God and His Attributes [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

How does the
Quran present God?

When we wish to assess the scientific personality and knowledge of a
scholar, we examine his works and subject them to close study. Similarly, in order to
measure the talent, creativity and ability of an artist to invent original images, we
undertake the study of his artistic production.

In the same way, we can also perceive the attributes and
characteristics of the pure essence of the Creator from the qualities and orderliness that
pervade all phenomena, together with their subtlety and precision. Thereby, within the
limits set by our capacity to know and perceive, we can become acquainted with God's
knowledge, wisdom, life and power.

If it be a question of complete and comprehensive knowledge of God,
then, of course, we must accept that man's ability to know does not extent that far. God's
characteristics cannot be placed within given limits, and whatever comparison or simile we
offer for them is bound to be false, for whatever is observable to science and thought in
the natural realm is the work of God and the product of His will and command, whereas His
essence is not part of nature and does not belong to the category of created beings.
Hence, the essence of the divine being cannot be grasped by man by way of comparison and
analogy.

He is, in short, a being for the knowledge of Whose essence no
measure or criterion exists and for the fixing of Whose power, authority and knowledge, we
have no figures or statistics.

Is man, then, too abject and powerless to perceive anything of the
essence and attributes of so elevated a reality? To concede the weakness of our powers and
our inability to attain complete, profound and comprehensive knowledge of God does not
imply that we are deprived of any form of knowledge, however relative.

The orderly pattern of the universe loudly proclaims His attributes
to us, and we can deduce the power and unlimited creativiq of the Lord from the beauq and
value of nature. Phenomena are for us an indication of His unique essence.

Contemplation of the will, consciousness, knowledge and harmony
inherent in the order of being and all the various phenomena of life, makes it possible
for us to perceive that all these qualitic^v together with all the other elements that
speak of aim, direction and purposenecessarily derive from the will of a Geator Who
Himself possesses these attributes before they are reflected in the mirror of
creation.

That which comes to know God and to touch His being
is the remarkable power of thoughta flash which deriving from that pre-eternal source
shone on matter and bestowed on it the capacity of acquiring knowledge and advancing
toward truth. It is within this great divine gift that the knowledge of God is
manifested. *****

Islam deals with the knowledge of God in a clear and novel way. The
Quran, the fundamental source for learning the worldview of Islam, applies the method of
negation and affirmation to this question.

First, it negated, by means of convincing proofs and indications,
the existence of false gods, because in approaching the transcendent doctrine of unity, it
is necessary first to negate all forms of pseudo-divinity and the worship of
other-than-God. This is the first important step on the path to unity.

The Quran says: "Have the ignorant polytheists abandoned the
true God and chosen, instead, the false and powerlessgods? Tell them: 'Bring forth your
proof!' This call of mine to unity is my saying and that of all the learned men of the
community, as well as the saying of all the Prophets and learned men before me. But these
polytheists have no knowledge of the truth and constantly avert themselves from it. (21:24)

"Say, O Messenger, 'You worship one other than God who has
no power to help or to harm you . It is God Who is all-hearing and Who knows the state of
all of creation." (5:79)

The one who has severed his connection with divine unity forgets,
too, his own true position with respect to the world and being and becomes estranged from
himself. For the ultimate form of self-alienation is the severing of all links with one's
essential nature as man. Conversely, once man has become alienated from his own essence,
under the influences of internal and external factors, he will also be separated from his
God and become enslaved by other-than-God. Subordination to other-than-God, then, takes
the place of all logical thought. This represents a reversion to the worship of phenomena,
for worshipping an idol and according primacy to matter both are forms of regression that
rob man of his innate capacity for growth.

Monotheism is the only force that makes it possible for man to
recapture the creativity of human values. By regaining his true rank, he enters a state of
harmony with his own human nature and the ultimate nature of allbeing, thus attaining the
mostperfect forrn of existence open to him.

Throughout history, all divine summons and movements have begun with
the proclamation of divine unity and the exclusive lordship of God. No concept has
everoccurred to man that is more productive of creative insights and more relevant to the
various dimensions of human existence, or a more effective brake on human perversity, than
the concept of divine unity.

Using clear proofs, the Quran shows man the way to attaining
knowledge of the divine essence as follows: "Did man emerge from non-being through
his own devices? Was he his own creator? Did mankind create the heavens and earth?
Certainly they do not know God." (52:35-36)

The Quran leaves it to man's reason and commonsense to realize the
falsity of these two hypotheses, that man came into being of himself, or that he was his
own creator, by testing and analyzing them in thelaboratory of his thought. By reflecting
on the signs and indications of God, he will come to recognize with clear and absolute
certainty the true source of all being and to understand that no value can be posited for
any model of the universe unless behind it an organizing and capable intellect is at
work.

In other verses, man's attention is drawn to the manner of his
creation and gradual emergence from non-being. He, thus, comes to realize that his
remarkable creation, with all the wonders it contains, is a sign and indication of the
infinite divine will, the penetrating rays of which touch all beings.

The Quran says: "We created man out of an essence of clay,
then We established him in a firm place in the form of sperm. Then We made the sperm into
coagulated blood, and then into aformless lump offlesh. Then we made it into bones,and
then clothed the bones withflesh. Finally We brought forth a new creation. How well did
God create, the best of all creators!" (23:12-14)

When the foetus is ready to receive shape and form, all the cells of
the eyes, the ear, the brain, and the other organs, start to function and begin their
ceaseless activity. This is the truth to which the Quran is directing men's attention. It,
then, poses to man the question of whether all these wondrous changes are rationally
compatible with the hypothesis that there is no God.

