Whats the BIG Deal?

Growing up and even until few months ago I couldn't quite get the BIG deal of knowing or learning about the Names and Attributes of Allah swt. I knew that they were important, I believed that they were true and I thought it's quite cool if I could memorize them and that was about it.

February 2011, When I started going to Al Huda classes here in Dubai I was so skeptical about going there because I thought that the first class of the 3-class schedule on Sunday evenings was not really as important as the 2nd class of tafseer followed by fundamental principles of Islam. The first class at Al Huda on a sunday was and is about the Explanation for the Names and Attributes of Allah swt. The first few weeks when I was new to Al huda, the teacher was explaining the name Al-Ghani and I still remember it because that was pretty much the first time that I ACTUALLY thought and pondered over a name of Allah swt. Also, because the same name was continued for next couple of weeks too and I remember crying my heart out in each of these classes because it was never explained in so much detail to me before. BIG alhamdulillah for that.

So, the purpose of this quick post is to give you few reasons as to why you should totes learn about the Names and Attributes of Allah SWT

Why?

1. It is one of the requirements of a correct creed. Believing in the Names and Attributes of Allah SWT a.k.a Tawheed al asma was sifaat (now, I am not gonna write more details :P)

2. How can you worship Allah swt, if you do not even know who He is? I mean think about it seriously : How often is it that you love someone without knowing them, their qualities?

3. It brings comfort to the heart and I am not just writing this keeping in mind the verse from Surah Rad. Speaking from experience, the anxiety at the occurring of a problem, the grief, the hurt from someone etc is put at rest when you ponder on the Name and attribute of Allah regarding such situation.

Example : When you feel like nobody really loves you and everyone that you loved has let you down. You can quickly think about Allah's name Al-Wadood : The Most Loving. His love is unlike the human love, It's perfect and you know what happens when Allah SWT loves you? Google the hadith :P

4. Your trust and dependence on Him increases a lot. I mean, sure we all know how we all trust Allah SWT but how many a times have we trusted a mean more than Allah SWT? Don't know what I am talking about?

Imagine this: you have to go a meeting at 9 am and the run to that place is about 20 minutes. So you leave at 8:15 thinking of the 5 mins you require to park the car and in any case you are going to be about 10 minutes early that'll leave you sometime to prep up. So you are on the way everything seems to be going smoothly, the traffic is in normal motion and suddenly you see all the cars on the road have their hazard lights on and the traffic has slowed down due to a massive accident! What you did here without realizing is that you depended on your perfect planning and your mean of transport instead of first depending on Allah and then following it by your planning.

5. Once you start pondering about the Names and Attributes of Allah SWT, I swear by Allah you will experience contentment and peace which would not be explainable.

6. Everything around you will start reminding you of your Creator.

Example: even when you would look at the most beautiful thing ever, you would think of Allah Al-Jameel (The Most Beautiful). And Don't think that this wont be counted as an act of worship because Inshallah it will.

7. The knowledge of Him subhanah wa ta'ala is like an ocean, every time you indulge in it you will always walk out with pearls of wisdom.

8. It affects your life in more ways than One. It may not be a dramatic overnight change but it steadily changes your life in one by one aspect.

Those are just a few and there are so many more reasons which I haven't written here. Feel free to give your input :)

So What Can you do now to learn about them?

I would suggest if there are any classes happening around with this subject then you know you can't miss it. Also, subhanallah good teachers are an added advantage.

You should try to buy this book called ''Who is Allah'' and I forgot the author's book I have it with me and I just read few pages and already in love with it. I guess it's about 200 or so pages of content.

I have read this http://attafsir.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/explanation-of-the-names-of-allah.pdf which happens to be an Explanation of Names of Allah in the Qur'an by Imam As-sadi and its not more than 28 pages and I swear by Allah, THIS IS EXCEPTIONAL.

I haven't really searched for any online lectures on youtube on this topic but I would definitely love to know some that you could suggest to me. Feel free to post the links to them in the comments box.

That is all for now, May you all you have a wonderful Eid! May All your good deeds be accepted and abundantly rewarded by Allah azza wa jal - The Most High.