Limitless

Bismillah.

One of the beautiful names of Allah Almighty that fills me with hope and sort of inflates my heart with a good feeling is Al-Wasi’.

الواسع

When I checked the translation in the Quran, it means All-Encompassing. And I must say I was disappointed. The whole feel is changed when you use All-Encompassing instead of Al-Wasi’. The real name in Arabic brings you the feeling of something wide and spacious, basically limitless. So when we say Allah is All-Encompassing, it means He encompasses the limitlessness too.

Let me explain the point by a verse in the Quran,

وَلِلَّـهِ الْمَشْرِقُ وَالْمَغْرِبُ ۚ فَأَيْنَمَا تُوَلُّوا فَثَمَّ وَجْهُ اللَّـهِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّـهَ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ

And to Allah belongs the east and the west. So wherever you [might] turn, there is the Face of Allah. Indeed, Allah is all-Encompassing and Knowing. [Al-Baqarah 115]

If we humans face someone, we would have our back to someone else definitely. We cannot face everyone and everything at the same time. But that is not so with Allah. Wherever we turn, His Face is there. How? That we do not know as there is nothing like Him and no one has seen Him.

Now doesn’t the above make the horizons of your mind open up? He can simultaneously see all of us, listen to all of us and grant all needs of each one of us. Amazing! SubhanAllah!

We humans are very limited. We start putting effort in one thing and the other is ignored. We listen to one person and shut the other one out. We’re also very narrow-minded. We try to attain one thing and list down the pros and cons and then that’s it, we just stick to it. We don’t even think that there could be another way out, that the Creator is above our limited approach of achievement. For Him, these apparent means have no meaning. Duh! He created them. Not only does this change the way we make our supplications to Allah but it also makes us more daring in the actions that we undertake (shariah-compliant, of course) as we know our options are not limited. We stop trying to place our trust in minute details of the apparent ‘what ifs’, we start trusting the unseen.

فسبحان واسع العلم.. واسع الرحمة.. واسع المغفرة.. واسع الفضل.. واسع العطاء. الذي خلقه كلهم يتقلبون فيما لا يحصى من النعم.. فهو الذي يعطي ويمنع.. ويخفض ويرفع.. ويعز ويذل.. ويهدي ويضل.. بعلمه الذي وسع كل شيء.. وقدرته التي قهرت كل شيء.. ورحمته التي وسعت كل شيء.. وحكمته التي بلغت كل شيء

وسبحان واسع العظمة والملك والسلطان الذي  وَسِعَ كُرْسِيُّهُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ ۖ وَلَا يَئُودُهُ حِفْظُهُمَا ۚ وَهُوَ الْعَلِيُّ الْعَظِيمُ 

[Roughly translated:] And glorified is He who is vast in knowledge, vast in mercy, vast in forgiveness, vast in favours, vast in bestowal. He whose creation, all of them, are moving to and fro in countless blessings. So He is the One who gives and prevents, and lowers and raises, and honours and humiliates, and guides and leaves astray, with His knowledge that extends over all things, and His power that predominates all things, and His mercy that encompasses all things, and His wisdom that reaches all things. 

And glorified is He who is of vast greatness and dominion and authority, His Kursi extends over the heavens and the earth, and their preservation tires Him not. And He is the Most High, the Most Great. [Al-Baqarah 255]

Here’s an old post from this blog that is relevant to today’s post, it shows that Allah is indeed All-Encompassing, give it a read: Why Worry?

Wassalam.

The Bond of Affection

Bismillah.

In the last post we discussed that how each one of us is loved by Allah, Al-Wadood. But the interesting thing is that most of us also claim to love Allah in return. No matter how righteous or sinful a person you come across, usually they’ll say yes, I love Allah. But then why are their lifestyles so different?

The truth is that each one of us is innately programmed to love our Creator, Al-Wadood. Where then does the problem lie?

وحب الله ورسوله يقوى بقوة العلم الشرعي، وكمال المعرفة بالله وآلائه، وكلما كان العبد عالماً بدين الله وأحكامه وشرعه عاملاً به، كان حبه لله أقوى من غيره من الجاهلين، وإن كانت محبة الله موجودة في الفطر، ولكنها تقوى بالذكر والعلم الشرعي، وتضعف بالجهل والغفلة، والشبهات والشهوات

[Roughly translated:] And love of Allah and His Prophet is strengthened by

• strength of the lawful knowledge (of Quran and sunnah),
• and by perfection of knowing Allah and His favours

And whenever a slave is knowledgeable of

• Allah’s religion
• and His commands
• and His law
• and acts according to it,

his love of Allah is stronger than those others who are ignorant. And indeed love of Allah exists innately.

But it is strengthened by

• remembrance
• and lawful knowledge (of Quran and sunnah),

and it is weakened by

• ignorance
• and negligence
• and doubts
• and desires

So the basic love of Allah is there but it’s not a constant phenomenon, it is up to us whether we turn our backs on it or embrace it by our actions against or in Allah’s way.

Wassalam.

Earning Love

Bismillah.

Dear reader, do you want that someone loves you more than anything in the world? Definitely, right? I don’t think any person would respond to this question in the negative. It’s a topic that no one ever tires of; love. Every single human in this world, not only humans but every creature, wants to be loved. Well do you know that the Creator of this universe Himself loves you? Imagine the whole universe and then the Master and Owner of that, He loves me?

