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

What is Allah (God)?

God is the creator of everything in this universe. Allah is omnipresent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, and omnipotent (move your mouse over the words to see the meaning). Allah is the supreme God and is without limits and is capable of everything possible - He knows all and sees all and everything in this universe is His creation and He has power over all things. Allah was there before anything was - Allah is the first and Allah will also be the last, when there exists nothing except Him - Allah is the Alpha and the Omega. Allah is one and cannot be more than one. Nothing is equal-to or like Him. Allah cares about His creation and is just and fair; and it is Allah who sends His Messengers and His communications to the masses to teach them about the supreme reality - Allah.

When you read books about objects or people, they are often attributed a gender - either male or female. Normally you wouldn't attribute a gender to inanimate objects like the sun or the moon but in language these objects have to be given a gender. e.g. 'The sun shone her warm, orange rays on the pier, glowing bright'. In Islam, the gender of Allah is male by language but He is genderless - neither male nor female - God is not a man. It is befitting that Allah be described using the masculine language constructs (like He, Him, His, Himself) because if God was described as a woman people would try to make sexual fantasies and stories and would attribute weakness to Him, but God is the Greatest, the Almighty.

When the Koran is read, Allah often refers to himself in plural as 'We' which gives people the impression that He is more than one. "The use of the first person plural noun (We) is the sign of greatness and magnificence of the person (entity) who is speaking and this is most appropriate and befitting to Allah. Arabs say that the reason for the use of the first person plural noun is considered as proof of greatness that great people are generally not alone. The servants, attendants and other people are always around him to fulfil their needs. That's is why they always used the pronoun We and the use of this word is a metaphor for greatness." ^{(Logic for Islamic Rules, p163, by Ayatullah Makarim Shirazi & Ayatullah Ja'far Subhani)}

Allah cannot be understood fully using our limited mental or physical capacity. We cannot fully understand or comprehend the idea that Allah sees and hears all, or that something can be everlasting, or that God is not limited by time, space or dimension. We cannot see Allah or sense Him, so we cannot depict Him in an image or identify him through a measurement. God does not take-up space and does not have a mass. God is not a form of Energy or be the by-product of energy because all energy and matter is His creation and all energy and matter is measurable. The only type of relationship we can have with Allah is through the heart and mind - a relationship of love, faith, dependence and understanding.

Allah is not a physical thing and cannot be seen, touched or heard but due to descriptions in the Koran and in Hadiths it has been understood by some Muslims that we will see God, and this is discussed in the article titled 'The voice and body of Allah (God)?'. We know Allah and His nature by what He tells us through His Prophets and in His holy books, especially the Koran, but the verses in this book and in the hadith books have been interpreted in different ways.

Introduction

A Description 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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