Question 76 - The Enlightening Answer Across the Ether, Vol 2
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Question 76
The Exalted said in Surat al-Hashr: ‘He is Allah, other than whom there is no god, Knower of the unseen and the witnessed. He is the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. He is Allah, other than whom there is no god, the King, the Holy, the Peace, the Giver of Security, the Overseer, the Mighty, the Compeller, the Supremely Great. Glory be to Allah above what they associate. He is Allah, the Creator, the Originator, the Fashioner. To Him belong the Most Beautiful Names. Whatever is in the heavens and the earth glorifies Him, and He is the Mighty, the Wise’ ([127]). Q1: What is the interpretation of these noble verses? Q2: The names-that is, the Most Beautiful Names of Allah-in the three noble verses number fourteen. What is the relationship between these names and the fourteen infallible ones? Q3: Are these names a reflection of Allah’s attributes in the infallible ones (a)? Sender: Ibrahim Rughayl
Ahmed al-Hasan Response:
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send prayers upon Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, the Imams and the Mahdis, and grant them abundant peace. ‘He is Allah, other than whom there is no god, Knower of the unseen and the witnessed. He is the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.’ ‘He is Allah, other than whom there is no god, the King, the Holy, the Peace, the Giver of Security, the Overseer, the Mighty, the Compeller, the Supremely Great. Glory be to Allah above what they associate.’ ‘He is Allah, the Creator, the Originator, the Fashioner. To Him belong the Most Beautiful Names. Whatever is in the heavens and the earth glorifies Him, and He is the Mighty, the Wise.’ First: It must be known that divinity is a description of Him, Glorious and Exalted. Whoever worships Allah is an associator at some level. The Exalted said: ‘Most of them do not believe in Allah except while associating others’ ([128]). Although this association does not take its practitioner outside belief in Allah, it is a great deficiency in knowing the One worshipped, Glorious and Exalted. He is known through the names and attributes, but the names and attributes do not indicate Him completely. They lie upon the path to knowing Him, Glorious and Exalted, and are not He, Glorious and Exalted. He manifested through them and through the Greatest, Greatest Name-Allah-which gathers them, so that He, Glorious and Exalted, would be known and worshipped, not so that they would be worshipped. Through them He is known and worshipped. Whoever confines his knowledge of Him, Glorious is He, to the names and attributes does not attain complete divine unity, which comes only through complete sincerity to Him, Glorious and Exalted. Indeed, whoever worships the Essence will ultimately find himself among these associators: ‘Most of them do not believe in Allah except while associating others’ ([129]), ([130]). The verses above clarify this reality. The Reality is expressed by the third-person pronoun Huwa-He-and the Reality is the Greatest, Greatest, Greatest Name toward which the worshipper must direct himself in worship. Prostration is to Allah, but Allah-the Divine Essence-is the direction toward the quiddity and the Reality; the name Allah is not the Reality ([131]). In the three verses you find: ‘He is Allah’; ‘He is Allah’; ‘He is Allah.’ In every verse He, Glorious and Exalted, is described by the Divine Essence-Allah-or He, Glorious and Exalted, manifested and appeared to creation through the Divine Essence-Allah. Yet each time the Divine Essence-Allah-is described by names different from the others. ‘He is Allah, other than whom there is no god, Knower of the unseen and the witnessed. He is the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.’ In this verse the word of divine unity opens with Huwa-He-and closes with Huwa. He is the Witnessed, the Unseen, Glorious is He, who is described by Allah; and Allah brings you to knowledge of the Reality-that it is He, Glorious is He, the Witnessed, the Unseen. This verse explains divine unity from beginning to end. The One worshipped, Glorious and Exalted, manifested through the Divine Essence-Allah-and through the Divine Essence He, Glorious and Exalted, is known and worshipped. Since the reality and identity of every created being is darkness and deficiency, He, Glorious and Exalted, faced His creation with absolute perfection-Allah, the Divine Essence. ‘Knower of the unseen and the witnessed’: Although this description belongs to the Divine Essence-Allah-it is connected to knowing the quiddity and the Reality. He-Huwa-Glorious is He, is the Witnessed, the Unseen: the letter ha indicates witnessing and the waw indicates absence. ‘He is the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful’: I have explained previously, more than once, that the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful is the gate of the Divine Essence-Allah ([132]). Had He, Glorious is He, not made mercy the gate of the Essence, no created being could have attained perfection or reached knowledge and worship. The Exalted said: ‘O you who believe, do not follow the footsteps of Satan. Whoever follows the footsteps of Satan-indeed, he commands indecency and wrongdoing. Were it not for Allah’s bounty upon you and His mercy, not one of you would ever have become purified, but Allah purifies whomever He wills, and Allah is Hearing, Knowing’ ([133]). It is appropriate here to notice His words, the Exalted, ‘Knower of the unseen and the witnessed. He is the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.’ He did not say, ‘Knower of the unseen and the witnessed, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.’ In this verse He, Glorious and Exalted, made clear that He manifested to His creation through the Divine Essence-Allah-and likewise that the gate of the Divine Essence-the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful-is from it. He also manifested through the gate. Indeed, creation is faced through the gate of the Divine Essence-the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful: ‘Say: Call upon Allah or call upon the Most Gracious. Whichever you call upon, to Him belong the Most Beautiful Names’ ([134]). He, Glorious and Exalted, therefore wished to clarify that He, Glorious and Exalted, manifested through the Divine Essence-Allah-and also manifested through the gate of the Divine Essence-the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Thus the Exalted said, ‘He is Allah,’ and the Exalted said, ‘He is the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.’ ‘He is Allah, other than whom there is no god, the King, the Holy, the Peace, the Giver of Security, the Overseer, the Mighty, the Compeller, the Supremely Great. Glory be to Allah above what they associate.’ In this verse, following His words, the Exalted, ‘He is Allah, other than whom there is no god,’ there are eight names. In reality, all are connected to the gate-the inward and outward aspects of the gate of the Divine Essence-that is, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, and the One, the Subduer. I have explained previously that the basmala of Surat al-Tawba is ‘In the name of Allah, the One, the Subduer,’ and explained that the gate of the Divine Essence has an outward and inward aspect. The Exalted said: ‘A wall with a gate, within which is mercy and outside which, facing it, is punishment’ ([135]). The inward aspect is the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, encompassing the monotheists who enter; the outward aspect is the One, the Subduer, encompassing the disbelievers who refused to enter ([136]). We now return to the verse and find that the eight names are divided equally between the inward and outward aspects of the gate. The first four are connected to the inward aspect of the gate-the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful-and the last four are connected to the outward aspect of the gate. ‘He is Allah, other than whom there is no god, the King’: The importance of this divine name-the King-is not hidden from those who acknowledge Allah’s sovereignty and reject the sovereignty of the people. They know that this name is the divider between Paradise and the Fire. Whoever acknowledges the manifestation of this name in creation enters Paradise, and whoever does not acknowledge it is among those who followed Iblis, may Allah curse him. Allah’s Proof over His creation is the manifestation of this name in creation. Iblis was among those who disbelieved in it, and most of the children of Adam followed him in this disbelief and failure to acknowledge Allah’s sovereignty. This name here, in this verse from among the foundational verses of divine unity-and coming after His words, the Exalted, ‘He is Allah, other than whom there is no god’-indicates the extent to which Allah’s sovereignty and Allah’s kingship are connected to divine unity. It makes clear that the one who acknowledges it is a monotheist and the one who disbelieves in it is an associator. ‘He is Allah, the Creator, the Originator, the Fashioner. To Him belong the Most Beautiful Names. Whatever is in the heavens and the earth glorifies Him, and He is the Mighty, the Wise.’ In this verse are three names: the Creator, the Originator, and the Fashioner. These names are attributes of the Divine Essence-Allah. The difference between them and the preceding names is that the first four clarify the perfection of the Divine Essence; the second four clarify the dominance and subjugation of the Divine Essence-Allah-over what is other than Him, Glorious is He; while these names clarify Allah’s giving and effusion, Glorious is He, upon what is other than Him.
Source: The Enlightening Answer Across the Ether, Vol 2; Author: Imam Ahmed Al-Hasan; Question 76; Page Not available; AL-JAWAB-AL-MUNIR-V2-Q076. View Arabic source · Open the original Arabic source ↗
Source footnotes
Footnotes are kept separate from the main question and answer and preserve their source-record association.
↑ [127] Al-Hashr 59:22–24.
↑ [128] Yusuf 12:106.
↑ [129] Yusuf 12:106.
