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Hikma Essay
Hikma Essay
Hikma S10
Essay 1
Q. Using strictly scripture (Quran, hadith) as the basis of your argument, and in your own words,
intangible thing, which cannot be seen or touched like many other tangible things, but it can be
expressed or felt. Love can be the objective of what individuals say or what they want to achieve.
The basic necessities of individuals are clearly highlighted in the following verse of Holy Quran,
“Beautified for humankind is love of lusts – of women, children, stored-up heaps of gold and
silver, horses of mark, cattle, and tillage. That is the comfort of the life of this world; but God
Individuals spend their lives in search of family, children, prestige, wealth, God and Hereafter,
and hence they find love. Imam Ghazali defines love as a liking towards beauty after being
pleased by it. However, love cannot be complete without God, as it is He who has created all the
beautiful things that human beings tend to love. This paper will discuss that how God shows love
to humans i.e. by His beautiful creation and His Mercy and not only humans but all of His
creations. It will also discuss how should humans show their love to God in response to God’s
love.
God loves all He has created, so He has put beauty in all of His creations. Allah says in
the Holy Quran, “Who beautified everything that He created. And He began the creation of man
from clay.” (Al-Sajdah, 32:7) This means that God loves all of His creations so much that He
adds beauty to them. As, it is He who has created everything initially, including beauty, this
means that He has given beauty as a free gift to its creations. All of His creations are created
beautifully in a particular sort of way. According to the Hadith of the Holy Prophet (pbuh), “God
is Beautiful, and He loves beauty.” The first part of this Hadith clearly explains that as He is
Beautiful, so beauty is given by Him as a free gift with many other countless favors. The second
part of the Hadith that God ‘loves beauty’ explains the reason for His creation having the most
beautiful form. The love that is given by God as a free gift to human beings is compared with a
seed in the Holy Quran, which falls to the ground, and then grow into a beautiful plant. The Holy
Quran says, “The likeness of those who expend their wealth in the way of God is as the likeness
of a grain (‘habb’) that sprouts seven ears, in every ear a hundred grains; so God multiplies for
whom He will; God is Embracing, Knowing.” (Al-Baqarah, 2:261) The word ‘hubb’ (‘love’)
itself comes from the ‘habb’ (‘seed’), whose concept is explained very well in the above verse of
Surah Baqarah. Thus, it can be clearly said that as love comes from God, it is He who can
God has spoken of His beautiful creations many times in the Holy Quran. However, His
love is not just limited to making creations in a beautiful form. Love is not God’s just one act of
creating them, it is every one of the Divine qualities of God which are mentioned in the Quran in
the form of ninety-nine names of Allah. His most prominent act of Love is His Mercy and His
act of Forgiveness. The Holy Quran says, “And ask forgiveness of your Lord, then repent to
Him. Truly my Lord is Merciful, Loving.” (Hud, 11:90) At another place the Quran mentions,
The Holy Quran mentions His name ‘the Loving’ (Al-Wadood) twice in the Holy Quran, as seen
in the verses above. This name concurs with the other two Divine qualities of God, ‘Merciful’
and ‘Forgiving’. This shows a link between God’s love and mercy, that God’s Love is conjoined
with His Mercy. Not only Mercy, God has associated His Name ‘the Compassionate’ (‘Al-
Rehman’) with His Divine Name ‘God’ (‘Allah’) in the following words in the Holy Quran,
“Say: ‘Invoke God or invoke the Compassionate One; whichever you invoke, to Him belong the
Most Beautiful Names’…” (Al-Isra’, 17:110) At another place in the Quran, God says, “…He
For example, a mother loves her child so much that she can do anything for the sake of her child.
Then we cannot even imagine the level of Mercy of our Lord. This is because the Lord that has
made the mother benevolent, should definitely be more Benevolent than her. Allah is more
Merciful than any other of His merciful creations, regardless of how extraordinary an
individual’s mercy might be, because Allah is the One who ingrained leniency in their souls.
God has made mercy obligatory upon Himself. In other words, it can be said that mercy is made
mandatory on God by His Own Being. Subsequently, God is obliged Himself to be Merciful.
And His Mercy embraces everything. (bin Talal, 2010) This is affirmed by His words, “…My
Moreover, every chapter in the Holy Quran except Surah Tauba begins by Tasmiya. referring to
God and His Mercy, ‘In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful’ (‘Bism Illah Al-
Rahman Al-Rahim’). The missing Tasmiya of Surah Tauba comes in Surah Naml, where its
mentioned, “…And lo! it is: In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.” (Al-Naml,
27:30) Thus, it can be inferred that there exists a strong connection between Divine Name
way that His Mercy is greater than His anger. According to a Hadith Qudsi, “My mercy outstrips
My wrath.” However, the question arises that how can God give the evil-doers with severe
all, but it is only for the believers in the Hereafter. According to God, “and so I shall prescribe it
However, looking from another perspective, God is actually having mercy on the disbelievers.
God’s Mercy embracing all things thus does not mean that nothing will ever suffer, but that God
will guide every existing thing to what will enable it to suffer the least, and God knows best. (bin
Talal, 2010) However, if Allah is Merciful, He is also Just. He is Merciful and Just, both at the
same time. He rewards those who have done good and punishes those who have done evil. He
says in the Holy Quran, “By the fig and the olive, / and [by] the Mount Sinai, / and [by] this
secure land, / Verily We created man in the best stature. / Then, We reduced him to the lowest of
the low, / except those who believe and perform righteous deeds, for they shall have an unfailing
reward. / So what makes you deny thereafter the Judgement? / Is not God the fairest of all
This means that even if God loves and created human beings out of mercy, the only ones that
Allah does not love are the evil doers and non-believers. Allah had created humans in the best
forms, however, it is the choice of humans what they choose to become. ‘Iyad ibn Majashi’i
reported that the Holy Prophet said, “God Almighty says: And I created all My servants in a
righteous state, and then demons came to them and drew them away from their religion…”
God might temporarily not punish them, and give them a leverage to come on the right path, but
favors. Some of the individuals see these favors, perceive the reason behind their reality and
subsequently submit themselves to Allah. Whereas, some do not and stay thankless and decline
submitting to Him. In spite of this, Allah shows His Benevolence on all individuals, whether they
are believers or non-believers. Thus, He grants them food and drink, provisions, heals them and
awards them prosperity, and other multitudinous types of kindness. Nobody would discover air
to inhale or water to quench their thirst, or any food or garments, if it were not the Love of Allah.
If someone falls sick, he would never recuperate, if it were not the Mercy and love of Allah. His
Mercy embraces all things. However, this means that God is merciful and tender to whom He
wills and to those love God back in favor of His countless favors.
Bibliography:
bin Talal, P. G. bin M. (2010). Love in The Holy Quran (6th ed.). Kazi Publications, Inc. (USA).