Islam for Muslims
- THE FAITH OF MUSLIMS
- GOOD DEEDS IN PERSONAL LIFE
- GOOD DEEDS IN SOCIAL LIFE
God as the Merciful
Introduction: God is not only the All-powerful, but also the “Most Gracious, Most Merciful” (1:3). This reality is just the opposite of typical human nature that suggests that more powerful ones often tend to become more arrogant and less merciful. Differently for God, supremacy of power and mercy go hand in hand. In fact, He has chosen for “Himself (the policy) of Mercy”; He is full of “loving kindness” (6:12; 85:14). In fact, He is “the Most Merciful of those who can ever show mercy” and His “Mercy extends to all things” without any discrimination (12:64; 7:156). As a part of His Kindness, He “sends down blessings on you, as do His angels” (33:43).
(1) Origin of Mercy: God is the original source of kindness since all “Grace and Mercy is from God” and “all good things come” from Him" (49:8; 16:53). He grants some of His Kindness to “whomever He wishes” (57:29). For example, parental affection to children or love between couples is simply a reflection of His kindness, representing a derived fraction of His Mercy. God reminds you by way of an example about how "you were enemies before and later He joined your hearts in love, so that you become brethren by His Grace; could you have produced that affection if you had spent all that is in the earth?"(3:103; 8:63). In fact, if and when He withdraws this Mercy, then you could become cruel enough to kill your dearest children or divorce your beloved spouse, as examples. Thus, God is the original source of total (100%) kindness and from there He shares with His creatures a tiny fraction (such as 1%). His Mercy is so pivotal that regardless of your faith and good deeds, you cannot go to the Paradise without His Mercy needed for your clearance from sins as a prerequisite for your Afterlife salvation.
(2) General Mercy for His Creations: In fact, every creation bears the stamp of His infinite “Grace and Bounty” (40:61).
(a) Life Supporting Elements: He created all elements necessary for life and made them suitable by producing everything “in due balance"(15:19). For example, He fixed the sun at such an optimum distance that any nearer or farther location would have threatened the existence of lives. He created the ozone layer in order to protect the living beings from harmful radiation of the sun. On this earth, there are about 1,350 volcanoes which He tamed from destroying humanity through destructive lavas. The day is created “to make things visible”, for seeking livelihood and the night for “taking rest” in quiet environment (10:67). Both the day and night have suitable duration for the best interest of the living world. He created mountains, forests and ocean etc. for balancing the ecology among other purposes.
(b) Helpful Creations for Lives: God created oxygen rich air for our breathing while making it invisible so it does not hamper our vision. Air also helps with drying up things and having calming effects on temperature. He blessed our earth with water and thereby made it "manageable" (67:15) for living, apparently unlike any other planets. Water not only supports the lives of human beings (making up roughly 90% of blood and 70% of body) but also those of other living beings and plants. Moreover, it helps extinguishing fire and its colorless purity and pervasive character makes it a perfect cleaning agent. Another gift of God is fire that offers you multiple benefits like cooking of food for taste and digestion, generating light and heat, incinerating waste and killing germs etc. Gravitation is another creation that keeps things attached to the earth. Without this, we would float weightlessly and uncomfortably like the astronauts in the space and our lightweight things would fly around defying orderly organization. God created shadow (size varying with movement of the sun) as a protection from solar heat which “He could make stationary if He willed” (25:45). In fact, without His “Grace and Mercy”, you would be ruined indeed (24:10).
(3) Special Mercy for Man:
(a) Best of Creations: God “completed His favors on humanity” (16:81) by making them supreme over other living beings. They are made the best of creations and the “agents, inheritors of earth” (6:165) with "authority on the earth" (7:10). They are most intelligent and rational member in the living world. For example, they are the only living being who can produce, cook or process their own food while all others eat food made by man or available in the nature. Mankind has substantial capacity to shape the world, even though they are born as one of the weakest. It may be recalled that man is physically “weaker” than most animals (4:28). For example, a new baby takes months of parental care before it can be able to walk while a calf can spring to its feet right after its birth. Even a full-grown man, if not properly armed, is at risk of being harmed from not too few animals.
(b) Animal Services: However, such weaker humans, thanks to their excellent god-gifted brains, are now controlling the animal world, including the strongest tigers and largest elephants. All the animals are now "subject to you (man)" (22:36), and their very existence mainly depends on wildlife conservation policy of man. “Created for man" (36:71), many of these animals including cattle are now dedicated to human services. For example, we can get milk and meat from cows and goats (23:21) and eggs and meat from chicken and ducks. “Skins of the animals” like cattle are used for making tents, coats and shoes etc. and animals like sheep provide “wools and fur” for warm clothes (16:80). Dogs are used as faithful guard and also for hunting, crime detection and rescue operation. Historically, most often horses and sometimes elephants were used as means for warfare and in entertainment industry like race course, zoo, circus etc. they are still maintaining their demand. Camels, horses and donkeys etc. are used for carrying “heavy loads (of men and materials) to (distant) lands where you could not (otherwise) reach without distressing souls" (16:7). God also reminds you that these load carrying animals have been gentle and “subjected” to your use with “the favor of your Lord” without which they could become ferocious like man-eating tigers or wolves (43:13).
