Bismillah walhamdolilah wasalatu wasalam ‘ala Rasool Allah
Asalamu ‘alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatahu,
First and foremost, Ramadan Kareem! May Allah azza wa jal give us all the opportunity to take advantage of this blessed month and to make it a means of us attaining His Paradise. Ameen.
Due to Ramadan, I’ve found myself to be quite busy. Nonetheless, I do apologize for not having written anything for the past few makes. Please forgive me for my shortcomings.
The last few posts we were discussing the explanation of Surah Ikhlas. We got through the first two verses and we explained that Allah azza wa jal has the Most Beautiful and Perfect Names. Of these Names that He attributes to Himself is al-Ahad. We mentioned that a concise meaning of this name is that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala is One and Only and He is Unique in His Lordship, His rights to be worshiped, and His Names and Attributes. Thus, it is the primary goal of the Muslim to make Allah unique in everything He does and to never ascribe partners with Him, Subhana because this would be contradictory to His Name al-Ahad. We also discussed that Allah azza wa jal is as-Samad. He is self-sufficient from any need and that includes our worship towards Him. He is not in need of it rather He is deserving of this worship and beyond that the worship we do towards Him is only of our benefit.
To continue, we will discuss the third verse of this beautiful surah:
He does not give birth, nor was He born
This verse is a continuation in explaining the extent to which Allah azza wa jal is al-Ahad. Many religions falsely represent God in human form by either giving Him human characteristics or human form.
(لَمْ يَلِدْ)
Allah does not give birth because there is nothing similar to Him, Subhana. A child made from protions (sperm and ovum) of the bodies of its parents which is why it is similar to its parents in form and characteristics. Now, If Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala
Allah tabaraka wa ta’ala has rejected offspring from the general perspective that it is not befitting, since that would reduce Him to the status of His creatures. Allah says: were to give birth, there would then be another God besides Him, something which He has already negated for Himself.
But it is not suitable for (the Majesty of) the Most Beneficent (Allah) that He should beget a son (or offspring or children). [Surah Maryam V.19]
Truly, Allah is able to all things and thus some people may say that He should be able to have a son. However, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala has negated it based on the fact that it is not befitting His Majesty, as per the first verse of Surah Ikhlas.
(وَلَمْ يُولَدْ)
Relatively few people in history have believed that God was born, the question of God’s origin is often raised by skeptics and atheists. But, SubhanAllah, it is within the fitrah of mankind to know that there is a Creator of the Heaven and the Earth; it is this fitrah or innate consciousness that also gives almost all of mankind the certainty that God was not born. Abu Hurairah radhiAllah anhu reports that the Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalam said:
“Satan comes to everyone of you and says, ‘who created this and who created that?’ until he questions: ‘Who created your Lord?’ When he comes comes to that, one should seek refuge in Allah and avoid that thought.” [Sahih Muslim]
This verse also subtly rejects the notion that Isa (Jesus) alayhi salam was or is God because of the very fact that he was given birth to. For God to be born means He first must have not existed, which contradicts the basic divine attribute of eternal existence.