Attributes of Allah

MAN has been created in the image of Allah and is required to act as His viceregent on earth. (2:31) This he can do properly only if man knows the attributes of Allah which he is to reflect both individually and collectively.

Allah has innumerable attributes and they may be put under three broad categories. Firstly, those which are exclusive to Allah and are in no way related to His creation, whether animate or inanimate. Secondly, those which are related to His animate creatures and involve a relationship between Him and them. Thirdly, those which come into operation in response to the actions of such of His creatures who are endowed with free will and discretion, that is man.

Sura Fatiha gives the following four fundamental attributes of Allah which subsume all conceivable attributes: The Lord of the worlds, the Gracious, the Merciful and Master of the Day of Judgment. (1:2-4) Their very order is indicative of their importance. As to the first attribute, the Arabic word “Rab” used in the Quran for Allah is generally translated as the “Lord”, but this does not capture the full connotation of the concept of Rabubiyyat.

The significance of the word “Rab” used for Allah, and for that matter, to some extent for the parents, is that Allah has not only created all the worlds, but He also fosters His creation to enable it to develop to perfection, realizing its full potential so as to serve the purpose for which it has been created.

It is in the Quran, “Surely, your Lord is Allah Who has created the heavens and the earth in six periods; then He settled Himself on the Throne. He makes the night cover the day, which pursues it swiftly. And He created the sun and the moon and the stars, all made subservient by His command. Verily, His is the creation and the command, blessed is Allah, the Lord of the worlds.” (7:55) “Allah is He Who has made for you the earth a resting place, and heaven a canopy, and has given you shape and made your shape perfect and has provided you with good things. Such is Allah, your Lord. So blessed is Allah, the Lord of the worlds.” (40:65).

In Sura Al-Rehman (55), narrating His various bounties, Allah repeatedly asks, “Which, then, of the favours of your Lord will you twain deny?” Out of 79 verses in that Chapter this question is asked as many as 30 times. Allah is the Originator (35: 2-4), the Creator, (59:23), Nourisher (6:152), the Self-Subsisting, All-Sustaining (27:41). This attribute covers everything and every body, good or bad, without any distinction whatsoever.

Allah maintains a balance in a natural order among various constituents of universe such as inanimate and animate things, the former pointing to the environment. Animates are further broken into man and beasts. Any disturbance in the delicate balance of the universe will be apocalyptic. This is recognized today in the need to preserve the eco system.

The importance of the second attribute of the Gracious is underlined in the Quran, “Your Lord is gracious to mankind but most of them are not grateful.” (27:74) “Lord of the heavens and the earth and all that is in between them, the Gracious. They shall not have the power to address Him. On that day when the Spirit and the angels will stand in rows and they shall not speak except he whom the Gracious God will permit and who will speak only what is right.” (78:38-9)

“None supports them save the Rehman.” (67:20) “the Gracious God! Ask thou then concerning him one who knows.” (25:60) “No incongruity canst thou see in the creation of the Gracious God.” (67:4) “Have they not seen the birds above them, spreading out their wings without moving them and then drawing them in the sweep down upon prey? None withholds them but the Gracious God. Verily, He sees all things.” (67:20) “Who can guard you at night or during the day against the Rehman.” (21.43)

The attribute of the Gracious has been mentioned in the Quran no less than fifty two times in the text, besides its use as an opening verse for one hundred and thirteen Chapters.

There is a whole Chapter in the Quran “All-Rehman” — the Gracious. (55) This attribute signifies that Allah showers His bounties gratuitously without the least effort on part of man. Who dare claim any contribution to the creation of physical environment like the sun, the moon, the stars, air, water, rotation of day and night, changes in weather and climate, in short, every thing needed to sustain human life?

These bounties are always equally available to all human beings and other living creatures without any discrimination. Nobody has to pay for them. While no one is deprived of His bounties, none can claim monopoly on Him. Every thing in the universe is meant for and pressed into the service of man. (45:14)

In case of human beings, as they consist of flesh and soul, Allah provides for their physical as well as spiritual needs. Both the systems run parallel, the former providing guidance to help understand the latter, which is quite subtle and esoteric, even by the layman.

