Allah "Most Gracious, Most Merciful"

What has attracted my attention from the very first moment, or the very first glance, is the fact that all the chapters of the Quran begin with four words which became the essence and the basis of Islam, or rather its address and the door leading to it. They are : "In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful".

In their meaning and form, letter and spirit, these four words are, without doubt, the most beautiful utterance the human ear has ever perceived. The words and deeds of a person who says : "In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful" and who acts accordingly must be full of mercy, the greatest virtue with which a person's soul can be embellished.

If in Christianity God is Love, as one famous Jesuit has summed Him up, in Islam Allah - The Great and Almighty - is "Mercy." Therefore, the real Muslim, one who is true to his faith, can only be merciful.

Christ, said : "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy".

Mohammed, the Arab Prophet - God's blessing and peace be upon him - said : "Be merciful to those on earth, He Who is in Heaven will be merciful to you".

Together with Christ and Mohammed, I will say : "Blessed is every Muslim who follows that which is in God's Book", or rather : "Blessed are the most gracious and most merciful Muslims who follow along the path of their Prophet and who do exactly what their Lord and Creator has commanded them".

Being the very essence of Islam, as we have already said, that mercy is closely followed by the humanness and universality of this religion. Islam is the religion of the human being, in every sense of the word, and  in every age and place; it is not just for the Arabs and Muslims.

"O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other. Verily the most honored of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you", [The Private Apartments : 13].

"O mankind!" means "all the peoples of the earth," you, the people of today and those of tomorrow, Arabs or non-Arabs, Muslims or non-Muslims. Piety is your guide to Allah, your Creator, the Lord of the Worlds.

With its humanness and universality, Islam is an open religion which receives everyone with open arms. The person feels confident that he will find in it a nourishment for the soul, provisions for the Hereafter, and a spiritual ladder to lift him up closer to Allah - Most Gracious, Most Merciful- and to elevate him to the Heaven which Allah - the Great and Almighty-  has prepared for the God-fearing.

It is within this context that the following verse fits in perfectly well, and where its meaning becomes clearer : "Nor your desires, nor those of the People of the Book (can prevail) : whoever works evil, will be requited accordingly. Nor will he find, besides Allah, any protector or helper", [Women : 123].

Indeed, it is not your fancies, O Muslims! Nor yours, O Christians! If a Muslim works evil, he will receive a penalty for it; so will the Christian should he do likewise. Islam has absolutely nothing to do with race, fanaticism, and sectarianism. It is a religion for all humankind.

Many are the verses in the Holy Quran which state that Allah - the Great and Almighty - sent Mohammed to all the people, not just to the Arabs. Of such verses we will mention the following :

"We have not sent thee but as a universal (Messenger) to men, giving them glad tidings, and warning them (against sin)", [Saba : 28].

"Blessed is He Who sent down the Criterion to his servant, that it may be an admonition to all creatures", [The Criterion : 1].

"Say : 'O men! I am sent unto you, as the Messenger of Allah", [The Heights : 158].

This is why the person feels that he is not concerned with stock, race and color. Whether he belongs to the North or the South, to the West or the East, the individual is concerned with Islam and its principles, with its spiritual, moral, educational and social values intended for all humankind and at every stage of its history, from the moment mankind came into existence to the day it will transit from the state of extinction to that of eternal existence.

Allah - the Great and Almighty - has made clear that Islamic holy places - particularly Makkah al-Mokarrama with its Kaaba al-Sharifa - are the starting point, not the end, and that they are a meeting point in time for the pilgrims who travel to them from everywhere to get to know and bless one another, and to pray to Allah - Most Gracious and Most Merciful - seeking His forgiveness and blessings. They all return to their countries after they have purified their souls and hearts from the abominations they had committed throughout the days and years.

Allah will accept the Muslim's prayer even if the latter fails to turn his face toward the Kiblah on account of his not being certain of its direction, for Allah is concerned with what fills the hearts and the minds, and not with the direction to which the faces and the eyes are turned. "To Allah belong the East and the West : whithersoever ye turn, there is Allah's countenance", [The Cow : 115].

Also: "It is not righteousness that ye turn your faces towards East or West(*); but it is righteousness to believe in Allah and the Last Day, and the Angels, and the Book, and the Messengers; to spend of your substance, out of love for Him, for your kin, for those who ask and for the ransom of slaves; to be steadfast in prayer, and practise regular charity, to fulfil the contracts which ye have made", [The Cow : 177].

These two verses - they are not the only ones - have elevated Islam to the pinnacle of humanness and universality, freed it from every constraint, and epitomized the religion of God, thus making it the religion of the "humane human being", so to speak.

