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Why Is Allah Al-Kareem (The Most Generous)?

Al-Kareem (The Most Generous) is one of the Attributes of Allah because of the following reasons:

1- The Most Generous forgives the sins of His servants

generous nature

When Allah gives, He gives His servant abundantly, and when He is disobeyed, He covers the sins of His servant.

As we have discussed earlier, the word Kareem has many meanings. When we say that Allah (may His Glory be glorified) is Kareem, this means that He overlooks His servants’ flaws, unlike the mean person who traces down people’s shortcomings.

Also, Allah is Kareem in the sense that He overlooks the sins of His servants, unlike the mean person who looks for the trivial violations of other people.

This Divine overlooking is different from being unaware, and though Allah overlooks, everything with Him is in (due) proportion.

Allah knows the fraud of the eyes, and all that the breasts conceal. (Ghafir 40:19)

Not a secret is hidden from Him. Al-Kareem overlooks others’ faults, whereas the mean person traces them down. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said:

Take refuge in Allah from the following destructive three: a bad neighbor who covers your good and spreads out your evil, a bad wife who is foul-mouthed in your presence and treacherous in your absence, and a bad leader who ignores your good deeds and does not forgive your wrongdoings.” (Narrated by Abu Hurairah)

Al-Kareem is the One Who covers people’s sins and hide their flaws, and this is a Divine Attribute of Allah (Glorified and Sublime be He).

2- Allah abundantly rewards the one who obeys Him

When you say Al-Kareem, this means that when Allah’s worshipping servants shows little submissiveness towards Him, Allah will reward them abundantly. Can you believe that the bite of food which you put in your wife’s mouth will become on the Day of Resurrection as great as the mountain of Uhud. Thus, let your commerce be doing good deeds and be rewarded by Allah.

Is there any investing company which gives you 100 thousand million Liras as profits for one Lira? There is none. On the other hand, the one bite of food, which you put in your wife’s mouth, is considered a sadaqah (charity) you give, and it will be as huge as the mountain of Uhud on the Day of Resurrection. Allah says:

And march forth in the way (which leads to) forgiveness from your Lord, and for Paradise as wide as are the heavens and the earth, prepared for the pious). (Aal `Imran 3:11)

3- Allah raises high the fame of the unknown wretched servant of His

When we say Allah is Al-Kareem (Most Generous), this means that He makes man, who is wretched poor and needy, a well-known man. Furthermore, Allah will raise high his servant’s fame and rank and will cast love for him in the hearts of His creations.

“O My salve! You desire (something) and I desire (something else). If you surrender to that which I desire, I suffice you concerning that which you desire; but if you refuse to surrender to that which I desire, I tire you out in that which you desire, and then you get nothing but that which I desire.” (Mentioned in the relic)

Allah will make this poor, weak, wretched and needy servant someone to be mentioned by concealing his flaws from people and showing them the goodness he has.

And fulfill (your obligations to) My Covenant (with you) so that I fulfill (My Obligations to) your covenant (with Me), and fear none but Me. (Al-Baqarah 2:40)

“Abu Sa`eed (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, ‘Allah (the Most High) says, ‘When engrossment with the Qur’an preoccupies a person from making dhikr and asking from me, I grant him better than what I grant to those who ask from Me.’ The Rank of the Word of Allah over other forms of speech is like the rank of Allah over all His creation.” (At-Tirmidhi)

4- Allah clarifies to us the purpose of His Ordainments

When we say Al-Kareem this means that Allah, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, is Generous enough to give the purpose of His orders to His servants, though He Has the power to impose His orders without any justification.

The powerful person gives orders without explaining the purpose of doing them, and he just says, “Do what I ordered you, or I will crush you”. The Creator of the heavens and the earth says to you:

O you who believe! Observing sawm (the fasting) is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may become (the pious). (Al-Baqarah 2:183)

Allah gives you the purpose of sawm (which is that you may become the pious).

Take Sadaqah (alms) from their wealth in order to purify them and sanctify them with it, and invoke Allah for them. Verily! Your invocations are a source of security for them. (At-Tawbah 9:103)

Hence, justifying the Divine Orders is out of the Karam (generosity) of Allah the Almighty. Some ruthless fathers give orders to their sons and hit them if they do not obey, whereas the merciful father gives his orders to his son and says, ‘O son, obeying my orders will add up to your own good, future, reputation and superiority’.