Is it not rather the case that phenomena such as these prove and
demonstrate, with the utmost emphasis, the need for a plan, a design, a guiding hand
inspired by conscious will? Is it at all possible that the cells of the body should learn
their functions, pursue their aim in a precise and orderly fashion, and crystallize so
miraculously in the world of being, without there being a conscious and powerful being to
instruct them?

The Quran answers this question as follows: "He it is Who
creates and brings forth (the totality of parts), Who separates (the parts belonging to
each organ), and Who gives form (to different aspects)." (59:24)

The Quran describes every sense phenomenon that man sees around him
as something calling for reflection and the drawing of conclusions. "Your God is
but one God. There is nogod other than Him, Compassionate and Merciful. In the aeation of
the heavens and the earth, in the alternation of night and day, in the ships that ply the
seas to the benefit of man, in the water sent down from the heavens to revive the earth
after its death, in the different species of animals scattered across the earth, in the
rotation of the winds, in the clouds that are subordinate to God's command between heaven
and earth, in all of this, there are signs for men who use their intellects." (2:163-164)
"Tell men to reflect with care and see what things the heavens and the earth
contain." (10:101)

The Quran also mentions the study of human history and the peoples
of the past with all the changes they have undergone, as a special source of knowledge. It
invites man to pay heed, in order to discover the truth, to the triumphs and defeats, the
glories and humiliations, the fortune and misfortune, of various ancient peoples, so that
by learning the orderly and precise laws of history, he will be able to benefit himself
and his society by aligning the history of his own age with those laws.

The Quran thus proclaims: "Even before your time, certain
laws and norms were inforce, so travel and examine the historical traces left by past
peoples, to see what was the fate of those who denied the truths of revelation and the
promises of God." (3:137) "How many were those powerful ones whom We
destroyed in their ciSes on account of their oppression and wrongdoing, and We made
another people to be their heirs." (21:11)

The Quran also recognizes man's inner world, which it expressed by
the word anfus ("souls"), as a source for fruitful reflection and the discovery
of truth. It points out its importance as follows: "We make our signs and
indicahons entirely manifest in the world and in the souls and inner beings of Our
servants so that it should be clear that God is the True." (41:53) "On
theface of the earth there are signs for the possessors of certainty, and also in your own
selves; will you not see?" (51:20-21)

In other words, there is an abundant source of knowledge in the
beauty and symmetry of the human body, with all of its organs and capacities, its actions
and reactions, its precise and subtle mechanisms, its varied energies and instincts, its
perceptions, feelings and sensations, both animal and human, and most especially in the
astounding capacity of thought and awareness with which man has been entrusteda capacity
which still remains largely unknown, for man has taken only a few steps in studying this
invisible power and its relationship with his material body.

The Quran proclairns that it is sufficient to reflect on and examine
your own self in order to be guided to the eternal, infinite source that is free of all
need, has unlimited knowledge, skill and power, and a feeble reflection of which is
manifest in your being. You will then know that it is that infinite reality which has thus
brought together in one place so fruitful a compound of elements and brought it forth onto
the plain of existence.

Given the existence of such vivid indications and decisive proofs,
placed at your disposal and within your own being for you to seek the knowledge of God, no
excuse will be accepted from you for misguidance and denial.

The Quran also applies the method of negation and affirmation to the
question of God's attributes. Thus, it describes the attributes that the essence of the
Creator possesses as "affirmative attributes." Among themareknowledge,
power,will, the fact that His existence was not preceded by non-existence and that His
being has no beginning, and the fact that all the motions of the world derive from His
will and His power.

The Quran says: "He is God, the One other than Whom there is
no god, the knower of the hidden and the manifest, the Compassionate, the Merciful. He is
God, the One other than Whom there is no god, the Commander, the All-powerful, Pure and
Without Defect, the Bestower of Safety, the Protector, the Precious, the Mighty, the
Sublime, the Most Elevated. Exempt and purified be He from the partners which they ascribe
to Him."(59:22-23)

The "negative attributes" are those from which God is
free. They include the fact that God is not a body and has no place; His sacred being has
no partner or like; He is not a prisoner to the limitations set up by the bounds of the
senses; He neither begets nor is begotten; there is neither change nor motion within His
essence, for He is absolute perfecdon; and He does not delegate the task of creation to
anyone.

The Quran says: "O Messenger, say: 'He is God, the One, the
God Who is free of need for all things and of Whom all beings stand in need. No one is His
offspring, and He is not the offspring of anyone, and He has no like or parallel."
(112:14) "Pure and exalted is thy Lord, God the Powerful and Unique, Who is pure
of what men in their ignorance ascribe to Him." (37:180)

Human logic, which inevitably thinks in terms of limited categories,
is incapable of sitting in judgment on divinity, because we must admit that it is
impossible to perceive the ultimate ground of that being for whom no observable or
comprehensible analogue or parallel exists in the world of creation. The most profound
schools of thought and the greatest methods of reflection here fall prey to
bewilderment.

Just as all existent beings must lead back to an essence with which
existence is identical, to an independent being on which all other beings depend, so, too,
they must derive from a source of life, power and knowledge, from the infinite being of
which all these attributes and qualities surge forth in abundance.