by calling upon this name, Allah will succour him. Prophet Muhammad, Allah's blessings and peace be upon him, said, ‘O the Ever-Living, the SELF-SUBSISTING! I’m calling for Your Mercy’s relief!’ (HADITH). Glory be to the Self-SUBSISTING, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(65) The Great FINDER(AL-WAJID)

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The Arabic verb wajada means: to find sufficiency in one’s means and be well off, and it may also mean to find, meet and know. The definition of the name of Allah, AL-WAJID, the Great FINDER, denotes that its opposite is (the loser). Allah ordinates, finds and has every thing, all things are at His Beck and Call. The name, AL-WAJID, is not mentioned in the Qur’an, yet it is agreed upon. If someone loses what he does not need then he will not be a loser, similarly the one who has what he does not need is not a finder, as the finder is he who does not lack what he needs for his existence. Thereupon, Allah is the Great FINDER as He never misses anything He needs either in His Self, His Existence, or His Epithets of perfection. He is the Self-Sufficient Who dispenses with everything; from Him all attributes of perfection are derived, and to Him all the attributes of Exaltation are attributed. He is the Great FINDER, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(66) The LORD of GLORY(AL-MAJID)

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Allah’s name the LORD of GLORY is not mentioned in the Qur’an; the Arabic word AL-MAJID is derived from the Arabic noun majd which means glory, which is the zenith of honour. When the self’s honour blends with the righteousness of acts, then this is called glory; Allah is the LORD of GLORY Whose Exalted Self is the Most Supreme. No epithets can ever be compared to Allah’s eternal Attributes. He is the Creator of everything and the Originator of all existing things as well as all their deeds. He accomplishes all what He pleases and all His Divine Acts are exquisite and exalted; He is the LORD of GLORY. Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(67) The ONE(AL-WAHID)

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‘Ones’ can be four types:First: the one that is delineated, can be divided, and needs a space to occupy; that is the body.Second: the one that is delineated, cannot be divided, and needs a space to occupy; it is something that hasessence, such as the mind and the spirit.Third: the one that is not delineated, cannot be divided, and needs a space to occupy, it is something thathas no essence and is temporal, such as sorrow and grief.Fourth: the One that is not delineated, cannot be divided, and does not need a space to occupy; He is theONE and Only, unexampled in His Self, His Attributes and His Divine Acts.Allah can never be compared to anything and nothing can be compared to Him. He is the ONE in HisDivine Acts, no partner has He in any of them; He is the First and everything save Him is recent; He is theEverlasting and anything save Him is perishable; He is the ONE. Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, says,“And of everything We have created pairs, that ye may receive instruction.” (ZARIYAT, 49). The Creator ofpairs is the ONE, and we can not attribute to Him motion or rest, light or darkness, sitting or rising,beginning or end, He says, “there is nothing whatever like unto Him.” (SHURA, 11).Everything, save Him, has a counterpart or a peer, the sun and the moon, night and day, heaven and earth,male and female, Jinn and man, good and evil, sitting and rising, sleep and wakefulness, death and life,sweet and bitter, disease and medicine, sanity and insanity, fidelity and infidelity, stinginess andextravagance, length and breadth, north and south, and so on infinitely.The only one who that has no peer, no resemblance, no opponent, is not composed of parts, and cannot be

divided is the ONE and Only, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(68) The BESOUGHT of All(AL-SAMAD)

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Allah is the BESOUGHT of All, every existing thing resorts to Him in the time of need; for His help is besought and required by all His creatures, and to His Mercy they turn. He needs neither food nor water as He has no inside. He is too Exalted for defects, He is the Everlasting Who never perishes. Allah is the Lord Who achieves perfection in His Kingdom, the Honourable Whose Honour is supreme, the Great and Righteous Whose Greatness and Integrity are perfect; the Most Forbearing, the Omniscient, the All-Wise Whose Knowledge and Wisdom are absolute. Allah is the One Who is Perfect in sovereignty and honour, He is the Everlasting. He begets not, nor is He begotten. Nothing ever resembles Him. Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(69) The ABLE (AL-QADIR(70) The POWERFUL (AL-MUQTADIR

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The two names AL-QADIR and AL-MUQTADIR are derived from the Arabic word qudrah which means ability and power. Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, said, “Say, He hath power to send calamities on you, from above and below, or to cover you with confusion in party strife, giving you a taste of mutual vengeance each from the other.” (AN‘AM, 65), “For We do determine according to need; for We are the best to determine.” (MURSALAT, 23), “..but We seized them with such Penalty as comes from One Exalted in Power, Able to carry out His Will” (QAMAR, 42), “In an Assembly of Truth, in the Presence of a Sovereign Omnipotent” (QAMAR, 55). Allah, the ABLE possesses perfect Ability; nothing can ever disable Him; He is bound by nothing. He needs neither modality, mediation, tool, nor specialized organ. No defect can ever befall Him, and nothing can stop Him from accomplishing what He desires; He is able to create the non-existent and make the existent perish. When Allah, the ABLE, wills something, it is fulfilled and done, and when He does not will something it is never done. Being the ABLE, He invents and originates every existing thing; His origination is unique, unforeseen and independent of any aid or help. Allah, the POWERFUL, has an overwhelming Power and holds control over everything. Out of His Mercy and Grace, He mends His creatures’ lives in a way unparalleled. He says, “..it is only God Who prevails over all things” (KAHF, 45). Glory be to Him, the ABLE, the POWERFUL, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(71)

The ADVANCER (AL-MUQADDIM)

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The DELAYER (AL-MU’AKHIR)

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The ADVANCER and the DELAYER are two names related to Divine Acts. Advancing and delaying are applicable to place, time, rank and prestige; moreover, it must include motivation. Allah, the ADVANCER advances some things over others in existence, and effects over causes; He advances one move ahead of another, one nation ahead of another and centuries ahead of centuries. Allah, the ADVANCER puts forward whom He pleases in this world and in the hereafter by endowing him with high prestige, rank, divine knowledge, obedience, piety, honour and answering his calls and prayers. Moreover, He delays whom He pleases by depriving him of honour, rank, nearness to the Exalted Self, love, integrity obedience, knowledge and guidance. Glory be to Him, the ADVANCER and the DELAYER, Who advances and delays things and creatures according to His Wisdom; nothing can ever happen in His Kingdom but according to His Divine Will. Anything that is advanced is put forward in relation to another thing, and anything that is delayed is put behind in relation to another thing; anything that is advanced or delayed is moved forward or backwards not on its own free will or according to its own ability, but Allah is the ADVANCER and the DELAYER Who creates and opts for what He pleases. Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, said, “..no choice have they in the matter. Glory be to God; and far is He above the partners they ascribe to Him” (QASAS, 68), “Those for whom the Good Record from Us has gone before, will be removed far therefrom” (ANBIYA’, 101), “If We had so willed, We could certainly have brought every soul its true guidance” (SAJDA, 13), “He hath raised you in ranks, some above others”(AN‘AM, 165). He is the ADVANCER and the DELAYER, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(73)

The FIRST (AL-AWWAL)

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The LAST (AL-AKHIR)

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Allah is the FIRST Who precedes everything, the LAST Who remains after everything ceases to exist; He is the FIRST with no beginning, the LAST and Everlasting with no end. Allah, the FIRST had been existing alone before His creatures’ existence; He is the LAST Who will continue to exist and annihilates His creatures and remain for ever and ever, even after everything perishes. On describing something as (first) or (last) we mean first or last with respect to something, and the two words are contradictory. Some religious Scholars said that Allah is the FIRST with respect to all existing things for He had been existing since eternity by Himself and all things befitted and derived existence from His Existence, He is the LAST with respect to behaviour for the knowledge of Him is the utmost degree of knowledge that can be perceived by the most knowledgeable of people. Everything known by the human mentality is but a step that can be a gateway to the knowledge of Allah, and to Him is the return of everything. He is the FIRST and the LAST for He is the Creator of the universe, with Him is the decision in the past and in the future. It is best to say that Allah is the FIRST and the LAST in an absolute sense; He rules all affairs from the heavens to the earth, in the end all affairs will be up to Him. No one can perfectly perceive the exact meaning and essence of the two names, the FIRST and the LAST except Him, the FIRST and the LAST, Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(75)

The MANIFEST (AL-ZAHIR)

(76)

The IMMANENT (AL-BATIN)

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Allah is manifest by being Powerful over everything, manifest to mental proofs. All existing things in heavens and on earth, organisms, celestial bodies, the described and the description, cause and effect bear witness to their need of the Originator Who ordains, originates and endows His creatures with their special traits and characteristics; He, the MANIFEST, said, “On the earth are Signs for those of assured Faith, as also in yourselves, will ye not then see?” (ZARIYAT, 20, 21). Stars attest to His Glory every time they rise and set. All the living beings asserted His Grace in providing them with their sustenance. The whole universe, with its most minute details is but a sign and manifestation of Allah’s names and attributes. Allah is the IMMANENT Who is veiled from the perception of sights, concealed from the perception of mentalities and minds. He is the IMMANENT, Who is too exalted from the perception of senses and the treasure of fancy; He is different from all that occurs to our mentalities. Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, is MANIFEST through intellectual faculties, IMMANENT to senses and fancy; He is the MANIFEST as far as definition is concerned and He is the IMMANENT as far as modality is concerned. Glory be to Allah, Who veiled Himself from His creatures by His Light, and Who is hidden from them despite His overwhelming Presence. He is the MANIFEST and nothing is more manifest than Him, and He is IMMANENT and nothing is more IMMANENT than Him; He is the First and the Last, and of all things He has perfect Knowledge, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(77) The GOVERNER(AL-WALY)

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Allah is the GOVERNER Who handles the affairs of His creatures and manages their concerns by regulating, organizing and commanding His Kingdom. Allah is the Lord of Power and the Master of everything; He takes care of all creatures by managing and handling them according to His Supreme Exalted Will. His orders must be executed; His judgment must be fulfilled; there is no GOVERNER save Him; He is the GOVERNER. The word govern, denotes ability, management, regulation, accomplishment and rule; all these things are inaccessible save to Allah, the GOVERNER, Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(78) The Most EXALTED(AL-MUTA‘ALY)

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Allah, the Most EXALTED is perfect in His Exaltation and Highness, He is perfect in His Dignity, Superiority, and His Supreme Self and Attributes. He is too Exalted for defects and faults; the perception of minds can not perceive His Existence on their own. Being exalted and high or being low applies to concrete things, such as bodies, as well as to abstract things. Everything that is considered to be high in place is said to have local highness, and everything that has a high rank is said to have exalted highness. As for the abstract things that have a degree of highness, there is the discrepancy between the cause and the effect, the doer and the thing done, the perfect and the faulty; the cause is higher than the effect, the doer is higher than the thing done, and the perfect is higher than the faulty. Accordingly, we cannot divide the existing things into different grades of the mind, unless we consider that Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, is in the highest grade, as it is not imaginable to assume that there is a grade higher above His Grade. Moreover, all existing things are divided into the living and the dead; the living things are divided into those that have nothing but sensual perception, such as animals, and those that have sensual and intellectual perception, such as the human beings. The human being is entrusted, afflicted with blights and he may not be free from faults. Angels are flawless, they are free from faults and acquitted from defects; their grade is higher than that of the human being and the grade of the human being is higher than that of animals. Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, is too Exalted for being compared to anything; He is the Ever-Living, the Life-Giver, the Creator of life; the Omniscient, the Creator of sciences; He is too Exalted for all sorts of defects. Thereupon, we must perceive the exalted Highness of the Supreme Self, we must not perceive the highness of the Exalted Self as being restricted to location, for Allah is too Exalted for any limitation or estimation with regard to the confinement of bodies. Though Allah is Most EXALTED, yet His Exaltation does not make Him remote from His creatures; He is Exalted, yet He is near to every existing being, and He is even nearer to him than his jugular vein; His nearness does not resemble the nearness of bodies, just as His Self does not resemble the selves of His creatures. Despite His nearness to His creatures, He is too far above them with His Divine Epithets, and His Exaltation is not relative to anything. Allah is the Most EXALTED, the Supreme above all, He is high above the partners that some ascribe to Him; He is High above all that they say, Exalted and Great beyond measure! He is the Most EXALTED, the Most High, the Supreme above all; Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(79) The BENEFICENT(AL-BARR)