5- Allah subjugated everything to man, because the latter accepted to bear the trust

When we say Allah is Kareem (Generous), this means that He subjugated everything to us just because we, as human beings, bore the trust:

All that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth; it is all as a favor and kindness from Him﴿ (Al-Jathiyah 45:13)

He it is Who created for you all that is on earth. (Al-Baqarah 2:29)

These things are subjected exclusively for you. There are hundreds of thousands of kinds of flowers, plants and indoor ornamental plants which live without the sunlight, and they are all subjected for you. A joke goes as follows: A man gave a Jasmine to a donkey, and it ate it. The moral: Jasmine is created for man to smell, but the one who gives it to the donkey is a donkey himself.

All that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth; it is all as a favour and kindness from Him. (Al-Jathiyah 45:13)

Hence, when we say that Allah is Al-Kareem this means that when He gives, He gives His servant abundantly, and when He is disobeyed, He covers the sins of His servant.

6- All hopes are pinned on Him

When we say Allah is Al-Kareem (the Most Generous), it means that all hopes are pinned to Him. In order to understand this point, consider the example of a very generous person who said to another person, ‘Ask for my help whenever you need something, and do not ask anyone else to help you’. There are very generous people to such an extent that they feel jealous if you humiliate yourself and ask someone else other than them to help you fulfill your need. Hence, The Almighty Allah gets angry if His servant asks someone else to fulfill his need. The poet said:

Do not ask the son of Adam for a need

and ask Him whose gates never close

for the Lord gets Upset if you stop asking Him

while the son of Adam gets upset when asked for help

7- Allah never abandons the one who seeks His shelter and takes refuge with Him

Al-Kareem has another meaning: Allah never abandons whoever seeks His shelter and takes refuge with Him:

And will never decrease the reward of your good deeds. (Muhammad 47:35)

Pin all your hopes on Allah, put all your trust in Him and count on Allah.

One of the basic weakness of your faith you more confidence to treasure in your hands than what’s on the side of Allah. (At-Tirmidhi)

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Source: nabulsi.com

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Divine Unity New Muslims

Beautiful Names of Allah: As-Salam (The Source of Peace)

The Divine Name of Allah “As-Salam” (The Source of peace, safety and perfection), is mentioned in some of the verses of the Qur’an:

As-Salam, peace

Allah is Free from all kinds of imperfection, His Attributes are free from all kinds of defects, His Acts are free from absolute evil.

He is Allah. There is no god but Him, the King, the Holy, As-Salam (the Source of Peace, safety and Perfection), the Giver of security, the Watcher over His creatures, the All-Mighty, the Compeller, the Supreme. Glory be to Allah! (High is He) above all that they associate as partners with Him. (Al-Hashr 59:23)

Allah calls to the Home of Peace (i.e. Paradise) and guides whom He wills to the Straight Path. (Yunus 10:25)

And if he (the dying person) be of those of the Right Hand, then there is safety and peace for those of the Right Hand. (Al-Waqi`ah 56:90,91)

…and

And peace be on him the day he was born, the day he dies, and the day he will be raised up alive. (Maryam 19:15)

This Divine Name of Allah means that He, All-Mighty, All-Majestic, is the Source of Peace and Safety, which also means that He, Glorified and Exalted, is free from any kind of defect, His Attributes are free from any kind of imperfection, His Acts are free from any kind of evil.

But here we have to elaborate some delicate expressions: He is Free from any kind of defect, His Attributes are free from any kind of imperfection, and His Acts are free from any kind of evil.

But isn’t there evil in this present world? So how come that scholars, when they interpret such a Great Divine Name of Allah, say that His Acts are free from any kind of evil?!

How Do You Think of Allah, As-Salam

At the outset, and in answer to this question, I give special importance to this point, because if you properly understand it, dear reader, you think well of your Lord, Allah, Most Gracious. And undoubtedly, to think well of Allah is the price of Paradise.

In fact this statement has to be understood to mean that Allah’s Acts are free from any kind of absolute evil. But what is absolute evil?!

It is evil that we do just for evil itself. For example, if someone has a serious inflammation in his vermiform appendix, doesn’t the surgeon, whom we wish to carry out such an operation, use a special knife whereby he cuts his flesh? And doesn’t his blood gush out after he has been anesthetized? When he comes round, doesn’t he feel pain?

Do we really desire to cut his body just because we like to harm him or save him? Doesn’t such well-experienced surgeon cut open the patient’s body and cut off his inflamed vermiform appendix saving him from danger and bringing him health, safety and comfort?

