The remainder of the course notes will be provided after the class, insha`Allah.
The text for this section is provided below. Please read it before Sunday.
The name Allah contains five meanings, qualities that indicate the non-resemblance of Allah to anything else. They are:
Qidam: He is before the before. He did not become: he always was.
Baqa': He is after the after, eternal: He always will be.
Wahdaniyyah: He is unique, without partner, without resemblance, the cause of all. All is in need of Him, all has become by the order "Be!" and has died by His order.
Mukhalafatun lil-hawadith: He is the Creator, bearing no resemblance to the created.
Qiyam bi-nafsihi: He is self-existent, without any needs.
Allah is perfection. The extent of this perfection is infinite. The Greatest Name, Allah, contains eight essentials indicating the perfection of Allah:
Hayah: Allah is ever-living, eternal in the past and present in the future, uninterrupted. He is independent of everything except His own eternal knowledge of being alive. This life is independent of anything like flesh and bones or anything material is pure and unlike any other living being.
'Ilm: Allah is all-knowing of all things, visible and invisible, at all times. He knows "the black ant on a black stone in the darkest of nights;" the vibrations that make an atom; what is in the depths of your heart; and the thoughts of which even you are not aware. He knows the secrets of secrets. He knows every existing thing before itis even created, and He knows it after it is gone.
Sam 'Basar: Allah is all-hearing and all-seeing. He sees that which is visible and invisible, hears that which is audible and inaudible. Neither does distance prevent Him hearing, nor does darkness prevent Him from seeing. He does not hear with ears, nor see with eyes. he hears and sees with His eternal Essence and pre-existence all sounds, words, forms, colors, air, wind, motion, silence, thoughts, and memories...
Iradah: All will is His. Allah decides a thing to be this way and not another, and no one is able to change it. All things that exist do so because He willed them to exist. Everything will be when He decides it to be, and is the way He wishes it to be, and will be gone when He wishes to erase it at the end of its appointed time.
Qudra: All power is His. There is nothing that Allah cannot do. His power is only conditional upon one thing: His will. The whole of eighteen thousand universes and what is beyond are in His hand of power. His power does not depend on any other means. He is the One who does everything and cannot be asked when, how, or why!
Takwin: All existence and actions depend upon Him. He is the only creator. The whole, the parts, the essence and attributes of everything are created by Him in the most beautiful, perfect, and just manner. Men, jinn, the worlds and the heavens; devils, beasts, plants, rocks, and jewels; all that can be perceived, felt, and imagined all are created from noting. Only He existed before anything existed. Then He created the creation, not because He needed it, but to manifest His love, His will, His wisdom, His power, and His compassion.
Kalam: The world, all that is said and heard, is His. Allah's commands, ordinances, and judgments that apply to all His creation are in His words, and these are contained in the last divine book, the Holy Qur'an, which includes all the other holy books. The Qur'an is His final word, whose meaning is infinite and forever. Allah's word is soundless, does not depend on the movement of the tongue and the lips, nor on sound waves, or molecules hitting each other. It does not need ears to be heard, nor does it have letters needing eyes to read.
The servant of Allah can relate to the divine name, Allah which encompasses all names, is devoid of all faulty attributes, and contains all attributes of perfection by pursuing the wish he may find in himself to become a perfect human being. In the attempt, he will try to eliminate what is faulty in himself, and try to increase what is good in himself.
'Abdullah is a servant who has received the highest level and honor it is possible to attain in this creation, because the Creator has manifested in him with the secrets of all His attributes. Therefore Allah Most High has called his beloved Prophet by this name. In Surah Jinn (19) Allah identifies His beloved, saying:
...the servant of Allah stood up praying to Him.
In reality, this name belongs only to Hadrat Muhammad (saaws) and to the qutbs, the individuals of highest spiritual stature in any given time. These are the true inheritors of His divine wisdom. Since the Name Allah is the Greatest Name, the name of the Essence of God, it is bound by the qualities of the Unity and Oneness of Allah. Therefore, even if a servant has lost his proper identity in unison with Allah, his being called 'Abdullah is only metaphorical.
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