Allah

An advanced look at God in Islam

You are recommended to read Introduction to Islam and Basic Islamic Beliefs if you know nothing or very little about Islam.
You are recommended to read Can God not exist? if you are an Atheist or are interested in the subject.
Then, you are recommended to read God and Man.
As for this set of articles, they are intended for an educated Muslim audience. You must read the articles in order starting from the beginning.
Thank You.

By Shadow Caster 20/07/2006;

Contents:

- Introduction

- What is Allah?

- A description of Allah

- God's attributes

- The voice and body of Allah?

- Can we or will we see Allah?

- Conclusion

Gods' Attributes

The essence of God is an infinite reality, having no equal, so man cannot ever grasp the depth of this essence or fully understand it; Man can only come to know God by what He explains His nature to be. His nature and description are displayed and can be appreciated through His attributes. The attributes can be grouped into two vague sets:

• Beauty (Jamal)
• Majesty (Jalal)

From another point of view, the attributes can also be grouped vaguely into two other groups:

• Attributes of Essence (sifat al dhat) - e.g. Knowledge.
• Attributes of Activity (sifat al fi'il) - e.g. Forgiving.

In Islam, the Quran mentions 135 names and attributes which describe God ^{(Doctrines of Shi'i Islam by Ayatollah Ja'far Sobhani)}. Of these, there are 99 names of God mentioned in the Quran and from hadith, and the following verses contain a lot of these:

هُوَ اللَّهُ الَّذِي لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ عَالِمُ الْغَيْبِ وَالشَّهَادَةِ هُوَ الرَّحْمَنُ الرَّحِيمُ
هُوَ اللَّهُ الَّذِي لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْمَلِكُ الْقُدُّوسُ السَّلَامُ الْمُؤْمِنُ الْمُهَيْمِنُ الْعَزِيزُ الْجَبَّارُ الْمُتَكَبِّرُ سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ عَمَّا يُشْرِكُونَ
هُوَ اللَّهُ الْخَالِقُ الْبَارِئُ الْمُصَوِّرُ لَهُ الْأَسْمَاء الْحُسْنَى يُسَبِّحُ لَهُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ
[59.22] He is Allah besides Whom there is no god; the Knower of the unseen and the seen; He is the Beneficent, the Merciful
[59.23] He is Allah, besides Whom there is no god; the King, the Holy, the Giver of peace, the Granter of security, Guardian over all, the Mighty, the Supreme, the Possessor of every greatness. Glory be to Allah from what they set up (with Him).
[59.24] He is Allah the Creator, the Maker, the Fashioner; His are the most excellent names; whatever is in the heavens and the earth declares His glory; and He is the Mighty, the Wise.

In Islam it is taught that Allah has 99 names that we call Him by, and these show His attributes, His character. It is good to know and contemplate on these and search for their meaning in reference to the Lord.

Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah's Apostle (SAW) said, "Allah has ninety-nine names, i.e. one-hundred minus one, and whoever knows them will go to Paradise." (Hadith Bukhari 3.894)

However, some of these attributes have paradox attributes and some don't define God completely, nor are variations of these attributes ascribable to Allah only; so, of these attributes, God is also ascribed essential Godly-attributes known as 'Sifate-Illahiah' in Arabic, or the Attributes of Godhead. Unlike the other religions, Islam does not content itself by mere preaching that God is One, but it wants its adherents, the Muslims, to believe in the following essential attributes in the All-Divine Absolute Sovereign and the Self-Existent Unity. To explain the absolute perfection in the Unity, the 'Sifat' or the divine qualities, they have been classified into two kinds, the 'Sifate-Soboutiah' i.e., the Positive Attributes, i.e., the qualities Essential in the All-Divine Being and the 'Sifate-Salbiah' i.e., the Negative Attributes, the qualities opposed to the All-Divine Unity [- the Qualities that God lacks, the qualities which can never be found or attributed at any time or in any sense to the existence of God]. Both these kinds of the attributes are counted as eight in each group:

(Owing to the difficulties in translating the Arabic words the terms with comprehensive meanings into any other language, particularly in English, English words which are the nearest to the meanings are used.)

Man is endowed with a brain and thinks of hypothetical issues that can arise and questions that transcend reality, but they still constitute valid questions if the person asking them is actually asking an honest question and seeking an interesting answer. Here is an example of a question:

Is God able to do all things? Has He power to do all things?