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Allah, the BENEFICENT endows His creatures with His lavish Beneficence; He never deprives them of His Beneficence when they disobey. From Him, the BENEFICENT, all benevolence is derived; He conveys benevolence to the necessitous with all the Mercy and Grace. He says, “Truly it is He, the Beneficent, the Merciful!” (TUR, 28). Allah says about people who are beneficent to others, “And kind to his parents, and he was not overbearing or rebellious” (MARYAM, 14), “He hath made me kind to my mother and not overbearing or miserable” (MARYAM, 32). Allah, the BENEFICENT, taught us to pray and ask for His Beneficence, He says, “..and take to Thyself our souls in the company of the righteous” (AL-I-‘IMRAN, 193), and He commanded us to be beneficent in order to be endued with His Offers. He says, “..help ye one another in righteousness and piety” (MA’IDA, 3), and He warns us by saying, “By no means shall ye attain righteousness unless ye give freely of that which ye love” (AL-I-‘IMRAN, 92). He shows us the gateway to the accepted and the blessed beneficence, “..but it is righteousness to believe in God.” (BAQARA, 177), and He described the angels and praised them by saying, “Written by the hands of scribes. Honourable, pious and just” (‘ABASA, 15, 16). Allah is the Most BENEFICENT, all His Endowments are a favour from Him, Glory be to the Most BENEFICENT, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(80) The ACCEPTOR of Repentance(AL-TAWWAB)

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Taba means to be sorry for wrongdoing and turn to Allah regretting, repenting, and doing good deeds. Allah said, “But if the thief repent after his crime, and amend his conduct, God turneth to him in forgiveness.” (MA’IDA, 42), “..then He turned to them that they might repent.” (TAWBA, 118), “And whoever repents and does good has truly turned to God with an acceptable conversion.” (FURQAN, 71); and He said about those who repent constantly and of every sin, “For God loves those who turn to Him constantly, and He loves those who keep themselves pure and clean.” (BAQARA, 222). AL-TAWWAB is one of the names of Allah; it means that He is the One Who accepts repentance many times. He, Praise and Glory be to Him, said, “But fear God; for God is Oft-Returning, Most Merciful.” (HUJURAT, 12), “For He is Oft-Returning, Most Merciful” (BAQARA, 54). Allah, the ACCEPTOR of repentance, originates and facilitates all the means to repentance for people, so He warns them, gives them respites and reminds them; so if they repent, He will forgive them, and if they recommit sins, He will facilitate to them all the means to repentance over and over, and if someone sins a hundred times in a day and repents every time, Allah forgives him. Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, endows people with His Grace after they had suffered from deprivation and endows them with all sorts of beneficence; He grants them success after defeat and relieves them after they had been sorely grieved, and forgives them after sending apostles, and prophets; He saves them from the humiliation of sin to the dignity of obedience and from abysmal darkness to light. Glory be to Allah, no disobedience can ever affect Him, and no obedience can ever benefit Him; He is the Provider of repentance Who guides us to it, and by means of this repentance He changes the evil deeds into righteous ones. He is the ACCEPTOR of Repentance, Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(81) The AVENGER(AL-MUNTAQIM)

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Allah, the AVENGER breaks the tyrants’ backs and severely punishes those who are determined to commit sins; He gets revenge on the sinners by torturing them. Vengeance is the utmost degree of the exemplary punishment and chastisement. Allah, Glory be to Him, says, “For God is Exalted in Power, the Lord of Retribution” (IBRAHIM, 47), “Verily from those who transgress We shall exact due Retribution” (SAJDA, 22), “When at length they provoked Us, We exacted Retribution from them.” (ZUKHRUF, 55), “..for repetition God will exact from him the penalty.” (MA’IDA, 98). Vengeance is more severe than immediate punishment which does not enable the oppressive to indulge in disobedience or sins. Allah, The AVENGER, exacts retribution after giving respites, then He tortures the culprits and severely punishes the oppressive and this comes after threatening and warning them and after giving them all the means to repentance. Allah revenges from the highhanded tyrants only, He says, “..then, to those who transgressed We meted out Retribution.” (RUM, 47). Glory be to the AVENGER, the Doer of all that He intends, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(82) The EFFACER of Sins(AL-‘AFUW)

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‘Afa means to efface a sin, to forgive and to let the sinner go unpunished. Allah, the EFFACER of Sins, grants people lavish forgiveness, He says, “Hold to forgiveness; command what is right” (A‘RAF, 199). In the Qur’an we are taught to pray to Allah and say, “..blot our sins, and grant us forgiveness, have Mercy on us” (BAQARA, 286). Allah, Glory be to Him, ordered people to forgive, He said, “..but forgive and overlook” (BAQARA, 109), “..who restrain anger and pardon all men” (AL-I-‘IMRAN, 134), and of Himself, He said, “..for God is One that blots out sins and forgive again and again” (HAJJ, 60) Effacing sins is more eloquent than remission, as the latter denotes the veiling of sins, but effacing suggests the blotting out of sins along with remission, Allah says, “He is the One that accepts repentance from His Servants and forgives sins” (SHURA, 25); moreover, the repentant from sins is like the one who is free from sins. Praise and Glory be to the EFFACER of Sins, He is Allah.

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(83) The Most COMPASSIONATE(AL-RA’OUF)

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Ra’afa in Arabic means to have compassion on someone and dread that any harm befalls him; compassion is more eloquent than mercy. Allah’s Compassion is denotative of His Protection to people; He removes and blots out blights with overwhelming Beneficence and Compassion. His Compassion is prevalent; He, Glory be to Him, says, “..for God is to all people most surely full of kindness, Most Merciful” (BAQARA, 143). It was said that Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal had been informed that a man overseas recited sayings of the Prophet, he headed for the man and on reaching him he found him feeding a dog, the man answered the Imam’s greetings and went on feeding the dog; when he finished he turned to the Imam Ahmad and said, “May be you got exasperated as I have been occupied with the dog and have not attended to you?”, the Imam said, “Yes”, then the man said, “Abu Al-Zinad told me that he heard from Al-A‘rag who quoted what Abu-Hurayra had reported that the Prophet, Allah’s Prayers and Peace be upon him, had said, “He, who fails anyone who resorts to him and makes him give up hope, will be failed by Allah on Doomsday and will never enter Paradise”. Then the man said, “Our town is void of dogs, and that dog resorted to me and I feared to fail him”. Imam Ahmad said “That Prophet’s saying suffices me.” and went back to his country.

Allah’s Compassion is granted to the merciful as Prophet Muhammad, Allah’s Prayers and Peace be upon him said,“Verily, Allah has mercy on the merciful of people”, and he said, “Have mercy upon every existing beingon earth, and He, the Lord of Heaven, will have mercy upon you”.Praise and Glory be to the Most COMPASSIONATE, the Most Merciful, He is Allah.

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(84) The LORD of SOVEREIGNTY(MALIK-AL-MULK)

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Malik in Arabic means the owner, moulk means power and sovereignty, whereas the English version of the Arabic phrase malik-al-mulk is: the LORD of SOVEREIGNTY. Allah executes everything in His Kingdom as it pleases Him; He is the LORD of SOVEREIGNTY. Milk, which means possession, could be used in a literal as well as in a figurative sense. Allah, Glory be to Him, says, “..they have neither the power to remove your troubles from you nor to change them” (ISRAA’, 56). So in the previous verse, power is implied in a figurative way. Every kingdom on earth is ephemeral no matter for how long it lasts, and if the rule remains in someone’s grip, it will inevitably be conveyed to a successor; no matter how much he possesses, his possession is limited. A human being could be a king but not a possessor, for he cannot possess the hearts of his citizens nor the properties of others, and he may be a possessor but not a king, as he may possess properties and spacious lands but he cannot hold control over these lands or the people. Allah is the Possessor of the Kingdom, the LORD of SOVEREIGNTY, the King Who rules and establishes justice in His Kingdom; He possesses all things whether they are evident or hidden; first He originates everything from non-existence, second, He preserves them, and third, He manages and disposes His creatures’ affairs. Allah is the only King, all Supremacy is attributed to Him, in His Hand lies absolute power; He commands according to His Will and settles everything; to Him all things return and there is none to keep back His Command, He is the absolute King, the Possessor of the Kingdom, the Sovereign. Praise and Glory be to Allah, the LORD of SOVEREIGNTY, He is Allah.

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(85) The MASTER of MAJESTY and HONOUR(ZOUL-JALAL WAL-IKRAM)

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Allah has possession of all majesty, perfection and sublimity. All majesty is attributed to Him; honour itself is derived from Him. He is the MASTER of MAJESTY in His Exalted Self, His Attributes and His Names; the MASTER of HONOUR Who grants His creatures with honour and overflowing endowment; He says, “..but if ye count the favours of God, never will ye be able to number them” (IBRAHIM, 34), “We have honoured the sons of Adam..” (ISRAA’, 70). Allah’s Majesty is Greatness, Exaltation and being worthy of all attributes of praise. He is the MASTER of HONOUR as He has all the right to be honoured, glorified and be too Exalted from polytheism. From Him all Honour is derived and by Him only Honour is granted. Glory be to the MASTER of MAJESTY and HONOUR; He is Allah.

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(86) The EQUITABLE(AL-MUQSIT)

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Allah, AL-MUQSIT, Praise and Glory be to Him, is the EQUITABLE Who is Just in His judgments. The Qur’an denotes that in, “Say, my Lord hath commanded justice” (A‘RAF, 29), “..and be fair, for God loves those who are fair and just” (HUJURAT, 9); Allah, Glory be to Him, says, “ So establish weight with justice” (RAHMAN, 9), “Call them by the names of their fathers, that is juster in the sight of God” (AHZAB, 5). Allah, the EQUITABLE, takes revenge from the oppressive, wards off the tyrants’ oppression and lets the oppressed triumph over the tyrants; He acts justly and removes all sorts of inequity. One of the most significant of the Divine Secrets is Allah’s Forbearance in treating the oppressive while gratifying the oppressed. The Muslim may act unjustly unawares, he may repent without finding a way to right his evil deed; on Doomsday he will stand beside the person to whom he was unjust in front of Allah, the EQUITABLE, Who would satisfy the oppressed and may forgive the unjust; no one can do that except Allah, the truly EQUITABLE. An episode was related by Omar Ibn Al-Khattab that Prophet Muhammad, Allah’s Prayers and Peace be upon him, was sitting with his Companions, he laughed till his front teeth appeared, so Omar said “I sacrifice my father and mother for you, O Messenger of Allah what has made you laugh?” The Prophet, Allah’s Prayers and Peace be upon him, said, “Two men from my people knelt before Allah, the Lord of Glory, the first man says ‘Oh my Lord! Avenge me on that man.’ So Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, says to the second man ‘Give to your brother all what you unjustly took from him!’ so the man says ‘O my Lord! I have nothing left of my good deeds.’ Allah, the Lord of Glory, says to the first man ‘What shall you do with your brother? Nothing is left to him of his good deeds?’ so the man says, ‘O my Lord! let him bear some of my sins and be punished for them instead of me.’”, then the Prophet, Allah’s Prayers and Peace be upon him, had tears in his eyes and said, “That will be a Great day when people will need someone to bear their sins”, then he said, “Then Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, will say to the oppressed ‘Raise your eyes and have a look at Paradise!’ the man says ‘Oh my Lord! I can see cities of silver and palaces made of gold and studded with pearls. Who is the Prophet to whom all this will be granted, who is the righteous who will have all this, or who is the martyr who will have these things?’ So Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, says ‘ALL this will be granted to the one who can pay for it’. So the oppressed asks ‘And who can pay for it?’ Allah says ‘You can’, so he says ‘How, my Lord?’ Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, says ‘By forgiving your brother’. The man says ‘O my Lord! I forgive him’. So Allah says ‘Take your brother’s hand and let him enter Paradise’ ”. Then the Prophet, Allah’s Prayers and Peace be upon him, said, “Fear Allah and promote accord between yourselves, for Allah will make your relations on Doomsday whole and sound?” (HADITH). The Prophet, Allah’s Prayers and Peace be upon him, says, “Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, says, ‘If you pray that someone is punished because of his injustice to you, and another one prays that you are punished because of your injustice to him; if you want, We will answer both prayers, else We will delay both of you till Doomsday when My Forbearance will overwhelm you all’.” (HADITH). Praise and Glory be to the Most Forbearing, the EQUITABLE, He is Allah.

