The Immensity of God
by Prof. Mirza Habib-ur-Rahman, M.A.
The Light (Pakistan), 16th/24th March 1977 Issue (Vol. 57, Nos. 11–12, pp. 13–14)
There is nothing of more significance to the human race which opens up a vista through which man can see God, than to know thoroughly well the Omnipotence, Omnipresence and Omniscience of the Supreme Being. We stand with folded hands to offer prayers, but reproduce verses like paharas (calculations; [Urdu word for ‘time tables’]) without concentrating on the boundlessness, vast magnitude of Allah, Creator and Nourisher.
Allah is Self-Subsisting: He lives from eternity, is Infinite and Indeterminate in nature. He is All-Sustaining: He has raised the heavens on high, which are decked with the moon and the stars which are brightened by the sun. He has spread mountains and oceans, gardens and forests and set up this earth. He knows full well every leaf that falls from a tree, for no changes and revolutions take place without His permission and knowledge. Air stirs not without His option, nor a wave in the sea rumbles against His Will.
God is All-Powerful. He levels down to the ground big cities and high mountains at His Will. On His behest commotions, upheavals and convulsions rise up and none can overcome them. Empires rise and fall only as He dictates. He pilots the ships on the seas and the aircrafts on the air, and no power can avert the danger which befalls, but He. The mighty power of America with her nuclear armaments could not subdue and over-run the weak empire of Korea or Vietnam. The boastful threats of Napoleon, or the vainglorious speeches of Hitler vanished into smoke before the indomitable will of God. Inscrutable are the ways of God, and no power on earth can affect or interfere in His affairs. It is only humble supplications that can win God’s favour and good-will.
The Divine Being is present everywhere. Man may conceal his views or reveal them, the Supreme Deity knows the inmost secrets of his heart. People may hatch evil designs in the most retired recesses of this earth, but Almighty God is there to listen to their plans. He knows the secret motives of each and every individual and the outcome that accrues therefrom. God’s knowledge is all pervasive: He knows what man has done and what he will do in future. All the collective or individual efforts of man fail to hide their mischiefs, for God can probe human prejudices, preconceived opinions and anticipatory judgements.
God is Omniscient. He begot man from nothingness. After death on the Day of Resurrection, the Deity will bring all men’s souls together. On that day man will be shown the outcome of his deeds—an atom’s weight of good or evil which he had done here when alive. Even the earth, at God’s command, will throw off her yoke, will be given tongue to tell her news about man. Strange to say, even the organs of his body will say out their say. The minutest happenings, whether in the heavens or on the earth, fall within the scope of God’s knowledge.
When the appointed hour will come, God will command the Angels to blow the trumpet. The whole earth will be terribly shaken, the mountains will be reduced to carded wool, the sun and the moon will be brought together. Men’s eyes will be dazzled to see the terrible calamity. They will find no way to escape, no refuge except that their Lord alone will be a shelter for them.
Above all, God is Forgiving, Merciful, Gracious and Beneficent. He forgives all immoralities, impurities, indignities, even the worst excesses and the most serious sins, if man expresses sincerest repentance and regrets by refraining from the repetition of such offences. He Himself says that man should not despair of Allah’s mercies, for He pardons all heinous crimes and sins; only avoid all traces of moral turpitude after expressing penance.
How judicious it is, therefore, to cultivate affection for God, for man’s implicit obedience to all moral principles and his friendship with the Divine-Being will, as He ordains, dispel all afflictions and sorrows from his heart. In the life beyond the grave man, by leading a virtuous life, will enjoy the fruits of his labours in the blissful abode of Paradise, as promised by God.
Before such an Almighty God we should stand in prayers. Let us be conscious and aware of our weaknesses.
“Glorify the name of thy Lord, Most High! Who creates, then perfects, Who measures, then guides.” [The Holy Quran, 87:1–3].