Honesty

So where do we start trying to understand

how a sura of a few ayats

can be equal to a third of the

six thousand plus ayats of the Qur'an?

This is a question Al-Ghazzali asks

before bringing it back to the way we see

the outward expression of what is numerous,

like someone who prefers many silver coins to one jewel,

simply seeing their greater number.

He then considers the three divisions of important matters for the Qur'an,

knowledge of God,

knowledge of the Afterlife,

and knowledge of the Straight Path.

The sura often called Sincerity encapsulates the first of these three,

knowledge of God,

God's Unity

and purity from partnership of any type or species,

a purity that is the negation of

origin, branch and equality.

But no mention of the Afterlife or the Straight Path.

Which is why Al-Ghazzali said the Messenger said

that Ikhlas is equal to a third of the Qur'an.

Ikhlas embraces the essence of muslim faith,

the existence and absolute oneness of God,

Ahad,

uniqueness,

no two or three or four,

bearing no relation, physical or otherwise to creation,

nor any similarity by which to be compared.

Fadl Allah says

'the mental faculty cannot reach Him in His elusive and hidden mystery',

but that is the path we must tread.

A lifetime will not be enough.

Each word in each line has such meaning.

Razi discusses a gradation of understandings

indicated in the first line by the three terms

Huwa,

Allah,

Ahad,

with Huwa signifying the undifferentiated essence

that alone requires existence through itself,

and through whom all other essences are brought into existence.

At the level of Huwa there is no existence except God.

The next term, the name Allah is one of differentiation.

God exists,

the Liege of Creation,

which also exists,

and Ahad reunites multiplicity to the One.

Kashani describes it in a less hierarchical way,

writing of Huwa as an expression for the pure unitive reality,

the essence of itself with no consideration of attributes,

while Allah signifies the essence with the totality of the Attributes.

The Attributes are not additional to the essence,

but identical to it,

the only difference being in intellectual consideration.

He considers Ahad to be the essence

devoid of even any consideration of multiplicity,

pure existence,

as opposed to Al-Wahid,

the essence together with consideration of the multiplicity of the Attributes.

Many commentators define al-Samad as humankind's ultimate Liege,

their refuge, their resort and their sovereign.

Al-Samad has a meaning that includes the eternally besought of all, and the totally self-sufficient,

having absolute divine independence,

along with all creation being totally dependent on al-Samad.

Some note the idea of al-Samad as not being hollow.

Razi describes it as

One who is solid

into which nothing enters

and out of which nothing emerges.

Razi takes pains to explain this is a metaphor,

not that God has a bodily form.

He also gives as a meaning for the word

'Hu is now as Hu always is'.

With so many meanings it is impossible to reduce it to one,

and perhaps it is said best by Maybudi who says it means

'beyond all comprehension and perception,

be it intellectual, mystical or physical'.

Husayn b.Ali was asked about the meaning of al-Samad

and he wrote back saying that al-Samad is explained by the two verses that follow it.

Nothing dense or subtle comes from al-Samad,

nor does al-Samad come from anything.

Al-Samad is beyond compare.

God is not contained by anything.

Hu is not secondary to anything.

However Hu's creation is both

contained by Hu

and secondary to Hu.

Kashani says that Hu's effects do not exist with Hu

but rather in Hu.

Thus they are themselves in Hu

while in themselves they are nothing.

He also situates the Creation within God,

saying that because God's one and only pure essence

does not accept of any multiplicity or division,

and because the singularity of the divine essence

is incomparable to anything other than itself,

then what lacks absolute being is pure nothingness.

It is reported that

the Messenger said that

the seven heavens and the seven earths are founded upon

'Say [Hu] is God is One'