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What Is The Description of God in Islam? (Part 2)

18 January, 2017
Q Is Allah considered to be a spirit an immaterial or incorporeal spirit? What is the description of God in Islam?

Answer

Salam (Peace) Zamir,

Thank you for contacting About Islam with your question. 

Please find the second and final part of the answer to your question below. Find the first part at the link here.

The name “Allah” embraces all His beautiful names; and His other names are His attributes.

In fact, all the heavenly bodies and earthly elements are, by virtue of their characteristic qualities, attributes of Allah.

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Each object manifests some attribute of Allah: His love, His magnificence, and His power. Indeed, the entire creation manifests Allah’s names or attributes.

The 99 most beautiful names of Allah are in no sense exhaustive. Allah possesses many other attributes that defy number and imagination.

{Say: “If the ocean were ink (wherewith to write out) the words of my Lord, sooner would the ocean be exhausted than would the words of my Lord, even if we added another ocean like it, for its aid.”} (Al-Kahf 18:109)

Science tries to explain how the universe came to be; but it is not interested in finding why the universe came to be.

So, it does not necessarily lead a person to the existence of God. And yet its findings can lead one to Allah Almighty:

{Behold! in the creation of the heavens and the earth; in the alternation of the night and the day; in the sailing of the ships through the ocean for the profit of mankind; in the rain which Allah sends down from the skies, and the life which He gives therewith to an earth that is dead; in the beasts of all kinds that He scatters through the earth; in the change of the winds, and the clouds which they trail like their slaves between the sky and the earth;- (Here) indeed are signs for a people who are wise.} (Al-Baqarah 2:164)

{“Verily, I am Allah: There is no god but I: So, serve Me (only), and establish regular prayer for celebrating My praise.} (Ta-ha 20:14)

The Quran, the last testament of God, does not speak of a new God, but points to the same Eternal Being Who sent all the prophets of old, and has always been present in the illuminated human heart as well as in the heavens and the earth.

{Do they not reflect in their own minds? Not but for just ends and for a term appointed, did Allah create the heavens and the earth, and all between them: yet are there truly many among men who deny the meeting with their Lord (at the Resurrection)!} (Ar-Rum 30:8)

{(He is) the Creator of the heavens and the earth: He has made for you pairs from among yourselves, and pairs among cattle: by this means does He multiply you: there is nothing whatever like unto Him, and He is the One that hears and sees (all things)} (Ash-Shura 42:11)

He is incomprehensible, and nothing is like him. Therefore, the knowledge of Allah’s Reality or His Essence cannot be known through our limited rational.

Revelation is indispensable as a proof of His existence. Nor can any definition or description grasp Him.

The cosmos is the sensory realm, and its Ruler is veiled. That is why He describes Himself as being hidden (al-batin) in veils of darknesses (dhulumat) and in veils of light (nur). The cosmos cannot perceive Him nor will He ever be unveiled, thus this present reality will never be known by a createdthing completely.

All creation bears His signature. He is the Lord of the world of elements and command, since elements proceeded from command and compounds are fashioned:

{Moreover He comprehended in His design the sky, and it had been (as) smoke: He said to it and to the earth: “Come you together, willingly or unwillingly.” They said: “We do come (together), in willing obedience.} (Fussilat 41:11)

I hope this answers your question. Please keep in touch.

Please continue feeding your curiosity, and find more info in the following links:

Why Can’t We See God?

How Is God’s Life And What Is His Purpose to Exist?

Allah Almighty… Ephemeral or Eternal?

How Can God Be Eternal?

Relation Between God, Nature, and Humanity

Reaching God Without Mediation