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(87) The GATHERER(AL-JAMI‘)

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Jama‘a in Arabic means to collect and put things together, as in, “Men said to them ‘a great army is gathering against you’ and frightened them” (AL-I-‘IMRAN, 173); it may also mean to make up one’s mind and come to a decision. Allah says, “And they all agreed to throw him down to the bottom of the well” (YUSUF, 15), “Say, if the whole of mankind and Jinns were to gather together to produce the like of this Qur’an, they could not produce the like thereof, even if they backed up each other with help and support” (ISRAA’, 88). The GATHERER is one of the names of Allah; “Our Lord! Thou art He that will gather mankind together against a Day about which there is no doubt” (AL-I-‘IMRAN, 9); He is the GATHERER of similar,

dissimilar and contradictory things.He gathers similar things by gathering people on earth, and gathering them all in one place on Doomsday.In the universe, Allah gathers dissimilar things by gathering the stars, the heavens, earth, seas, rivers,plants, animals, insects and various metals; all these things are dissimilar in shape, size, color, andcharacteristics.He also gathers all dissimilar things in one thing, such as bones, flesh, blood, nerves, hair, and nails in thehuman body. Another example is gathering the stem, the trunk, the leaves, and the fruits in the plant.As for the contradictory things, Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, gathers heat and cold, moisture anddryness in the bodies of the living beings. Moreover, He gathers the positive and negative charges in bothelectricity and in magnetic powers. Even the air we breathe in contains oxygen and carbon dioxide.The elaboration of the Power of Allah, the GATHERER, can not be perfectly known without knowing thedetails of every collective form of His Creation. Allah, the GATHERER, can not be perfectly known saveby Him, Glory be to Him, Praise and Glory be to the GATHERER, He is Allah.

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(88) The Self-SUFFICIENT(AL-GHANEY)

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In the Arabic language, ghaney means the possessor of a lot of money, it also means to dispense with people, to do without them and be free from want. When Allah, the Self-SUFFICIENT, suffices someone this means that Allah has enriched him so that he can do without all people and all things, “..this revenge of theirs was their only return for the bounty with which God and His Apostle had enriched them!” (TAWBA, 74), “And He found thee in need, and made thee independent” (DHUHA, 8), “So they rejected the Message and turned away. But God can do without them”(TAGABUN, 6). The only real Self-SUFFICIENT is Allah, He says, “Thy Lord is Self-Sufficient, fulll of Mercy” (AN‘AM, 133), “O ye men! It is ye that have need of God; but God is the One Free of all wants, Worthy of all praise” (FATIR, 15). Allah dispenses with everybody and everything; everyone is in urgent need of Him and His bestowed Grace. It is He Who is needed by everybody, and it is He Who is Self-SUFFICIENT in Himself, His Attributes and in His Divine acts. He, Praise and Glory be to Him, dispenses by Himself, His Names and Attributes with everything; He had been existing while nothing had been with Him, Glory be to the Self-SUFFICIENT, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(89) The Great SUFFICER(AL-MUGHNY)

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Aghna means to suffice and to give someone his needs so that he does not resort to anybody else. Allah is the Great SUFFICER Who suffices His creatures with all their needs and gives them lavishly; He says, “..the bounties of thy Lord are not closed to anyone” (ISRAA’, 20). The sense of self-sufficiency is one of the best grants that are bestowed upon the human being; anyone who abstains from what is forbidden is endowed with all the means he needs; anyone who dispenses with everyone is enriched by Allah; anyone who forbears will be granted forbearance and everyone who seeks the righteous way will be perfectly guided thereto. Allah suffices people by making them dispense with everyone save Him, thereupon, we need no one but Him. Anyone he who is sufficed by the Great SUFFICER, may not be completely self-sufficient as he inevitably needs someone, for instance, to cook him his food, and another one to treat him when ill; he needs air to breathe, he needs a place to live in, he needs warmth and sympathy, he needs a mate, and above all he needs the Great SUFFICER; Glory be to Allah Who enriches and suffices the human being, true is the word of Allah, the Great SUFFICER as He says, “But God is free of all wants, and it is ye that are needy” (MUHAMMAD, 38).

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(90) The PREVENTER(AL-MANI‘)

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Allah, the PREVENTER, wards off all the means of annihilation and loss from our bodies, wealth and religions; He deprives whom it pleases Him of His Grants and Favours. Anything that is prevented by Him can never be given by anyone else. Allah, wards off all means of loss and preserves His creatures against means of annihilation as He is the Creator of all means of prevention and preservation. There is a difference between prevention and preservation, as prevention concerns means of annihilation and loss, yet preservation concerns the person preserved. Every preserver is a preventer, but not every preventer is a preserver, unless it prevents against annihilation and loss so that preservation is a result of this prevention. Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, grants everything what benefits and preserves it against all what may spoil or damage it, and this is done in the way that becomes His Divine Will. He suffices whom it pleases Him by endowments and deprives whom it pleases Him by imposing upon him trials; He enriches and impoverishes, grants and deprives, blesses and distresses. He is the Grantor and He is the PREVENTER. Poverty is sometimes more appropriate to a particular person who, if had been rich then he would have been spoilt; on the other hand, there are certain wealthy individuals to whom poverty is not eligible and if Allah had impoverished them they would have gone astray. Glory be to Allah Whose Mercy overwhelms His Wrath, Praise and Glory be to the PREVENTER, He is Allah.

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(91)

The Harm-INFLICTOR (AL-DHAAR)

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The Benefit-GIVER (AL-NAFI‘)

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The Harm-INFLICTOR and the Benefit-GIVER are two of Allah’s attributes that denote the perfection ofHis Supreme Power and are related to His Divine acts. Neither harm nor benefit can ever befall the humanbeing save with His Will, “Say, all things are from God” (NISAA’, 78).People should attribute the evil to themselves and the good to Allah, as mentioned in the Qur’an,

“Whatever good, O man, happens to thee, is from God; but whatever evil happens to thee, is from thyown soul” (NISAA’, 79). Prophet Abraham was courteous in his words when he said, “And when I am ill, it isHe who cures me” (SHU‘ARAA’, 80), and the following Quranic verse relates the episode of Moses with Al-Khidhr about the boat that the latter scuttled and later said, “I but wished to render it unserviceable” (KAHF,79), and from the context it is evident that he did so as an obedience to Allah’s will, “I did it not of my ownaccord” (KAHF, 82).Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, is the Doer of everything, He says, “If God do touch thee with hurt,there is none can remove it but He, if He do design some benefit for thee, there is none can keep backHis favour; He causeth it to reach whomsoever of His servants He pleaseth. And He is the Oft-Forgiver,Most Merciful” (YUNUS, 107).Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, predetermined the harm and the evil to whom it pleases Him and in theway it pleases Him; He impoverishes and afflicts bodies, misleads and distresses. He, Glory be to Him,predetermined the benefit and the good to whom it pleases Him and in the way it pleases Him; He endowshealth, wealth, bliss, prestige, guidance and piety to whom it pleases Him and in accordance with HisWisdom and Divine Will; He predetermines everything, He is the Creator of all the means of harm, evil,good and benefit, then He subjects all these to try whoever it pleases Him, “..and We test you by evil andby good by way of trial. To Us must ye return” (ANBIYA’, 35), “We have tried them with both prosperityand adversity, in order that they might turn to Us” (A‘RAF, 168).Thereupon, Allah, the Harm-INFLICTOR and the Benefit-GIVER, created all good and evil, harm andbenefit; all these things are attributed to Him. Do not ever think that the scorpion or the snake kill with theirvenom on their own, or that viruses and microbes cause diseases on their own, or that food can satiate andbenefit by itself, or that hunger and chilliness, can ever kill on themselves. Do not ever imagine that any of

the created things can inflict benefit or harm by themselves, but all these are means and causes subjected to Allah, the means and causes of harm and benefit are but the tools of Providence, He accomplishes what He likes. Thereupon, nothing can ever happen except according to His Will, “No misfortune can happen on earth or in your souls but is recorded in a decree before We bring it into existence; that is truly easy for God” (HADID, 22). Hence, nothing happens in the universe but accords with His Will and Plan, whether it is a move or silence, death or life, harm or benefit, good or evil, heresy or faith, gratitude or ingratitude, gain or loss, obedience or disobedience. What He wishes happens and what He does not wish will never happen; Glory be to the Harm-INFLICTOR, the Benefit-GIVER, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(93) The LIGHT(AL-NOUR)

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Light, is that which is manifest in itself and reveals its surroundings. The LIGHT is one of the names of Allah Who endows His creatures with spiritual and concrete meanings of light. Allah is the LIGHT in every darkness, revealer of all what is hidden; He has lit the universe with suns, stars and moons; He has lit heavens and earth, and lit the believers’ hearts with the profession of monotheism. He reveals Himself with His overwhelming Presence and Existence, brings things out from the darkness of non-existence to the light of existence. Existence itself was non-existent, and no darkness is more unfathomable than the abysmal darkness of non-existence. Allah’s Existence is not preceded by non-existence and it is impossible that non-existence befalls His Existence; He is the LIGHT; He lights everything by letting them exist. Allah is the LIGHT and no existence is but derived and originated from His existence and no light is but derived from His Light. Allah says, “God is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The parable of His Light is as if there were a niche, and within it a Lamp, the Lamp enclosed in Glass; the glass is as it were a brilliant star, lit from a blessed Tree - an Olive, neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil is well-nigh luminous, though fire scarce touched it; Light upon Light! God doth guide whom He will to His Light; God doth set forth Parables for men, and God doth know all things” (NUR, 35). He also says, “God is the Protector of those who have faith; from the depths of darkness He will lead them forth into light” (BAQARA, 257), “Can he who was dead be compared to whom We gave life and a Light whereby he can walk amongst men, be like him who is in the depths of darkness, from which he can never come out?” (AN‘AM, 122), “There hath come to you from God a new light and a perspicuous Book” (MA’IDA,17). Allah is the LIGHT; His Light, if it were revealed by Him, then the sublimity and the august splendor of His Countenance would set ablaze the end of the range of His creatures’ vision; Glory be the LIGHT, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(94) The GUIDE(AL-HADY)

