Qur’an gives a definition of God in Chapter 112 Surah Ikhlaas:
«”Say: He is Allah, The One and Only.
He begets not, nor is He begotten.
And there is none like unto Him.”»
To Muslims, these verses are the touchstone of the study of God. The attributes of The Creator given in this chapter are unique, false gods and pretenders to divinity can be easily dismissed using these verses.
Let’s go through the attributes one by one:
«”Say, He is Allah, one and only”. »
Logic argues the existence of more than one god. This verse tells us that The Creator is the only one who has total and absolute power, unique in His names and attributes.
«’Allah is absolute and eternal’»
“The Eternal, Absolute” which is a translation from Arabic for something that can be attributed only to The Creator, as all other existence being temporal or conditional. It also means that Allah is not dependant on any person or thing, but all persons and things are dependant on Him.
«‘He begets not, nor is He begotten’»
God was not born, nor does He give birth and share his divinity with others. Nor does He have a family or relationship with another being.
«”There is none like unto Him”.»
The moment you can imagine or compare ‘God’ to anything, then he (the candidate to divinity) is not God. It is not possible to build up a mental picture of the One True God because of the simple fact, as creatures, we only know creation.
The Glorious Qur’an conveys a similar message in the following verse: «”No vision can grasp Him but His grasp is over all vision: He is above all comprehension, yet is acquainted with all things.”»[Al-Qur’an 6:103]
The name of God
‘Allah” is the name Muslims prefer calling the Supreme Creator, instead of the English word ‘God’. In Arabic, the word ‘Allah’, is pure and unique and can be only used for this sole purpose, unlike the English word ‘God’, which can be played around with.
Allah is one and singular, there is no plural of Allah. Also Allah has no gender so there is no feminine or masculine versions for this word. Allah is a unique word, which does not conjure up any mental picture nor can it be played around with. Therefore the Muslims prefer using the Arabic word ‘Allah’ for the Almighty.
Unity of God.
The existence of more than one God suggests that they would dispute with one another, each god trying to fulfill his will against the will of the other gods. This can be seen in the mythology of the polytheistic and pantheistic religions.
If a ‘God’ is defeated or unable to defeat the others, that’s not worthy being called a God. Other suggestion is popular among polytheistic religions that is the idea of many Gods, each having different responsibilities. Each one would be responsible for a part of man’s existence. This indicates that one ‘God’ is incompetent of certain acts and moreover he is also ignorant of the other Gods’ powers, duties, functions and responsibilities. There cannot be an ignorant and incapable God. If there were more than one God it would surely lead to confusion, disorder, chaos and destruction in the universe. But the universe is in complete harmony. The Glorious Qur’an says: «”If there were, in the heavens and the earth, other gods besides Allah, there would have been confusion in both! But glory to Allah, The Lord of the Throne: (High is He) above what they attribute to Him!” »[Al-Qur’an 21:22]
If there were more than one supreme God, they would have taken away what they created. The Qur’an says: «”No son did Allah beget, nor is there any god along with Him: (if there were many gods), behold, each god would have taken away what he had created, and some would have lorded it over others! Glory to Allah! (He is free)from the (sort of) things they attribute to Him!” »[Al-Qur’an 23:91]
Thus the existence of one True, Unique, Supreme, Almighty God, is the only logical concept of God.
God does not take human form:
Many religions at some point believe, directly or indirectly, in the philosophy of anthropomorphism i.e. God in a form of a human.
Allah need not take human form to know what is good or bad for the human being. And the Glorious Qur’an is The ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ for the human beings to follow in order to live a life full of harmony and good-being.
If you allow me to compare human beings with machines, I would say humans are more complicated than the most complex machines in the world. Even the most advanced computers, which are extremely complex, are pale in comparison to the physical, psychological, genetic and social factors that affect individual and collective human life.
The more advanced the machine, greater is the need for its instruction manual. By the same logic, don’t human beings require an instruction manual by which to govern their own lives?
Therefore Allah and in order to deliver the lifestyle he chose to his creations, he chooses a man amongst men to deliver the message and communicates with him at a higher level through the medium of revelations. Such chosen men are called messengers and prophets of God.
God does not perform ungodly acts:
The attributes of Almighty God preclude any evil since God is the source of justice, mercy and truth. God can never be thought of as doing an ungodly act. Only humans can tell a lie, be unjust, make a mistake, forget things, or have any such human failings. Similarly God can do injustice if He chooses to, but He will never do it because being unjust is an ungodly act. The Qur’an says: «”Allah is never unjust in the least degree.”»[Al-Qur’an 4:40] God can be unjust if He chooses to be so, but the moment God does injustice, He ceases to be God.
God does not make mistakes
Making a mistake is an ungodly act. The Qur’an says: «”…my Lord never errs.”»[Holy Qur’an 20:52] The moment God makes a mistake, he ceases to be God.
God does not forget
God does not forget anything because forgetting is an ungodly act, which reeks of human limitations and failings. The Qur’an says: «”…my Lord never errs, nor forgets.”»[Al-Qur’an 20:52]
God only performs Godly acts:
The Islamic concept of God is that God has power over all things. The Qur’an says in several places (Al -Qur’an 2:106; 2:109; 2:284; 3:29; 16:77; and 35:1): «”For verily Allah has power over all things”»
Further, the Glorious Qur’an says:«”Allah is the doer of all that He intends.”»[Al-Qur’an 85:16] We must keep in mind that Allah intends only Godly acts and not ungodly acts.
Attributes of God:
To Allah belong the most beautiful names. The Qur’an says: «”Say: Call upon Allah, or Call upon Rahman (The Most Merciful): By whatever name you call Upon Him, (it is well): For to Him belong The Most Beautiful Names.”[»Al-Qur’an 17:110]
A similar message regarding the beautiful names of Allah is repeated in Surah Al-A’raf (7:180), in Surah Taha (20:8) and in Surah Al-Hashr (59:24).
The Qur’an gives no less than ninety-nine different attributes to Almighty Allah. The Qur’an refers to Allah as Ar-Rahman (Most Gracious), Ar-Raheem (Most Merciful) and Al-Hakeem (All Wise) among many other names.