Hamd (the praise) is Allah's

Mar 9, '13 11:15 AM for everyone

Hamd (the praise) is Allah's. It has no beginning and no end. We, the created beings, do our best, within our limitations, to give expression to the "real praise" (hamd). His hamd, as His grace, is unlimited and continuous. No one can praise the merciful even for a whole life-time and say that justice has been done, because every time one gives thanks to Allah he inhales and also exhales, drawing in the good life-giving air and exhaling the bad air, two bounties he is receiving for which only once can he say "I thank the bountiful Lord". It is impossible to thank Allah for the innumerable bounties He has put at the disposal of man, right inside his body, and in the world where he lives as an individual as well as a member of the community. Even the thanks and praises he offers to the bountiful have been taught to him by the Lord of the worlds. Therefore, every creature is, all the time under the obligation of the bountiful grace of Allah.

By praising, we reach the stage where the infinite goodness of our Lord purges out of us the taste for evil and creates in us the eagerness to get nearer and nearer to Him to earn His mercy which purifies us and reflects in us the divine attributes.

RABBUL ALAMIN

Rabb in Arabic stands for nourisher, cherisher, and sustainer. According to Raghib, an Arab lexicologist, the word rabb signifies "the fostering of a thing in such a manner as to make it attain one condition after another until its goal of completion".

Our Lord is He who gave unto everything its form, and then guided it aright. (TAHA; 50)

This is rahmah, mercy, from the rabbul alamin.

The love and mercy of Allah towards His creatures surpasses, in quantity and quality, the love of both the father and mother put together. From the birth to the last breath everything in the universe depends upon the rububiyat, the nourishing, cherishing, sustaining and protecting aspect of the mercy of the Lord of the worlds. No single English word to give the meaning of the word rabbcould be found, but "Lord" seems to be the only alternative if readers remember the above noted description whenever the word "Lord" appears in our text.

"Verily, We have created everything by (the right) measure". (QAMAR: 49)

Things necessary for the living beings, all over the universe, in all times, are available to satisfy various wants and needs. The quality and quantity of the "resources" have been determined according to the collective requirements of all that which has been created. Some things are rare, some things are plentiful, but at all events nothing is less or more. A thoughtful study of the complex of "things" brings the obvious fact to light that there is only one single owner master who has set the wonderfully harmonious working of the universe in motion, allowed life to be created, and in addition, enabled each and every creation to put into effect the aim of its being brought into existence.

The heat of the sun changes the water into a mass of fog and the wind takes it to the sky in the shape of rolling clouds and drives them over various parts of the earth; and when the stored water in the clouds melts on account of the solar glow, it rains all over the earth. The earth receives the water and grows "food" for all the living beings. Every being finds, all that which serves to maintain life on earth, ready, as soon as it comes into being, duly provided and arranged in the required quantity and quality. The milk, a new-born baby feeds on, is ready in the mother's breasts well in advance of its birth.

The merciful rabbul alamin has provided manifold bounties for the survival and happiness of the incomprehensibly large number of the members of each of the innumerable species in the universe. There is perfect harmony and undisturbable control in the continuous working of nature. Each creature, perfectly formed and fully equipped, has an inherent capacity to make use of the available "resources of the bounties", and obtain its own means of sustenance from one complete regular system. This orderly arrangement, according to the Quran, takes effect by means of taqdir and hidayat.