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The Arabic word hedaya, which means (guidance), is to gently direct to the means that lead to the sought after. There are different kinds of guidance: First, the guidance to the soul and innate inspiration. This makes the baby gobble its mother’s breast, and the chick pecks its egg so that it comes out in due time; it makes the baby cry asking to be fed or cleaned, and makes the animals, when they give birth, feed and clean their suckling. Second, the guidance of senses and feelings, and this kind of guidance supplements the first. This kind of guidance is more manifest and perfect in the case of animals where it starts earlier, as in the case of the senses that start shortly after birth or hatchery; it is also more powerful as for instance, the sense of smelling in dogs, hearing in cats, and vision in eagles and hawks. Third, the guidance of the mind. This is endowed to the human being with the exclusion of the rest of the created beings for which the guidance of senses and feelings suffices to mould and shape their lives and kingdoms, as is the case in the kingdom of ants, bees, and the emigration of fish and birds. All these animals are guided by inspiration which is strong enough to manage their lives as we can see. Allah endows the human being with a kind of guidance superior to the guidance of senses and innate inspiration. It is the guidance of the mind that corrects the wrong committed by the senses and expresses its motives. If, for instance, someone sees a huge thing small at a distance, and a straight bar bent in the water, his mind corrects this information and dictates to him that distance deludes the mental faculties in estimating the size of things, that the refraction of light causes the straight bar to appear bent, and that what he sees in the mirror is an image and a reflection of his own self and not someone else; it also makes him distinguish and differentiate between alternatives and contemplate what he observes in the universe, so that he can use it and try to attain a better life. Fourth, the guidance of religion and prophets. The human mind can not go beyond the known to the unknown or the invisible. If the mind perceives that a super power overwhelms the universe and creates all things it may be misled into the imagination that it could be the sun or the stars, or that there are many gods. People are not the same as far as mental faculties are concerned; their awareness of the Divine truth is totally different, their minds can be baffled on contemplating what is beyond their senses, thus the mind is too imperfect to attain the knowledge of Allah. Therefore, Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, imposes His Knowledge upon His creatures, they must obey Him in accordance with jurisprudence and the Qur’an, and not by reasoning or meditating. He says, “Nor would We visit with Our Wrath until We had sent an apostle to give warning” (ISRAA’, 15), He also says, “The apostles were sent thus, for thy Lord would not destroy for their wrong-doing men’s habitations whilst their occupants were unwarned” (AN‘AM, 131). Thus Allah sent His apostles and supported them with miracles to back them up and prove their truthfulness, and sent revelations in Holy Books; through them Allah guides mankind to the righteous and pious deeds; through them man knows the forbidden and the allowed, the Divine invisible things such as the questions that the dead is asked in his grave, Reckoning, the Balance, Doomsday, the Path, Paradise, Hell, angels, Jinn, Satan, and Allah’s attributes and epithets and how to supplicate to Him. Fifth, the special guidance or the guidance of Allah. This is Allah’s Guidance to His Prophets, apostles and people whom He elects and selects. He blessed them and lighted their way and guided their hearts to the truth. This guidance is more profound than the guidance of religion and prophets, where the guidance of prophets denotes their role in revealing to the human being the junction between two roads, one that leads to annihilation and the other that leads to salvation, the choice is left for every human being to select for himself, the ultimate fate will either be Paradise or Hell. Allah’s Guidance and Grants are selective; He taught us in the beginning of the Qur’an to ask Him in every prayer to guide us to the straight way; “Show us the straight way. The way of those on whom Thou has bestowed Thy Grace” (FATIHA, 6, 7). These five kinds of Allah’s Guidance have been mentioned in the Qur’an, He says, “Our Lord is He Who gave to each created thing its form and nature, and further, gave it guidance” (TA-HA, 50), “Who hath ordained laws, and granted guidance” (A‘LA, 3), “If We had so willed, We could certainly have brought every soul its true guidance” (SAJDA, 13. Allah also says), “We showed him the way, whether he be grateful or ungrateful” (INSAN, 3), “It is not required of thee, O Apostle, to set them on the right path, but God sets on the right path whom He pleaseth” (BAQARA, 272), “It is true thou will not be able to guide every one whom thou lovest, but God guides those whom He will” (QASAS, 56), “Is then He Who gives guidance to Truth more worthy to be followed, or he who finds not guidance himself unless he is guided?” (YUNUS, 35), “..but if I receive guidance, it is because of the inspiration of my Lord to me; It is He Who hears all things, and is ever near” (SABA’, 50), “This is the book; in it is guidance sure without doubt, to those who fear God” (BAQARA, 2), “..but enough is thy Lord to guide and to help”(FURQAN, 31), “Those were the prophets who received God’s guidance” (AN‘AM, 90). All these kinds of guidance are Allah’s Grace and Favour, Praise and Glory be to the GUIDE, He is Allah.

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(95) The Great INNOVATOR

(AL-BADEE‘)

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AL-BADEE‘ is derived from the Arabic word bada‘a which means to innovate and originate in an unprecedented way. Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, is the Great INNOVATOR; He innovated the heavens and the earth as He originated and created them in an unprecedented way, He says, “To Him is due the primal origin of the heavens and the earth; how can He have a son when He hath no consort?” (AN‘AM, 101). Allah is the only Innovator Who had been existing before everything’s existence, “He is the First” (HADID, 3). Allah innovated and perfected the forms of His created beings in an unprecedented way, nothing ever equals His Exalted Self, His Attributes or His Deeds; He is the Originator, eternally and permanently, Glory be to the Great INNOVATOR Who innovated all created things, and revealed the marvels of His Creation, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(96) The EVERLASTING(AL-BAQY)

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The Arabic verb baquia means to everlast. Allah is the EVERLASTING Who has an everlasting Existence; He says, “But will abide for ever the Face of thy Lord, Full of Majesty, Bounty and Honour” (RAHMAN, 27), “What is with you must vanish; what is with God will endure” (NAHL, 96). He will never perish and non-existence can never afflict Him; His Existence is eternal and permanent. He is the EVERLASTING Whose Existence is necessary. When His Existence is annexed to the future then to Him is attributed the epithet (EVERLASTING), and when His existence is annexed to the past then to Him is attributed the epithet (Eternal). The EVERLASTING is He Whose existence has no end in the future; the Eternal is He Whose existence has no beginning in the past; all this is included in the word: the Necessary Being; these names are according to what is associated in the mind. The past and the future are the time which includes motion and change. Motion is divided into past, present and future; change causes the changed to have a duration in which this change takes place. What is too exalted to change or be in motion does not have a duration and does not have past or future. Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, had been existing before time, and time can never affect Him, He is the First and the Last, the Ancient and the EVERLASTING. Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(97) The INHERITOR(AL-WARITH)

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AL-WARITH is the one to Whom everything is returned after the death of its owners; this is Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is the Everlasting after the extinction of His created beings; He is the INHERITOR to Whom all properties are retrieved after its possessors perish. He says, “It is We Who will inherit the earth, and all beings thereon” (MARYAM, 40), “..Thou art the best of inheritors” (ANBIYA’, 89). Allah inherits everything after the annihilation of all creatures. He says, “Whose will be the dominion that day?”, and He answers, “That of God, the One, the Irresistible” (GHAFIR, 16). All the claims of the human beings tumble as the majority of people think they hold sway over the sovereignty of the universe, the real truth is revealed to them on that day that the real and true Possessor is Allah. As for people of insight they are aware that Allah is the Lord of Power and Authority eternally; no one can ever possess anything, but He possesses everything; Allah is the Lord of the worlds. He is the true INHERITOR, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(98) The DIRECTOR to the Right Way(AL-RASHEED)

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Allah directs people to the right way; His Management proceeds and reaches the zenith of perfection without ever consulting anyone; to Him all Perfection is attributed. His Wisdom is the greatest, His All-Awareness is the most perfect; His Judgment heads for correctness and sublimity. He guides all His creatures, and directs them to the righteous way, to their bliss in this world and in the hereafter. In the Arabic language the word rushd means reason, rationality, and sound judgment, “..if then you find sound judgment in them, release their property to them” (NISAA’, 6), “We bestowed aforetime on Abraham his rectitude of conduct, and well were We acquainted with him” (ANBIYA’, 51). Allah, AL-RASHEED, guides and leads to the truth, He says, “..but he whom God leaves to stray, for him wilt thou find no protector to lead him to the Right Way” (KAHF, 17). Glory be to Allah, the DIRECTOR to the Right Way, where we find our good and bliss, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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(99) The Most PATIENT(AL-SABOUR)

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The Arabic noun sabr denotes self-control by doing what is dictated by the mind and jurisprudence, and this is patience in obedience; sabr also denotes self-restraint by not doing what is rejected by the mind and prohibited by jurisprudence, and this is patience in facing sins. Allah says, “Now await in patience the command of thy Lord” (TUR, 48), “..but give glad tidings to those who patiently persevere” (BAQARA, 155), “..verily in this there are Signs for such as are firmly patient and constant, grateful and appreciative” (IBRAHIM, 5), “..persevere in patience and constancy; vie in such perseverance; strengthen each other”(AL-I-‘IMRAN, 200). The Most PATIENT, which could only be Allah, inspires His creatures with patience and perseverance; He is never provoked by the sinful creatures and does not hasten to punish the sinner. He does not hasten to take action before their eligible time, but He predetermines and executes matters in a suitable way, all this without any hardships or anyone’s objection. As for the patience of creatures, it is not void of suffering and conflict between what is dictated by the mind and religion, and what is favoured because of exasperation or lust. And true were the words of Prophet Muhammad, Allah’s Prayers and Peace be upon him, who said “The most PATIENT is Allah who, when His creatures say that He begot a child, keeps them in good health and sustains them” (HADITH), Glory be to the Most PATIENT, Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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The Number of the Divine Names of Allah

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Allah has many names, some said they are three hundred, some said one thousand and one, and others said they are one hundred and twenty four thousand, which is the same number as the Apostles; it was also said that they are uncountable. The most acceptable is what came in the Hadith of Prophet Muhammad, Allah’s Prayers and Peace be upon him, he said, “Allah has ninety nine names; one hundred less one. He who memorizes them enters Paradise” (HADITH). These names are mentioned in the Hadith in the order that we wrote in this book. Some of these names are mentioned in the Qur’an, and some are not. On the other hand, there are names that are mentioned in the Qur’an but not mentioned in the Hadith. If we count all the names that could be stated as descriptions to Allah, the number of names would be uncountable.

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Allah’s Divine Acts

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Allah’s Divine acts are not interpreted according to motives; they are too exalted for being chaotic; it is illogical to assume that they are void of wisdom. If some of the wise meanings of these acts is hidden from the smartest of mankind, this does not mean that it does not exist. The power of the human mind is limited; the utmost of its perfection is the attainment of some of the extrinsic features of some creatures that fall under the perception of the human senses and mentality, or the realization of some of the basic principles that govern them as laws of gravity, electricity and light. For instance, the light has many laws, yet no one can ever claim that he perfectly comprehends the essence of light; sometimes they call it particles and sometimes waves; that led scientists recently to describe light as having a dual character as it combined both definitions. Allah’s Mercy is manifest. He had not ordained that man would be in need to reveal the essence of all the created things; He had ordained man to need to grasp their characteristics, the phenomena, and their effects; such as the heat and the warmth of the sun, the light of the moon, the characteristics of gravity, electricity, floatation, ..etc. For instance, what science has revealed with respect to molecules of water as composed of two atoms of oxygen and one atom of hydrogen nears the discovery of the essence of water, but it is impossible to know the secrets of the hydrogen atom. This is inaccessible to mankind, Allah bestows knowledge in direct proportion to the degree of the need of human being for this knowledge; the human mentality should never transgress the limit Allah had ordained for its imperfect knowledge and power. Thereupon, we should look at all the created things and try to attain knowledge of the Great Creator and His perfect Attributes. Moreover, the human mind is not supposed to delve through the Attributes of Allah to know how they are attributed to Him. It is essential to know that Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, is not compelled to do His Divine Acts; they are the fulfillment of His Will and His all-inclusive Knowledge. He is never compelled to do anything.

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Therefore, it must be known that Allah’s attributes are categorized as follows:

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1) Attributes of the Exalted Self

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These attributes can never be separated from the Exalted Self; His Will or Might are not related to them, but they are eternally linked to Him. Examples of these attributes are the Eternal Life, the all-inclusive Knowledge, the Power, the Will, the All-Hearing and the All-Seeing Powers, Supremacy, Pride, Glory, and Honour.

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2) Attributes related to the Divine Acts

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These attributes are linked to His Will and Power in every time and place. The singular aspect of theseattributes is still occurring till now according to His Will; these attributes are ancient.Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, accomplishes all what He plans or creates governing all things; HisActs occur one after another according to His Wisdom and Will; Glory be to Him; He is Allah.

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There is Nothing Whatever like unto Him, and He is the One that Hears and Sees allThings

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Allah says, “The most beautiful names belong to God; so call on Him by them; but shun such men as use profanity in His names” (A‘RAF, 180). Glory be to Allah, He is as He describes Himself in His Qur’an and as prophet Muhammad, Allah’s Prayers and Peace be upon him, described Him in his Hadith. Using profanity in the names of Allah is the deviation from their authenticity and their conception. The deviation from them may be the upshot of misstatement, negation, modality or analogy, as no one knows Allah except Allah. Misstatement means: to state wrongly and falsely. Thereupon, any interpretation of the Most Beautiful Names that includes new meanings that are not linked to the literal meanings that had been mentioned in the Qur’an or the Hadith is but misstatement. Negating the attributes of Allah means: denying their relation to the Exalted Self, or claiming that their literal meanings are not intended in themselves without giving an alternative for them. Modality: is the belief that Allah’s Attributes have a certain mode and that we can use the adverb (how) on asking about them; no one can ever know the mode of these attributes save Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him. Analogy: is the concept that Allah’s Attributes are comparable to those of His creatures. Allah says, “..there is nothing whatever like unto Him, and He is the One that hears and sees all things” (SHURA, 11). This Quranic verse is fundamental in perceiving the attributes; it comprises both affirmation and negation. This verse negates any attempt at analogizing on comprehending and grasping these Divine Attributes. Moreover, it affirms the All-Hearing and the All-Seeing Powers of Allah, so we should not negate nor affirm these attributes absolutely, but we have to affirm and believe in them without giving examples or using analogy. Aiming at proving Allah’s Existence is mandatory; yet the essence of the Exalted Self is prohibited to think of. Attempting to reveal the modality or the quality of the attributes of the Exalted Self is forbidden, and we should not study the methodology of the attributes’ linkage with the Exalted Self. Some of our ancestors said about the attributes: “They pass as they were mentioned in the Qur’an and the Sunna without any interpretation”. Some later Scholars said that there should be no attempt at studying the true meaning, the modality or the essence, and that the discussion must be restricted to the literal meaning of the words and attributes. Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal said, “We should not attribute to Allah save what He attributed to himself or what His Prophet, Allah’s Prayers and Peace be upon him, attributed to Him, without transgressing the Qur’an and the Hadith” Nu‘aym Ibn Hammad said, “Anyone who analogizes Allah to His creatures is an atheist, and anyone who denies what Allah attributed to Himself is an atheist”.

