Allah (SWT)

The God or “Allah” is identified in Islam by His attributes and not much importance has been given to the name by which we call Him. The only condition is that the name should be beautiful and should not conjure up a mental picture. Ayah 110 of Surah Al-Isra guides Muslims about the names of Allah in the following words:

“Say: Call upon Allah, or Call upon Rahman: By whatever name you call Upon Him, (it is well): For to Him belong The Most Beautiful Names.”

The attributes of Allah are summarized in Surah Al-Ikhlas, Ayahs 1-4 as follows:

“Say: He is Allah, The One and Only. Allah, the Eternal, Absolute. He begets not, nor is He begotten. And there is none like unto Him.”

The attributes of Almighty Allah preclude any evil since God is the source of justice, mercy and truth. There are ninety nine different attributes of Allah in Quran. These attributes include: Ar-Rahman (Most Gracious), Ar-Raheem (Most Merciful) and Al-Hakeem (All Wise) among many other names. Since there is only one God, all these attributes point to one and the same God. Each attribute of God is unique and possessed by Him alone.

Allah does not become a human being, nor does He take any human form. Therefore, Allah doesn’t need to eat, sleep, even take rest, etc. Similarly, Allah is free from other general attributes of human body, like telling lies, being unjust, making errors, forgetting things, etc.

Allah is the sole creator of everything. He is the most powerful being. He does whatever he intends to do. Here again I would like to mention the fact that Allah intends only godly acts and not ungodly acts.

Islam is not the only religion in the world with the concept of “one God”. Comparative study of different religions reveals that monotheism is an integral part of every major religion in the world. However, it is unfortunate that most of the followers of these religions violate the teachings of their own scriptures.