Who is Allah (the Exalted)? What is He like? What does He do? What does He love?
These questions can only partially be answered by our limited knowledge of Allah. Allah (the Exalted) is so great that He is beyond our imagination. He is greater than anything that our limited human minds can come up with; He is above everything and is wondrous. He is our Magnificent Creator.
Allah (the Exalted) is the only Lord of all that exists, including what is known to us and what is not. Allah is not a ‘he’ or a ‘she’ (although the pronoun ‘He’ is used to refer to Allah, simply out of necessity); Allah is not a human being. He is much more than that; He is an awesome power, an entity, a reality, something more than we can ever know completely. He is in control of everything that happens. Nothing is a coincidence; it is all part of Allah’s plan. Our lives are in His hands, and He alone knows what is best for us. All existence points to a creator, a planner, a controller, who is Allah. There are so many phenomena that cannot be explained by mere humans, and there is so much of existence that we do not know; there must be One who can explain it, who created it. Ponder the amazing things in this universe, from the largest galaxies to the tiniest subatomic particles; to believe that they came from nothing, without a creator, defies logic. All of the creation follows a perfect order - the laws of nature, as they are called. Such perfection cannot be haphazard. Imagine if a ship were sent across the ocean without a captain; would it be likely that it would reach its destination? So how can our earth orbit the sun, and the planets follow preset motions, without a captain? Rather, Allah (the Exalted) is the captain, the one in charge of the creation, the one fashioning, controlling, and watching over all things. He is unique, wondrous and incomparable to anything that we know.
Allah has only revealed a small amount of knowledge of Himself compared to His Greatness, but He has revealed enough knowledge for us to know Him, worship Him and love Him. It is with this knowledge that we can answer the questions posed at the top of this page. Without the revelation, we would be lost regarding our Creator, left to make up things about Him, and sadly, many people do. However, there is only one authentic source of knowledge about Allah, and that is from Allah (the Exalted) Himself, in what He has revealed about Himself in the Qur’an and in what has been taught to His last Prophet, Muhammad (bpuh).
The way to attain knowledge of Allah (the Exalted) is through His names and attributes. An attribute is a particular quality assigned to something or someone. For every name that belongs to Allah (the Exalted), He embodies the perfection of the attribute that it describes. This is not true of humans, who may be named Kareem (generous), for example, yet may be lacking in generosity. With Allah’s names, He has the most perfect form of what the name implies. It is with His lofty names and attributes that we can know Allah—know what He is like, what He does and what He loves. Indeed, Allah (the Exalted) has made knowledge a prerequisite to our deeds. Imam Bukhari stated: Knowledge precedes expression and action. This is confirmed in the divine verse {Know therefore that there is no God but Allah, and then repent your sin.} [47:19] God requires of us first knowledge and then action. 1 One simple way of gaining knowledge of Allah (the Exalted) is by reading the Qur’an, for in fact, with every verse of the Qur’an we can learn about Allah (the Exalted).
Allah (the Exalted) says in Qur'an (The Holy book)
1. Say, “The truth is that Allah is One.
2. Allah is Besought of all, needing none.
3. He neither begot anyone, nor was he begotten.
4. And equal to Him has never been any one. (Qur’an 112:1-4)
1. Allah: There is no god but He, the Living, the All-Sustaining. Neither dozing overtakes Him nor sleep. To Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on the earth. Who can intercede with Him without His permission? He knows what is before them and what is behind them; while they encompass nothing of His knowledge, except what He wills. His Kursiyy (Chair) extends to the Heavens and to the Earth, and it does not weary Him to look after them. He is the All High, the Supreme.(Qur'an 2:255)
1. Praise be to Allah, to whom belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on the earth; and for Him is the praise in the Hereafter, and He is the Wise, the All-Aware.