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Allegorical Verses

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Verses that include the Divine attributes were considered by early believers as allegorical such as, “God, Most Gracious is firmly established on the throne” (TA-HA, 5), “Everything that exists will perish except His Own Face” (QASAS, 88), “..and this in order that thou mayest be reared under Mine eye” (TA-HA, 39), “The Hand of God is over their own hands” (FAT-H, 10), “..and the heavens will be rolled up in His Right Hand” (ZUMAR, 67). The Hadith that included Divine Attributes was also considered allegorical, as for instance, (Allah laughed, Allah was surprised, Allah was glad, Allah descends). The consensus of opinion of the four Imams as well as Sophian El-Thawry, Ibn El-Mubarak, Ibn ‘Uyana, and Wakee‘ was that one should believe in the attributes and assign the cognition of meaning to Allah and abandon interpretation, and believe that Allah is too Exalted for their true meaning because it is impossible to make an analogy between Allah and any created being. This accords with what Om Salama, may Allah be pleased with her, said while interpreting the following Quranic verse, “God, Most Gracious is firmly established on the Throne”, she said, “the modality is illogical, the establishment is not unknown, recognition of it stems from Faith, and its repudiation is atheism”. Muhammad Ibn Al-Hassan said, “The Scholars agreed to believe in the attributes without interpreting or analogizing”. Many Scholars said, “We have to follow the early believers as they forbade discussions of the meaning of these verses”. Among these Scholars are Imam Ibn Taymeyah, Imam Ibn El-Qayem and many others. Imam Razy said, “The early scholars, along with their successors agreed that we should abandon interpretations after proving the impossibility to interpret the word by its literal and surface meaning”. Another Sunna sect interpreted the verses and the Prophetic Hadith in a way that suits Allah’s Exalted Self and deemed Him far above its reality. Yet some of the late scholars persisted in disputes to the extent that some of them declared others to be atheists. This is turmoil and we pray to Allah to guard us against it and guide us to the right way. He shows whom he wishes the straight way. In the Qur’an there are certain verses in which acts of Allah had been mentioned such as, (Allah is Well-Pleased with them, the Wrath and the Curse of Allah are upon him, they followed that which called forth the Wrath of Allah, the aversion of Allah). Some said, “These attributes are true in the perfect way that suits Him and does not resemble His creatures’ attributes. He never needs anything”. Others said, “These are not attributes of Allah and they should not be ascribed to Him; names should not be derived from these attributes but they are Divine Acts that have deep meanings far above any literal interpretations. For instance, satisfaction denotes reward; wrath and indignation are denotative of retribution”. Another example is the verses in which some Divine Attributes were mentioned such as, “And thy Lord cometh and His angels rank upon rank” (FAJR, 22), “Will they wait until God comes to them in canopies of clouds, with angels in His train and the question is thus settled” (BAQARA, 210). The first group said that in these verses there is a proof of two attributes related to Divine Acts, namely, the attributes of coming and showing up. According to the Sunna we should believe in all these attributes and avoid interpretations which inevitably lead to atheism. The second group said that Allah brings torture in the clouds where Mercy was expected, so torture in this case would be more severe and cruel, as what happened in the case of the people of ‘Ad, as mentioned in the verse, “Then when they saw the penalty in the shape of a cloud traversing the sky, coming to meet their valleys, they said ‘This cloud will give us rain!’ Nay it is the calamity ye were asking to be hastened! a wind wherein is a Grievous Penalty” (AHQAF, 24). It was also said that the Prophet’s face, Allah’s Prayers and Peace be upon him, used to look troubled on seeing the sky filled with clouds, and felt relieved only when it rained. The first group answered by saying that the verses are conspicuous and there is no place for misinterpretation; the verses threaten the unbelievers and reveal to them that Allah shows up to them in canopies of clouds to judge them on Doomsday, and that is why He says at the end of the verse, “And the question is thus settled”. (BAQARA, 210). Moreover the verse, “Are they waiting to see if the angels come to them, or thy Lord Himself or certain of the Signs of thy Lord!” (AN‘AM, 158), is more conspicuous because it can not be interpreted as to mean the anticipation and the coming of the actual torture, as it refers clearly to the coming of the angels, the coming of Allah Himself, and the coming of some of His Signs. They also said that the verse, “And thy Lord cometh and His angels rank upon rank”, can not be interpreted as to mean the coming of torture because what is meant is His Coming on Doomsday for the judgment of everyone, and the angels are then standing rank upon rank in respect to His glorious Majesty. When He comes the sky is split with clouds. Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, comes, goes, descends, approaches, and He, on His Throne, is invisible from His creation. All these are acts related to the Exalted Self in reality, and any attempt to assume an allegory of these acts will be tendency to drawing a similarity between Him and His creatures.

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The Attribute of the “Face”

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Is this attribute firmly established, or does it stand for the direction or the Exalted Self? Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, says, “But will abide for ever the Face of thy Lord, full of Majesty, Bounty and Honour” (RAHMAN, 27), “Everything that exists will perish except His Own Face” (QASAS, 88). The first group said that these two verses prove and attribute the Face to Allah, Glory be to Him. The attribute of the Face differs from the Exalted Self. This does not mean that He, Glory be to Him, has organs; the face is attributed to Allah in the way that becomes His Self, so that His Face does not resemble any other face and any other face does not resemble His. Moreover, as Allah annexed the Face in the above mentioned verse to the Exalted Self, and annexed the epithet (Full of Majesty, Bounty and Honour) to the Face, this proves that the Face is not linked to the Self, and that (Full of Majesty, Bounty and Honour) is attributed to the Face, and the Face is an attribute of the Exalted Self. Moreover, we can not think that the Face stands for the Self in the Hadith, “I invoke the protection of the light of Your Face”, “His Veil is Light and if He reveals it the sublime splendor of His Countenance will set ablaze the end of His creatures’ vision.” (HADITH). They also said that the second verse attributes the everlasting existence to the Face, and it implicitly suggests the everlasting existence of the Exalted Self. If He does not have a Face in reality it would have been inappropriate to use this expression to mean the Exalted Self. This is because any expression used to convey a certain meaning can not be used to convey another meaning unless the original meaning is established with respect to the described. The second group said that Allah says, “But will abide forever the Face of thy Lord, Full of Majesty, Bounty and Honour”, and this means that Allah is the Ever-Lasting; the Face stands for His Existence and His Exalted Self. It has also been said that the Face stands for the Exalted Self, and that was the opinion of Ibn Abbas, the proof is that Allah has been described as having an Ever-lasting existence, and the (Everlasting) is one of the His Names. Allah, Glory be to Him, will remain for ever and ever, after all the created things cease to exist. The Arabic words wajh and‘ayn, which mean the face and the eye, are used to express the meaning of being precise, when related to certain nouns. Some scholars said that the above-mentioned Quranic verse denotes the everlasting existence of the direction through which the human being can near himself to Allah. The same meaning is included in the Quranic verse “Good Deeds, are best in the sight of thy Lord, as rewards, and best as the foundation for hopes” (KAHF, 46), “We feed you for the sake of God alone” (INSAN, 9), where these words express the true motives of pious charity. In this respect comes Prophet Muhammad’s words Allah’s Prayers and Peace upon him “Anyone who builds a mosque for the sake of God will be granted by God a building similar to it in Paradise!” (HADITH). The use of the word (Face) in the previous Hadith is allegoric. On Doomsday, Allah says to the angels, “I do not accept any deed except that which is done for the sake of My Face!”. Some said that the Face stands for the Exalted Self; and the word wajh, which is the Arabic word for (Face), means the connection. As for the claim of the first group that the Quranic verses prove that the Face is attributed to Allah and that it differs from the Exalted Self, it has no proof. They also claim that it is a proven attribute of Allah by which He turns to His chosen men and the obedient believers. Such a claim lacks proof because they say that in the verse “Everything that exists will perish except His Own Face”, Allah, Glory be to Him, refers the everlasting existence to the Face and this means the everlasting existence of the Exalted Self. But according to their claim that it is an attribute, is it appropriate that we call upon Allah by saying: (Allah Who has the Face) as we say (Allah Who is the Lord of Bounty and Honour)? Comment:

We should believe in these verses in the way that they were told to us, and we should not try to interpret them but should assign to Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, the knowledge of their true meaning; He is too exalted to have any resemblance to any created thing. Hence we must abandon any attempt at interpretations because of this decisive proof that it is impossible to accept the surface meaning of the word. This had been the viewpoint of our ancestors, may Allah be pleased with them , with respect to verses of the similar category, praise be to Allah, no one truly knows Him save Him.

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The Attribute of the “Hand”

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Is it a proven attribute of Allah, or does it stand for might and endowments? Allah says, “..what prevents thee from prostrating thyself to one whom I have created with My Hands?” (SAD, 75), “Nay, both His Hands are widely outstretched” (MA’IDA, 67). The first group said that these two Quranic verses included the proof that the two hands are a true attribute of Allah as becomes Him; we cannot estimate that the word (hands) is a symbol of might or power, for everything including Iblis had been created by Allah’s Power, otherwise Adam would not be distinguished from the rest of all created beings. Moreover, the duality of the hand only applies to the real hand and was never mentioned as a reference to ability, endowments or blessings. Therefore, it is not correct to say, Allah created with two mights or two powers of endowments. Furthermore it is not permitted to attribute hands as a symbol of might or ability save to the one who does possess hands in reality; hence it can not be said, the wind has a hand, or water has a hand. In a word, the hand has its own features, as the palm, the fingers, the movement of flexion and extension, the right hand and the left. The second group said that the hand stands for might and endowment; the hand was mentioned in the Qur’an in the singular form in, “The Hand of God is over their hands” (FAT-H, 10) and was mentioned in the dual form in, “Nay, both His Hands are widely outstretched” (MA’IDA, 67) and in the plural form in, “See they not that it is We Who have created for them, among the things which Our Hands have fashioned, cattle, which are under their dominion?” (YA-SIN, 71). Prophet Muhammad, Allah’s Prayers and Peace be upon him, said, “The Right Hand of Allah is full day and night and is never depleted by what He spends!” (HADITH), and he said “To the right of Allah, and both His Hands are Right” (HADITH). These expressions can not be taken according to their surface meanings, so the analogy is necessary.

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The Attribute of the “Eye”

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Is it a proven attribute of Allah, or does it stand for care, surveillance and vision? The first group said that the eye is a true attribute of Allah as becomes Him, and we should not think of it as an organ composed of fat, nerves, ..etc. As for the fact that the eyes are mentioned in both the singular and the plural forms in the Qur’an, this does not disprove its reality, as the Arabic language can encompass all this. The second group said that in the Quranic verses the eye refers to and stands for vision, care and surveillance. As for the claim that Allah praised Himself on mentioning the attribute of the eye and that it is impossible that Allah attributes to Himself what He does not have in reality, this claim is refuted because it implies a defect or that He, Glory be to Him, needs the existence of the eye; it is care and surveillance that are meant in these verses. Allah affirmed His All-Seeing Power in, “For God is He Who hears and sees all things” (HAJJ, 75), and this suffices to prove the attribute.

