It is a known fact
that every language has one or more terms that are
used in reference to
God and sometimes to lesser deities. This is not the case with Allah.
Allah is the personal name of the One true God. Nothing else can be called Allah. The term has no
plural or gender.
This shows its
uniqueness when compared with the word "god," which can be made plural,
as in "gods," or made feminine, as in "goddess." It is
interesting to notice that Allah is the personal name of God in Aramaic, the
language of Jesus and a sister language of Arabic.
The One true God is a
reflection of the unique concept that Islam associates with God. To a Muslim,
Allah is the Almighty Creator and Sustainer of the universe, Who is similar to
nothing, and nothing is comparable to Him.
The Prophet Muhammad
was asked by his contemporaries about Allah; the answer came directly from God
Himself in the form of a short chapter of the Qur'an, which is considered to be
the essence of the unity or the motto of monotheism.
This is chapter 112,
which reads:“ In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
Say (O Muhammad), He is God, the One God, the Everlasting Refuge, who
has not begotten, nor has been begotten, and equal to Him is not anyone”
.
Some non-Muslims
allege that God in Islam is a stern and cruel God who demands to be obeyed
fully and is not loving and kind. Nothing could be farther
from the truth than
this allegation.
It is enough to know
that, with the exception of one, each of the 114 chapters of the Qur'an begins
with the verse " In the name of God, the Merciful, the
Compassionate".
In one of the sayings
of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), we are told that “ God is more loving and
kind than a mother to her dear child”.
On the other hand,
God is also Just. Hence, evildoers and sinners must have their share of
punishment, and the virtuous must have God's bounties and favors.
Actually, God's
attribute of Mercy has full manifestation in His attribute of Justice. People suffering throughout their lives for His sake should not receive similar treatment
from their Lord as people who oppress and exploit others their whole lives.
Expecting similar
treatment for them would amount to negating the very belief in the
accountability of man in the Hereafter and thereby negate all the incentives
for a moral and virtuous life in this world.
The following
Qur'anic verses are very clear and straightforward in this respect.
Verily, for the
Righteous are gardens of Delight, in the Presence of their Lord. Shall We then
treat the people of Faith like the people of Sin? What is the matter with you?
How judge you? Islam rejects characterizing God in any human form or depicting
Him as favoring certain individuals or nations on the basis of wealth, power or
race.
He created the
human-beings as equals. They may distinguish themselves and get His favor
through virtue and piety only.
The concepts that God
rested on the seventh day of creation, that God wrestled with one of His
soldiers, that God is an envious plotter against mankind, and that God is
incarnate in any human being are considered blasphemy from the Islamic point of
view.
The unique usage of
Allah as a personal name of God is a reflection of Islam's emphasis on the purity of the belief in God that is the essence of the message of all God's
messengers.
Because of this, Islam
considers associating any deity or personality with God as a deadly sin that God
will never forgive, despite the fact that He may forgive all other sins.
The Creator must be
of a different nature from the things created because if He is of the same
nature as they are, He will be temporal and will, therefore, need a maker. It
follows that nothing is like Him.
If the maker is not
temporal, then he must be eternal. But if he is eternal, he cannot be caused,
and if nothing caused Him to come into existence, nothing outside Him causes Him
to continue to exist, which means that he must be self-sufficient.
And if He does not
depend on anything for the continuance of His own existence, then this
existence can have no end. The Creator is therefore eternal and everlasting: "He
is the First and the Last".
He is Self-sufficient
or Selfsubsistent, or, to use a Qur'anic term, Al- Qayyum The Creator does not
create only in the sense of bringing things into being, He also preserves them
and takes them out of existence and is the ultimate cause of whatever happens
to them.
“ God is the Creator
of everything. He is the guardian over everything. Unto Him belong the keys of
the heavens and the earth” (39:62-63).
“ No creature is
there crawling on the earth, but its provision rests on God. He knows its
lodging place and its repository”
(11:16).
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