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The Ninety
Nine Attributes of Allah
In the Holy Qura'n, we read the following verses:
Allah: There is no god but He; His are the Greatest Names. (20:8)
Say: Call upon Allah or call upon the Beneficent God (al-Rahman);
whichever you call upon, He has the Greatest Names." (Qura'n, 17:110) To
Allah belong the Greatest Names; therefore, call on Him thereby, and leave
alone those who violate the sanctity of His Names..." (Qura'n, 7:180)
In order to familiarize ourselves with Allah's Attributes, we have to
consult the Holy Qura'n, traditions, or even common-sense. On page 220
of his Book of Unity (of Allah), Shaikh Muhammed ibn Ali ibn Babawayh
al-Qummi al-Saduq quotes Imam Jafer al-Sadiq quoting his forefathers quoting
the Messenger of Allah saying, "There are ninety-nine Attributes, one hundred
minus one, of Allah; whoever counts them will enter Paradise." He is also
quoted saying that whoever learns these Attributes by heart and comprehends
their meanings (and acts upon it) will enter Paradise. One should be familiar
with the meanings and implications of these names, not just with their
count. Nobody can sufficiently be acquainted with the Attributes of Allah
as He Himself says in 73:20: "He knows that you cannot (sufficiently) count
Him (His Attributes)." A tradition says, "Derive your manners from the
Attributes of Allah." Allah has willed to show His servant His Attributes
which collectively describe Him without His Name being a separate part
thereof, even though He is not identical to them in essence.
On page 112, Vol. 1, the renown scholar al-Kulaini al-Razi cites Hisham
ibn al-Hakam saying that when he once asked Imam Jafer al-Sadiq about
Allah's Attributes and their derivation, as well as the derivation of the
word "Allah," the Imam said to him, "O Hisham! The proper noun Allah'
is derived from ilah;' the Creator requires the existence of creation
[to testify to His being its Creator]. This is a noun, not an adjective.
Anyone who worships a name without worshipping what the name stands for
is actually committing kufr, apostasy; in reality, he does not worship
anything at all. One who worships the name and the meaning is also committing
kufr, for he will be worshipping two. Only one who worships the
meaning without the name is in line with the concept of Tawhid (Unity of
God). Have you understood all of this, O Hisham?" He answered him in the
affirmative, requesting him to provide more explanations, whereupon the
Imam said, "There are ninety-nine Attributes of Allah. Had each Attribute
been the same as it describes, each one of them would have been a god by
itself. But Allah' is the meaning one deducts once he becomes familiar
with all these Attributes. They all, O Hisham, in their collective sense,
are not the same as He Himself. Bread is something you eat. Water is something
you drink. A garment is something you put on. And fire is something that
burns. Do you understand all of this, O Hisham, fully enough so that you
would promote it and fight the enemies of Allah for its sake?!" Hisham
answered him in the affirmative, whereupon the Imam added, "May Allah grant
you thereby benefits, and may He keep your feet firm thereupon, O Hisham!"
Imam al-Sadiq has said,
O son of Adam! If a bird were to eat your heart, it would not have felt
satisfied. If the hole of a needle were put before your vision, it would
have covered it up. How dare you, using these two, expect to know by them
the domain of the heavens and the earth?! Had you been truthful, you would
have looked at this sun: it is one object among many of Allah's creations.
Had your eyes been able to see all of it, then, and only then, would you
have really been truthful. Allah, the Exalted and the Great, says, "And
to your Lord is the [end] goal" (Qura'n, 53:42). So, when speech reaches
the subject of Allah, it is then that you should hold your tongue...
EXPLANATION AND DERIVATION OF THE WORD "ALLAH"
Views vary in this regard. One says it is derived from one who ilahs
(as a verb) another when the latter seeks refuge with him during the time
of fear or calamity, and he would grant him refuge and a safe haven; so,
the word would become ilah (as a noun) of people, just as one may
be their imam when he leads them in congregational prayers or becomes
their undisputed leader, or just as a robe becomes a rid' when it
is worn, or lihaf when used as a covering. Since it is an adjective
for someone who is great, "There is nothing like unto Him" (Qura'n, 42:11),
people desired to glorify Him by giving the word the prefix al,
thus it became Al-ilah. But they found the hamza in the beginning
and also in its midst, where it is quite heavily stressed, heavy on the
tongue, so they eliminated it and it became just as it is revealed in the
Holy Qura'n, that is, "Allah." This viewpoint is supported by al-Harith
ibn Asad al-Muhasibi and a group of scholars, and there are dissenters.
