Part 50

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The highest among those in knowing Allah is the one who knows Him through His words; he knows the Lord has all the attributes of perfection and all the characteristics of glory, far above having a parallel, and free from any defects and faults. He has every good name and every perfect attribute, the doer of all that He intends, above all matters and accompanies every matter, capable of every matter and builds every matter, absolute master, speaks with His Divine words, greater than every matter and more beautiful than anything, the most merciful among those who show mercy, the most powerful among those who have power, and the most wise among those who have wisdom. The Qur'an was revealed to inform His servants about Him, the Way that leads to Him, and the conditions of those who followed in His way after knowing Him.

A Precious Gem: Allah will not Change the Condition of a People until They Change Themselves

Quite often the servant of Allah is granted abundant blessings but he becomes bored and longs to change it for another which he claims is better. In fact, Allah, the Merciful does not deprive him of this blessing, and He excuses him for his ignorance and bad choice until the servant is unable to bear the blessing, feels discontent, and complains about it. Then Allah will take it away from him. When he gets what he wished for and sees the great difference between what he had before and what he has now, he is filled with worry and regret and he wishes to have what he had before. If Allah wishes good for His servant, He would make him see that whatever blessings he now has is from Allah and He will show him that Allah is pleased with him, and the servant would praise Him. If he is deceived by his soul to change this blessing, he would ask Allah for guidance.

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There is nothing more harmful to the servant than becoming bored from the blessings of Allah; as he neither sees them as a blessing, praises Allah for them, nor is happy with them but he becomes bored, complains, and considers them as a means of distress. He does not think that these things are from the greatest blessings of Allah. The majority of people are opposed to the blessings of Allah. They do not feel the blessings of Allah, and moreover, they exert their effort to drive them away because of their ignorance and injustice. How often is a blessing bestowed on a person while he is exerting his effort to drive it away and how often does he actually receive it while he is pushing it away, simply because of his ignorance and messes Allah says,

oe 7h eZ coe

which means, "That is so because Allah will never change a grace which He has bestowed on a people until they change what is in their ownselves." (Al-Anfal, 8:53)

And He, the Almighty says,

which means, "Allah will not change the good condition of a people as long as they do not change their state of goodness themselves (by committing sins and by being ungrateful and disobedient to Allah)." (Ar-Ra'd, 13:11)

What can be worse than the enmity of a servant toward the blessings he has received? In so doing, he supports his enemy against himself. His enemy arouses fire in his blessings and he increases the fire unawares. He enables his enemy to light the fire and then he helps his own enemy to blow on it until it becomes strong. Finally, he seeks help against the fire and blames fate.

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Chapter: The Beauty of Allah, the Exalted

The most precious kind of knowledge e is to know Allah, the Exalted through His beauty. This is granted to the truly pious among His creatures, while others know Him through one of His attributes, while those who know Him the best know Him through His perfection, glory, and beauty. There is nothing like Him in His attributes. If we assume that all creatures are beautiful and we think of the most beautiful one we know, and compare their inner and outer beauty to that of Allah, the Exalted, it will be like we are comparing the light of a candle to the sun. Surely, if He withdraws the veil from His face, the splendor of His countenance would consume His creation. The beauty that is contained in the inner and outer elements of this worldly life and the Hereafter comes from the effect of His creation. What then, is the extent of beauty of the Creator?

He has all glory, power, charity, generosity, knowledge, and favor. With the light of His face, all darkness disappears. As the Prophet (peace be upon him) said in supplication of At-Taif, "| seek refuge with Your Face that darkness will go and without which both the affairs of this life and the Hereafter will go astray."

‘Abdullah bin Mas'td (may Allah be pleased with him) said, "Allah does not have either night or day: the light of the Heavens and the earth is from the light of His face." Allah, the Exalted is the light of the heavens and the earth and on the Day of Resurrection when Allah will judge mankind, the earth will shine from His light. From among the names of Allah is “the most Graceful." It was recorded in the sahih that the

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The beauty of Allah is on four levels: the beauty of self, the beauty of His attributes, the beauty of His deeds, and the beauty of His names. All His names are beautiful, His attributes are all attributes of perfection, and His deeds are all wise, just, and merciful, and He considers the benefit of man. Only Allah knows the beauty of self and what it is like, and His creatures only have some definitions that He bestowed upon some of His servants that He honored. This beauty is preserved away from others and is covered by a veil and a lower garment, as the Messenger (peace be upon him) said, "Pride is my cloak and majesty is my lower garment.” And because pride is wider and greater, it deserves the name of cloak, as Allah is the Greatest and the Most High.

ion ‘Abbas said, "Allah covered His self with attributes and covered His attributes with deeds. What do you think about a beauty that is covered by the attributes of perfection and of glory and loftiness?"

From this some other meanings of beauty can be understood. The servant achieves progress from knowing the deeds and then the attributes, and from knowing the attributes to knowing the self. If he saw something among the beauty of deeds, he would reach the beauty of attributes and then he reaches the beauty of the self.

So all praise and thanks are due to Allah, the Exalted , and none of His creation can praise Him as He deserves, but only as He praises Himself and He deserves to be worshiped, loved, and praised. He loves His attributes and deeds as He loves His self. All of His deeds are beautiful and precious and there is nothing hateful among His deeds. There is nothing in

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the universe that is loved and praised except Allah, the Exalted. And whatever is loved other than Him, if love is for the sake of Allah, this love is lawful otherwise it is not. And this is the reality of Lordship. s The true Lord is the one that is loved and praised. What then if we add to that His charity, favor, mercy, forgiveness, and piety?

The servant should know that there is no god but Allah, so he would love and praise Him for His self and for His perfection and should know that there is no one that grants secret and public favors and blessings except Him, so he would love Him for His compassion and blessings. As there is nothing similar to Him, loving Him is not like any kind of love; loving with submission is the kind of worship that Allah created all things for. It is the utmost love with the utmost humility and it cannot be shown except to Allah. Indeed to show it to other than Him is polytheism that Allah does not forgive if the doer dies in that state.

Praising Him includes two matters: being informed about His praiseworthy acts and His attributes of perfection, and loving Him because of them. If someone informs another person about their praiseworthy acts without loving him, he is not praising him. And whoever loves him without informing others about his praiseworthy acts, he is not praising him until he combines the two matters. Allah, the Exalted praises Himself by Himself and praises Himself by the tongues of those who praise Him from among the angels, the Prophets, the Messengers, and the believers. They praise Him according to His wish and by His permission. He is the one, Who enables them to praise Him, and ali things are done with His permission. All blessings begin and end with Him; they begin with His praise and end with His praise. He inspires His servant to repent and is happy with it while it is from His favor and generosity and He inspires His servant to obey, helps him to do that, and rewards him for it! He is in no need of anything but all things are in deep need of

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Him at all times. The servant needs Him to help him to achieve his aims. Whatever is not permitted by Him will never be and whatever is not done for His sake is useless.

Chapter: Allah is Full of Grace and He loves Grace