2. He knows all that goes into the earth and all that comes out from it, and all that comes down from the sky and all that ascends thereto. He is the Very- Merciful, the Most-Forgiving.(Qur'an 34:1-2)
These questions can only partially be answered by our limited knowledge of Allah. Allah (the Exalted) is so great that He is beyond our imagination. He is greater than anything that our limited human minds can come up with; He is above everything and is wondrous. He is our Magnificent Creator.
Allah (the Exalted) is the only Lord of all that exists, including what is known to us and what is not. Allah is not a ‘he’ or a ‘she’ (although the pronoun ‘He’ is used to refer to Allah, simply out of necessity); Allah is not a human being. He is much more than that; He is an awesome power, an entity, a reality, something more than we can ever know completely. He is in control of everything that happens. Nothing is a coincidence; it is all part of Allah’s plan. Our lives are in His hands, and He alone knows what is best for us. All existence points to a creator, a planner, a controller, who is Allah. There are so many phenomena that cannot be explained by mere humans, and there is so much of existence that we do not know; there must be One who can explain it, who created it. Ponder the amazing things in this universe, from the largest galaxies to the tiniest subatomic particles; to believe that they came from nothing, without a creator, defies logic. All of the creation follows a perfect order - the laws of nature, as they are called. Such perfection cannot be haphazard. Imagine if a ship were sent across the ocean without a captain; would it be likely that it would reach its destination? So how can our earth orbit the sun, and the planets follow preset motions, without a captain? Rather, Allah (the Exalted) is the captain, the one in charge of the creation, the one fashioning, controlling, and watching over all things. He is unique, wondrous and incomparable to anything that we know.
Allah has only revealed a small amount of knowledge of Himself compared to His Greatness, but He has revealed enough knowledge for us to know Him, worship Him and love Him. It is with this knowledge that we can answer the questions posed at the top of this page. Without the revelation, we would be lost regarding our Creator, left to make up things about Him, and sadly, many people do. However, there is only one authentic source of knowledge about Allah, and that is from Allah (the Exalted) Himself, in what He has revealed about Himself in the Qur’an and in what has been taught to His last Prophet, Muhammad (bpuh).
The way to attain knowledge of Allah (the Exalted) is through His names and attributes. An attribute is a particular quality assigned to something or someone. For every name that belongs to Allah (the Exalted), He embodies the perfection of the attribute that it describes. This is not true of humans, who may be named Kareem (generous), for example, yet may be lacking in generosity. With Allah’s names, He has the most perfect form of what the name implies. It is with His lofty names and attributes that we can know Allah—know what He is like, what He does and what He loves. Indeed, Allah (the Exalted) has made knowledge a prerequisite to our deeds. Imam Bukhari stated: Knowledge precedes expression and action. This is confirmed in the divine verse {Know therefore that there is no God but Allah, and then repent your sin.} [47:19] God requires of us first knowledge and then action. 1 One simple way of gaining knowledge of Allah (the Exalted) is by reading the Qur’an, for in fact, with every verse of the Qur’an we can learn about Allah (the Exalted).
Allah (the Exalted) says in Qur'an (The Holy book)
1. Say, “The truth is that Allah is One.
2. Allah is Besought of all, needing none.
3. He neither begot anyone, nor was he begotten.
4. And equal to Him has never been any one. (Qur’an 112:1-4)
1. Allah: There is no god but He, the Living, the All-Sustaining. Neither dozing overtakes Him nor sleep. To Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on the earth. Who can intercede with Him without His permission? He knows what is before them and what is behind them; while they encompass nothing of His knowledge, except what He wills. His Kursiyy (Chair) extends to the Heavens and to the Earth, and it does not weary Him to look after them. He is the All High, the Supreme.(Qur'an 2:255)
1. Praise be to Allah, to whom belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on the earth; and for Him is the praise in the Hereafter, and He is the Wise, the All-Aware.
2. He knows all that goes into the earth and all that comes out from it, and all that comes down from the sky and all that ascends thereto. He is the Very- Merciful, the Most-Forgiving.(Qur'an 34:1-2)