Derivation of the Word "Allah"
Some say that the word "Allah" is derived from the verb walaha
(past tense), yawlahu (present tense), from the root noun walah.
The waw was replaced with a hamza, just as the case with
wisad and isad, wisha and isha, wikaf and ikaf.
Walah is extreme love. Prophet Yahya (John the Baptist) used to
be forlorn most of the time whereas Jesus used to be mostly merry and always
wearing a smile on his face. They both sought the judgment of the Almighty
in their regard, whereupon Allah inspired them, "The nearest of you to
Me is the one who thinks best of Me." And surely Allah knows best.
The Almighty is Endless regarding His essence, perpetuity, eternity,
Attributes, qualities and blessings. His creation, on the other hand, are
described as reaching the end of their life terms, being limited in their
characteristics, thoughts, and spheres. The one who is incapacitated cannot
reach the Endless One. No wonder, then, that the minds are forever overcome
by the lights of His Independence, and the reasons are too feeble to realize
the brightness of His Greatness. He is as He describes Himself when He
says in 6:18 and 6:61, "He is the Supreme above His servants."
The Creator is the One Who is adored, and He is worthy of it; hence,
He is called ilah. He has made it clear for us that He is the One
who bestows His blessings upon those whom He creates in sundry ways. Adoring
is the ultimate form of glorifying. Reason testifies that the ultimate
end of glorification suits only the One Who is the source of benevolence
and bliss. It is to this fact that the Almighty refers when He says, "How
do you deny Allah while you were dead and He gave you Life"? (2:28).
Nobody knows Allah as He deserves to be known except Allah Himself.
In sermon 186 in Nahjul Balagha, Imam Ali says the following:
One who assigns conditions to Him does not believe in His Oneness, nor
does one who likens Him to anything grasp the reality about Him. One who
illustrates an example for Him does not revere Him. One who points at Him
and imagines Him does not know the meaning of His Lordship. Anything known
by itself is a created thing, and everything that exists by virtue of other
things is the effect thereof. He does things but not with the help of instruments.
He assigns measures but not with the faculty of thinking. He is rich but
not by acquisition. Time does not keep company with Him, nor does He seek
help from any means. His Being precedes time. His Existence precedes non-existence,
and His eternity precedes beginning. By creating the senses, it is known
that He does not have the same. By comparing antitheses, it is known that
He has no antithesis, and by striking similarities between things, it is
known that there is nothing similar to Him. He has made light the contrary
of darkness, brightness the opposite of dimness, dryness the opposite of
moisture, and heat the opposite of coolness. He causes harmony among opposites.
He fuses together diverse things; He brings closer what is remote and distances
what is joined together. He is not confined to limits, nor computed by
figures. Matters are attracted to one another, and parts point out to what
is similar to them; the word "since" disproves their eternity, and possibility
disproves their perpetuity, while certain means keep them distant from
perfection. Through them does the Creator manifest Himself to the intellect,
and by them is He veiled from vision. Stillness and motion do not apply
to Him; how can anything that He causes to have any effect on Him, and
how can anything which He has created revert in its effect unto Him? Or
how can anything have an impact upon Him while He Himself brought it to
being? Had it not been so, He would have become subject to diversity, His
Being would have become divisible (into parts), and His reality would have
been prevented from being Eternal. Had He had a front, He would have had
a rear! He would have needed to be completed had there been any shortage
in Him. In that case, characteristics of His creatures would have appeared
in Him, and He would have become a sign (leading to other objects) instead
of the latter leading to Him. Through the might of His effectiveness is
He distanced above being affected by things. Neither change nor extinction
affect Him. He has not begotten anyone lest He should be said as having
been Himself born. He has not been begotten lest He should have been confined
to limits. He is too sublime to have sons, too pure to take women. Imagination
cannot reach Him to assess Him. Comprehension cannot conceive Him and fancy
a shape for Him. Senses do not perceive Him to probe Him. Hands cannot
touch Him to feel Him. He does not change into any condition. He does not
pass from one stage to another. Nights and days do not age Him. Light and
darkness do not alter Him. It cannot be said that He has a limb or extremity,
an end or an expiration, nor do things control Him to raise or lower Him,
nor does anything support Him to bend Him or keep Him erect. He is not
inside things nor outside them. He conveys news, but not with the tongue
or voice. He listens, but not with ear holes or organs of hearing. He speaks
but does not utter words. He remembers but does not memorize. He determines
but not by exercising His mind. He loves and approves without sentiments.