Prayer, as is already known, is one pillar of Islam. Allah has enjoined it upon Muslims in more than one verse, of these we will mention the following :

“Set up regular Prayers: for such Prayers are enjoined on Believers at stated times", [Women : 103].

"... and establish regular Prayers: for Prayer restrains from shameful and unjust deeds", [The Spider : 45].

"O ye who believe! Seek help with patient Perseverance and Prayer", [The Cow : 153].

"What led you into Hell-Fire ? They will say, 'We were not of those who prayed", [The Enshrouded One : 42-43].

"Truly man was created very impatient, fretful when evil touches him and niggardly when good reaches him. Not so those devoted to Prayer", [The Ascending Stairways: 19-22].

Allah does not want a prayer from the lips, as if praying were a tedious chore that does not emanate from the bottom of the heart. He wants a prayer that invokes His presence, and frees the soul from everything that fetters it at the time of praying to enable the worshiper to live every word he utters and appreciate its meaning :

"So woe to the worshipers who are neglectful of their Prayers", [Small Kindness : 4-5].

Islam's humanness and universality are most apparent in al-Fatiha, (the opening Surah of the Holy Quran, which must be read in every prayer), particularly in the words "Lord of the Worlds". Through these two words, the Muslim feels and believes that he belongs, by way of his Lord - the Lord of the Worlds - to the human family in which every race, color and, for that matter, all the people are dissolved.

It is worth pointing out that al-Fatiha (The Opening), which counts only seven verses, has repeated the two words "Most Gracious, Most Merciful" twice to remind the faithful that Allah - to Whom be ascribed all perfection and majesty,  Holder of the Ninety-nine Names - has chosen these two attributes, preferring them to all other names.

As we have said earlier, this is the reason why all the chapters of the Holy Quran begin with Basmala (invocation) : "In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful". That is, they start with the great and eternal Mercy. Also worth mentioning in this connection is the fact that Basmala, which is the opening verse of al-Fatiha, is a separate invocation uttered at the beginning of each chapter, without being part of it. This means that Mercy, with its humanness and universality, is the principal attribute of Allah, Lord of the Worlds.

By virtue of its universality, Islam looks with great deference and respect at all the Prophets and Messengers whom God had chosen to guide people, before the Holy Quran was sent down to the Prophet, and before He chose Mohammed Ibn Abdullah as Prophet and Messenger :

“Say ye : 'We believe in Allah and the revelation given to us, and to Abraham, Isma'il, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and that given to Moses and Jesus, and that given to (all) Prophets from their Lord : We make no difference between one and another of them : and we bow to Allah (in Islam)'", [The Cow : 136].

And :

"O ye who believe! Believe in Allah and His Messenger and the Scripture which He hath sent to His Messenger and the scripture which He hath sent to those before (him). Any who denieth Allah, His Angels, His Books, His Messengers, and the Day of Judgement, hath gone far, far astray", [Women : 136].

Also :

"Those who deny Allah and His Messengers, and (those who) wish to separate Allah from His Messengers, saying : 'We believe in some but reject others': and (those who) wish to take a course midway, they are in truth (equally) unbelievers; and we prepared for Unbelievers a humiliating punishment", [Women : 150-51].

These and other verses of the same import were, no doubt, among the reasons which had made me feel quite comfortable, intellectually, and spiritually speaking with Islam - this religion which receives the believers, or rather all the people, with open arms and invites them to walk farther along the road which eventually takes them to the Great Truth.

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the Tribes  (in the Jewish Tradition, the Tribes are the children of Jacob and the leaders of the Twelve Tribes) and Moses, to mention but the Old Testament,  are in the Islamic Tradition Prophets and Messengers whom Allah had chosen and upon whom He had bestowed His prophesy and guidance. From Islam's point of view, they are not Jews, as historians would often like to call them, nor are they Arabs; they do not belong to any particular stock, race or color. Rather, they are the prophets and messengers of humanity, with a universal mission, which makes them the property of the human conscience, that of  yesterday, of today, and of tomorrow in God's vast realm.

Allah - the Great and Almighty - commands "those who believe", that is, Muslims, to believe in the Books which were revealed before : The Torah and the  New Testament, as firmly as they believe in the Holy Quran, the Book Allah sent down to His Messenger.

The Messengers are all equal before Allah in terms of essence and identity, and in terms of the origin and originality of the mission. The source is one : Allah, The One and Only.

Where the Torah and the New Testament are concerned, God's words are clear :

"It is He Who sent down to thee (step by step), in truth the Book, confirming what went before; and He sent down the Law (of  Moses) and the Gospel (of Jesus) before this, as a guide to mankind and he sent down the Criterion (of judgement between right and wrong)", [The Family of Imran : 3-4].

