It is a known fact that every language has one or more
terms that are used to refer to God and sometimes to lesser deities at the same
time. 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
note that Alah 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 Allah. 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 Allah 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 Allah, the One God, the Self-Sufficient,
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, consequently, 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, may the mercy and
blessings of God be upon him, 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 Quranic 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?” (Qur'an 68:34-36)
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 human-beings as equals. They may
distinguish themselves and get His favor through virtue and piety only.
The concepts, such as God resting on the seventh day of
creation, God wrestling with one of His soldiers, God being an envious plotter
against mankind, or God being 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, therefore, that nothing
is like Him. Furthermore, if the Maker is not temporal, then He must be
eternal. If He is eternal, however, 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, so the Creator is, therefore, eternal and everlasting. Hence we
know that He is Self-sufficient or Self-subsistent, and Everlasting or, to use
a Quranic term, Al-Qayyum: “He is the First and the Last.”
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…” (Qur'an 39:62-63)
And God says:
“No creature is there crawling on the earth, but its provision
rests on God. He knows its lodging place and its repository...” (Qur'an 11:16)
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