Yes, He is Al-Wadood.

الودود

But His love doesn’t mean that whatever you do, He’ll keep on loving and forgiving you. You have to do some things too to earn His love more and more.

وهو سبحانه الودود، الذي يحب من أطاعه، ويبغض من عصاه، يحب التوابين ويحب المتطهرين، ويحب المؤمنين والمتقين، ويحب الصابرين والصادقين، ويحب المحسنين والمتوكلين

[Roughly translated:] And He, the Almighty, is the Affectionate. He loves the one who obeys Him, and He hates the one who disobeys Him. He loves those who are constantly repentant, and He loves those who purify themselves, and He loves the believers and those who fear Him, and He loves those who are patient and those who are truthful, and He loves those who are the doers of good and those who rely upon Him.

From the above excerpt we find that Allah does not only love but He hates too. Isn’t this scary? None of us wants Him to hate us, we all want His love, so to earn that let’s try to instil the qualities mentioned above. Let’s start with one. For example, we can start to be honest and truthful in whatever we do. It’ll definitely have its benefits in our daily life as well, as our heart will be at peace knowing there is no pretence anywhere. But we’ll do it with the intention that He loves us. InshaAllah. Are you in?

I would appreciate if you share your experiences, in the comments section below, after adopting one of the above qualities so that others are motivated too and they too get His love. <3

Wassalam.

Nurtured for Life

Bismillah.

Each one of you commonly observes the way a mother brings up her kids. We all see many mothers around us, taking care of their children from the time of their birth till at least they become responsible adults, get married or move away. The pride that a mother feels in her well brought up children can be commonly seen as well. In return, she wants her children to respect her. And yes, indeed she does deserve it, as Allah reminds us more than once in the Quran and hadith.

And We have enjoined upon man [care] for his parents. His mother carried him, [increasing her] in weakness upon weakness, and his weaning is in two years. Be grateful to Me and to your parents; to Me is the [final] destination. [Luqman 14]

But do you know what is interesting? The things that our mother provides us with, they too originally are provided by Allah, Our Creator. The mother does carry the child for 9 months but inside the womb who takes care of the food, water, organ formation, comfort, nurturing of the child? Once the child is born, who puts the child’s nourishment in the mother’s body? Who puts the love in the mother’s heart due to which she takes care of the child? However much the mother worries, she cannot make her child take the first step or make it speak the first word. Who teaches that to the infant? Who cares for the child’s physical, mental, emotional, spiritual growth? And not just when he is a child, but not only before it is born but till the time he dies.

Yes, it is

 الرب

It is Ar-Rabb who takes cares of every single need of ours, who does not become negligent of us even for a microsecond. How many times have you seen mothers lamenting the pains that come with the bringing up of a child? They say we’ve had enough, we’re too tired. But what if Ar-Rabb grew inattentive of us even for a moment? Our heart, our breathing, our body systems; they’d stop working. We’d die, body and soul.

But it doesn’t stop at that, our body is not the only thing that He is taking care of. Ar-Rabb means the One who is the Creator, the Owner, the One who arranges each matter, from the point that we started existing till the very end. However much our parents love us, they can’t arrange all our matters.

والله سبحانه هو الرب الكريم، الذي يربي خلقه بالنعم المادية كما قال سبحانه

فَلِلَّـهِ الْحَمْدُ رَبِّ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَرَبِّ الْأَرْضِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ

[Roughly translated:] And Allah, the Almighty, He is the Rabb, the Kareem (Generous). He nurtures His creation with material favours, as the Almighty said: Then, to Allah belongs [all] praise – Lord of the heavens and Lord of the earth, Lord of the worlds. [Al-Jaathiya 36]

ويربي سبحانه عباده بالنعم الروحية التي تزكي قلوبهم وجوارحهم كما قال سبحانه

هُوَ الَّذِي بَعَثَ فِي الْأُمِّيِّينَ رَسُولًا مِّنْهُمْ يَتْلُو عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِهِ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَإِن كَانُوا مِن قَبْلُ لَفِي ضَلَالٍ مُّبِينٍ

[Roughly translated:] And He, the Almighty, nurtures his slaves with spiritual favours which purify their hearts and bodies, as the Almighty said: It is He who has sent among the unlettered a Messenger from themselves reciting to them His verses and purifying them and teaching them the Book and wisdom – although they were before in clear error – [Al-Jumu’a 2]

فلله الحمد والشكر على هذه.. وهذه، وهو المستحق للحمد وحده دون سواه كما قال سبحانه

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّـهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ – الرَّحْمَـٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ – مَالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ

[Roughly translated:] Then to Allah belongs all praise and thankfulness over these (material favours) and these (spiritual favours). And He is worthy of praise alone, and no other deserves it. As the Almighty said: [All] praise is [due] to Allah, Lord of the worlds – The Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful, Sovereign of the Day of Recompense. [Al-Faatiha 2-4]

After reading through and pondering over all of the above, I have just one question for you:

Doesn’t the Rabb deserve our respect the most? Isn’t His right the greatest that He be obeyed and worshipped alone?