Who Is Allah?

Bruce B. Lawrence

• Verlag: The University of North Carolina Press
• Jahr: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781469620046
• Thema: Theology & Religion
• Thema: Islamic Theology

This vivid introduction to the heart of Islam offers a unique approach to understanding Allah, the central focus of Muslim religious expression. Drawing on history, culture, theology, politics, and the media, Bruce B. Lawrence identifies key religious practices by which Allah is revered and remembered, illuminating how the very name of Allah is interwoven into the everyday experience of millions of Muslims. For Muslims, as for adherents of other religions, intentions as well as practices are paramount in one's religious life. Lawrence elucidates how public utterances, together with private pursuits, reflect the emotive, sensory, and intellectual aspirations of the devout. Ranging from the practice of the tongue (speaking) to practices in cyberspace (online religious activities), Lawrence explores how Allah is invoked, defined, remembered, and also debated. While the practice of the heart demonstrates how Allah is remembered in Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam, the practice of the mind examines how theologians and philosophers have defined Allah in numerous contexts, often with conflicting aims. The practice of the ear marks the contemporary period, in which Lawrence locates and then assesses competing calls for jihad, or religious struggle, within the cacophony of an immensely diverse umma, the worldwide Muslim community.

Chapter One: Allah Invoked

Practice of the Tongue

Indeed Allah created Adam in His image.

—Sahih Muslim 4731

OVERVIEW

Daily engagement with Allah, by whatever name He is known, becomes a key approach to understanding the Thing, the Absolute, the One. It is where Muslims begin, with the daily, constant, and varied invocation of the name Allah, often in the phrase Allah taʿala, Allah the Lofty the Exalted (lit. “Allah—may He be exalted”). To paint a tapestry as rich and varied as the inflection of Allah in everyday life, one must discern patterns. I have elected three. The first looks at the intimate link of the Thing, the One to the man, the many. It is an approach familiar to most Muslims. Let us call it the mainstream approach. Less common, but still well known, is another pattern that looks at Allah through the maze of names that specify Allah within a constellation of attributes. It locates the One in the midst of the many. Let us call it the mystical approach, since it is Sufi masters in general, and one very popular master in particular (Ibn ʿArabi), who pursues this approach. The final approach may seem recondite, yet it is familiar to all who have special needs that they link to Allah, often through numbers instead of words. Let us call it the magical approach, for it opens up another dimension of the practice of invoking Allah. It is a practice at once more technical and more contested than others.

Where Does the Qurʾan Refer to the Most Beautiful Names?

The Most Beautiful Names belong to Allah,

so call on Him with them,

And reject those who abuse Allah’s names;

they will be recompensed for what they do. (Q 7:180)

Say: Call upon Allah, or call upon Rahman

[the Compassionate]; by whatever name you call

upon Him [it is acceptable], for to Him belong

the Most Beautiful Names. (Q 17:110)

Allah, there is no god but He. To Him belong

the Most Beautiful Names. (Q 20:8)

CONNECTING ALLAH TO ADAM: THE MAINSTREAM APPROACH

What does it mean to say that Allah created Adam/man in His image?¹ How does Adam reflect the image of his creator? In Islam, as in other branches of Abrahamic religion, Allah and Adam are connected intrinsically: the one mirrors the other. When Allah created Adam, He gave him attributes resembling His own. Seven attributes dominate: life, power, knowledge, will, hearing, seeing, and speaking.

Further, Allah is said to have made Adam a storehouse for many of His other names. There are said to be no less, and perhaps many more, than Ninety-nine Divine Names. They are known as asma Allah al-husna, the Most Beautiful Names of Allah. Consider al-Karim (the Generous). Some people are given the name Karim, for instance, the famous American basketball player Karim (Kareem) Abdul-Jabbar. According to tradition, those named Karim take on the attribute connected to the name, demonstrating their worthiness of the name through their acts of generosity. Other people have the name ar-Rahim (the Ever Compassionate), and again, according to tradition, the name is expected to become manifest in them, through the mercy or compassion they show to others.²

Why Is the Meaning of Sadaqa So Difficult? Because It Relates to Four Arabic Words!

A hadith on the meaning of sadaqa (charitable donation):

Verily in every tasbih

(i.e., saying SubhanAllah) there is a sadaqa,

in every takbir

(i.e., saying Allahu Akbar) is a sadaqa,

in every tahmid

(i.e., saying Alhamduli[A]llah) is a sadaqa,

and in every tahlil

(i.e., saying La ilaha illa[A]llah) is a sadaqa.

CHARITY BEGINS AND ENDS WITH ALLAH

Whether linked to divine kindness or mercy, all Muslims are expected to be vigilant in their invocation of the name of Allah. How vigilant is made clear in another saying ascribed to the Prophet Muhammad. It came in response to the query: what charitable donation (sadaqa) should a Muslim make if he or she did not possess sufficient wealth to make a monetary donation?

