Contemplate/
Transcendence
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Category
6 Articles of Faith 5 Pillars of Islam
Knowing God Through His Mercy
Knowing Allah is an obligation upon every believer. As Muslims, we attest that Allah is the one and only Divine Being and He is the enabler of everything that happens on this earth. He is the God, the King, and the Ruler of the East and the West. Every day of life is arranged by none other than Him and He is the one who created each of whom and what we see in this world. It is only befitting upon Him to be known, learnt and respected by His servants.
The best way to know Allah is to learn about Him, His names and attributes. When one does so, he becomes knowledgeable about his creator, subsequently making him closer to Allah. Learning the names and attributes of Allah is the noblest branch of knowledge.
The attributes of Allah are flawless and there is no one who can achieve such majesty and status. God Almighty is entitled to be perfect, and there is no person nor being that can be compared to Him. He instructs us to learn about His names and to call upon them when we make our supplications. He says in the Quran, Surah Al-Araf, Chapter 7 verse 180 :
وَلِلَّهِ الْأَسْمَاءُ الْحُسْنَىٰ فَادْعُوهُ بِهَا
And to Allah belong the best names, so invoke Him by them.
Allah first introduces himself in the Quran as being the Lord of the worlds. This implies that He is the master of everything. When one thinks of a master, it is usually attributed to dominance and at times, those who serve him are subjected to cruelty. This is not the case for Allah. He, however, mentions in the next verse: “the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful”. Introducing himself eloquently, He presents and informs us on the kind of master He is; a master of graciousness and mercy.
Allah loves His names and attributes, and because He loves them, He wants it to be manifested in His creation. Having said that, we can never compare ourselves to His attributes. However, He wants us to manifest these traits to our humanely abilities. For example, Allah is the Most Kind, thus He wants His servants to be kind. He is the Most Merciful, therefore He wants His servants to be merciful.
Allah’s mercy encompasses all things. The vastness of His mercy is that He created it into a hundred parts and sent only a portion of it to this world. We only have a glimpse of His mercy and that itself is already sufficient and something we should be thankful for. Just imagine if we were to receive all hundred parts from the Most Merciful! The Prophet Muhammad Peace Be upon Him (PBUH) mentioned this in a Prophetic sayings/hadith:
أَنَّ أَبَا هُرَيْرَةَ قَالَ سَمِعْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم يَقُولُ
" جَعَلَ اللَّهُ الرَّحْمَةَ مِائَةَ جُزْءٍ فَأَمْسَكَ عِنْدَهُ تِسْعَةً وَتِسْعِينَ وَأَنْزَلَ فِي الأَرْضِ جُزْءًا وَاحِدًا فَمِنْ ذَلِكَ الْجُزْءِ تَتَرَاحَمُ الْخَلاَئِقُ حَتَّى تَرْفَعَ الدَّابَّةُ حَافِرَهَا عَنْ وَلَدِهَا خَشْيَةَ أَنْ تُصِيبَهُ " .
Abu Huraira R.A. reported:
I heard Allah's Messenger (PBUH) as saying: Allah created mercy in one hundred parts and He retained with Him ninety-nine parts, and He has sent down upon the earth one part, and it is because of this one part that there is mutual love among the creation so much so that the animal lifts its hoof from its young one, fearing that it might harm it.[1]
Linguistically, if we were to look at the word “the Most Merciful” (رحيما) in the Quran, it is often paired with “the Most Forgiving” (غفورا). This is an invitation from Allah as He extends His mercy to us despite whatever sins we had committed. He is calling us to repent to Him as He wants to forgive us through His mercy. Whenever we sin towards our fellow mankind, they will usually be infuriated by us and sometimes become our enemies, but Allah is unlike His creation. Therefore, always have hope towards Him. Whatever mistakes we commit, the door of repentance is always wide open, and so we should seek His forgiveness with sincerity and constancy.
In the Quran, Surah At-Tahrim, chapter 66 verse 8, Allah urged the believers to turn to Him in sincere repentence so that He can remove our misdeeds and enter us into paradise. As Muslims, we believe that paradise is the eternal abode which we all need to strive for, and in which we do not want to miss out on. The mercy of Allah is so vast that we owe so much to Him for admitting us into His paradise. Realistically, our deeds alone are never sufficient for us to enter it. His mercy is incomparable and eternal. Our deeds on the other hand, is only limited to the time we have on this earth. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) even mentioned that despite his lofty position amongst the servants, his entrance into paradise is never through his deeds but due to the mercy of Allah.
عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ، قَالَ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم
" لَنْ يُدْخِلَ أَحَدًا مِنْكُمْ عَمَلُهُ الْجَنَّةَ " . قَالُوا وَلاَ أَنْتَ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ قَالَ " وَلاَ أَنَا إِلاَّ أَنْ يَتَغَمَّدَنِيَ اللَّهُ مِنْهُ بِفَضْلٍ وَرَحْمَةٍ " .
Abu Huraira R.A. reported Allah's Messenger (PBUH) as saying:
None amongst you can get into Paradise by virtue of his deeds alone. They said: Allah's Messenger, not even you? Thereupon he said: Not even I, but that Allah should wrap me in His Grace and Mercy.[2]
Let us now consider if we are well-deserving of Allah's mercy. If we were to compare the vast and eternal blessings of paradise which Allah has promised with the acts of worship that we were able to do in the limited time we have on this earth, is it enough for us to be admitted into it? How could we compare sixty to seventy years of worship to the eternal blessings of paradise? How much time have we properly spent within those years worshipping him? Have we done enough to receive such huge rewards?
We need to humble ourselves to the Lord Al-Mighty and obey His commandments and stay away from His prohibitions. He does not need us, but we are in dire need of Him. We owe it to His mercy for being the reason we enter paradise. The reason we enter paradise is through His grace and mercy while the condition needed to enter it is through our deeds. We ask Allah to keep us steadfast in our deeds and with His mercy, He admits us into paradise.
Let us develop within ourselves compassion, kindness, forgiveness and tenderness to everyone around us and strive to emulate His attribute into our daily lives. Together, we can build a society that shows mercy with one another as how He shows mercy to us all. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said in the narration of Abdullah ibn Amr ibn ‘As:
عَنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ عَمْرٍو، يَبْلُغُ بِهِ النَّبِيَّ صلى الله عليه وسلم
الرَّاحِمُونَ يَرْحَمُهُمُ الرَّحْمَنُ ارْحَمُوا أَهْلَ الأَرْضِ يَرْحَمْكُمْ مَنْ فِي السَّمَاءِ " "
Narrated Abdullah ibn Amr ibn 'As R.A.:
The Prophet (PBUH) said: The Compassionate One has mercy on those who are merciful. If you show mercy to those who are on the earth, He Who is in the heaven will show mercy to you.[3]