الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ

"[All] praise is [due] to Allah , Lord of the worlds," [Surah Fatiha]

The first verse of the Surah teaches man to praise Allah. We praise someone either for a quality inherent in him or for a favour received from him. But the verse mentions either. The implication is that the blessings of Allah are limitless. The Holy Qur'an says: "If you try to count the blessings of Allah, you will never be able to number them." (14:34 and 16:18).

Leaving aside other things, if man only considers his own being, he would find that it is a micromism -- in itself which contains in analogical form everything contained in the macrocosm, his body offers a parallel to the earth, the hair on it to the vegetation, his bones to the hills, his veins flowing with blood to the springs underground. [It may not be out of place to remark that this analogical view of man's relationship with the universe has been an essential feature of all traditional cosmologies. the Copernican cosmology, whatever its merits may otherwise be, has tended to dissolve this vision of things, leaving man, at least in the West, to grow more and more alienated fromt he universe -- till we have arrived at the viewers of the American television who are reported to have been more interested in a ball game than in man's first landing on the moon -- Translator]

Man, again, is composed of two parts, spirit and body, of which the spirit is obviously superior in value, while the body is subservient to it. In this inferior part alone, there are thousands of anatomical and biological wonders. There are supposed to be more than three hundred joints, but Allah has made each of them so strong that during the sixty or seventy years of an average man's life, they are in perpetual motion and yet do not need repairs. Of this Allah himself has reminded us:

"It is We Who created them, and it is We Who endowed their joints with strength." (76:28).

Or, take the example of the eye. One may spend a life-time and yet not fully know the manifestations of divine wisdom present in it. Or, take a single movement of the eye, and see how many blessings of Allah are involved in its functioning. Before the eye can see, internally it requires physical energy which in its turn is provided by food, air, water etc. And externally it requires the light of the sun which in its turn depends on a thousand other factors. That is to say, all the forces of the universe join together to make it possible for the eye to see even once. Now, try to calculate how many times does the eye see in a day, in a year, in a man's life-time. Similarly, the functions of the ears, the tongue, the hands and the feet, each brings into action the forces of the whole universe.

This is a kind of blessing which is equally available to every living man, be he a king or a beggar. In fact, all the greatest blessings of Allah are the common property of every living creature -- for example, air, water, light, the sun, the moon, the stars, in fact, everything that exists in the heavens and the earth, or between them, offers its benefits to all without distinction.

Then there are special blessings which divine wisdom has chosen to distribute unequally among men, some getting more and others less. This category includes wealth, honour, health, peace, knowledge and other acquisitions. Although the general blessings are obviously much more important and essential for human life than the special blessings, yet man in his naivete takes them for granted and never realizes what great gifts they are in spite of being common.

Now, human nature itself requires that in recognition of the innumerable blessings that keep descending on him at every moment of his life, man should, as far as_ he can, praise and continue to praise his Benefactor. It is to indicate this basic need of human nature that the Holy Qur'an employs the word : 'Al-hamd' (Praise) as the first word of the very first Surah.

Thus, the praise of Allah has been accorded a very high rank among the acts of worship. The Holy Prophet Sallallahu 'Alayhi Wasallam: Peace be upon him has said that when, on receiving some kind of a blessing from Allah, His servant says (Praise belongs to Allah), it is like giving something better in return for what he has taken (Qurtubi, from Ibn Majah, as narrated by Anas Radhi-Allahu Anh: Allah be pleased with him.

According to another hadith if a man, on receiving all possible blessings of the world, says: (Al-hamdulillah), his act is superior to all those blessings. Commenting on this hadith and citing certain scholars, al-Qurtubi says, the ability to repeat the phrase 'Al-hamdulillah' with one's tongue is in itself a blessing of Allah. According to another authentic hadith, saying this phrase fills half the scale on the side of good deeds in the Balance. As to what praising Allah should actually mean, Shaqiq ibn Ibrahim explains that when one receives some gift from Allah, one should first of all recognize the Benefactor, then be content with what He has given, and finally never disobey Him as long as one has some strength left in the body, which again is a gift from Allah. (See Qurtubi)

The second element in the phrase is Lillah, which is composed of the preposition Lam (Arabic equivalent of the letter L) and the noun 'Allah'. This preposition means 'for' and is used for particularization, showing the exclusive possession of a thing or quality. So, the phrase implies that not only is it the duty,of man to praise Allah, but in reality all praise belongs exclusively to Him, and no one else in the universe is worthy of it. At the same time, and by way of a further blessing, Allah has, for the purpose of teaching man how to behave with his fellow beings, commanded him to thank those too through whom the gifts of Allah come to him, for one who does not see the, need of thanking his human benefactor would not thank Allah too.

Self-Praise is not permitted

It is not permissible for a created being such as man to praise himself. the Holy Qur'an says: "Do not pretend to be pure; He knows best who is really God-fearing." (53:32). That is to say, a man can be praised only if he fears Allah, but Allah alone knows to what degree a particular man possesses this quality, known as Taqwa. As for Allah praising Himself, the reason is that man is not capable of praising the glory and greatness of Allah in a befitting manner. Not to speak of others, the Holy Prophet Sallallahu 'Alayhi Wasallam: Peace be upon him has exclaimed: "I cannot properly praise You!" Therefore, Allah Himself has taught man the mode of praising Him.

Rabb is the exclusive attribute of Allah

The Arabic word 'Rabb' (Lord) is applied to a person who not only possesses a certain thing, but is also fully capable of and responsible for nurturing it properly. Obviously, no one can act as 'Rabb' with regard to the whole universe except Allah. So, the word, used in an absolute sense, is exclusive to Allah, and it is not permissible to address or describe anyone other than Allah as 'Rabb'. A hadith in the Sahib of Muslim explicitly forbids a slave or servant to call his master a 'Rabb'. The word may, however, be employed in the case of a man too in a relative sense -- that is, in relation to a particular thing, for example, 'rabb al-dar' (master of the house) etc. (Qurtubi).

[Ma'ariful Qur'an, Volume 1]

» Posted by Seifeddine-M on 2nd January 2011

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