But when someone stabs another just for the sake of killing him without any crime he has committed, we say: This is an absolute evil deed, i.e. doing evil things just for the sake of evil. But when a surgeon cuts open his patient’s abdomen to eradicate his inflamed vermiform appendix and bring him safety and comfort is by no means absolute evil, because it is conducive to good favorable results in the end. In this sense should we understand Allah’s Divine Name “As-Salam”, i.e. the One Who provides safety and peace.

Allah’s Acts are, hence, free from any kind of absolute evil; but when man does evil for the sake of evil, this is absolute evil.

Therefore, in the light of the afore-mentioned we should believe that there is no absolute evil in Allah’s Acts. Yes, indeed, there is no absolute evil in Allah’s Acts. But there are kinds of evil that Allah, Alone, knows; and such kinds of evil are necessary to bring about good desirable results.

Man has been created for eternal happiness. But if he deviates from his target, he must be corrected, he must be treated, he must be pushed forward, and he must be deterred. Something must be done to push him towards his noble target.

Hence, he who believes that in Allah’s Acts there is absolute evil, or that Allah, Most Gracious, does evil just for the sake of evil, does not know Allah at all. To this effect, Allah, Most Merciful, says:

Say, ‘O Allah! Possessor of the Kingdom! You give the kingdom to whom You will; and You take the kingdom from whom You will; and You endue with honor whom You will; and You humiliate whom You will. In Your Hand is the Good. Verily, You are Powerful over all things. (Aal `Imran 3:26)

For Man’s Good

For example, is there in the whole world a real father who sees his son commit a crime or a grievous sin – such as stealing money, robbing others of their possessions, telling big lies, transgressing against the rights of others or killing unlawfully other fellow humans – and yet stands hand-folded and does nothing to deter his son by scolding, advising, beating, warning, reproaching, blaming, …etc.?!

And is there in the whole world a real father who intentionally injures or does harm to his dutiful righteous son who does no evil things at all?

Such simple human fathers can never do such unfair and unjust evil things as those mentioned above.

Hence, absolute evil does not exist in Allah’s Acts; and whatever disaster befalls humans is due to what their hands have earned. Moreover, the more grievous the deviation, the harder the treatment.

That was the first meaning of Allah’s Beautiful Divine Name “As Salam”, i.e. Allah is Free from all kinds of imperfection, His Attributes are free from all kinds of defects, His Acts are free from absolute evil.

Any kind of evil that Allah, Most Gracious, inflicts on His creatures is meant for the near or far benefit of mankind.

For example, someone might lose all his wealth, or suffer from an incurable disease that forces him to spend all his money for its treatment. Such total loss of wealth, and such incurable disease both seem to be seriously evil to those who undergo them.

But when we remember that man has been created for an eternal happiness, that such disease or loss do serve as a kind of treatment to drive him back to his Lord, Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, and that the ultimate goal of such loss or disease is a noble one, i.e. ultimate good for man.

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Source: nabulsi.com

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Divine Unity New Muslims

Beautiful Names of Allah: Al-Kareem (The Most Generous)

The Almighty Allah called His Exalted Divine Character by the name Al-Kareem, and this name is mentioned in many verses in the Qur’an and in the authenticated Prophetic texts.

Allah says:

Al-Kareem

Al-Kareem is generous even without being asked by others.

O man! What has made you careless concerning your Lord, the Most Generous? Who created you, fashioned you perfectly, and gave you due proportion. (Al-Infitar 82: 6,7)

The religious call succeeds if it addresses both the heart and mind:

Allah addresses man’s heart and reasoning in one of the most delicate verses in the Qur’an, which indicates that the religious speech will not be fruitful unless it addresses man’s heart and mind together. Man is a comprehending mind, a loving heart and a moving body. The mind is nourished by knowledge, the heart is nourished by love, whereas the body is nourished by food and drinks.

Thus, when man fulfills the needs of these three important parts, definitely there will be prosperity. However, falling short in fulfilling any of these needs on the account of other needs will lead to extremism, and there is a big difference between prosperity and extremism.

O man! What has made you careless. (Al-Infitar 82:6)

Allah then addresses man’s heart:

Who created you, fashioned you perfectly, and gave you due proportion. (Al-Infitar 82:7)

Verily, We created man of the best stature (mould). (At-Tin 95:4)

The Work of Allah, Who perfected all thing. (An-Naml 27:88)

Allah: Al-Kareem, Al-Ghani

Dear brothers, the name Al-Kareem comes with the name Al-Ghani (The Ever-Affluent) in the following Ayah:

And whoever is grateful, truly, his gratitude is for (the good of) his own-self, and whoever is ungrateful, (he is ungrateful only for the loss of his own-self). Certainly! My Lord is Rich (Free of all wants), Bountiful. (An-Naml 27:40)

In the world of men, you might notice that the stingy rich man is closefisted. Allah says:
p style=”padding-left: 30px; padding-right: 30px;”>Verily, man (disbeliever) was created very impatient Irritable (discontented) when evil touches him And niggardly when good touches him. (Al-Ma`arij 70:19-21)

He does not spend unlike the Almighty Allah who is Kareem and Ghani. You also might find a generous man in spite of his poverty, or a rich man who is stingy. In fact being generous and rich is one of the noblest characteristics one can have.

