1.2. TAWHEED AL-ASMAA’ WAS-SIFAAT (MAINTAINING THE UNITY OF ALLAH’S NAMES AND ATTRIBUTES)
This category of tawheed has five main aspects:
1. For the unity of Allah’s names and attributes to be maintained in the first aspect, Allah must be referred to according to how He and His Prophet have described Him, without explaining away His names and attributes by giving them meanings other than their obvious meaning. For example, in the Quran Allah says that He gets angry with the disbelievers and the hypocrites. He says:
“…that He may punish the hypocrites, men and women, and the pagans, men and women, who have an evil opinion of Allah. A circle of evil is around them; Allah is angry with them, curses them and has prepared for them an evil end.”20
Thus, anger is one of God’s attributes. It is incorrect to say as some have, that His “anger” must really mean His “punishment”, since anger is a sign of weakness in man that does not befit Allah. What Allah has stated should be accepted, with the qualification that His anger is not like human anger-based on Allah’s statement.
“There is nothing like him.”21
This verse clearly underscores the fact that Allaah’s attributes are different from those of men. When this fact is overlooked, however, a strictly literal interpretation of the verse will result in the denial of God’s very existence. For Allah describes Himself as living and man lives; therefore, according to this “rationalist” argument, God neither lives nor exists.
In fact, the similarity between God’s attributes and those of mankind is in name only and not in degree. When attributes are used in reference to God, they are to be taken in the absolute sense, free from human deficiencies.
2. The second aspect of Tawheed al-Asmaa’ was-Sifaat involves referring to Allah as He has referred to Himself without giving Him any new names or attributes. For example, Allah may not be given the name al-Ghaadib (the angry one), in spite of the fact that He has said that He gets angry, because neither Allaah nor His messenger has used this name. This may seem to be a very fine point, but it must be maintained in order to prevent the false description of God. That is, a finite man is in no position to define the infinite Lord of creation.
The names an-Naasir and ar-Rasheed are among the common names which cannot be authentically attributed to Allah. Although their meanings are true and are mentioned as attributes of Allah, they cannot be found in any Quranic text or authentic hadeeth. They do, however, exist in a few hadeeths containing a list of the 99 names of Allah, some of which can be found printed in copies of the Quran. Unfortunately, all of these hadeeths are inauthentic.
3. In the third aspect of Tawheed al-Asmaa’ was-Sifaat Allaah is referred to without giving Him the attributes of His creation. For example, it is claimed in the Bible and Torah that Allaah spent the first six days creating the universe then slept on the seventh. For this reason, Jews and Christians take either Saturday or Sunday as a day of rest during which is looked at as a sin. Such a claim assigns to God the attributes of his creation. It is a man who tires after heavy work and needs sleep to recuperate. Elsewhere in the Bible and Torah, God is portrayed as repenting for his bad thoughts in the same way that humans do when they realise their errors. Similarly the claim that God is a spirit or has a spirit completely corrupts this area of tawheed. Allah does not refer to himself as a spirit anywhere in the Quran nor does his prophet express anything of the nature in hadeeth.In fact, Allah refers to the spirit as part of his creation.
The key principle which should be followed when dealing with Allah’s attributes is the Quranic formula,
“There is nothing at all like Him, and He is hearer and seer of all.”26
The attributes of hearing and seeing are among human attributes, but when they are attributed to The Divine Being they are without comparison in their perfection. However, when these attributes are associated with men they necessitate ear and eye apparatuses which cannot be attributed to God. What man knows about the Creator is only what little He has revealed to him through His prophets. Therefore, man is obliged to stay within these narrow limits. When man gives free reign to his intellect in describing God, he is liable to fall into errors by assigning to Allaah the attributes of His creation.
In their love of pictorial representations, Christians have painted, carved and molded innumerable human likenesses and called them images of God. These have served to pave the way for the acceptance of Jesus’ divinity among the masses. Once they accepted the conception of the Creator as being like a human being, accepting Jesus as God presented no real problem.
4. The fourth aspect of tawheed al-Asmaa’ was-Sifaat requires that man not be given the attributes of Allah. For example, in the New Testament Paul takes the figure of Melchizedek, king of Salem, from the Torah (Genesis 14:18- 20) and gives both him and Jesus the divine attribute of having no beginning or end:
For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. He is without father or mother or genealogy, and has neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the son God he priested forever.
So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, “Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee”; as he says also in another place, “Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek.
Most Shi‘ite sects (with the exception of the Zaidites of Yemen) have given their imams divine attributes of absolute infallibility, knowledge of the past, the future and the unseen, the ability to change destiny and control over the atoms of creation. In so doing they set up rivals who share God’s unique attributes and who, in fact become god besides Allah.
Maintaining the unity of Allaah’s names also means that Allaah’s names in the definite form cannot be given to His creation unless preceded by the prefix ‘Abd meaning “slave of” or “servant of.” Many of the Divine names in their indefinite form like Ra’oof and Raheem are allowable names for me because Allah has used some of them in their indefinite forms to refer to the Prophet:
“A messenger has come to you from among yourselves who is grieved by whatever afflicts you. He is full of concern for you, full of pity (Ra’oof) and full of mercy (Raheem) for the believers.”32
But ar-Ra’oof (the One Most Full of Pity) and ar-Raheem (the Most Merciful) can only be used to refer to men if they are preceded by ‘Abd as in ‘Abdur-Ra’oof or ‘Abdur-Raheem, since in the definite form they represent a level of perfection which only belongs to God. The Abbaside Caliph, Haroon ar-Rasheed, used the title “ar-Rasheed ” which would have been rejected by the scholars of his time, had it been actually one of Allah’s names. On the other hand, names like ‘Abdur- Rasool (slave of the messenger), ‘Abdun-Nabee (slave of the Prophet), ‘Abdul-Husayn (slave of Husayn), etc., where people name themselves slaves to other than Allah are also forbidden. Based on this principle, the Prophet forbade Muslims from referring to those put under their charge as ‘abdee (my slave) or amatee ( my slave girl).
By Bilal Philips
Comments
John Doe
23/3/2019Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
John Doe
23/3/2019Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
John Doe
23/3/2019Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.