Comment:

The viewpoint of the first group may delude us into interpreting these verses in the light of personification or fragmentation. Their opinion suggests that Allah has a Face, a Hand (or may be two) and an Eye to see with, which in turn may pave the way for the mind to be deluded into imagining and thinking what may contradict with the attributes of Sublimity, Exaltation and Honour. Moreover, they undoubtedly resort to interpretation with respect to the Quranic verses such as, “..and this in order that thou mayest be reared under Mine Eye” (TA-HA, 39), “..for verily thou art in Our Eyes” (TUR, 48), “The Hand of God is over their hands” (FAT-H, 10). The same is applicable to the Prophetic sayings, “The Right Hand of Allah is full day and night and is never depleted by what He spends” (HADITH), “Allah’s both Hands are Right” (HADITH), they leave no chance for probability but assert the existence of the Face, the Hand and the Eye. If we take their viewpoint for granted, how then can we understand and perceive the Quranic verses that describe some of the apostles of Allah, “And commemorate Our Servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, possessors of Power and Vision” (SAD, 45)?

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Allah’s Company

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Is Allah’s company concrete or spiritual? Allah, Glory be to Him, says, “And He is with you wheresoever ye may be” (HADID, 4), “..have no fear, for God is with us” (TAUBA, 40), “..for God is with you” (MUHAMMAD, 35) “..God is with those who steadfastly persevere”, (BAQARA, 249), “..there is not a secret consultation between three, but He makes the fourth among them” (MUJADILA, 7). The first group said that the company is general and all-inclusive as it embraces all creatures. Allah, Glory be to Him, accompanies everything with His Omniscience, His all-knowing Ability, His subduing Power and His all-pervading Sublimity; nothing can ever escape Him. Another meaning is Allah’s company to His Apostles and His chosen people the Company that endows them with support, victory, love, attainment and inspiration. The second group said that the company of Allah is spiritual and it stands for knowledge, power, victory, and support. So, they agreed, with respect to this point with the members of the first group.

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Comment:

We find that the first group adheres to the literal surface meaning in some respects which they want to prove, then object to using the literal meaning by interpreting what they want; they considered the surface meaning of (the eye) and (the hand), but resorted to interpretation in the meaning of (Allah’s Company)

and the criteria they used differed in many respects.On the other hand, the members of the second group tired themselves in interpreting Allah’s Companywhich may lead to arbitrariness. We should say that these verses and Hadiths are allegorical and we shouldnot transgress our limits and delve in them so as not to be one of those whom Allah mentioned in the verse,

“..but those in whose hearts is perversity follow the part thereof that is allegorical, seeking discord, andsearching for its hidden meanings” (AL-I-‘IMRAN, 7); Allah decisively settles the matter and says, “..but noone knows its hidden meanings except God” (AL-I-‘IMRAN, 7).Thereupon, it is our duty to abandon interpretations as we have proved that it is impossible to take things intheir literal and surface meaning; we have to believe in these verses as they are so as to be of thosedescribed in the verses, “..and those who are firmly grounded in knowledge say, we believe in the Book;the whole of it is from our Lord” (AL-I-‘IMRAN, 7); we should entrust our knowledge to Allah, Glory be toHim, without interpretation or analogy for it is impossible to compare Allah to any created thing as nothingresembles Him, Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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Allah’s Descent to the Lower Heaven

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Is it real or figurative? Prophet Muhammad, Allah’s Prayers and Peace be upon him, said, “Allah descends to the lower heaven in the terminal third of the night”. The first group said that the descent to the lower heaven is an attribute that suits Allah’s Exaltation, and it cannot be compared to the descent of creatures. Moreover, on saying that Allah is firmly established on the Throne we do not ever equate this to the establishment of creatures. The descent is a true attribute of Allah in the manner He wishes. They say, Prophet Muhammad, Allah’s Prayers and Peace be upon him, told us that Allah descends but he did not mention to us the manner of His Descent. The second group said that the descent is not a reality but indicates the opening of the gates of repentance, mercy and answering of the worshippers’ prayers, as it is not permissible to think that Allah moves from one place to another because this is a quality of created things.

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Comment:

Modern science proved that the terminal third of the night continues throughout the twenty-four hours as it is night in one place and day in another owing to the sphericity of the earth and its rotation around its axis. So, if we adopt the opinion of the first group, then the conclusion will be that Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, is present in the lower heaven throughout the twenty-four hours, which specifies a fixed place for He, and He is too Exalted to be limited by time or place. On the other hand if we adopt the opinion of the second group then we will delve in what we have no knowledge of; thereupon, we must believe in the Prophetic Hadith as it is, without ever trying to interpret it. It suffices us to know that it is recommended that we, wherever we are, ask for Allah’s forgiveness, pray and resort to Him in the late hours of the night when everything is peaceful and everyone is not busy, and there is general remoteness from hypocrisy and can direct ourselves to Allah with absolute devotion to Him.

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The Speech of Allah

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Is it articulated, or is it exalted meanings that derive existence from the Existence of the Exalted Self? The first group said that speech is attributed to Allah; they derive existence from the Existence of the Exalted Self; He, Glory be to Him, speaks whenever it pleases Him, with His Power. Allah, Glory be to Him, called Moses and called Adam with a voice, but the words and the voice He uttered are an attribute of His Exalted Self, unparalleled and can not be compared to the words and the voices of creatures; He, Glory be to Him, related in the Qur’an about Jesus, “..and to Moses God spoke direct” (NISAA’, 164). Other Quranic verses denote that Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, really called Moses from behind a veil and not through angels; “And We called him from the right side of Mount Sinai” (MARYAM, 52), and Speech is hence incidental because He said, “When Moses came to the place appointed by Us, and his Lord addressed him” (A‘RAF, 143). So, the Call is proved here; it must be an audible voice. Moreover, Allah spoke to Adam and Eve and this took place after the sin had been committed. The holy books are the Speech of Allah; He spoke their words with all their meanings and expressions through His Own voice. Allah spoke in the Torah in the Hebrew language and in the Qur’an in the comprehensive Arabic tongue; when people recite it they read it in their own language and since it is Allah’s Speech, it is His Book because it had been written in the Preserved Tablet and in the copies of the Qur’an. The second group said that Allah, Glory be to Him, speaks, commands, forbids, warns, promises, and threatens by His Speech; the eternal, ancient, unparalleled Speech that can not be compared to that of His creatures. It is neither uttered through a voice that is produced by the vibration of air or the friction of objects nor by the movement of the lips and the tongue. Although the Qur’an is recited by tongues, written in books, and memorized by hearts, it is ancient and eternal deriving its existence from the Existence of Allah, and it will never be separated, fragmented, nor altered through conveyance to the hearts and papers. They also said that Moses heard Allah’s Speech without a voice, just as the righteous see the Exalted Self of Allah without an essence in the hereafter; Allah’s Speech is the words of the soul but voices are fragmented into letters which serve as indicators and signals; gestures are used for the same purpose. Furthermore, if we can understand that Allah has an all-knowing Power, then we can perceive that He has the power to speak with everything that denotes expressions. The Speech of Allah derives its existence from His Existence, is ancient, and so are all His attributes, as it is impossible to think that Allah is subject to events or change. Thereupon, Allah’s Speech is ancient and the Speech is self-existent; what is recent are the voices that denote it; for instance, when Allah said to Moses, “Therefore, in My presence put off thy shoes” (TA-HA, 12), this is a request that had been formulated by Allah since eternity and Moses was addressed after he had been created.

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Comment: The Speech of Allah is not unknown; the manner is unintelligible; believing in it is a must; and any attempt at knowing the manner or the modality is a rebellion against the teachings of our ancestors. To the first group we say: If this viewpoint is true, how then was Gabriel revealing to the Prophet, Allah’s Prayers and Peace be upon him, the Qur’an? Sometimes, he came to him in the form of a human being and sometimes the revelation came in the form of the clank of a bell, and this was the most severe, then he would grasp what he was told. How come then this revelation had been revealed through a voice while the Companions had been sitting and heard nothing? Moreover, the Prophet, Allah’s Prayers and Peace be upon him, differentiated between the Speech of Gabriel when he came to him in the form of a human being and the revelation when it came to him in the form of the clank of a bell. Furthermore, Allah said, “So We sent this inspiration to the mother of Moses” (QASAS, 7); was this Speech to the mother of Moses through a voice or was it a mere inspiration as the kind of innate inspiration mentioned in the verse, “And thy Lord taught the bee to build its cells in hills, on trees, and in men’s habitations” (NAHL, 68). A letter is uttered when the two lips are brought together and the tongue moves so that the voice is broken into letters. Sounds arise from friction of celestial bodies that produces sound waves and this needs an atmosphere of air because a sound in a vacuum does not exist. That the sound needs a medium to transform it and that the articulated letters need lips to articulate them can not be applied to Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him. To the second group we say: The fact that Allah created Moses and endowed him with perceptions and audition to enable him to comprehend His Speech that derives its existence from the Existence of His Exalted Self is something, and the direct Speech is something else. Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, said, “..and to Moses God spoke direct” (NISAA’, 164). Therefore, we must believe that Allah speaks, then we have to entrust the knowledge of the manner and the modality of that speech to Allah, Who is unequaled. Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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Other Attributes of Allah

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In some Prophetic sayings, some expressions are attributed to Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, such as laughter, pride, disappointment, happiness and hatred, in which scholars have different opinions. The first group said that the Believer should believe in everything Allah attributed to Himself, as the establishment on the Throne, coming, showing up, the descent to the lower heaven, laughter, content, wrath, hatred, and love. He should believe in these attributes as he believes in creation, sustenance, life, and death; this belief must be void of any blemish, misstatement, negation, modality or analogy, and prove these attributes in the way that becomes His Exalted Self, Praise and Glory be to Him. In the Hadith, where the Prophet, Allah’s Prayers and Peace be upon him, said, “Allah delights in people’s repentance, and His Delight outweighs the delight of that man who rejoices over his long-sought camel!”, the Attribute of Delight which is mentioned is one of the true attributes that become His Exalted Self, Glory be to Him. It is one of the attributes that are linked to His Will and Power; He rejoices over the repentance of people and this Delight indicates that He has accepted their repentance. Allah’s Delight is too Exalted from any comparison with the joy and the delight of creatures either in itself, its reasons or its objective. It is the perfection of His Mercy and His Charity, which He wishes that people become subject to; its objective is the completion and perfection of His endowment of blessings to those who repent. They also assert Laughter as an attribute of Allah as becomes His Exalted Self, this attribute is mentioned in the Hadith, “Allah laughs to two men one of whom kills the other, then both of them go to paradise”, His Laughter does not resemble the creatures’ laughter when they are enraptured. This meaning takes place only through His Will and Might, but human beings laugh when they are fascinated on seeing unusual things. In the Hadith mentioned above, we have the narration of the story of a Muslim killed by an unbeliever who, at first, would deserve Allah’s Wrath; one may think that Allah will punish him in this world and in the hereafter; But if Allah, after that, endowed that unbeliever with repentance and guided him to declare faith in Allah and embrace Islam, and later on fought for the cause of Allah and was killed, then he enters paradise. So this is one of the most surprising and awe-inspiring events! This group also asserts Wonder as an attribute of Allah. They prove this by saying that Allah’s Wonder is not the result of obscure reasons or ignorance of facts as is the case with human beings; His Wonder is the result of His Will and Wisdom towards an occurrence taking place in a way that deserves wonder. The existence of a Foot with respect to Allah, Glory be to Him, was asserted on the basis of the prophetic saying, “Every time a group is cast in hell it says: ‘Are there any more to come?’ until Allah, the Exalted Supreme Lord, puts His foot therein, so every place in hell crawls inside itself and it says: ‘Never, my Lord, by Your Honour and Beneficence!’” (HADITH). They say that this saying asserts and proves the existence of the leg and the foot for Allah, Glory be to Him. This attribution as other attributes exists in a manner so Exalted and Supreme that becomes His Greatness and Glory. Allah’s Mercy and Equity dictate and ordain that no one will ever be tortured without having committed a sin, and since hell is unfathomable and abysmal, therefore, Allah fulfills His Promises and puts His Foot therein, hence its ends become close to each other and it becomes filled only with its occupants with no surplus space. The second group said that these expressions are not meant in their literal surface meaning but what is meant is the meaning associated with it; they attribute this epithet to the Divine Will which is derived from Allah’s Existence. It is eternal so they say that Allah’s love to His creature denotes His Will that he is to be endowed with blessings and reward. Moreover, they say that content, wrath, and punishment mean and denote the Divine Will of reward or punishment; they explain delight with its associated meaning which is content, and they explain content as the Divine Will of reward; as for Laughter, they explain it in terms of content and acceptance, the Foot in terms of creation of creatures who deserve the torture of hell. As for the Leg, they say that, in Arabic, it means a swarm as for instance, the swarm of locusts, and furthermore, they use the rest of the previously mentioned prophetic saying as a proof to this opinion: “As for paradise, Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, creates people who enter it and fill the void places therein; there will still be empty places in paradise till Allah creates people to fill the void places in it.”

