KNOWLEDGE

WHO IS AR-RAHMAN AR-RAHEEM?

AR-RAHMAN is the Owner of All-Encompassing Mercy, the One Whose mercy reaches all the creation from humans, angels, jinn and animals. It is mercy related to things such as the body, food, drink, clothes and shelter. This type of mercy is called “GENERAL MERCY”. 

AR-RAHEEM is the One Whose mercy reaches His believing slaves; therefore, this is a special mercy related to faith, religion and the Hereafter. This mercy is manifested by guiding the slave to obedience, making the way of goodness easy for him, keeping him firm on faith and guidance upon the Straight Path. This type of mercy is called “SPECIAL MERCY”.

Mercy is to attain all good and to push away all harm.

• By His mercy, He sent messengers to us, brought down His books, protected us from ignorance and guided us to be away from misguidance.
• By His mercy, He made us know His names, attributes and actions. He taught us what we did not know, and guided us to all that is good for our religion and worldly life. 
• By His mercy, the slaves encounter hardships of the worldly life so they do not incline to it nor find satisfaction in it. Thus they hope for the eternal delights in paradise. They are afflicted and tested, He withholds to give them, and He afflicts to grant them well-being, and causes them to die to bring them back to life.

IMPACTS

• Be pleased with all that happens in your life because it is filled with mercy.
• Show mercy to others and the One in the Heavens will show mercy to you. The more a person shows mercy to others, the more Allah will show them mercy.
• Listening, reciting, pondering and acting upon the Qur’an are all means to attain Allah’s mercy.

IN THE QUR’AN

وَإِلَٰهُكُمْ إِلَٰهٌ وَاحِدٌ ۖ لَّا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الرَّحْمَٰنُ الرَّحِيمُ

“And your god is one God. There is no deity [worthy of worship] except Him, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful.”

[Surah Al-Baqarah [2:163]]

IN THE SUNNAH

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: “There are one hundred (parts of) mercy for Allah and He has sent down out of these, one part of mercy upon the Jinn and human beings and the animals and insects. And it is because of this (one part) that they love one another, show kindness to one another; even the beast treats its young one with affection. And Allah has reserved ninety-nine parts of mercy with which He will treat His servants on the Day of Resurrection.”

[Sahih Muslim 2752]