He hates and feels angry without any painstaking. When He intends to create
a thing, He says to it "Be" and it is, but not through a voice that strikes
(the ears). His speech is a manifestation of what He has created. His peer
never existed before, nor is He regarded as old; otherwise, He would have
become a second god. It cannot be said that He came into being after He
had not been in existence because in that case the effects of creation
would have been reflected on Him, and there would have remained no difference
between them and Him, and He would have no distinction over them. Thus,
the Creator and the created would have become equal, and the Initiator
and the initiated would have been on the same level. He created creation
without any model made by someone else, and He did not secure the assistance
of any among His creation for creating. He created the earth and controlled
it without having to hold it, retained it without having to support it,
making it stand without poles, raising it without pillars, protecting it
against bending or curving, defending it against crumbling or fragmenting.
He fixed mountains on it like pegs, solidified its rocks, caused its streams
to flow and expanded its valleys. Whatever He made did not suffer any flaw,
and whatever He strengthened did not permit any weakness. He manifests
Himself over the earth through His authority and greatness. He is aware
of what there is inside it through His knowledge and understanding. He
has power over everything on earth by virtue of His sublimity and dignity.
Nothing on earth that He asks defies Him, nor does it oppose Him to overpower
Him. He is not in need of anyone to feed Him. All things bow down to Him
and are humble before His greatness. They cannot flee away from His authority
to someone else in order to escape His benefit or harm. There is no parallel
for Him who may match Him, and none is like Him to equal Him. He will destroy
the earth after its existence, till all that exists on it will become non-existent.
But the extinction of the world after its creation is no stranger than
its formation and invention the first time. How could it be? Even if all
the beings on earth, be they birds or beasts, cattle or pasture herds,
of different origins and species, clever or not so clever nations, all
jointly combine efforts to create even a mosquito, they will not be able
to bring it into being nor understand the means to its creation. Their
wits are bewildered and they are aimlessly wandering. Their powers fall
short and they fail, returning disappointed and worn out, realizing that
they are defeated, admitting their inability to produce it. They will also
realize that they are too weak (even) to destroy it. Surely, after the
extinction of the world, Allah the Glorified will remain alone with nothing
else besides Him. He will be, after its extinction, as He was before then:
without time or place, a moment or a period. Age and time will not then
exist, and years and hours will disappear. There will be nothing except
Allah, the One, the Omnipotent. To Him is the return of all matters. The
initial creation of all matters was never within the power of the latter,
and the prevention of their own extinction was never within their reach.
Had they had the power to prevent such an extinction, they would have existed
forever. When He created any part of this world, its making did not cause
Him any difficulty, and the creation of anything which He created and formed
did not exhaust Him. He did not create it to enhance His authority, nor
did He do so for fear of any loss or harm, nor to seek help against an
overwhelming foe, nor to guard against any avenging opponent, nor for the
extension of His domain, nor for boasting of it before a partner, nor because
of His feeling of loneliness and desire to seek company. Then, after its
creation, He will destroy it not because of any worry that overcomes Him
in maintaining and administering it, nor for any pleasure that will accrue
to Him, nor for the cumbersomeness of anything over Him. The prolongation
of its existence does not wear Him out to induce Him to its quick destruction.