“And We have established you in the earth and provided for therein the means of subsistence. How little thanks you give!” (7:11) Man has also been endowed with all the faculties necessary to make full use of Allah’s provisions.

The third attribute of the Merciful is mentioned all the more frequently in the main text of the Quran, no less than one hundred and five times or twice the second attribute. It is intimately related to the second attribute, the word “Raham” being common to them. The two attributes are often mentioned together, every Chapter of the Quran, except one, opening with them, “In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful.” In fact, both the attributes are two aspects of mercy, one gratuitous and the other to be earned through effort, supported with prayer.

This attribute thus operates in response to human effort, whether for spiritual or for mundane purposes. “And then man will have nothing but what he strives for; and that his striving shall soon be seen. Then will he be rewarded for it with the fullest reward.” (53:40-2) “This is your reward, and your labour has been appreciated.” (76;23) Human effort is exposed to many risks and may be frustrated by reasons beyond one’s control. For this Allah’s protection is needed. “But if you obey Allah and His Messenger, He will not detract anything from your deeds. Surely, Allah is Most Forgiving, Merciful.” (49:15) “And put thy trust in the Mighty, the Merciful.” (26:218)

According to the fourth attribute of Master of the day of Judgment, there is the system of reward and punishment. Apart from the Hereafter, there is a contemporaneous reward and punishment in the worldly life, and every person is assured of reward, at least according to the true merit of effort. In some cases, it may be out of proportion to effort to reflect the pleasure of Allah and is a prelude to the Hereafter. There is to be a final reckoning after death.

On that Day, Allah will deal not as a judge expected to administer justice bound by law but as Master who has all the power to forgive the lapses and grant more than due for good deeds, without impinging upon justice. It is in the Quran, “I will inflict My punishment on whom I will; but My mercy encompasses all things.” (7:157)

It is significant that all the four attributes are not mutually exclusive but are inter-related and often manifested in combination, as has been mentioned above in case of the Gracious and the Merciful. Similarly, Allah is Almighty but He never employs His might in a brute and blind manner but always with wisdom which permeates His all actions, be those for creation or day to day administration of the universe. The most frequent combinations of Allah’s attributes in the Quran are: the Gracious and the Merciful, Merciful and Forgiving, the Mighty and the Wise, All-Knowing and the Wise, etc.

The largest combination of the attributes is: “He is Allah and there is no God beside Him, the Sovereign, the Holy One, the Source of Peace, the Bestower of security, the Protector, the Mighty, the Subduer, the Exalted. Holy is Allah far above that which they associate with Him.” (59:24) The selection of the attributes and their sequence is impregnated with profound truth, wisdom and far reaching guidance. The explanation of inter-relationship of each element in the combination is beyond the scope of one article.

The world would be a happy place if these attributes were adopted equally by individuals and collective human agencies.

Abandoned dreams of Karachi

HARDLY anyone living in the city or even the casual visitors to Karachi may have missed the incomplete high-rise structure opposite PIDC and Hotel Pearl Continental still remembered as Hyatt Regency Hotel structure and lying in shambles for over twenty-five years as if saluting our collective callousness and incompetence.

Built allegedly over the Pak Railway land with banks’ money it was probably considered initially too hot to be touched. Later every successive government has promised to find good use for this structure but either the government does not last that long or the interest is simply lost. The structure just sits there looking helpless.

But that may not be the only abandoned project in the city. Swimming pool built in Azizabad or the abandoned Pakistan Sports Board project opposite Kandawala building, Sports complex at Korangi, or the huge steel columns sitting over massive foundations intended to be the indoor gymnasium of at least of Asian games standard, adjoining KMC sports complex on Kashmir road, the only Olympic sized football ground at People’s Sports complex near ICI bridge, under continued occupation by Rangers since its completion the city had spent over a million US dollars just to highlight a few in the long list of our unrealized dreams.