And whoever is grateful, truly, his gratitude is for (the good of) his ownself, and whoever is ungrateful, (he is ungrateful only for the loss of his own-self). Certainly! My Lord is Rich (Free of all wants), Bountiful.”

Al-Kareem in Prophetic Sunnah

We have discussed how the name Al-Kareem is mentioned in the Quran so far, but what about Sunnah?

“`Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “The Messenger of Allah said to me, ‘Should I not teach you some words that if you say them, Allah will forgive you, even if you were already forgiven?’ He (peace be upon him) said, ‘Say: None has the right to be worshipped but Allah, the Most High, the Magnificent. None has the right to be worshipped but Allah, the Ever-Forbearing. None has the right to be worshipped but Allah glory be to Allah, the Lord of the Magnificent Throne. (La Ilaha Illa Allahu Al-`Aliyu Al-`Azim, La Ilaha Illa Allahul-Al-Halimu Al-Kareem, Lailaha Illa Allah, Subhan Allahu Rabbil-Arsh Al-`Azim.)’”. (At-Tirmidhi)

“Indeed your Lord is Modest and Generous, and would never turn the hands of a slave without gain when he raises them to Him (in supplication).” (At-Tabarani)

Core of `Ibadah

Du`aa’ is the core of `Ibadah:

Hence (Allah the Almighty) says:

Say (O Muhammad, peace be upon him, to the disbelievers): “My Lord pays attention to you only because of your invocation to Him. But now you have indeed denied (Him). So the torment will be yours for ever (inseparable permanent punishment).” (Al-Furqan 25:77)

Du`aa’ is the core of `Ibadah (worshiping), because the one, who makes du`aa’ to Allah believes in Allah’s Existence, believes that Allah hears him, believes that Allah Has the Power to answer his du`aa’ and believes that Allah loves him.

Hence, if man believes that Allah exists, hears, knows everything, has the power to answer him and loves him, and that Allah is the Most Merciful of all those who show mercy, only then he will reach the highest ranks of having faith. This is why Allah loves to be supplicated persistently:

“Allah likes to see His servant resorting to Him even in the most trivial things:

(Let one of you ask his Lord concerning his needs until he asks him even for the salt of his food and a shoestring when his breaks.)

Thus, du`aa’  is the gist of `Ibadah. Allah says:

Those who remain constant in their Salat (prayers). (Al-Ma’arij 70:23)
In this Ayah “remain constant” means in their du`aa’  to Allah.

`A’ishah (may Allah be pleased with her) reported, “I said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, what do you think, if I witness Laylat Al-Qadr, what I should say?’ The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, ‘Say, O Allah You are Forgiving and Generous, and you love forgiveness, so forgive me’. (At-Tirmidhi)

One of the most repeated supplications made by the Prophet- `A’ishah reported, is the following:

“O Allah You are Forgiving and Generous, and you love forgiveness, so forgive me.” (At-Tirmizi)

These are the texts from the Qur’an and Sunnah where the name Al-Kareem is mentioned.

Al-Kareem in Arabic

According to the Arabic language Al-Kareem is an adjective in the form of the active participle, which means that it describes the one who is generous. Hence, whoever is generous is Kareem, and its antonym is La’eem (the vile).

A lot of exalted characters are included in generosity, whereas lots of indecent manners are included in vileness. In the Arabic language, the adjective Kareem might be used to describe a man, a horse, a camel a tree or any other thing.

Also, Al-Kareemah is used to mention the daughter of someone. Moreover, the word Kareem in Arabic language denotes the good thing, like the Kareem stones (like diamond and other gems), and it also describes the rich and As-Sakhi (charitable man).

The difference between Al-Kareem (the generous man)and As-Sakhi, is that As-Sakhi is generous when he is asked by others, whereas Al-Kareem is generous even without being asked by others, and this makes him more exalted than As-Sakhi.

Again, Al-Karam (the Arabic noun) denotes bestowal, greatness, honor, dignity and generosity in giving others.

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Source: nabulsi.com

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