Ar Rahman; Ar Raheem - Part 2

Bismillah

I am sorry to have kept you waiting for the part 2. There's just been so much going on and I need to prioritise BIIG time. But as promised in the earlier post here is the Brief explanation on Allah's Rahma (mercy) in relation to other aspects of Islam ;

I) Allah's Rahma in Relation to the Shariah Lesgislations of Do's and Don'ts : If you have ever noticed manmade laws aere not always merciful towards everyone. Example; paying a 200 AED fine just for a ticket that expired 10 minutes ago which you FORGOT to renew :P

Whereas Allah's Laws are full of Mercy for all mankind. Anything in Islam that Allah swt commands has mercy in it. Think about a caring mother denying something to her child out of mercy, It's not because she doesn't want her kid to be happy but she knows that the Bad in that particular thing outweighs the good. Now, think about The One Who is the Most Merciful when He forbids us something it is obviously because there's more harm in it than benefit. If you need proof you can google the harms of drinking alchohol, or eating pork or meat that's not slaughtered as per the Islamic rites.

And honestly, we forget about Allah's mercy so often that we keep questioning the commandments of Islam, the Do's and Don'ts and currently there are so many people who will mix their own philosophy of life with Islam to create a Custom-Made Islam to suit their needs. I mean, When you and I buy a laptop for example and see the instruction Manual, do we question on the instructions? Or do we question it like ''Oh let me put water on my laptop and see what happens?'' or ''I am just going to TRY it one time'' or ''Life's too short Let me Throw some water on it and see the nice sparks coming out of it'' .. Nope we don't because we know the manufacturing firm knows better about the product as they have created it. Then, whats up with questioning the instructions of Allah swt who has not only created us But everything that's ever been into existence?

II) Allah's Rahma in relation with the name Ar - Rab: Ar-Rab is often translated in english as ''The Lord'' whereas the meaning of this word is much more comprehensive thanks to the depth of Arabic Language. Rab is basically someone who nurtures you, takes care of you, looks after you, reforms you for better. When we see parents sometimes they reform their kids with mercy and sometimes when the kid repeats the same mistake over and over again, then they smack their butt or a little pinch on the ear although their intention is good it sometimes leaves the kid resentful temporarily. Allah swt who is Your Rab and My Rab is sooo merciful towards us that even when He has to reform us it is ALL WITH MERCY. It's not like I get 10 chances before He strikes me with something for not being a good muslim, no He is so Merciful that when you sincerely feel sorry and try again He is Happy about it.

III) Allah's Rahma in relation with the name Al-Ghafoor : According to Nouman Ali Khan, the term Ghafoor which means 'The Most Forgiving' comes from the word 'Ghafara' which in arabic means the act of covering something , for example their is a chair on the floor and when you cover it although you cannot see the chair you can still notice there's something underneath that cover, 'Ghafara' means covering something in such a fashion that you don't even notice that there's something underneath that cover its like you level the chair with the ground and nothing is noticable. How's the above explanation relevant? When Allah Al-Ghafoor forgives our sins, He Not only covers them for us, But He covers them in such a fashion that you wouldn't even realize that they ever were there.

Furthermore, you know there's this beauty when you know that someone is forgiving, that everytime you mess up you feel like apologizing to them because you know they will accept it. Example from my life, I have two friends one of them gave me the toughest time of my life to forgive me for doing something that she didn't like; that hurt her, after asking a few times I felt bitter and wanted to ask nomore since she was being so adamant about it. Another friend on the other hand is very quick to forgive so when I mess up with her it's easy for me to ask her because I know that she will forgive, no matter how many times I mess up with her I know I can still ask her to forgive me.

Allah swt is specially so merciful towards us that he does NOT hasten the punishment for us, even though we dwell in disobedience for years , repeating the same sins, not feeling even a bit of remorse like He did with Banu Isra'il. This however, does not mean that we can take it light and easy and keep on doing whatever we are doing. His mercy should make us amend our bad actions, not dwell in them because once the last breath ready to leave your mouth, you cannot repent that time.

IV) Allah's Rahma in relation to the name Al-Alim : Alim means The One Who Knows about Everything. You know how sometimes when something bad happens we talk to a couple of friends trying to tell them what we are going through, although they say they understand you, you still sometimes go a bit psycho saying ''No you don't know what I am going through''. Well its true they don't you know why because they are humans! But Allah, He knows EXACTLY what precise emotion you are going through and the knowledge of this brings such great comfort to the heart which is pretty much undescribale. I speak from experience and I am sure many others can relate too. The knowledge that HE KNOWS is a BIIIG Rahma in itself.

Finally - Some people like me have issues, we sometimes feel hopelessness. Like there's no escape from a situation, we feel like whatever situation we are in, it is anything BUT mercy from Allah swt and Shaytan adds fuel to this small burning fire with negative thoughts. We should know that Eerything from Allah is ONLY mercy, He never wrongs his believers, He tests them because He Loves them. We sometimes tend to let our problems and issues in life affect our relationship with Allah swt. In times like these, we should go back to the Quran, to the stories of the Prophets and see what did they do when they were tested with a calamity. Take Yaqub (A.s) for example, The man loses his Son Yusuf and few years later another one too yet His Hope with Allah and his relation is not affected at all. The story of Yunus (A.s), Imagine being swalloed by a whale, I don't know about others I'd pretty much give up and wait for death to come and take my soul away. But, Yunus (a.s) doesn't lose hope instead he supplicates to his Lord.

All that I have mentioned in this post is first and foremost a reminder for myself. May you all benefit from it too. Inshallah. Today in the class sister E is gonna teach us about the ways of attaining Allah's special rahma, the notes will be updated here.

PS : Share the Khayr.