The Face of Allah has been mentioned as a Face of honor and ikram (one that bestows favors). Anyone who sees this Face has thus been given the highest of honor and favor.
Ahuls-Sunnah affirm that using “Wajh” or Face is ok, and yes Allah has a Face and this is seen here and elsewhere in our books, but we do not question or try to imagine the face of Allah, rather we know that it is, “dhul dhalaali wal ikraam”
The Prophet (s) said: Allah says that Allah‟s hijab is Noor. If Allah were to lift His veil, the rays that come from his Wajh will destroy everything that His eyes sees (narrated in Sahih Muslim). So Allah‟s Eyes see everything and Allah‟s Hijab is to protect us from His own Beauty
80 | P a g e
Why is only His Wajh mentioned? By mentioning the most noble aspect of Allah‟s Sifaat, the other Characteristics are automatically included. The Prophet (s) said: whoever asks by the Wajh of Allah, Allah never refuse him of what he wants. From this ayah some people have derived the name of Allah Al-Baaqi. There is much controversy over these names. Al-Baaqi may or may not be in the 99 names.
Allah‟s names are Al-Qaabid and Al-Baasit, Allah never calls Himself that, but from the verbs we get the two Names. So yes we can get nouns from verbs. But it is not allowed to just take any verb and make it into a noun (thus Al-Baaqi is controversial), rather only a specialist can decide this. As an example, we don‟t call Him the One Who Curses Kuffar.
When Allah says, “Qulu man Allaya Faan” some think that everything will be destroyed, rather no, the Throne, the inhabitants and of Jannah and Naar will not. QULU does not mean you can‟t not have exceptions but rather that exceptions are allowed. What about the the Heavens and Earth? Yes they will be destroyed.
Allah says in the Qur'an about the queen of Sheeba from Hud-hud, She has been given of everything, and the word, “Qulu” is used here as well. Was she given of absolutely everything? Of course not, this is a just a way of conversation. Again, exceptions exist.
28. Then which of the Blessings of your Lord will you both (jinns and men) deny?
29. Whosoever is in the heavens and on earth begs of Him (its needs from Him). Every day He has a matter to bring forth (such as giving honour to some, disgrace to some, life to some, death to some, etc.)!
After mentioning that everything will be destroyed and only Allah will remain forever, Allah mentions another Characteristic of His: that He is the Ever-living and the Sustainer. From the combination of both these Characteristics we derive Allah‟s Names, Al-Hayy and Al-Qayyoom. According to many scholars, these are the greatest names of Allah. The concept that He is the one that remains and He is the one who gives what everyone needs is a very powerful concept.
All that is in the heavens asks of Him, what if someone were to say, the kaafir doesn‟t ask though!
We respond,
1) This ayah speaks in a general sense
2) The Kaafir does in fact ask Allah in times of need
3) They may not ask with the tongue of asking but yes with the circumstance of asking
81 | P a g e
And so what are they asking? It is not specified and thus we conclude that they are asking for everything.
“Sha‟an” means importance. So what does it mean that everyday He is engaged in matters of importance?
Abu Darda narrated the Prophet (s) said: From his Sha;‟an is that He forgives a sin, alleviates a
suffering, raises a group and debases another group. The point of hope is that Allah is actively involved in our daily lives!
From this and other ayahs scholars derive the 5 levels of Qadr;
1) The eternal Qadr that exists in Allah‟s knowledge
2) The Qadr written down 50,00 years before creation i.e. Lawhal Mahfoudh
3) The Qadr of our birth, when the roh is blown into us when we are in the wombs of our mothers.
This is when the angel writes our Qadr again and asks Allah if we are to be a 1. Boy or girl, 2. What is our Rizq, 3. Our deeds, 4. How long we will live, and 5. If we are to be of those that enter Hellfire or Heaven
4) The Yearly Qadr i.e. laylatul Qadr. On this night Allah announces the decree of the upcoming year 5) The daily qadr, “qula yowmin howa fi sha‟an”
The lowest levels of Qadr can change, but the higher levels do not change and there is no clear
distinction what is low and high and the change occurs within them. To further explain, the Qadr at the time of our creation, our yearly and daily Qadr can change from one to another, but these changes have been recorded in the eternal Qadr i.e. the Lowhal Mahfoudh, the preserved tablet, and this is within Alllah‟s Knowledge.
As an example, Allah can decree that a person lives 60 years, 3 months and 5 days in the life-time level of Qadr i.e. the womb of his mother. Because he has been righteous and pious and he has
accumulated much good (example he went to Umrah and Hajj which increases life), when the man reaches 60 Allah tells the angels on Layla-tul-Qadr for an extension. The opposite may also happen, the man may be a sinner and thus Allah may tell the angels to take his life early. However all these changes are in Allah‟s Knowledge and have been recorded already in Lowhal Mahfoudh but the angels do not know of them. The angels are the ones that carry out the decree of Qadr.
More on Qadr
Ibn Abbas said that Qadr is a secret of Allah and one should not try to delve too much into it
The Prophet (s) said: Think about the blessings of Allah, do not think about the essence of Allah. So we do not think about what Allah, What He is or what He looks like etc but rather we focus on His
blessings.
82 | P a g e
We can assign all calamities to Qadr; it happened because of his Qadr, but we must be very careful in justifying sins because it was already written for us to sin.
30. Then which of the Blessings of your Lord will you both (jinns and men) deny?