The
Quran says in 2:255 that Allah is alive and gives life to everything; He is
not dependent on anything for His existence.
He is the only eternal sovereign authority who is everlasting and
self-sustaining. Moreover, the entire universe
runs according to His plan, fulfilling the duties he has directed it to fulfill.
Neither sleep nor slumber overtakes Him.
Everything that is in the earth and in the heavens belongs to Him, and
He always untiringly takes care of His creation. There is no one who can help
and stand with another human, as a witness, except to tell the truth in
accordance with His mashiyat. He alone possesses
complete knowledge of the past, present, and future. No one can partake of his
knowledge except through the methods prescribed by Him. His control and knowledge
encompass the entire universe, from the lowest to the highest levels, which He
maintains untiringly.
The
universe is working without a flaw under his laws, but in order to maintain a
just society, we humans need laws. The question is how to make just laws. Human beings are a combination of desires and
intellect; when one makes a law it reflects its tilt towards his desires. It is
impossible to make a law without taking into consideration the good of someone
in view. It may be a family, tribe,
clan, or nation. The laws for the good
of universal humanity are not formed, which leads to strife among nations.
The other thing we can
look to for guidance
in life is intellect. The reason is the best
gift given to human beings; with its light humans can see through the darkness
of ignorance. The Quran attaches great importance to intellect and
thinking. It says the worse creatures
are those who do not think and reason out (8:22). Moreover, in (7:179) the
Quran says that those who don’t use their senses to think will reside in hell.
The
power to think and comprehend the laws of nature is in the preview of
intellect, but it can’t give a universal law that is impartial and above the
differences between cultures, nations, and countries.
Only Allah can provide such guidance, which is known as permanent values.
Intellect, which is the most powerful tool given
to humans, can only devise the means to satisfy the desires of its master. The human intellect follows the desires and
emotions of human beings just as a deg’s feet follow the scent of his pray.
These
permanent values are the attributes of Allah and are described in the Quran in
great detail. In short, the pattern
given by the divine revolves around these attributes of Allah. The permanent values
are basic laws, but the bye-laws will be formed under their guidance, furnishing
the needs and requirements of a society at a specific time. The permanent values cannot change or be altered
in a society formed around the attributes of Allah.
The
ideal for a society, formed around these Isma-ul-husna of God, is to help the
individual (nafas) to develop, strengthen, and integrate the personality; therefore,
all the good actions ( amal-i-salah) are those
which promote this aim, and all the actions which weaken and
disintegrate the personality is evil. In
this manner we can see the deep relation between the attributes of Allah and
human personality.
The
attributes of Allah form the pattern around which a balanced personality or
human society can develop; for this reason, the Quran emphasizes the
importance of remain in Allah. In other
words, remain in Allah is conviction and not faith. To have faith is to believe something without
proof, whereas the eemaan comes from alif mim non, which means free from fear,
in peace and safety. This comes when one reflects, reasons, and ultimately is
convinced of the truth. This type of
understanding is acquired after a lot of reflection; it is capable of giving peace
(aman) to mind and heart.
