''Say: He is Allah the One and Only; Allah, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him.'' (Holy Qur'an 112)
Muslims worship the same God of Judaism and Christianity. Allah is the Arabic term for God. It is derived from the Arabic definite article al- "the" and ʼilâh "deity, god" to al-lâh meaning "the [sole] deity, God.'' However, Allah is not a trinity (Father, Son, Holy spirit) as in Christianity.
(s.w.t - stands for Subḥānahu Wa Ta'Ala meaning Glorious and Exalted is He)
Attributes of Allah
''He is Allah, the Creator, the Originator, The Fashioner. To Him belong the most beautiful names: whatever is in the heavens and the earth do declare His praises and glory. And He is Exalted in Might, The Wise.'' (Qur'an 59:24)
Allah has 99 names or attributes that are mentioned in the Holy Qur'an. A few of these are:
* Ar-Rahman (The Compassionate)
* Ar-Rahim (The Most-Merciful)
* Al-Malik (The Absolute Ruler)
* As-Salam (The Source of Peace)
*Al-Muhaymin (The Guardian)
* Al-Aziz (The Almighty)
Allah is Most Merciful, Loving and Forgiving, He is All Knowing. There is a verse in Qur'an that describes how close Allah is to us:
''And indeed We have created man, and We know whatever thoughts his inner self develops, and We are closer to him than (his) jugular vein'' (50:16)
The 'closeness' in the verse, by consensus of scholars, refers to "nearness in terms of all-encompassing knowledge", not in terms of physical closeness. In this manner, the verse means that Allah's power and knowledge has so encompassed man from within and without, that His power and knowledge is nearer to him than his own jugular vein.
Allah's Mercy
Allah is the Most Merciful. Here are some verses of Qur'an regarding His Mercy:
''Say My slaves who have transgressed against themselves (by committing evil deeds and sins) Do not despair of the Mercy of Allah: verily forgives all sins. Truly He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.'' (39:53)
''And whoever does a wrong or wrongs himself, but then seeks forgiveness from Allah, he will find Allah forgiving and merciful.'' (4:110)
''Lo! Allah is a Lord of Kindness to mankind, but most of mankind give not thanks.'' (2:143)
''And seek Allahs forgiveness. Certainly, Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.'' (73:20)
"And it is He who accepts repentance from His servants and pardons the evil deed and knows what you do." (42:25)
''And those who, when they commit a lewd act or wrong themselves with evil, remember Allah and ask forgiveness for their sins and who forgives sins except Allah? And they do not persist in what (wrong) they were doing while they knew it. For such, the reward is forgiveness from their Lord and Gardens with rivers flowing through, wherein they shall abide forever. How excellent is the reward of the doers (of good) (3:135-136)
In a hadith Qudsi (hadith Qudsi are from Allah, revealed in a dream or through revelation and expressed in Prophet Muhammad's own words). Allah says:
''O son of Adam, as long as you call upon Me and put your hope in Me, I have forgiven you for what you have done and I do not mind. O son of Adam, if your sins were to reach the clouds of the sky and then you seek My forgiveness, I would forgive you. O son of Adam, if you were to come to Me with sins that are close to filling the earth and then you would meet Me without ascribing any partners with Me, I would certainly bring you forgiveness close to filling it.'' (recorded in Al-Tirmidhi)
The Prophet, peace be upon him, also said ''Allah, the Almighty says: 'Whosoever does a good deed, will have (reward) ten times like it and I add more; and whosoever does an evil, will have the punishment like it or I will forgive (him). And whosoever approaches Me by one span, I will approach him by one cubit; and whosever approaches Me by one cubit, I approach him by one fathom, and whosever comes to Me walking, I go to him running; and whosever meets Me with an earth-load of sins without associating anything with Me, I meet him with forgiveness like that.'' (Muslim)
The following hadith was Narrated Abu Huraira (r.a): ''I heard Allah's Apostle saying, 'Allah divided Mercy into one-hundred parts and He kept its ninety-nine parts with Him and sent down its one part on the earth, and because of that, its one single part, His creations are Merciful to each other, so that even the mare lifts up its hoofs away from its baby animal, lest it should trample on it.' " (Bukhari)
Allah Is Kind And Loves Kindness
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: ''..Allah is kind and He loves kindness in all matters.” (Sahih Bukhari, Volume 9, Book 84, Number 61)
Narrated Jarir bin ‘Abdullah (r.a.): Allah’s Messenger said, “Allah will not show mercy to him who does not show mercy to others.” (Al-Bukhari and Muslim)
Allah Our Creator
Allah is the creator of us and the universe. Creation is mentioned many times in the Holy Qur'an (see Beliefs in Islam)
''We created man from an essence of clay, then We placed him as a drop of fluid in a safe place, then We developed that drop into a clinging form, and We developed that form into a lump of flesh, and We developed that lump into bones, and We clothed those bones with flesh, and later We developed him into other forms, - glory be to God, the best of creators!'' (Qur'an 23:12-15)
Where Is Allah?