The four words (tasbih, takbir, tahmid, and tahlil) related to the meaning of sadaqa may sound confusing to someone who does not know Arabic, and rightly so. Why does one need to bother with tasbih, takbir, tahmid, and tahlil? Just think of them in terms of a cycle. Tasbih begins the cycle; takbir continues it; tahmid crowns it, while tahlil completes it. All are essential. None can be bought or traded; each provides a spiritual capital that is deemed to be priceless. So what begins as a question about money or material means becomes something of eternal import: charity, or charitable donation, concerns more than money or material transfer of possessions; it is about constantly remembering the Creator, the Living One who gives life to all things living, and who brings all that is living back to Him for a life beyond this life. Adam is the channel for this activity; he serves as a role model for all humans.

ADAM THE SUCCESSOR TO ALLAH

After creating the angels as inhabitants of heaven, Allah created Adam. The first human, Adam became “successor” to Allah on earth, in this world (Q 2:30). Creating Adam with His own two hands (Q 38:75), Allah breathed His spirit into Adam (Q 15:29; 38:72) and asked him to name the things, a task the angels were unable to do (Q 2:31–2).

All these primordial moments of connection—the two hands, the breath of Allah, the ability to name—become central points of insight in the creation process. And creation itself has stages, plateaus, levels at which one can, and should, marvel at the wisdom of the Creator. The Qurʾan mentions four stages in the creation of humans: from dust, to sperm, to man, to pairs. While Allah is said to have created the pair out of a single self (nafs)(Q 4:1), there was also a secret of the divine economy in the staging of creation: it was only at the third stage that Allah looked at the one, and then divided it into two equal parts: male and female. In other words, Allah created the first human Adam, from dust (Q 3:59), and then in the second stage through sperm, shaping them individually to their complete figure, before in the final stage making them male and female.

[Allah] is the one who created you

of dust, then of a sperm-drop,

then shaped you in the form of a man (Q 18:37),

and then made you pairs. (Q 35:11)

And Allah paid special attention not just to binary forms but also to gender parity in the primal act of creation. Adam, with his mate,³ emerged from one soul:

He created you of a single soul

and from it created its mate,

and from the pair scattered abroad many

men and women (Q 4:1);

[all were] called children of Adam. (Q 7:26–27)

Elsewhere in other Qurʾanic verses Allah is said to have created every animate being of water (Q 24:45) and the jinn from a flame of fire (Q 55:15). Still another pronouncement of creation focuses on the creation of humans in stages that parallel Q 18/35 but with a different twist culminating in bones and flesh:

We [Allah] created man of an extraction of clay,

then we set him, a drop, in a receptacle secure,

then we created of the drop a clot

then we created of the clot a tissue

then we created of the tissue bones

then we garmented the bones in flesh. (Q 23:12–14)

While there is no mention of gender in the above creation narrative, Allah does specify not just the gender dyad but also racial and tribal diversity in a subsequent revelation. The crucial verse is: “We have created you male and female, and appointed you races and tribes” (Q 49:13).

Within this embrace of divine-human affinity, there is a major distinction. Allah fashioned His creation with temporal limits: while creating the human in His image, Allah also determined for him a stated term of life:

He it is

who created you of clay

and then fixed a term

and a term is stated

in His keeping. (Q 6:2)

The One is Eternal, Immortal. The many are finite, mortal.

PERFORMING THE NAME

And so the appropriate, expected response—of the finite creature to the Eternal Creator—is surrender, the literal meaning of islam. Surrender is a lifelong practice, a daily engagement. And so daily engagement with Allah, by whatever name He is known, becomes the key approach to understanding Allah. It provides the reason and also the rhythm for each day: the insistent, repeated invocation of the name of Allah.

From the early seventh century Allah the Lofty the Exalted became the center-stage performance for Muslims. It is an oral performance that begins at birth and continues to death. The very first word that a Muslim child hears is Allah. The shortened call to prayer follows: “Allahu Akbar! I testify that there is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the prophet of Allah. Come to prayer!” And at the time of funeral, or as death approaches, every devout Muslim hopes that s/he will have the strength to say the first half of the shahada: “there is no ilaha but Allah.”

And the Qurʾan also offers a pithy, poignant reminder of Allah when death comes. Death may come at the end of a long, well-lived life or by some unexpected horrible illness or violent act, but when it comes to a parent the pain of separation is always sharp. It was early July 2013 when I got a phone call from one of my former students. He was an Iranian American. His eighty-three-year-old father, who lived in North Carolina, had been in good health, when suddenly he contracted an infection. Within two weeks he was dead. The funeral had been immediate, as is Muslim custom, but now my student wanted to have a memorial service, an event for the larger circle of his father’s friends to attend. He also asked me to attend and to say some words. What I said was less important than what others said. Nearly all recalled the same verse from the Qurʾan: “Inna lillahi wa inna illaihi rajiʿun” (Q 2:156). It me...