Allah is One

It is a known fact that every language has one or more expressions that refer to God. That’s not the case with the word Allah. Allah is the personal name of the One true God. Nothing besides Him can be called Allah. The word Allah shows the uniqueness compared with the word God, from which one can make grammatically many gods and the female form goddess. For Muslims, God is the Almighty, Creator and Sustainer of the universe, where nothing is the same and with nothing comparable. The Prophet (PBUH) was asked by his contemporaries about Allah but the answer came directly from God Himself in the form of a short Surah of the Qur’an, which is considered as the basic feature of the Quran or as a principle of monotheism. This is Surah Al-Ikhlas, which reads:

“Say: He is Allah, the One and Only Allah, the Eternal, Absolute. He begets not, nor is He begotten. And there is none like Him.”

According to non-Muslims God in Islam is a hard and cruel. He is the one who demands obedience full and is not loving and friendly. Nothing can be further from the truth than this allegation. Suffice it to know that, with one exception, each of the 114 suras of the Quran begins with the following: ‘In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful!’ The Prophet (PBUH) said:

“God is loving and friendly than a mother to her dear child.”

But God is also just. Hence evildoers and sinners must have their share of punishment and the virtuous come to benefit from the generosity of God. In fact, God’s quality of mercy is fully expressed in his capacity of justice. People, who oppress and exploit their whole lives, should not receive the same treatment from Allah. Islam refuses to characterize God in any human form or represent him figuratively. Certain individuals or nations prefer doing this due to wealth, power or race. He created human beings as equal creatures. They could be distinguished and earn His favor only through virtue and piety. The allegations that God rested on the seventh day of creation, had wrestled with one of his soldiers or He is an envious conspirators against mankind, or that He is incarnate in any human, all this is viewed from the Islamic point of view as blasphemous. The unique use of the word Allah as the personal name of God reflects the Islamic emphasis on the purity of faith in God, that faith which is the innermost core of the message that conveys all the messengers of God. For this reason Islam considers the joining of any deity or a personal being with God as a deadly sin that is never forgiven by Allah Almighty. The conclusion thereof is: Nothing is like Him. (42:11)

The fact that everything around us is temporal and that it couldn’t have been created except by an eternal creator has been known to human beings since the dawn of their creation and it is still the belief of majority of people all around the world. This means that He is in-Self sufficient. And if he has to rely on anyone in His existence, then His existence can have no end.