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020 The attributes of Allah concerning His actions (2)
I stated in the first chapter of this article that the attributes of Allah, which are related to His providence in Material and Spiritual World (which means the things He created), are called "Actional Attributes". Of course we are competent on the works of Allah only in Material World which is a visible and can be perceived by our five-sense. He notifies His providences in the Spiritual World to the human beings He chooses. The Creator has various works, actions and providences in the worlds. Most of them are represented within the beautiful names of Allah and stated as Asma ul Husna. Four of the actional attributes that we witness appearing every day are Takhliq (Creating), Ihya (Resurrecting and giving life), Imate (Killing) and Tarziq (Blessing His creatures with means of subsistence, in forms of feeding and meeting the needs).
It means the creation of every living and non-living things by Allah out of nothing and equipped with their primary components and qualities. This attribute is unique to Allah. Nothing else but Allah has such power or ability. Assuming that other creatures have such power means having insufficient knowledge about Allah. It means blasphemy. "Allah is the Creator of all things." [Zumar, 62] "Say, He will give them life Who created them for the first time! For He fully knows all!" [Ya-Sin, 79] "The Originator of the heavens and the earth: When He decreeth a matter, He saith to it: Be!, and it is.” [Baqarah, 117] The word "to create" in English is used for everything meaning producing something new. It is, of course, not true. Creation doesn't mean to form a new and different thing out of created elements but out of nothing complete with its primary components and qualities. Once there was nothing. Only Allah (swt) existed. "He is the First and the Last, the Evident and the Hidden: and He has full knowledge of all things.” [Hadid, 3] "There was Allah and nothing else before Him" [Bukhari, Tirmidhî] Allah (swt) created everything in the universe within certain measurements, forms and qualities without having any examples beforehand, organized and programmed them determining the changes that will occur within their characters and qualities during all times. He creates the programmed events and subjects related to these events when the time is right. In other words, "divine taqdir" (destiny) comes true. He creates many phenomena through the human whom He declares His caliph and the patron of the earth. "Creation" means creation of something out of nothing whilst "inshaa" (build) refers to producing new and different things out of the created things, which is also a actional attribute of Allah. "That has created pairs in all things, and has made for you ships and cattle on which ye ride," [Zukhruf, 12] "It is He Who produceth gardens, with trellises and without" [An'aam, 141] Through the intelligent and skillful people whom He gifted with extraordinary talents on earth, Allah, today, builds mega structures, dams, airplanes of tones of weight flying in the sky, creates communication networks and even new types of living creatures through the genetic secrets He taught to people. Even though He has a ritual of not breaking the divine order but forming everything based on certain reasons within this order, He can create them without any reason if He wants. Nobody can interfere His providences in the divine order that He created and organized.
Allah resurrects the dead things as He kills the living things. "That it is He Who granteth Death and Life;" [Najm, 44] "And Allah sends down rain from the skies, and gives therewith life to the earth after its death: verily in this is a Sign for those who listen." [Nahl, 65] "And verily, it is We Who give life, and Who give death: it is We Who remain inheritors (after all else passes away)." [Hijr, 23] Allah associated the occurrence of many works and events to certain occasions, means and reasons. He creates them without any reason or means if He wishes. As a matter of fact, many people have witnessed such events throughout the history. However, creating with reasons is His character. He established His order in the universe on a determinism base. Therefore, the reasons mustn't be idolized and it must never be forgotten that the real creator of the things that take place with some reasons and occasions is Allah. Allah creates the human beings and their works. "But Allah has created you and your handwork!" [Saffat, 96] "It is not ye who slew them; it was Allah. When thou threwest (a handful of dust), it was not thy act, but Allah's." [Anfal, 17]
Allah provides livelihood to all of the living things He created gives them the necessary energy they need to survive and meets all their needs. "Say: Who is it that sustains you (in life) from the sky and from the earth?" [Yunus, 31] “Say: Shall I take for my protector any other than Allah, the Maker of the heavens and the earth? And He it is that feedeth but is not fed.” [An'aam, 14] Allah created Sun as an energy source for earth. Solar energy is transformed to chemical energy by plants contain chlorophyll, bryophytes and algae in the ecosystem through photosynthesis. Then this energy passes to herbivores that eat these plants and to the carnivore that eat them. Soil worms, fungi and bacteria make use of this energy with the death of carnivore. Therefore, the energy becomes a source of life for hundreds of living things without loss by passing one from the other. Within this energy chain Allah distributes the means of subsistence as He wishes within certain measurements. "Allah enlarges the sustenance (which He gives) to whichever of His servants He pleases." [Ankabut, 62] Livelihood comes from Allah. However, as many phenomenon in the universe, earning livelihood is also based on some reasons. Dear Readers, The universe is full of eternal appearance of actional attributes of Almighty Allah. A human cannot see his Rabb (Lord). However, he is always aware of the reflection of His actional attributes on the creatures. The whole point is being able to take lessons from events. This is possible with belief. This is the reason why I have continuously been emphasizing the "belief" since my first article "Correct Understanding the Human". Belief is the start of knowing Allah (Marifetullah). As a person is always consumed with his mean desires, there will be no place left in his heart for anything else but the idea of making these wishes come true, unless he truly believes. That person will always be obsessed with these desires. Therefore, he will never learn lessons. A person’s viewpoint will completely change only when he frees his heart from sensual desires under the guidance of a master by remembering Allah and showing interest in the things that will remind him Allah. Only then he will start seeing the appearance of Divine grace in the universe clearly. Briefly, he will start to examine everything from a "Haq" (divine truth) point of view. This point of view of the person recovering from his selfishness is also called "Firasat" (foresight, perception) which is a sign of matureness. It was ordered in the Hadith: "Fear the foresight of the believer for he sees with the light of Allah" [Tirmidhî] Once, I listened to a Hodja, a competent of Islamic tasawwuf, talking on a radio show about a reference made to "dhikr" (remembering Allah) in Qur’an approximately 200 times and ordered approximately 80 times. What is the reason that our Rabb (Lord) wants us to remember Him continuously? Does He need to be remembered by human beings all the time? Of course not! Absolutely not... Never... We are the ones who need this. The Creator wants to complete His blessings for us by ordering us to remember Him, saving us from our own aggression and setting us free. He wants us to be the ones who benefit more from His blessings. "Allah doth not wish to place you in a difficulty, but to make you clean, and to complete his favor to you, that ye may be grateful." [Maida, 6] "Verily Allah is full of Grace and Bounty to men: yet most men give no thanks." [Mumin, 61] Be entrusted to Allah. Dr. Ismail Ulukus
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