Although He is closer to us than our jugular veins, Allah (s.w.t) is above the heavens. Abdullah ibn Amr ibn Al-As (r.a.) related that the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said, "Allah grants mercy to the merciful. Be merciful to those who are on the earth, (then) He Who is fis-Sama (above the heavens) will be merciful to you." (Abu Dawood & Tirmidhi)
There are verses in the Qur'an that show Allah (s.w.t). is above us: "And when Allah said: 'O Jesus! I will take you and raise you to Myself'." (3:55) "To Him ascend (all) the goodly words, and the righteous deeds lift them." (Qur'an 35:10)
Has Anyone Seen Him?
In a state of awakeness, in this world, one is unable to see Allah with the naked eye, nor has anybody seen him:
''Such is GOD your Lord, there is no god except He, the Creator of all things. You shall worship Him alone. He is in control of all things. No visions can encompass Him, but He encompasses all visions. He is the Compassionate, the Cognizant''. (Qur'an 6:102-103)
In the Qur'an, Moses (peace be upon him) asks Allah to show Himself to him. Allah tells him that he couldn't withstand it and He reveals Himself to the mountain, which crumbles:
"And we appointed for Moses thirty nights, and added to them ten, thus he completed the term appointed by his Lord, of forty nights, and Moses said to his Brother Aaron: 'Stand in my place among my people and do the right, and do not follow the war of the corrupt.' When Moses came at our appointed time and his Lord spoke to him, he said: 'My Lord! Show (Yourself) to me that I may look upon you.' Allah said: 'You cannot see Me, but look upon the Mount, if it remains firm in its place then you shall see me., When His Lord manifested Himself to the Mount, it crumbled into a fine dust, and Moses fell down in shock. When he regained his consciousness, he siad: 'Glory be to You! I repent to You, and I am the first of the believers." (Qur'an 7:142-143).
Drawing Closer To Allah
The way to become closer to Allah is to practice Islam in the way that it has been established for us. Allah Almighty says in the Qur'an ''This day have I perfected for you your religion and completed My favour on you and chosen for you Islam as a religion." (5:3). We do this by performing the obligatory actions such as prayer and fasting, giving in charity and pilgrimage. Also by the supererogatory (non obligatory) prayers, good deeds and remembrance of Allah.
In a famous Hadith Qudsi, Allah says, "Whosoever shows enmity to someone devoted to Me, I shall be at war with him. My servant draws not near to Me with anything more loved by Me than the religious duties I have enjoined upon him, and My servant continues to draw near to Me with supererogatory works so that I shall love him. When I love him I am his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes and his foot with which he walks. Were he to ask [something] of Me, I would surely give it to him, and were he to ask Me for refuge, I would surely grant him it. I do not hesitate about anything as much as I hesitate about [seizing] the soul of My faithful servant: he hates death and I hate hurting him." (Bukhari)
Remembering Allah
"So remember Me; I will remember you. Be thankful to Me, and never ungrateful.''(Qur'an 2:152)
In another Hadith Qudsi, Allah says.
''I am as My servant thinks I am. I am with him when he makes mention of Me. If he makes mention of Me to himself, I make mention of him to Myself; and if he makes mention of Me in an assembly, I make mention of him in an assembly better than it. And if he draws near to Me an arm's length, I draw near to him a fathom's length. And if he comes to Me walking, I go to him at speed.'' (Bukhari)
The Prophet (pbuh) said that Allah has angels roaming the roads to find the people of dhikr, i.e. those who say La Ilaha Illallah and similar expressions in remembrance of Allah, and when they find a group of people reciting dhikr, they call each other and encompass them in layers until the first heaven. (Bukhari, Muslim)
The Prophet (pbuh) also said, "When any group of men remember Allah, angels surround them and mercy covers them, tranquillity descends upon them, and Allah mentions them to those who are with Him." (Muslim, Tirmidhi, Ahmad, Ibn Majah)
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) went out to a circle of his Companions and asked: "What made you sit here?" They said: "We are sitting here in order to remember Allah and to glorify Him because He guided us to the path of Islam and he conferred favours upon us." Thereupon he adjured them by Allah and asked if that was the only purpose of their sitting there. They said: "By Allah, we are sitting here for this purpose only." At this the Prophet (Peace be upon him) said: "I am not asking you to take an oath because of any misapprehension against you, but only because Jibreel (angel Gabriel) came to me and informed me that Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, was telling the angels that He is proud of you!" (Muslim, Ahmad, Tirmidhi)
