Aqeeda

Allah introduces himself in Surah Fatiha as Ar-Rahman and Ar-Raheem, both. Both of these names derive their meaning from the word mercy (rahmah).

In classical Arabic, rahmah represents the mercy of a mother for her child. As the child grows, it causes the mother to be sick and weak; it eats nutrition from the mother; in the later trimesters, the child even stretches, punches, or kicks the mother’s ribs! But still, the mother cares for, takes care of, and protects the child.

This is post #40 in our series on Tafseer of Juz ‘Amma (click the link to see all posts in this series).

In the previous post, we discussed the first 16 verses of Surah Naba’. The remaining 24 verses discuss the Day of Judgment, Paradise, and Hellfire; you should read them to extract the details. Insha’Allah we’re going to touch on a few points that are interesting.

First, a recap–verse 16 talked about (a continuing discussion of) some of the blessings of Allah (‘azza wa jal) in the dunya on the people. Then–WHAM!–verse 17 says:

IT IS ALLAH ALONE WHO IS WORTHY OF WORSHIP

A STATEMENT OF TRUTH REVEALED TO THE MUSHRIKS

Continuing and inshallah the last post in the explanation of the poem, we will now we move into the third aspect of tawheed: maintaining the oneness, uniqueness, and exclusiveness of Allah’s rights to be worshipped (tawheed al-uloohiyyah)

The grand importance of tawheed al-uloohiyyah is evident in the fact that the Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalam was commissioned to a nation that confirmed many aspects of the first two categories of tawheed but rejected worshipping Allah alone. His mission was to bring people back to the pure worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala as He says to the Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalam:

HE IS ALLAH, THE MOST HIGH WHO DOES NOT SLEEP

NOR DOES HIS CREATION TAKE PART IN HIS MAJESTY

Continuing in our explanation of the poem and our discussion of the five points relating to tawheed al-asma was-sifat:

4) We do not Ascribe the Qualities of Creation to the Creator

It is not befitting the majesty of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala that we ascribe to Him characteristics and weaknesses of creation. To Allah belongs the quality of Highness; Highness in His Essence, in His Attributes and esteem, and in His Strength and Power. He is far above His creation and there is no likeness to be made because Allah says:

ALLAH IS AS HE DESCRIBES HIMSELF WITH NO ADDITIONS

BEYOND WHICH WE DO NOT PONDER NOR PUT CONDITIONS

Continuing in our explanation of the poem and our discussion of the branches tawheed, we now move into the second branch which is the oneness, uniqueness, and exclusiveness of Allah’s Names and Attributes (tawheed al-asma was-sifat). There are five points we will discuss; three points in this post and the remaining two in the next post.

ALLAH, THE LORD OF THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH
THE CREATOR, SUSTAINER, ABOVE GIVING BIRTH
ALLAH IS AS HE DESCRIBES HIMSELF WITH NO ADDITIONS
BEYOND WHICH WE DO NOT PONDER NOR PUT CONDITIONS
HE IS ALLAH, THE MOST HIGH WHO DOES NOT SLEEP
NOR DOES HIS CREATION TAKE PART IN HIS MAJESTY
IT IS ALLAH ALONE WHO IS WORTHY OF WORSHIP
A STATEMENT OF TRUTH REVEALED TO THE MUSHRIKS

“ALLAH, THE LORD OF THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH. THE CREATOR, SUSTAINER, ABOVE GIVING BIRTH”

The Arabic word ‘Allah’ denotes the meaning of exclusiveness and uniqueness. In its linguistic sense, it means The One and Only deity (al-ilah). ‘Allah’ is also one of the perfect and infinite Names that our beloved Lord has chosen to name Himself with. The greatest name of the Lord of the heavens and the earth is Allah and it is the grand name to which all His other Names and Attributes are attributed to. As He, subhanahu wa ta’ala, says in the Qur’an:

Abu Barzah al-Aslami radi Allahu anhu reported that Allah’s Messenger sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam said, “The two feet of the servant will not cease (from standing before Allah) on the Day of Judgment until he is asked about four things: on his life and how he spent it; on his knowledge and what he did with it; on his wealth and where he earned it and how he spent it; and on his body and in what way he utilized it.” [Saheeh, reported by At-Tirmidhi]

We live in a time where it is difficult to truly imagine ourselves being under anyone else’s control, even though we know our every breath, our every step, our every movement is fully controlled by the Creator of the heavens and the Earth. Nonetheless, we still find it difficult to imagine a day where freedom will be taken away, completely. Today, even under these ‘controlled’ environments, Allah has permitted freedom to mankind; we can speak, eat, see, walk, sit, touch, and listen as we please. However, in the Hereafter on the Day of Judgement, the freedom of mankind will indeed be taken away and the supremacy of Allah subhanhu wa ta’ala will be shown. On that Day, Allah will reign King over all the other so-called kings and humans, and He will control His environment in a matter that He wills. On that Day, we will not cease from standing until certain questions are answered.

As you know, we cannot just accept a hadith from anyone–this is our deen! If anyone could just say what they wanted, we would have nothing left of the true, pure message of Allah.

The scholars have analyzed the biographies of every narrator of hadith. They compile information on when he was born, and where, his kunya, his tribe, who he met, what his character was, what other people narrated about him … piles and piles of information.

In the sciences of hadith, there’s something called a “mursal” hadith. What exactly is a mursal hadith? What is it’s status? What are the fiqh rulings on mursal ahadith? And why does it matter?

(Ok, for the answer to the last question, read and learn about the science of hadith. In a sentence: Scholars have devised an extremely rigorous process to determine which hadith are authentic, and which are not. You wouldn’t want to spend your whole life following a “hadith,” only to find out it really wasn’t legit, do you?)

We take it for granted that Allah has infinite knowledge. But what does this mean? Let’s take a “tour,” if you like, of some of the things Allah knows.

There are 6-8 billion people on the face of the earth. That’s 6 * 1000 * 1000 * 1000. That’s a lot of people! Can you imagine learning 6 names? Or 60? Or 6000? But Allah knows their names–all 6,000,000,000 of them. And He knows everything they’re going to do today. And tomorrow. And the day after that. And the day after THAT.