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Comment:

The attributes asserted and proved by the members of the first group such as laughter, surprise, delight, love, hatred, and wrath, are all ascribed to emotions in the lexicon of the Arabic language; they do not denote acts such as creation, giving sustenance, giving benefit, inflicting harm, abasing, exalting, withholding or enlarging, therefore their meanings cannot be compared. Moreover, the members of the first group sometimes say that these attributes are meanings that occur in His Exalted Self, and sometimes they say that these attributes happen to Allah, Glory be to Him! It is understood that everything that is prone to incidents and chances is incidental. Furthermore, most of these attributes that are related to Allah are mentioned in the Qur’an and are not considered as attributes of the Exalted Self, such as (Who relieves the suffering) and (Who hurls the Truth). Thereupon the ancestors perceived that we should neither let the mind delve in allegorical verses of the Qur’an nor in similar verses and prophetic sayings as, for instance, the Hadith related by Al-Bukhari^1[1] in which it was mentioned that every day the sun goes and asks Allah for a permission to rise, and it is almost ordered to return to where it came from. Hence, it is safer and more appropriate to believe in the Quranic verses and the Hadiths without delving into interpretations or analogies; we have to abandon interpretation after the establishment of the absolute proof that the surface meaning of the word is impossible. We have to say, as our ancestors said, that the Quranic verses and the Hadith pass as they came without interpretation; only Allah knows what is truly meant by them, “..there is nothing whatever like unto Him and He is the One that hears and sees all things” (SHURA, 11), Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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Salvation in Understanding Allah’s Attributes

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Prophet Muhammad, Allah’s Prayers and Peace be upon him, said, “Allah had been existing and there had been nothing with Him; His Throne had been on water, and He wrote everything in the Scribe and created heavens and earth.”, he also said, “When Allah created everything, He wrote in His Book which is on His Throne ‘My Mercy precedes My Wrath’.”; his companions accepted what he said without ever trying to engage their minds in thinking how, why, where, or when. Their main concern was mostly dedicated to the knowledge of the commands and prohibitions of Allah so that they may follow His Commands and avoid doing what He forbids, in order to gain His Reward and avoid His Anger and His Wrath. They applied to their lives what they comprehended, as for what they did not comprehend they believed in. That was their attitude towards the Qur’an in matters that are not related to orders or duties, as for instance stories of the former nations, hidden and invisible things, as the Qur’an is the last of all the holy books and it had been sent for them and for those who will succeed them, for us and for those who will be after us until Doomsday. Undoubtedly, man knows more day by day, sciences develop and progress, discoveries augment increasing our knowledge and opening more gates of enlightenment specially the cosmic and universal signs; thereupon, there are those, such as the Companions of the Prophet, Allah’s Prayers and Peace be upon him, to whom it was said, “Do they not look at the camels, how they are made?” (GASHIYA, 17); they, and those who succeed them, learn and take a warning from these verses. There is also what is said to those who succeed them and us, such as, “And the sun runs his course for a period determined for him, that is the decree of Him, the Exalted in Might, the All-Knowing (YA-SIN, 38). The Companions understood that what was meant was the course of the sun from the east to the west which is observable by eyesight. Their successors discovered that what really moves is the earth and not the sun, so they say that the Quranic verses included what was visible and apparent to their eyes so Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, addressed them according to what they see. Then they were followed by a group of people who said that the statement is true because the sun actually moves pulling all the solar system to a place known only to Allah; only He, Glory be to Him, knows what will be discovered later on. This is the case with matters concerning observations of the human being. How would the case be if we try to contemplate the Exalted Self which we are forbidden to do according to the Hadith: “Contemplate the attributes and the epithets of Allah and do not ever contemplate His Exalted Self so that you may not be led astray”. Undoubtedly, contemplating what we are not allowed to contemplate is detrimental to our faculties, and a blight to the Faith of the believer. Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, created us for a certain aim and assigned to us certain duties and assignments that we must undertake; the aim of our creation is hidden from us whereas the duties and the assignments are perfectly and fully revealed to us; so we should not occupy ourselves in contemplating the aim of creation and ignore our duties and assignments that Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, ordained us to do. We should contemplate the effects of the attributes and not the essence and secrets of it. We must consider the impact of the expressions as meanings and mere denotations; as for their real essence, only Allah, the Lord of these attributes knows them. For instance, from the Hadith: “My Mercy precedes and supersedes My Wrath”, we gain the information that Allah’s Mercy has the precedence and that it is ancient; His Attributes are ancient, and the ancient is what was never preceded by anything. In the Hadith, it is evident that Allah’s Wrath is preceded by His Mercy; it has been said that this means that His Wrath is not ancient, and what is not ancient should not be an Attribute of Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him. It has been mentioned in the Hadith that “Charity extinguishes wrath”, and as Allah’s epithets cannot be extinguished because they are eternal, we deduce that we should not attribute to Allah what He did not attribute to Himself. The Divine Acts that are related to the Divine Will and Omnipotence remain as they are and should never be interpreted, for Allah, Glory be to Him, is the Lord and the Doer of all that He intends. Furthermore, we should not ask (why) or (how) with respect to the Divine Acts of Allah or with respect to the duties Allah had charged mankind with, for Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, had ordained what He pleases to differentiate between the obedient and the disobedient. There are examples set in the Qur’an about requests we should not even contemplate; these examples were set forth as a warning and to teach us what to accept without questioning, as Allah, Glory be to Him, says, “There is, in their stories, instruction for men endued with understanding” (YUSUF, 111). The first example is the request of Moses as mentioned in, “O my Lord! Show Thyself to me, that I may look upon Thee. God said, ‘By no means canst thou see Me direct; but look upon the mount; if it abide in its place, then shalt thou see Me. When his Lord manifested His Glory on the mount, He made it as dust, and Moses fell down in a swoon. When he recovered his senses he said, Glory be to Thee! To Thee I turn in repentance, and I am the first to believe” (A’RAF, 143). But of what did Moses repent? He repented of asking that request as Noah had repented before him where he said, “O my Lord! I do seek refuge with Thee, lest I asked Thee for that of which I have no knowledge”. We understand from the request of Moses that Allah can never be perceived by vision but His Grasp is over all vision; we also understand that seeing Allah is not impossible because the condition was a possibility and therefore, seeing Him is possible if the mountain stayed firm in its place which is possible if Allah willed it. In this world vision will perish, and what is perishable can not see the Everlasting; in the hereafter the believers are endued with an immortal body, eternal bliss and an eternal sight to be enabled to see, the Everlasting with their everlasting vision, “Some faces that Day, will beam in brightness and beauty. Looking towards their Lord” (QIYAMA, 22, 23). The manner and the modality of seeing Allah does not concern us, yet we ask Him to endow us with the bliss of seeing Him on Doomsday, so we should do the righteous deeds to gain this bliss. The second example is the request of ‘Uzair as mentioned in the Qur’an, “Or take the similitude of one who passed by a hamlet, all in ruins to its roofs. He said, ‘Oh! how shall God bring it ever to life after its death?’ But God caused him to die for a hundred years, then raised him up again. He said, ‘How long didst thou tarry thus?’ He said, ‘Perhaps a day or part of a day.’ He said, ‘Nay, thou hast tarried thus a hundred years; but look at thy food and thy drink; they show no signs of age; and look at thy donkey, and that We may make of thee a sign unto the people, look further at the bones, how We bring them together and clothe them with flesh.’ When this was shown clearly to him, he said, ‘I know that God hath power over all things’.” (BAQARA, 259). The story here is a warning example, and ‘Uzair was an apostle and a believer who didn’t ask except when he was permitted to ask; this question, which was asked by an apostle, was not answered, and neither would ours be if we asked. The third example is Abraham’s request as mentioned in the Qur’an, “Behold! Abraham said, ‘My Lord! Show me how Thou givest life to the dead?’ He said: ‘Dost thou not then believe?’ He said, ‘Yea! but to satisfy my own understanding.’ He said, ‘Take four birds; tame them to turn to thee; put a portion of them on every hill, and call to them, they will come to thee flying with speed. Then know that God is Exalted in Power, Wise.” (BAQARA, 260). This denotes that what Allah has in His Power is inaccessible to anyone, and that this request was unattainable, yet Allah made the birds come to Abraham before he completed his call to them, and this is how the resurrection of the dead will happen; Allah says, “..then when He calls you, by a single call, from the earth, behold, ye straightway come forth” (RUM, 25). As in the case of Bilqis with Solomon and the story of her throne, “Said one who had knowledge of the book ‘I will bring it to thee within the twinkling of an eye!’ Then when Solomon saw it placed firmly before him, he said: ‘This is by the grace of my Lord! to test me whether I am grateful or ungrateful!’ ” (NAML, 40). A miracle is achieved here as Allah gave him the ability to use (Be! and it is!); so we get an idea about the laws of nature and how they could be made ineffective, or effective with respect to certain objects while ineffective with respect to others; for example, the food that remained intact, the donkey that Allah took the life of then restored it back, and how ‘Uzair was not affected by death? Therefore, some laws of nature prevailed and some laws were ordained by Allah, the Creator of these rules, to be suspended; these are different laws of nature occurring at the same time and at the same place. We co-exist in this world with the effects which Allah linked to the causes, but in Paradise causes will be eliminated, leaving the effects to remain alone. Hence, we should not use the relative pronouns (where, when, how, why) with respect to Allah. It is Allah Who accomplishes what He wills and nothing occurs in His Kingdom except what He wills, Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.

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“Be! and it is!”

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Allah said, “Verily when He intends a thing, His Command is: ‘Be!’ and it is!” (YA-SIN, 82). The moment Allah wills a thing it becomes His Word or Command and the thing forthwith comes into existence. There are two different ways of reading this Quranic verse which give two relatively different meanings; the first makes the reader understand that the thing Allah wills to exist comes into existence after the Command is given, whereas, the second makes the reader understand that the thing comes into existence the moment Allah wills it to exist; thereupon, His Command (Be!) does not precede nor succeed the existence of that thing. For instance, people’s resurrection from their graves does not precede nor succeed Allah’s Call, He said, “Then when He calls you, by a single call, from the earth, behold, ye straightway come forth” (RUM, 25). Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, ordained that the laws of nature derive their validity from His Command (Be! and it is!) since eternity. If someone asked: In what state is received the command to exist, in its existence or in its non-existence? the answer is, if it were not existing at that moment, what then was commanded? on the other hand, if it were existing, why then was it commanded to exist? The answer is one of the following three alternatives:

(1)

It is the information revealed to us by Allah about the Perfection of His Power over His existingcreatures and the fulfillment of His Will, as His Command to the Children of Israel to be apes despised andrejected and they became as He wished them to be, and in this case the command (Be!) is not to a thing thatdoes not exist.

(2)

Allah is the All-Knowing of everything that exists even before its existence, and of everything thathappens even before it happens. All existing things, even before their real existence, had been existing inthe Omniscience of Allah in the form He had predetermined for them; then He commanded them to existso they existed and emerged out of non-existence to existence, from the realm of the unseen to the realm ofthe seen, as everything had been shaped since eternity in His all-inclusive Knowledge.

(3)

This is an all-inclusive revelation given to us by Allah and includes everything that is created by Him;if it pleases Him the thing will be created even without a word is said by Him; it is the will of Allahexpressed in terms of the Divine word (Be!) to represent His Perfect Power and its effect on what He wills,so that the Divine Will is fulfilled without denial, cessation, or even the need to an instrument.In any case the previous verse proves and denotes three main things:First, the word of Allah is eternal, ancient, and not created; if the Divine word (Be!) had been created thenit would have needed a second word which would also have needed a third word and so on. This islogically impossible.Second, Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, wants everything that happens to happen, the good and the evil,the useful and the harmful; because the one who sees in his kingdom something that he hates and does notwant, this will either be because he is ignorant and does not know, or he is powerless and cannot tolerate,and these matters can never be attributed to Allah Who is the All-Knowing, the Omnipotent eternally.Third, Allah still commands the known; He is the All-Knowing, the All-Powerful, despite the delayedexistence of things. All power attributed to Allah is ancient, and the purport of the Divine Command (Be)is ancient; it derives its existence from the existence of the Exalted Self, Praise and Glory be to Him, He isAllah.