Over the years the city has become so cynical that when KMC embarked upon construction of a cultural complex at ST-21 in Block-5 Clifton adjoining Karachi Grammar School it was agreed that the project completion be taken as a 100 metre dash challenge at Hippodrome in Istanbul. Unfortunately the city also lost that race against time. What remains today is a crumbling wall and another abandoned structure that was designed to accommodated 480 stage lights over complete Russian ballet troupe and two thousand five hundred audience sitting over a 1,200 square metre rising trapezium.

But then the City Nazim has announced his intentions to transform the city into an Islamic Welfare city. One may or may not be able to find the meaning of that term in some dictionary of sociology yet what he is saying remains very clear. The city is intended to make a peaceful place for the co-existence of its residents in a religiously puritanical environment. A highly complex and urbanized population of a metropolitan city like Karachi with over 60 per cent under 21 years of age carrying a mixed bag of dreams may or may not agree with him yet as Karachiites we must respect and try to further his cause as he is the uncontested “City father”!

Completion of Faizee Rahmeen’s art gallery and auditorium therefore is obviously something that should not be considered a priority. But Karachi Mass Transit System should not be in conflict with any vision — religious or otherwise. Unfortunately Karachi Circular Railway after years of slogans still remains in a dilapidated and abandoned state.

Successive governments have spent massive funds purchasing Armoured Personnel Carriers and four-wheel drives for law enforcement agencies in Karachi and looked the other way while Karachi Transport Corporation was slowly dying along with many of its buses and properties failing to face the blitz from unruly yellow devils.

Transporters spend loads of money to ensure that they are allowed to violate every law in the books. Ironically, anyway one looks at them the numbers appear extremely lucrative for viability of a public transport system. Karachi had less than 400,000 registered vehicles in 1986. That number touched 900,000 in 1997 and jumped to 1.132 million by mid last year. If the average price of each of the six hundred thousand or so vehicles added on to the city streets during last ten years around a hundred thousand rupees with dollar parity at thirty Pakistani rupees during these years the city may have spent well over two billion dollars to fulfil its transportation needs.

A decent Mass Transit system would have probably cost the city less than a quarter of that amount. But its ad hoc existence and shifting leadership never allowed realization of that dream well within its reach.

During 1996 the defunct KMC had imported two hospital waste incinerators that could cater for complete disposal of city’s pathological waste. They were finally condemned to sewage farm near Pak Colony where they rot unutilized. The fate of the sewage treatment plant built by KDA at North Karachi was no different from the KMC’s incinerators.

The blatant misuse of public parks and playgrounds for commercial activities including marriage lawns and flea markets continues unabated even today.

Last year Karachi’s citizens were also deprived of that Sports complex’s clubhouse building as it was handed over to an ‘Officers society’ elected some ten years ago. This was done by the outgoing KMC administration supposedly to compensate the ‘Society’ for lost revenues due to cancellation of its 1992 allotment of the playing field there and eviction of the beneficiary /caterer misusing the space as marriage lawns by the KMC administration during 1995.

Another property at Sharea Faisal was allotted to KWSB’s ‘Officers society’ purely for its amenity use during early nineties. It was also commercialized into restaurants and marriage halls against all terms of allotment and sublet to a contractor. The Kashmir road playgrounds allotted to the ‘KDA Officers society’ for recreational purposes continue to be misused as marriage halls.

The much-needed Southern Bypass for the port traffic especially oil tankers out of Kemari Oil terminal was lost to KDA’s inefficiency and Defence Housing Authority’s voracity that felt constructing Sunset clubs, marriage gardens and commercial buildings under high tension wires more favourable than the bypass. With more than 18 towns and district government in the city a unified policy not to misuse public parks and playgrounds as well as some kind of a sane policy arresting the mushroom growth of hoardings and billboards taking place in the city may be urgently required.

There may not have been a singular government or administration responsible for the current dilapidated state of city affairs. With so many tiers of governance including federal and provincial governments, corps headquarters and army monitoring teams, city and town governments, all making tall claims, Karachi deserves an effort to first complete the decaying structures before new initiatives.