But Allah, the Glorified One, has maintained it with His kindness, kept
it intact with His command, and perfected it with His might. Then, after
its destruction, He will bring it back to being again not for any need
of His own for it, nor to seek the assistance of anything in it, nor to
change the condition of loneliness to that of company, nor from ignorance
to knowledge, nor from want and need to independence and plentitude, nor
from disgrace and lowliness to honour and prestige.
In another sermon, wherein he discusses the beginning of the creation
of the heavens and the earth, the Imam says,
Praise is due to Allah Whose worth cannot be described by orators, Whose
bounties cannot be counted by those who compute, the obedience to Whom
cannot be satisfied by those who strive to do so, Whom the height of intellectual
endeavor cannot appreciate, and the depths of understanding cannot reach,
for Whose description no limit can ever be set, nor praise satisfies, nor
time suffices, and no duration is fixed. He brought forth creation through
His might, dispersed the winds as an act of His mercy, and He firmed the
earth with the mountains. The foremost in religious obligation is to acknowledge
Him, the perfection of acknowledging Him is to achieve His Pleasure, the
perfection of achieving His Pleasure is to believe in His Oneness, the
perfection of believing in His Oneness is to regard Him as the Pure, and
the perfection of His purity is not to attach adjectives to Him because
every adjective is an indication that it is different from that to which
it is best named, and everything to which something is best named is different
from the Best Name itself. Thus, whoever attaches adjectives to Allah recognizes
a peer like Him, and whoever recognizes His peer regards two gods; and
whoever regards Him as One of two associate-partners with Him, and whoever
associates partners with Him errs in His regard and does Him injustice,
and whoever errs in His regard points out at Him, and whoever points out
at Him admits limitations for Him, and whoever admits limitations for Him
numbers Him. Whoever wonders where He is maintains that He is confined
to a place, and whoever wonders above what He is maintains that He is not
above something else. He is a Being but not through phenomenon of coming
into being. He exists but not from non-existence. He is with everything
but not in physical proximity. He is different from everything but not
in any physical way. He acts but without connotations of movement or means.
He sees yet none among His creation can see Him. He is One and Only, so
there is none with whom He keeps company or whom He misses when absent.
THE ATTRIBUTES OF ALLAH
Now let us discuss His Attributes in more details:
1. "Allah"
The proper noun "Allah" solely belongs to The Almighty God, the Truth.
Anything succeeding it is regarded as an adjective describing it, while
it remains a noun indicative of the True God. It combines all His Attributes,
and it needs no introduction from others, whereas the other Attributes
attain recognition when added thereto. "Allah" is not given to anyone other
than Him, nor should it ever be used for anyone besides Him.
"Allah" is the ever-Existent, the One Who causes existence, Who maintains
existence, Who creates everything that exists. Whatever He creates shall
perish; He never will: "... say: Allah!' then leave them sporting in their
vain discourses" (Qura'n, 6:91).
2. "Al-Rahman"
Allah has said, "All those in the heavens and the earth will come to
the Beneficent God obediently" (Qura'n, 19:93).
"Al-Rahman al-Rahim" are two of the Attributes of Allah which remind
people of His mercy, of the fact that His act of affecting goodness and
rewards reach whomsoever He pleases, thus warding off evil from them. "Al-Rahman"
and "al-Rahim" are two concurrent Attributes of His each conveying more
meanings of mercy than the other.
"Al-Rahman" is an Attribute specifically relevant to Allah; none besides
Him can be called or referred to as such, whereas "al-rahim" can
be applied to people: One may be described as "rahim," merciful or kind,
but a human cannot be "rahman".
In the Holy Qura'n, we read: "In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent,
the Most Merciful" (Qura'n, 1:1); "The beneficent God is firm in power"
(Qura'n, 20:5). It is an Attribute demonstrating that mercy can be possible
only through Him. It means "the One Who grants mercy beyond which there
is no other mercy at all and the like of which does not at all exist."
Though derived from mercy, "al-Rahman" is both a noun and an adjective.
Neither contradicts the other.
