Do we really know Allah?

It is a metaphorical question, that we all have dealt with at some point of our lives and continue to do so but every time we think we know everything, Allah (swt) surprises us with yet another extra-ordinary information. All that we know is from The Qur’an, Hadith and Sunnah’’s of our beloved, Prophet Mohammad (saw). In this blog, we will deal with very basic questions about Allah and refurbish our knowledge in hope that we take it from here and grow our knowledge of deen.

Who is Allah?

The word Allah is derived from the Arabic word Al Ilah which means anyone or anything that is worshipped.

He is Allah, our creator, there is no God but Allah. He is the lord of the worlds. Whatever is in the heavens and the Earths glorifies Allah. He has the knowledge of seen and unseen. He knows everything which is public and private, things which are shown or those which are hidden in darkest corners.  He is alone. No one is like him. As a Muslim, Tawheed is obligatory and is a part of our Imaan.

As Allah says in the Qur’an :

Say: He, Allah (whom we worship) is One, He is Everlasting Refuge (on whom all depend) He has no offspring, nor is He begotten. Nor is there anyone who is His equal

– ( 112:1-4)

No one has the right to be worshiped, invoked, supplicated, or prayed to except Allah. He is the true God. He knows everything what has happened, what is happening and what will happen i.e past present and future.

He has power over all things , he is capable of doing everything. Everything in this universe and everything it contains , including you and I.

Allah is self existent, self sufficient, who was given life , can take it back or bring back to life anyone that He pleases.. He is eternal, without beginning and the end. No is equal to him.

Names of Allah and His attributes

Allah has the most beautiful names that also describes His attributes. All his names are unique.

As Allah in Qur’an :

Nothing is like him, and he is all hearing and all seeing.

42:11

Knowing Allah’s name will let us know and understand Allah better. We should always ask Allah by his beautiful names. Allah has 99 names . Some of them are-

• Ar Rahman – the compassionate
• Ar Raheem – the merciful
• Al Malik – the king
• As Salam – the source of peace
• Al Azeez – the strong
• Al Khaliq – the creator
• Al Bari – the maker
• Al Ghaffar – the great forgiver
• Al Aleem – the all knowing
• As Samee – the all hearing
• Al Baseer – the all seeing
• Al Haleem – the forbearing
• Al Ali – the most high
• Al Hafeez – the preserver
• Al Kareem – the generous one

Allah’s mercy

He is Ar Raheem, the merciful , the whole universe follows His command . His blessings and bounties are endless. He has gives us tongue to speak, eyes to see, ears to hear, legs to walk.

He is so merciful that He demands us nothing except to obey His commandments and orders as per His wish. He is merciful to us more than 70 mothers to his child.

On the authority of Abu Huraira, Allah’s messenger said:

When Allah has finished his creation, he wrote over his throne,

“My Mercy preceded my anger “.

Sahih Bukhari :7453

 We should not loose hope of Allah’s mercy as Allah forgives all sins. He is Al Ghaffar.

The problem is how we think of Allah, we are made to believe that we should not commit sins and one who commits it is a bad person. No, he is not but a person who commits and does not repent is a bad person.

If we go back and study the confrontation between Allah and Iblees, Allah repeatedly says, that he will forgive every time we repent, so the Iblees’s aim is not that we sin, because to be human is to sin, but that we don’t repent. Next time you make a mistake, try going a few seconds before it. You would find, Iblees wisphering to you, that It’s a small sin, that Allah would forgive, because Iblees knows the mercifulness of Allah, and you would agree and do the deed and afterwards, it will tell you that you aren’t capable of asking forgiveness because he knows that if you go, you’d be forgiven.

We should reassured that Allah is merciful and the only difference between being forgiven and not being forgiven is not asking Him because  He is always full of mercy and compassion.

Allah said:

My servants, you who have transgressed against yourselves, do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Truly Allah forgives all wrong actions. He is the Ever-Forgiving, the Most Merciful.”

(39:53)

Whosoever does evil or oppresses his own self and thereafter seeks God’s forgiveness shall find God most Forgiving, Merciful. 

(4:110)

As I said earlier, we aren’t capable of knowing everything about Allah. But we should try  to know things from the resources available to us. He gave us millions of blessings and favours which we will not be able to count. His love is boundless. His mercy is countless.

We have to be grateful for Allah’s favour but we are unable to do so. We should not love him or try to know him just because we want to be in Jannah, we should love him and try to know him because He has given us so much that we cant even count it. And as the hadith goes,

Abu Dharr reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said,

“Allah Almighty says: Whoever comes with a good deed will have the reward of ten like it and even more. Whoever comes with an evil deed will be recompensed for one evil deed like it or he will be forgiven. Whoever draws close to Me by the length of a hand, I will draw close to him by the length of an arm. Whoever draws close to Me the by length of an arm, I will draw close to him by the length of a fathom. Whoever comes to Me walking, I will come to him running. Whoever meets Me with enough sins to fill the earth, not associating any partners with Me, I will meet him with as much forgiveness.”

Source: Ṣahih Muslim 2687