Ayat ul Kursi, the most revered ayat of the Holy Qur'an, sums up the ever greatness of Allah towards its end:
وَسِعَ كُرۡسِيُّهُ السَّمٰوٰتِ وَالۡاَرۡضَۚ وَلَا يَـُٔوۡدُهٗ حِفۡظُهُمَا ۚ وَ هُوَ الۡعَلِىُّ الۡعَظِيۡمُ...
... His Dominion overspreads the heavens and the earth, and their upholding wearies Him not. He is All-High, Ever Magnificent. (Surah 2. Al Baqarah: 255)Words alone cannot describe the hidden attributes of Al ʿAẓīm. He is The One Who is greatest, mightiest, grandest and above all He has absolute greatness in both his attributes and self. All His actions are Perfect. He is the one deserving the attributes of exaltment, glory and purity from all imperfection. His Might and Grandeur is surely beyond our grasp.
لَهٗ مَا فِى السَّمٰوٰتِ وَمَا فِى الۡاَرۡضِؕ وَهُوَ الۡعَلِىُّ الۡعَظِيۡمُ
His is all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth; He is the Most High, the All-Great. (Surah 42 Ash-Shura: 4)
That is, He is far above that somebody else should be equal to Him in rank and should become His associate in His Being, attributes, powers or rights.
فَسَبِّحۡ بِاسۡمِ رَبِّكَ الۡعَظِيۡمِ
"So glorify the name of your Great Lord." (Surah 56. Surah Al-Waqi'a: 96)
Uqbah bin Amir Juhni relates that when this verse was sent down the Prophet (peace be upon him) commanded that the people put it in their ruku, i.e. they should recite Subhana-Rabbi-yal-Azim in the position of ruku in the Prayer. And when the verse Sabbi-hismi-Rabbi-kal-Aala was sent down, he enjoined that they put it in their sajdah, i.e. they should recite Subhana-Rabbi-yal-Aala in sajdah. (Musnad Ahmad, Abu Daud, Ibn Majah, Ibn Hibban, Hakim). This show that even the most minor details of the procedure enjoined by the Prophet (peace be upon him) for the Prayer are derived from the allusions given in the Quran.
Al ʿAẓīm stems from the root 'a-z-m which has the classical Arabic connotations like (1) to be great, (2) to be vast, enormous. (3) to be great in rank, importance or dignity, (4) to be imposing, powerful, superior, (4) to be magnificent, honoured, revered, sublime, (5) to be immense, stupendous, lofty, and / or (6) to be above imperfection.
Wahiduddin in his explanation of the attribute adds that the following are also the related attributes:
- Jalīl is considered to be greatness in attributes.
- Kabīr denotes the One whose essence is greatness.
- Azīm is greatness in both attributes and self.
- Mutakabbir is an empathic form which denotes actively using rights, privileges, rank and attributes that are above and beyond the rights of everyone else.
There are people around the world who equate humans with God. If we consider the greatness of Al ʿAẓīm, we will come to know that anyone besides Him is insignificant. The human being, no matter how knowledgeable, is limited in the scope and content of his knowledge. How can one compare such a limited amount of knowledge with that of the Almighty?
If we look around, we see signs Allah has created which are much beyond the imagination of human being: the towering mountains as high as the Everest, the fathomless universes which even Hubble telescope has not been able to measure, and the unimaginable reality of DNA. These are the signs created by Allah, the Al ʿAẓīm - The Ever Magnificent, whose grandeur is unimaginable.
Atheists, though outwardly reject existence of God, know from inside that there is someone who has created all that we see, yet out of stubbornness and merely clinging to their self contrived beliefs, negate presence of Allah. But sooner or later they do acknowledge the ever presence of Most Exalted and Absolute Dignified Al ʿAẓīm.
You may refer to our post "99 Attributes of Allah" for complete list of 99 attributes of Allah Almighty with meaning and explanation.
Photo | References: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
If we look around, we see signs Allah has created which are much beyond the imagination of human being: the towering mountains as high as the Everest, the fathomless universes which even Hubble telescope has not been able to measure, and the unimaginable reality of DNA. These are the signs created by Allah, the Al ʿAẓīm - The Ever Magnificent, whose grandeur is unimaginable.
Atheists, though outwardly reject existence of God, know from inside that there is someone who has created all that we see, yet out of stubbornness and merely clinging to their self contrived beliefs, negate presence of Allah. But sooner or later they do acknowledge the ever presence of Most Exalted and Absolute Dignified Al ʿAẓīm.
You may refer to our post "99 Attributes of Allah" for complete list of 99 attributes of Allah Almighty with meaning and explanation.
Photo | References: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
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