SERMON 163
Attributes of Allah
Praise be to Allah, Creator
of people; He has spread the earth. He makes streams to flow and
vegetation to grow on high lands. His primality has no beginning, nor has
His eternity any end. He is the First and from ever. He is the everlasting
without limit.
Foreheads bow before Him and
lips declare His oneness. He determined the limits of things at the time
of His creating them, keeping Himself away from any likeness.
Imagination cannot surmise
Him within the limits of movements limbs or senses. It cannot be said
about Him: "whence"; and no time limit can be attributed to Him by saying
"till". He is apparent, but it cannot be said "from what".
He is hidden, but it cannot
be said "in what". He is not a body which can die, nor is He veiled so as
to be enclosed therein. He is not near to things by way of touch, nor is
He remote from them by way of separation.
The gazing of people's eyes
is not hidden from Him, nor the repetition of words, nor the glimpse of
hillocks, nor the tread of a footstep in the dark night or in the deep
gloom, where the shining moon casts its light and the effulgent sun comes
in its wake, through its setting and appearing again and again with the
rotation of time and periods, by the approach of the advancing night or
the passing away of the running day.
He precedes every extremity
and limit, and every counting and numbering. He is far above what those
whose regard is limited attribute to Him, such as the qualities of
measure, having extremities, living in house and dwelling in abodes,
because limits are meant for creation and are attributable only to other
than Allah.
Allah, the Originator from naught
He did not create things
from eternal matter nor after ever-existing examples, but He created
whatever He created and then He fixed limits thereto, and He shaped
whatever He shaped and gave the best shape thereto. Nothing can disobey
Him, but the obedience of something is of no benefit to Him.
His knowledge about those
who died in the past is the same as His knowledge about the remaining
survivors, and His knowledge about whatever there is in the high skies is
like His knowledge of whatever there is in the low earth.
A part of the same sermon
About man's creation, and pointing towards the requirements of life.
O' creature who has been
equitably created and who has been nurtured and looked after in the
darkness of wombs with multiple curtains.
You were originated from the
essence of clay (Qur'an, 23:12) and placed in a still place for a known
length (Qur'an, 77:21-22) and an ordained time. You used to move in the
womb of your mother as an embryo, neither responding to a call nor hearing
any voice.
Then you were taken out from
your place of stay to a place you had not seen, and you were not
acquainted with the means of awaiting its benefits, or with who guided you
to eke out your sustenance from the udder of your mother, and, when your
were in need, appraised you of the location of what you required or aimed
at.
Alas! Certainly he who is
unable to understand the qualities of a being with shape and limbs is the
more unable to understand the qualities of the Creator and the more remote
from appreciating Him through the limitations of creatures.
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