(C) Beneficial Provisions for Man: In similar fashion, God treasured essential mines like iron, coal, copper, aluminum, gold, silver, salt etc. under the ground or sea, in the best interest of the humanity. As one example, God is said to have sent down “iron” as a material for “warfare and many other benefits” (57:25). In fact, iron is probably the most essential raw material, known to be the backbone of Industrial Revolution. He also created another valuable metal named aluminum as most appropriate for making aircraft for its lightweight nature and ability to withstand the solar heat high up in the sky. Glass is created as perfect enclosure for being transparent while protecting you from outside cold and also usable for making mirror without which you could never know how you look like.
God created hot and cold with variation in temperature, both have numerous ways to help people in contrasting manner. He also created a variety of colors (namely violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red found in a rainbow and also some beyond) for identification and differentiation purposes. Likewise, He did create diverse tastes (like sweet, hot, bitter, sour and salty) for pleasing your tongue with taste differentiable food items. In another example, He made favorable wind that helps the ships to “sail through the sea by His Command” (14:32). God continues to give ideas to scientific mind, leading up to inventions and discoveries, causing reduction of hardship (through medicines, transport means etc.) or promoting conveniences of life (like electricity, computers etc.). God rightly affirms that He “created everything in the earth” as “provisions for fulfillment of life" for mankind (2:29; 7:10).
(4) Unlimited Mercy: In fact, human beings are showered with infinite blessings of God. “Visible and invisible”, these blessings “flow to (you) in such exceeding measure” that “you will never be able to count them"(31:20; 14:34). In a metaphor, “if all the trees of earth were pens and ocean (were ink), yet the Words (Signs) of God would not be exhausted (in the writing)” (31:27). Our every possession e.g. the eyes, the nose, the ears, the hands, the legs, health, knowledge, wisdom, conscience, security, prestige, etc. are all indicative of bottomless bounties from God. He reminded to have given us “hearing, sight, intelligence and affections. If God willed, He could take away their faculty of hearing and seeing and He could put you into much difficulties” (16:78; 2:20; 2:220).
Mercy often Goes Unnoticed: Amid enormity of such blessings, you cannot always realize the “invisible” (31:20) portion of their existence the way you cannot feel the merit of oxygen rich air surrounding you. You can, however, realize the importance of these blessings, when you are deprived of them e.g. when shortage of oxygen sends you to hospital ICU or when you lose your vision, hearing or mobility etc. Likewise, you can sense them by comparing your position with that of less fortunate ones like the sick, the poor etc. In fact, the face of divine Grace can be seen in every example of our safety from the worst (like accident, diseases, robbery etc.) that could happen to us but actually didn’t happen. Bad things usually happen to us in lesser than due volumes as God “punishes only for some of (our) sins” (5:49) after forgiving the rest. For example, He generally does not trouble you with double jeopardy in your personal life (like 104 degree fever on your marriage day) or frequent occurrences of natural disasters like earthquake, plague, war etc. He does not “destroy people for a single wrongdoing, if they were likely to amend” (11:117). Otherwise, if God were to “punish (us) for our (all) wrongdoings, He would not leave, on the (earth), a single living creature” (16:61). Remarkably, blessings have two varieties: (i) visible good things like your good education, job, marriage and children etc. and (ii) relief from bad things due to pardon that often goes unnoticed, as exampled below.
Examples of Invisible Blessings: Had it not been for the Mercy of God, as for example, one moment's withdrawal of His kind attention could cause disastrous clashes among the planets. Without the grace of God, a small issue of disagreement could develop into a catastrophic Third World War apparently attributable to hot-headed decisions of rival world leaders. Thanks God, after ending of WWII in 1945, we have not seen WWIII for about 80 years. Divine kindness also remains in the background of accident-free driving of two vehicles--each running at breakneck speed, with only an inch apart. Thanks to God’s Mercy, infection of small babies from diseases often appears to be less than proportionate to the extent of their proneness to dealing with dirt when left unattended. Thus the protective roles of God know no bounds.
(5) Pardon Dominates Penalty: God is the Great Forgiver as He can both pardon and remove your suffering at the same time. By contrast, a human victim can only pardon his oppressor at most but cannot relieve him from hardships. God deserves your appreciation for giving you reward that is “better than” or “double” of your good deeds while punishing proportionately for your sins, if not forgiven. (28:84; 33:31). Your occasional deprivation from a part of divine blessings (otherwise known as divine punishment), should not make any dent into the glory of God as the Merciful. Because all your “good things come from God” and all evils are “from your (own corrupt) soul” which is to blame for your misfortunes (4:79). Despite that, God’s policy is to “grant you relief soon after a difficulty” (65:7). God does help you by “forgiving” your sins and delivering you from “distresses” like “hunger (due to drought and famine etc.)”, “fear (from war, riot etc.)” and “illnesses (like COVID pandemic)” (7:155; 6:64; 106:4; 26:80). Based on your apparent misfortunes or for any misguided reasons, whatever notion you might develop about Him, the final truth stands tall over everything is that He is "the most Merciful” and “worthy of all Praises"(1:3; 2:267). Accordingly, He offers hope of general amnesty by promising everyone including even “those who have wronged against their souls, not to be despaired” of His Mercy of “forgiving all sins” and “forgiving time and again" (39:53; 4:43).
Conclusion: The above discussion shows that the Mercy of God knows no bounds and therefore all of you are infinitely better-off than what you could otherwise be.