Assalamu Alaykum wa Rahmatu Allah wa Barakatuh.
This is your sister Danielle LoDuca. We’ve been discussing the beautiful Names of Allah Almighty and in this short talk we’ll be taking about the name Ar-Rahman, The Most Merciful.
1% of His Mercy
In Sahih Muslim, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) explained that Allah Almighty created mercy in 100 parts and He gave the earth one part (1%) and He kept the remaining 99% with Himself, and it is because of that 1% of that mercy that He created that even an animal avoids trampling its yank.
You know that feeling when you scroll around in front of your car when you’re driving on the road and you step in your breaks and swerve and do anything you can to avoid killing it? That’s one mercy you have on an animal is from that 1% of the mercy that Allah Almighty has given the creation on earth.
Now think about every act of mercy that has occurred since there has been a life on earth until the end of the earth. We’re taking about millions of years, we’re talking about billions and billions of people and animals… It’s unfathomable.
And that’s 1% of the mercy that Allah Almighty created and the rest of it is with Him. So that leads us to His beautiful name Ar-Rahman (the Most Merciful).
The type of mercy that are embodied in this name Ar-Rahman is the mercy that Allah Almighty gives freely to all of His creation, not limited only to the believers for example.
The Most Merciful (Ar-Rahman)
This mercy covers so many things that we can never enumerate them all.
Whether we’re rich or poor, whether we’re sick or disabled or healthy, whether we live peace or we live in conflict… Allah’s extensive mercy reaches each and everyone of us.
Think about the universe, think about the stars and the way that they decorate the skies, think about gravity, the fact that we’re not crushed by the atmosphere…
What about the food that we eat, the fact that it tastes good? Can you imagine a food had no taste? Or the taste is terrible that we still need it for survival? What about the sensation of the relief that we feel having been thirsty drink of water Allah’s mercy…?
Our sight, our arms our legs, our hearing… the fact that our bodies care themselves when you get a cut, it heals.
When our bodies infected with bacteria or viruses, our commune systems spring into action and fight them off.
We haven’t asked for any of these things, we haven’t done anything to deserve any of these things yet Allah Almighty has given them to us.
How about the time we didn’t even know what’s going on.. I found out that I was wearing my contact lenses too much and because of our corneas in our eyes need oxygen and it get it from the air, mine were not receiving enough oxygen from the air… my body produced capillaries to deliver oxygen to the eyes and I had absolutely no idea what’s going on but Allah Almighty is providing a solution to the problem I didn’t even know existed. Alhamdulillah.
So Allah talks about a lot of these kinds of mercies and the chapter that is entitled Ar-Rahman after His beautiful name. But He also talks about Jannah.
Which of His Favors Would You Deny?
So while in chapter Ar-Rahman where He’s talking about His mercy on Humanity, why would He talk about Paradise when not everyone is going to Paradise? That’s because out of His mercy, He has actually created a place for each and everyone for us in Paradise, and He’s given everyone the opportunity to achieve Paradise.
He’s provided us with fitrah (intrinsic human feature) signals to us that we have a purpose headed by a sovereign power, greater than anyone can observe.
So He’s saying: “Look around, there so much mercy that Allah Almighty has given you, so which of these favors would you deny?”
And He said “I even created a place for you in Paradise where there is no cold, where there is no hunger, where there is no fear, no grief, there is happiness for eternity.”
But when you look at the chapter Ar-Rahman, you notice something: Before He mentions all the mercy that He gives us on earth, before He mentions this eternal gold and mind-blowing opportunity to live in Paradise, He mentions something else. He says:
{Ar-Rahman. He has Made known the Quran.} (55:1)
Perhaps this is one of the Allah’s greatest mercies on mankind.
Just imagine you need to get somewhere you’ve never been but you want to go there, can you imagine how difficult it would be to find your way? Now think about the same scenario but this time you have GPS; step by step directions to reach your destination.
Well, not only does the Quran provide the information on where we need to go, where we’re supposed to be going, it tells us why we need to go there and how to get there as well.
In spite of the fact that so of human beings will deny Him despite the fact that so many people continue to associate partners with Allah Almighty and attribute to Him children and deficiencies and qualities that are beneath His majesty and perfection, He continues to provide from His mercy for all of them.
Allah’s Love
So if we are to truly understand this name Ar-Rahman, it necessitates love. When someone shows us so much mercy, how can we do anything beside love that being?
Knowing about Allah’s unfathomable mercy for us, as believers, don’t we feel a sense of shyness when we disobey Him, when we do what He dislikes?
He showered on us so many blessings that we can’t even count them, so many blessings that we don’t even know about, or be aware of them… doesn’t that make it more difficult to disregard His guidance?
When we think about how merciful Allah is to us, even though we don’t deserve it, even we’ve done nothing… this should lead us to be more merciful to others as Allah Almighty tells us:
{Pardon people and overlook their faults. Do you not wish that Allah should forgive you? And Allah is the Most Forgiving, Most Merciful.} (24:22)
How can we judge and say that others are not deserving of our mercy when we ourselves don’t deserve the mercy that we receive on a daily basis from Allah.
Thinking about Ar-Rahman does make you feel that you can never repay Him? Like you can never fulfill His rights? Like you can never do enough worship?
So let us be driven by that feeling to strive to know what Allah loves and hates.
Let us embrace one of the greatest mercies that He has sent for us, the Quran.
Let us strive to implement it in our lives to get closer to our Lord through it.
May Allah help us to be amongst those who are grateful for His mercy on us by showing mercy to His creation, by loving to please Him and by fearing His displeasure.
Ameen.
(From Discovering Islam archive)
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