The power of God, like His knowledge, is eternal; and insofar as it, too, partakes of His very essence, it is infinite. The Quran emphasizes the comprehensiveness of God's power thus:

لِلّهِ مُلْكُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ وَمَا فِيهِنَّ وَهُوَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
[5.120] Allah's is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth and what is in them; and He has power over all things.

Now, if God was given a hypothetical task of creating something He has no power over, then it cannot be because it would fall outside the domain of God's power and contradict His attributes of having power over all things. This doesn't mean that God is inadequate, but it in fact shows the inadequacy of an impossible situation. God is perfect and is devoid of imperfection or inadequacy. When asked about the engendering of impossible things, Imam Ali (AS) replied:

"God has no connection with incapacity, so that about which you ask cannot be" [Kitab al-Tawheed by Shaykh Saduq. Ch.9, Hadith 9]

A Description of Allah

The Voice and Body of Allah

References

¹ If you have a copy of the bible in Arabic (though I doubt you do), you will find that God is often referred to as Allah since the word Allah means God in Arabic. However, a lot of Christian and Jewish Arabs try to distinguish themselves from the Muslims and they say 'Rabb', which means Lord in Arabic, but this word is also used by Muslims, so it is not a clear indication of the faith of a person.
² It is said that all life on Earth depends on the Sun's energy, and this is almost correct save for a few underwater creatures. Allah caused everything in the world to come to existence and He continues to maintain it. It is God that caused creation to have properties or to have a special nature. Were it not for Him then there would be nothing in existence save himself. All the living organisms depend on His material gifts energy and matter - food, sunlight, air, water, etc.
³ [Koran 2.7] "Allah has set a seal upon their hearts and upon their hearing and there is a covering over their eyes, and there is a great punishment for them".
⁴ God punishes the sinners either in this world or in the afterlife, or both. It all depends on what Allah wills.
⁵ Sometimes, leaving people in their state is a good punishment because sinning is not the key to happiness and people suffer by their own hands and this is most ironic since they are the cause and the cure to their problem! Or it could be seen as God giving man a chance to realize their error and correct it and He will bless them for this! Allah is Most Gracious and Most Merciful!
⁶ [Koran 2.28] - Allah orders your death, but the Angel of death ('Azraeel) takes your soul.
⁷ [Koran 3.109] - "All living things will be made to return back to life on the day of judgment. All the arguments return to Him for His decree". There is proof for this from Hadith, e.g. "If someone kills a sparrow for sport, the sparrow will cry out on the Day of Judgment, 'O Lord! That person killed me in vain! He did not kill me for any useful purpose.'" [Sunan An-Nisaee]. And "Sayyiduna Amr ibn al-Aas mentions, 'The earth will be flattened on the day of Qiyaamat, Jinns, humans, animals and creatures will be resurrected. On the day, Allah will command the animals to take revenge (from the one who oppressed it) to such an extent that if a horned sheep tossed a hornless sheep, it will avenge it. When Allah resolves the matter of retaliation between animals, He will order them to turn into sand. When the disbeliever sees this, he will say, 'How nice if I was also turned into sand.'"" (Musnad Abu Dawud pg. 248)
⁸ [Koran 57.9] - What is meant by the word 'communication' most of the time in the Koran is that Allah has sent many Prophets and Messengers to warn people and ask them to stay on the right path so that they may enter heaven. Other times, what is meant is the books from God, the Torah, Zaboor (psalms), Injeel (Gospel; It is NOT the New Testament), and Quran. Other possible meanings meant can be Imams, angels, dreams and normal people. Allah talks to you through them, and these are the ways Allah communicates with you.
⁹ This is covered in the Misfortune and the Justice of Allah article.
¹⁰ [Koran 85.15, 25.60] - The 'arsh means the Throne of Allah. Different groups of Muslims have different opinions of what the 'arsh is. Most Sunni Muslims believe the 'arsh to be something physical, that it is an object in a place, while most Shia Muslims believe it is something special beyond that of a physical throne and that when it is mentioned in the Koran it shows the power and majesty of Allah. Some Muslims say that the 'arsh is the whole of the creation based on the verse 'His Throne extendeth over the heavens and the earth'.
¹¹ Most Sunnis would have to conclude that this hadith is sahih (valid) as it is from their sahih sources but the Shia would outright reject it for obvious reasons and for coming from invalid sources, however, for the sake of argument, let us imagine that it is a valid hadith...

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