Peace to all,
"The green in every tree is YOU.
The beauty of every garden is YOU.
My wealth, my work
my Master, is YOU.
There is no reality except YOU."
~Rumi
The essence of existence is something we name God and outside God can exist nothing but emptiness.
“All that is to perish and forever will remain the Face of your Sustainer, the Possessor of Majesty and Generous Giving” 55:26-27
In the beginning there is no time, no space only Divine Being in His undifferentiated Essence (Dhat). Bukhari hadith reports that the Prophet allegedly said, “God was and there was nothing with Him”
The Essence first differentiates itself into Divine duality and from there into plurality. The Jalal- jamal, negative-positive, male-female, mercy-wrath, Yang-ying, gentle-severe, active-receptive are the two basic perspectives of Divine Reality. God introduces Himself through al-asma’ al-husna.
There is another hadith attributed to the Prophet that only the Sufis accept as sound. For creation, God allegedly said, ‘I was a hidden treasure and I desired to be known‘ Whether this is sound or not, it helps in knowing God, in my opinion.
What can and cannot be known about God? What is it that differentiates God from everything in the cosmos?
He is not similar to anything else: incomparability. He is what everything else is not.
Tanzih declares His incomparability, transcendence and distance from creation and human insignificance.
42:11 “Nothing can be compared with Him!” God in His Essence cannot be known. “None knows God but God”
3:97 “God is independent of all creatures.” Ghani
Tashbih declares His similarity and nearness with His creatures.
God is “with you wherever you are” 57:4
He is “nearer to you than the jugular vein” 50:16
“Wherever you turn, there is the face of God” 2:115
“I respond to the call of one who calls, whenever he calls to Me” 2:186
To understand God as distant through His greatness, power, majesty, holiness is to see Him as the jalal, male, negative, yang, active aspects of the Reality. To understand God close through His mercy, compassion, kindness, generosity, forgiveness is to see Him as the jamal, female, positive, yin, receptive aspects of the Reality.
God is not limited by either perspective. God is not only inaccessible but is also present with His servants. Incomparability yields to “abd”and islam; Similarity yields to “khalifa” and ihsan when humans manifest nothing but the attributes of God.
There are many names related to acts of God which make sense only in relation to creation.
Al-Ghafoor forgives some people for their sins, hence the necessity for sin.
Al-Khaaliq cannot function without a creation.
Al-Rabb the Creator, Evolver, Sustainer and Cherisher of all the creatures and everything else in the world. His protective care embraces both the physical and spiritual provisions for mankind.
God does not create anything, living or non living in its perfect condition all at once; after creating a thing carries it through a series of stages, gradual creation. This does not mean that He has no power to create a thing in its perfect form. He does not do so to allow His Rububiyah to function.
All the laws of nature are the manifestations of His attributes. To think that His Absolute Power, one of His attributes, would go against His other attributes would amount to denying perfection to His attributes. This is the reason the laws of God are immutable.
17:77 no change in the course
33:62 no change in the course
30:43 no alteration in the course
Rabb attribute creates a thing and then develops it taking it from stage to stage till it attains perfection. Rububiyah is another expression for the law of Evolution.
The concept of God demands incomparability and similarity, the cosmos and the complementary names.
(http://quransmessage.com/forum/Smileys/default/smiley.gif)