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The Human Being’s Deeds

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Every human being has a certain power of discrimination between the exquisite and the ignominious, and his soul is enraptured by what is exquisite and detests and feels nauseated at the sight of any ugly thing. This discrimination between observable things has its counterpart in audible, olfactory and perceptible things, as honesty, truthfulness, honour, and valour. Thereupon, all industries were established, civilizations developed, and discoveries occurred aiming at the comfort and the bliss of the human being’s life. Tastes differ, nevertheless, things include ugliness and beauty; ugly things may be beautified by their effect as the bitter medicine that remedies diseases, and beautiful things may become ugly by their ugly effect. All these things are known by the human mind that differentiates between the useful and the harmful, the good and the evil. Consequently, every human being weighs his deeds by the balance of his mentality; he estimates with his volition and assesses the consequences, then he perfects his deeds with his own self-power, and the abilities he has. Nevertheless, consequences may not coincide with expectations so he reviews the causes of his failure; if the reason of his failure is his fault and negligence, then he tries once more and feels benefited by knowing the shortcomings of the previous attempt. But if he feels that the cause of his failure is beyond his power, then he realizes that there exists in the universe an overwhelming subduing power far above his own, unimaginable by his own powers, so he submits to the power of fate and destiny, and knows that he gains happiness in this world and in the hereafter by his will, choice, and the abilities granted to him, and realizes that Allah’s Power is the source of all powers and abilities of the creatures. He also knows that Allah’s Will is above the will of any created being and one of the impacts of the Divine Will is that it can hinder the human being from fulfilling and executing his aim. No help can ever succour him in attaining his aim save the help of Allah, Who has the absolute Power in fulfilling the sought aim and preparing all the means that assist or obstruct the creature’s way. The human being knows that he must utilize all the perceptions and powers that Allah endowed him with, to fulfill his freely chosen deeds, whether mental or corporal, in what they were created for; he has to benefit from his shortcomings and defaults to attain the best possible consequences and the utmost of Allah’s granted Favours and Endowments. Moreover the human being perceives that the keys of heaven and earth belong to Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him Who enlarges or withholds the means of subsistence. Knowing all these things, the human being recommends his soul to Allah because it is evident that ignoring the available means is denotative of ignorance; on the other hand, neglecting total and absolute reliance on Allah is nothing but depravation. Allah is the Creator of everything, the created beings and their deeds; He predetermined their lives and deaths, their subsistence and powers; for instance, Allah created the spider and its web, the bees and their honey, ants and their perseverance, the moon and its orbit, and the human being and his deeds; all organisms and everything in heavens or on earth are created by Allah, the Originator, the Great Innovator.

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The human being is preferred over the rest of the created beings by being entrusted with certain assignments and charges, and that he freely chooses his deeds according to his intellect. Allah endowed the human being with three powers, which were not endowed to any other creature, namely, memory, imagination and intellect. The memory retrieves to him the past, imagination embodies the imagined thing and illustrates to him the pain or gratification that can be associated with it in the future, then intellect helps him find the appropriate means to achieve the imagined thing or to avoid it. Before the time of the heavenly Messages, these three mental powers gave the human being the power to differentiate between the useful and the harmful, the good and the evil, so that when messengers were sent to clarify the allowed and the forbidden, human beings were qualified to be charged with duties and regulations because of the mental faculties endowed only to them and to no other being. Everything had been ordained and registered by Allah before creation; a registration due to knowledge and not due to obligation as some people may think. So if the Divine Pen had registered everything that would take place till Doomsday, then everything that takes place must coincide with what had been registered before creation. Nothing in the eternal Omniscience negates man’s free volition, as to the fact that what had been ordained and registered would inevitably occur, is because it is the reality, and reality is not liable to change.

Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, knows that a creature will do a certain deed at a certain time and for that deed he shall be rewarded; or that he shall do a certain deed at a certain time and that for that deed he shall be punished. What takes place in reality is nothing but the fulfillment of Allah’s Will; hence, we know that the human being’s deeds are Allah’s predetermination and creation. Yet these deeds are the outcome of the human being’s good or evil conduct and accomplishments; they are not his creation or discovery as he does not know the source of his body’s energy or its relation to the nerves and muscles, and they are not obligatory where there is a difference between an involuntary movement such as the heart beats and voluntary movement such as moving from side to side. All the deeds accord with Allah’s will, nevertheless, this does not mean that He is pleased with the them. He is not pleased that some human beings are unbelievers, yet He wants it of them or else it would not have happened. It is He who said, “If it had been God’s plan, they would not have taken false gods” (AN‘AM, 107), “If it had been thy Lord’s will, they would all have believed, all who are on earth” (YUNUS, 99). Although disobedience and evil are committed according to His Will, yet He did not order them as mentioned in, “Say, Nay, God never commands what is shameful. Do ye say of God what ye know not?” (A‘RAF, 28). Allah commands us to believe and to be obedient where He said, “God commands justice, the doing of good, and liberality to kith and kin, and He forbids all shameful deeds, and injustice and rebellion” (NAHL, 90). Thereupon there is a difference between the command and the will, as they may be the same and they may differ. Allah’s Will does not conflict with the creature’s free will, that is why Allah said in the Qur’an,

“Let any who will keep it in remembrance. But none will keep it in remembrance except as God wills” (MUDDATHIR, 55, 56), “With profit to whoever among you wills to go straight. But ye shall not will except as God wills, the Cherisher of the Worlds” (TAKWEER, 28, 29), He also said, “..whosoever will, let him take a straight path to his Lord. But ye will not except as God wills; for God is the full of Knowledge and Wisdom” (INSAN, 29, 30).

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Thereupon, we can summarize the whole issue as follows:Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, had created all the created beings and He had been All-Aware of theirdeeds; He registered everything along with fate and destiny in the Preserved Tablet. The moment themorsel of flesh is developed in the uterus to become a human being, Allah orders the angel to record fourthings already registered in the Preserved Tablet, these four things are: the place and time of his death, hislivelihood, the details of his life, and whether he will be happy or unhappy.All the powers and abilities of the human being are the creation of Allah Who made these powers for hisservice and enabled him to use them. Everything that takes place in His Kingdom accords with His Will,every occurrence prostrates to the mighty Supremacy of Allah, the Lord of Sovereignty, the Possessor ofthe Kingdom Who overwhelms His creatures with His subduing Power.Allah permits the occurrence of the evil so that the unbelievers and the sinners would have no plea againstHim; if Allah had admitted the unbelievers to hell the moment they were created, knowing since eternitywhat they would do, they would have said the same words mentioned in the verse, “And if We hadinflicted on them a penalty before this, they would have said, Our Lord! If only Thou hadst sent us anapostle, we should certainly have followed Thy Signs before we were humbled and put to shame” (TA-HA,134).Allah ordered His creatures to be obedient, He sent Messengers who were supported with miracles and Hesent the holy books with exact and precise verses, “..that mankind after the coming of the apostles, shouldhave no plea against God” (NISAA’, 165). “..nor would We visit with Our wrath until We had sent anapostle to give warning” (ISRAA’, 15), “Nor was thy Lord the One to destroy a population until He had sentto its Centre an apostle, rehearsing to them Our Signs, nor are We going to destroy a population exceptwhen its members practise iniquity” (QASAS, 59). Nevertheless, Allah chooses whomsoever pleases Himand blesses them with His Success and Guidance; He, Glory be to Him, said, “God chooses Messengersfrom angels and from men” (HAJJ, 75), “Thy Lord does create and choose as He pleases” (QASAS, 68),“..God chooses to Himself those whom He pleases, and guides to Himself those who turn to Him”

(SHURA, 13).As people’s deeds are closely related to the whole existence and to the universe that Allah created, thehuman being is granted the free will to choose and select, but he has no power to make things happen.Thereupon, people are called to account for their intentions, that is why Prophet Muhammad, Allah’s Prayersand Peace be upon him, said, “The deeds are according to one’s intentions, and to everyone is what he intends”.Allah says, “..should he die as a refugee from home for God and His Apostle, his reward becomes due

and sure with God” (NISAA’, 100), “Your Lord knoweth best what is in your hearts, if ye do deeds of righteousness, verily He is Most Forgiving to those who turn to Him again and again in true patience”

(ISRAA’, 25). The human being’s deeds are excelled by his intentions, but he should not suffice with the intentions without working and making an effort, because any noble intention that is not accompanied by righteous deeds is nothing but a delusion. The true intention is that which settles in a person’s heart and denotes what he really wishes to do, and to take all the means to execute it and emit it to existence. This is why they said , “Faith is not mere expression of hopes, but faith is what has settled in the heart and is asserted by deed; there had been people who departed this world and had not done a single righteous deed and said, ‘We had a hopeful opinion of Allah!’, and they lied, for if they had a hopeful opinion, they would have done righteous deeds” (HADITH). Whenever Allah finds people’s good intentions, He guides them to the righteous deeds and facilitates for them all the means to achieve them; the more the person recommends his soul to Allah, the more Allah helps and defends him.

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Amidst Favour and Justice

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Allah, Praise and Glory be to Him, negates that He is unjust, He says in the Qur’an, “..and none shall be dealt with unjustly” (BAQARA, 281), “..but God never wishes injustice to His Servants” (GHAFIR, 31), “..nor is thy Lord ever unjust in the least to His Servants” (FUSSILAT, 46). On Doomsday Allah, Glory be to Him, says, “..no injustice will there be that Day” (GHAFIR, 17), “..so that not a soul will be dealt with unjustly in the least” (ANBIYA’, 47), “..We did them no wrong, but they were used to doing wrong to themselves” (NAHL, 118), “..it is not God that has wronged them but they wrong themselves” (AL-I-‘IMRAN, 117), “..and not one will thy Lord treat with injustice” (KAHF, 49). Thereupon, nothing remains but favour and justice, and (the Just) is one of the Names and Attributes of Allah; His favours are abundant, He favoured creatures by giving them existence; creation was not His Duty, and He does not benefit from obedience. Glory be to Him, Who can never be harmed by sins, neither would he be benefited from anyone’s righteous deeds, because faith and unbelief, obedience and disobedience can neither benefit nor affect His Supreme Self; to Him Might and Glory are attributed since eternity even before He created the universe. It is up to Allah to impose on His creatures what He wishes and not what they wish, and to request from them what they cannot afford. If He admits them to paradise then this is because of His Mercy and not because they deserve it; and if He admits them to hell, then this accords with His Justice. He cannot be questioned for His Acts and they will be questioned for theirs. One of the manifestations of Allah’s Mercy is that He imposed on people that they should know and obey Him according to legislation and conveyance and not according to their mental faculties; that is why He sent His Apostles and supported them with miracles that denoted their truthfulness, He sent the holy books with the most accurate verses therein to reveal the straight path to the human beings and show them the way of their salvation. Then Allah’s Mercy overwhelmed the worlds and He sent the Seal of the Prophets and bestowed upon Him the Grand Qur’an which invalidated all the previous religions and heavenly regulations, and He is satisfied only with the faith of Islam; the testimony (There is no god but Allah) became insufficient unless it is annexed to the testimony (Muhammad, Allah’s Prayers and Peace be upon him, is the messenger of Allah). As mentioned in the Qur’an and as the Prophet himself said, the Prophet’s delegation has been realized to mankind as well as to the Jinn, and Allah supported him with a myriad of miracles the grandest of which is the Qur’an with which He challenged the most eloquent of the Arabs that they can not produce anything like it and challenged the scholars of the Jews and the Christians with the stories of the prophets and the peoples who preceded him. Prophet Muhammad, Allah’s Prayers and Peace be upon him, an illiterate Arab who grew up among pagans and remained with his people before the revelation for forty years, and his people used to call him (Muhammad the honest) for his renowned integrity. Allah had ordained that everyone who heard of Islam must believe in every single detail that the Prophet mentioned about this world and the hereafter.

REFERENCES

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“The GLORIOUS QUR’AN”, by Abdallah Yousuf Ali.

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It is to be noted that in this reference the following suras are found under a different name:

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ISRAA’ (BANI-ISRAIL) GHAFIR (MU’MIN) FUSSILAT (HA-MIM) INSAN (DAHR) ‘ALAQ (IQRAA)

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