And also :

"And in their footsteps We sent Jesus the son of Mary, confirming the law that had come before him : We sent him the Gospel : therein was guidance and light, and confirmation of the Law that had come before him : a guidance and an admonition to those who fear Allah", [The Table Spread : 46].

This means, among other things, that Islam looks with great respect at Judaism and Christianity as two religions revealed by Allah - the Great and Almighty - as it regards the Prophets who, within the framework of these religions, worked for elevating and spreading God's Word and good in the worlds.

Worth pointing out is the fact that Islam does not shut the door in the face of a Christian who wishes to know it and learn from it. In fact, the Christian in general - with some exceptions which we will mention in due course - feels as he skims through the Holy Quran as one of the believers  with whom he is united in the bonds of love and friendliness which emanate from that which God has sent down to Jesus, his Mother Mary, the Christians and the anchorites.

A case in point is the verse which says : "And dispute ye not with the people of the Book, except with means better (than mere disputation), unless it be with those of them who inflict wrong (and injury); but say 'We believe in the Revelation which has come down to us and that which came down to you; our God and your God is one; and it is to Him we bow (in Islam)", [The Spider : 46].

If the words "People of the Book" include the Jews and the Christians in general, the prevailing spirit in the Koranic verses and the affectionate atmosphere of the Holy Quran permit us to give preponderance to the fact that what is meant by these words is the Christians, not the Jews, whenever the verse  expresses "friendliness" and "appreciation", for both of these words are related to "mercy" which is patent in Christianity in general and in the person of Christ, and in the friendly relationships that began to grow and develop between the Christians of Arabia and the Prophet in person. Characterized by mutual love and acknowledgement, these relationships  were a far cry from those between the Jews of Arabia and the Muslims in general, and between the Jews and the Prophet in particular.

The following verse expresses this point very clearly :

"Strongest among those in enmity to the Believers wilt thou find the Jews and the Pagans; and nearest among them in love to the believers wilt thou find those who say 'We are Christians' : because amongst these are men devoted to learning and men who have renounced the world, and they are not arrogant", [The Table Spread : 82].

In this verse, The Holy Quran draws a clear distinction between the Jews and the Christians, even though both are "People of the Book". We also find this meaning in the verse from the Surah "Women" : "The People of the Book ask thee to cause a book to descend to them from heaven : indeed they asked Moses for an even greater (miracle), for they said : 'Show us Allah in public,' but they were dazed for punishment", [Women : 153].

From this verse, it becomes clear that the "People of the Book" are the Jews, who asked Moses - who lived a little over ten centuries before the advent of Christianity - to show them God in public.

Also : "O ye who believe! Take not for friends and protectors those who take your religion for a mockery or sport, whether among those who received the Scripture before you, or among those who reject faith; but fear Allah if ye have faith (indeed)", [The Table Spread : 57]. And : "Curses were pronounced on those among the children of Israel who rejected faith, by the tongue of David and Jesus, the son of Mary, because they disobeyed and persisted in Excess", [The Table Spread : 78].

Thus it becomes clear that Jesus, Son of Mary, pronounced curses on those from among the Children of Israel who rejected faith, because they disobeyed God and persisted in excess. Before him, David, who was one of their prophets, had also cursed them for the same reasons.

It is worth pointing out that in the Holy Quran Allah has prepared a most grievous penalty for the Jews, and has pronounced curses on them for their slaying of the Messengers in defiance of the Truth, for their serious slandering of Mary, and for claiming that they had slain the Messenger of God, Christ Jesus, Son of Mary, whom He had raised up unto Himself, as is explained in the verses 152-161 of the Surah "Women".

But Allah - to Whom be ascribed all perfection and majesty, He is Exalted in power, Wise - holds a different view of those amongst the Jews who are well-grounded in knowledge, who believe in that which was revealed to Mohammed and in that which went before him, and who establish regular prayer, give regular charity, and believe in the Last Day, "To them shall We soon give a great reward".

Therefore, Islam is free from racial discrimination, preference of one race over another, or prejudice against a people, for that would go against its humanness and universality. Islam judges people by their deeds, whether  individually or as a group : "Then shall anyone who has done an atom's weight of good, see it. And anyone who has done an atom's weight of evil, shall see it", [The Earthquake : 7-8].

Islam's position with regard to Jews is : a grievous penalty for the unbelievers amongst them, the disobedient and the transgressors, and a great reward for those Jews who are well-grounded in knowledge, believe in God's revelations, establish regular prayer and practise regular charity.