↑ [130] Whoever desires the perfection of divine oneness must turn toward the Reality. Names and attributes are indications and signs that point to Him and through which He is known. Whoever becomes occupied with the indication or sign and leaves the One to whom it points is not truly turning toward the meaning indicated by these indications and signs. Such a person is like someone who hears a doorbell, admires the melody of the bell and the precision of its notes, and becomes distracted from what the bell indicates: the presence of a person at the door waiting for it to be opened. Whoever becomes occupied with the attributes and confines his gaze to them has veiled himself from the One to whom these attributes point-that is, His Reality, Glorious is He. A person must therefore reach beyond the stage of inferring Allah the Exalted through the effects, because He is the One who manifests them and is the Manifest who is never absent. Imam al-Husayn (a) said in the supplication of Arafat: ‘… My God, my moving among the effects makes the destination distant, so gather me to You through a service that brings me to You. How can something whose existence depends upon You be used to infer You? Does anything other than You have an appearance that You do not possess, such that it would manifest You? When were You absent so that You needed an indication to point to You? When were You distant so that the effects were what brought one to You? Blind is the eye that does not see You watching over it, and lost is the bargain of a servant for whom You have not allotted a share of Your love. My God, You commanded a return to the effects, so return me to You clothed in lights and with the guidance of insight, so that I return to You from them as I entered You through them, my inner secret protected from looking at them and my aspiration raised above relying upon them. Indeed, You have power over all things.’ Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 59, p. 225. Reflect upon his words (a): ‘My God, You commanded a return to the effects, so return me to You clothed in lights and with the guidance of insight, so that I return to You from them as I entered You through them, my inner secret protected from looking at them and my aspiration raised above relying upon them. Indeed, You have power over all things.’ Here Imam al-Husayn (a) explains that even if a person must return to the effects and attributes, he must also strive to keep his inwardness and inner secret protected from looking at them, becoming occupied with them, and confining his gaze to them, and must raise his aspiration above relying upon them apart from Allah the Exalted. Why? Because they make the destination of Allah the Exalted distant and increase the veils between the servant and his Lord. A person must strive to emerge from the effects as he entered them, without letting them affect him or relying upon and becoming occupied with them, as in the supplication of Imam al-Husayn (a): ‘So that I return to You from them as I entered You through them.’ Peace be upon you, my master, on the day you were born, the day you were martyred, and the day you are raised alive. Allah the Exalted answered al-Husayn’s (a) supplication and returned him as a reassured soul, pleased and pleasing, as in the following narration. Abu Abdullah (a) said: ‘Recite Surat al-Fajr in your obligatory and recommended prayers, for it is the surah of al-Husayn, and desire it-may Allah have mercy upon you.’ Abu Usama, who was present in the gathering, asked him, ‘How did this surah become particular to al-Husayn (a)?’ He said: ‘Do you not hear the words of the Exalted: “O reassured soul, return to your Lord, pleased and pleasing. Enter among My servants and enter My Paradise”? He means only al-Husayn ibn Ali-Allah’s prayers be upon them both-for he is the possessor of the reassured soul, pleased and pleasing …’ Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 42, p. 93. (Commentator.)
↑ [131] Whoever desires the details should consult Sayyid Ahmed Alhasan’s Exegesis of Surat al-Fatiha and The Allegories, vol. 2, 2nd ed., pp. 69, 80, and 86. (Commentator.)
↑ [132] See Exegesis of Surat al-Fatiha and The Allegories, vol. 1, 2nd ed., p. 9; vol. 2, 2nd ed., pp. 52, 61, and 82; and other places. (Commentator.)
↑ [133] Al-Nur 24:21.
↑ [134] Al-Isra 17:110.
↑ [135] Al-Hadid 57:13, part of the verse.
↑ [136] The discussion here concerns the Hereafter. The outward side of the gate is therefore ‘the One, the Subduer,’ and its inward side is ‘the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,’ because mercy in the Hereafter does not include the disbelievers and hypocrites. What faces them is power, subjugation, and punishment-‘the One, the Subduer.’ In worldly life, however, the outward side of the gate is ‘the Most Gracious,’ which includes even the disbelievers, hypocrites, and everything, while the inward side of the gate is ‘the Most Merciful,’ which is particular to the believers in this world and the Hereafter. Whoever desires the details should consult Exegesis of Surat al-Fatiha and The Allegories, vol. 1, 2nd ed., p. 13 … by Sayyid Ahmed Alhasan, the promised Yamani. (Commentator.)
References
- ↑ Ahmed Al-Hasan. The Enlightening Answer Across the Ether, Vol 2. Question 76; Page Not available. AL-JAWAB-AL-MUNIR-V2-Q076. View Arabic source
Cite this page
Ahmed Al-Hasan. The Enlightening Answer Across the Ether, Vol 2. Question: 76. Page: Not available. AL-JAWAB-AL-MUNIR-V2-Q076. https://ahmedalhasan.org/ar/Library/BookContent/52