The Islamic Herald

To Know Allah


by Niman Shukairy

Contributor

In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful

"Allah, there is no deity but He, the Eternal, The Living, the One Who sustains and protects all that exists. Neither slumber nor sleep overtake Him. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. Who is he that can intercede with Him except with His permission? He knows what happens to them (His creatures) in this world, and what will happen to them in the hereafter. And they will never encompass anything of His Knowledge except that which He wills. His Kursi (throne) extends over the heavens and the earth, and He feels no fatigue in guarding and preserving them. And He is the Most High, the Most Great"

-Ayat Al-Kursi (Al-Baqara, 2:255)
Praise be to Allah (SWT), the creator of everything. Blessed is Allah, the Best of all creators. And from His creations is a great creation He called the insaan (human being). He gave man the best form and gave him the great gift of a rational mind. Allah created the human with such complexity that the greatest human minds of today still don't understand fully how such an amazing creation works. The very atoms which construct us are an amazing creation in themselves, let alone how they work together to form the human being.

It is this mind that Allah (SWT) has bestowed on the human with which he knows his Lord. It is with this mind that the human rises from the rank of animal to the rank of servant and worker of Allah. He gave the human the responsibility of being the deputy of Allah on Earth, to prosper in this world, and to follow the orders of his Lord. We, as Allah's servants, must meet Him everyday in our prayers, and we must ask Him of what we need and protection against harm. This is an obligation to all humans until the day comes when we leave this life. For those who fulfilled their obligation, eternal happiness awaits in paradise. Those who neglected the obligations and oppressed and transgressed are imprisoned in hell forever.

It is for this reason that the human needs to understand his Lord completely and truthfully. The human needs to understand Allah's orders and prohibitions; to understand his obligation in this life; and to understand what is to come in the hereafter. The road is simple for those who learn and act with what they learned. However, it is hard and treacherous for those who are ignorant and do not follow their given command.

This existence has one Creator and He is Allah (SWT). All the creations that exist around us of animals, plants, and inanimate objects, such as the sun and the moon, are signs of Allah's power, strength, knowledge, and other attributes which can only be complete when referred to Allah. As for Allah's physical essence, we only know of Him what He tells us through His messengers and the books they bring to us. Allah states in the Qur'an, "Nothing is like Him" (Shura, v.11). As humans, we have senses: sight, hearing, touch, etc. Allah, however, does not have senses like us, for they would give Him weaknesses, just as our senses give us weaknesses. We cannot envision Allah to have any physical characteristics that are present in humans for the same reason. Allah differs from all other beings and things. Everything in this universe has a beginning and an end, temporally and spatially. Allah is eternal; He has no beginning and has no end, whether in time or in space. All attributes of Allah have no limits. As humans, there is a limit to all our physical attributes, like height, and our non-physical attributes, like generosity.

Allah (SWT) is the only creator who can create something out of absolute nothingness. Humans need materials to build and create other things. Cloth is made from cotton, and buildings from concrete. Also, humans need time, knowledge, and effort in order to build or invent something. As for our Lord, Allah, He does not need time nor effort nor special knowledge, for He knows all. This is stated in the Qur'an. "Verily, His command, when He intends a thing, is only that He says to it 'Be', and it is" (Yasin, 36:82). And when Allah creates something, He then deals with it as He pleases.

It is He (SWT) who sees everything, hears everything, and does not sleep nor get drowsy. Allah is close to those who are close to Him and to those who aren't. The whole universe obeys Allah's command without question. The very earth obeys Allah, as mentioned in the Qur'an. "Then He rose over towards the heaven when it was smoke and said to it and to the earth, 'Come both of you willingly or unwillingly.' They both said: 'We come willingly.'" (Fussilat 41:11)

It is Allah (SWT) who is One with no partners, no son, no need for anyone. He says in the Qur'an, "Allah bears witness that there is no deity but He, and the angels, and those having knowledge also bear witness to this; He is always maintaining His creation in Justice." (Al-Imran 3:18). Those having knowledge understand that a kingdom with two kings will result in chaos, and also understand that Allah cannot have a son, for if He were to have a son, then what would prevent His son from having a son and so forth? Like in Greek mythology, there would be a nation of Gods, and creations like the human would have no place in existence.

It is Allah (SWT) who is the Just Ruler; He does not oppress nor favor anyone. He does not punish for accidental mistakes or anything beyond our power. Everything is within His command. He is the Wealthy. As the Hadith Qudsi of the Prophet (SAW) relates, "Oh My Servants, if the first of you and the last of you and the human of you and the jinn of you were like the best of my creations, My Kingdom gains nothing. Oh My servants, if the first of you and the last of you and the humans and the jinns of you were like the worst of My creations, My Kingdom loses nothing. Oh My servants, if the first of you and the last of you and the humans and the jinns of you were all to ask me of anything, and I gave everyone of you what they asked for, My Kingdom loses as much as the ocean when a pin is dipped into it."

It is for these characteristics and attributes that nothing is equal or similar to Allah. We cannot envision Him in our minds because our minds can only envision what our senses perceive from other creations, and Allah, the Creator, is unlike any creation. As for His other attributes, these have only been told to us by the messengers and the book of Allah (SWT).


From The Islamic Herald, February 1996.
The Islamic Herald / herald@ais.org