Allah - An advanced look at God in Islam - 4 - God's Attributes

The essence of God is an infinite reality, having no equal, so man cannot ever grasp the depth of this essence or fully understand it; Man can only come to know God by what He explains His nature to be. His nature and description are displayed and can be appreciated through His attributes. The attributes can be grouped into two vague sets:

• Beauty (Jamal)
• Majesty (Jalal)

From another point of view, the attributes can also be grouped vaguely into two other groups:

• Attributes of Essence (sifat al dhat) - e.g. Knowledge.
• Attributes of Activity (sifat al fi'il) - e.g. Forgiving.

In Islam, the Quran mentions 135 names and attributes which describe God ^{(Doctrines of Shi'i Islam by Ayatollah Ja'far Sobhani)}. Of these, there are 99 names of God mentioned in the Quran and from hadith, and the following verses contain a lot of these:

وَ اللَّهُ الَّذِي لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ عَالِمُ الْغَيْبِ وَالشَّهَادَةِ هُوَ الرَّحْمَنُ الرَّحِيمُ

هُوَ اللَّهُ الَّذِي لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْمَلِكُ الْقُدُّوسُ السَّلَامُ الْمُؤْمِنُ الْمُهَيْمِنُ الْعَزِيزُ الْجَبَّارُ الْمُتَكَبِّرُ سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ عَمَّا يُشْرِكُونَ

هُوَ اللَّهُ الْخَالِقُ الْبَارِئُ الْمُصَوِّرُ لَهُ الْأَسْمَاء الْحُسْنَى يُسَبِّحُ لَهُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ

[59.22] He is Allah besides Whom there is no god; the Knower of the unseen and the seen; He is the Beneficent, the Merciful

[59.23] He is Allah, besides Whom there is no god; the King, the Holy, the Giver of peace, the Granter of security, Guardian over all, the Mighty, the Supreme, the Possessor of every greatness. Glory be to Allah from what they set up (with Him).

[59.24] He is Allah the Creator, the Maker, the Fashioner; His are the most excellent names; whatever is in the heavens and the earth declares His glory; and He is the Mighty, the Wise.

In Islam Allah has 99 names that we call Him by, and these show His attributes, His character. It is good to
know and contemplate on these and search for their meaning in reference to our Lord.

Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah's Apostle said, "Allah has ninety-nine names, i.e. one-hundred minus one, and whoever knows them will go to Paradise." (Hadith Bukhari 3.894)

However, some of these attributes have paradox attributes and some don't define God completely, nor are variations of these attributes ascribable to Allah only; so, of these attributes, God is also ascribed essential
Godly-attributes known as 'Sifate-Illahiah' in Arabic, or the Attributes of Godhead. Unlike the other religions, Islam does not content itself by mere preaching that God is One, but it wants its adherents, the Muslims, to believe in the following essential attributes in the All-Divine Absolute Sovereign and the Self-Existent Unity. To explain the absolute perfection in the Unity, the 'Sifat' or the divine qualities, they have been classified into two kinds, the 'Sifate-Soboutiah' i.e., the Positive Attributes, i.e., the qualities Essential in the All-Divine Being and the 'Sifate-Salbiah' i.e., the Negative Attributes, the qualities opposed to the All-Divine Unity [- the Qualities that God lacks, the qualities which can never be found or attributed at any time or in any sense to the existence of God]. Both these kinds of the attributes are counted as eight in each group:

(Owing to the difficulties in translating the Arabic words the terms with comprehensive meanings into any other language, particularly in English, English words which are the nearest to the meanings are used.)

Positive [Necessary] Attributes (Sifate-Soboutiah)	Non-existent [Negative] attributes (Sifate-Salbiah)
'AL-QADEEM' (The Eternal - Neither born nor dying)	'MURAKKAB' (Composed of more than one thing)
'AL-QADIR' (The Almighty)	'MAKAN' (Accommodation - requiring space)
'AL-AALIM' (The All-Knowing)	'HOLOOL' (Incarnation)
'AL-MUDRIK' (The Ever-Perceiving)	'MARYEE' (Visible)
'AL-HAI' (The Ever-Living)	'EHTIYAJ' (Needy/Requiring something)
'AL-MUREED' (The All-Independent)	'SHIRKAT' (Association - needs/has a partner)
'AL-MUTAKALLIM' (The Creator of Speech)	'MAHALLE HAWADIS TAGHAIYYAR' (In Changing)
'AL-SADIQ' (The Ever-Truthful)	'SIFATE-ZAID' (Additional Qualities or Properties)

Man is endowed with a brain and thinks of hypothetical issues that can arise and questions that transcend reality, but they still constitute valid questions if the person asking them is actually asking an honest question and seeking an interesting answer. Here is an example of a question:

Is God able to do all things? Has He power to do all things?

The power of God, like His knowledge, is eternal; and insofar as it, too, partakes of His very essence, it is infinite. The Quran emphasizes the comprehensiveness of God's power thus:

لِلّهِ مُلْكُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ وَمَا فِيهِنَّ وَهُوَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ

[5.120] Allah's is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth and what is in them; and He has power over all things.

Now, if God was given a hypothetical task of creating something He has no power over, then it cannot be because it would fall outside the domain of God's power and contradict His attributes of having power over all things. This doesn't mean that God is inadequate, but it in fact shows the inadequacy of an impossible situation. God is perfect and is devoid of imperfection or inadequacy. When asked about the engendering of impossible things, Imam Ali (AS) replied:

"God has no connection with incapacity, so that about which you ask cannot be" [Kitab  al-Tawheed by Shaykh Saduq. Ch.9, Hadith 9]