Who is Allah, and what is Allah?
A friend asked me this, seemingly in mockery, and also as a way to argue and defeat the very idea of Allah and faith in Him.
Yet behind every mockery and every challenge to debate, there is also a quest.
mockery and combative thinking born of ignorance are still a form of seeking.
That mockery and challenge should make us more loving toward such people.
So, humbly, here is my answer to him:
"Who" and "what" do not apply here at all.
"Who" and "what" are questions given to us by the dimension we are caught in and the measures it creates.
Allah is not a person, not an object in the material sense, not an idol.
Allah is not one among many.
Allah is not a name for picking out one among many. Rather, He is the One alone.
Allah is the One who truly is. "That" is Him, "this" is Him.
Allah is the One who is not even "one."
Allah is that which is what it is, this which is what it is, and yet not that, not this.
Allah is the One that is not a "one," because there is no other to call it "one" against.
Allah is the One who both is and is not, with nothing else to compare against.
Allah is the One who remains even in nothingness, even when you say "nothingness."
Allah is the First that is not a first, and the Last that is not a last.
Allah is the One alone, who makes every other possibility non-existent, and so negates all other possibilities.
Allah is the One alone who is the basis of the entire cosmos.
Allah is the One who is beyond the cosmos, yet fills the whole cosmos without being the cosmos itself.
Allah is the One who makes clear that there is nothing but the One alone, and thus frees us from every kind of bondage.
Allah is the One of liberation, the One alone of freedom, so that we need submit to none but the One.
Allah is the One who frees you from all the many influences and possibilities of exploitation that deceive and divide you.
Allah is the One who ensures that between the One and you there is nothing and no one, and no idol or priest is needed.
Allah is the One who ensures there is no other hope to be given, nothing that can exploit you by giving hopes.
Allah is the One who ensures that for a life lived in total devotion and submission to the One alone, nothing will exploit it.
Allah is the One who ensures that to reach the One, nothing besides you yourself is needed as an intermediary, whether a temple priest, a ritual offering, a salutation, or a donation box. Nor is it permissible.
Allah is the One who makes everyone equal before the One.
Allah is the One who makes all human beings one before that One.
Allah is the One who ensures there is no distinction of caste, lineage, race, nation, or language.
Allah is the One who governs the whole of life.
Allah is the One who gives guidance for the whole of life.
This One frees you from everything else.
This One helps you hold your head high, afraid of nothing else.
The One who was neither born nor begot.
The One who stands by Himself, relying on nothing, let alone anyone's belief.
The One you cannot comprehend from the plane you are caught in.
The One to whom the measures and analogies that can be grasped from your plane do not apply.
The One who created a wondrous universe within the tiniest particles and the tiniest cells.
That one whom we cry out to, helpless, unable to unveil and know how anything is, from the subtlest particles and the tiniest cells to the vast cosmic eggs (the universes).
All those who have lived and known across all times, all worlds, all universes of every living and moving thing, in different dimensions, forms, and states, helplessly and helpfully, knowingly and unknowingly, understanding the meaning and not understanding it, have tried to call upon, speak of, and express Him in whatever languages and modes of address are possible, with whatever attributes, names, sacred words, and praises.
Even if they called and addressed Him with all of those, and with what is beyond those too, it would not be enough, so great is His magnificence.
He does not fit within the vessels, measures, and yardsticks of the names, attributes, praises, and sacred words that we, filled with wonder, call out or try to call out.
And beyond all of these, He is the one who, since none of them are enough, exists transcending them all, while filling everything.
Because we are used to interpreting things idly, it can seem that even speaking honestly of what is, as it is, is just idle talk, just interpretation.
There is nothing in what has been said here that is exaggerated, romanticized, or embellished through creativity.
That One, this One, stands by Himself without the help of any exaggeration or embellishment.
That One, this One, whom you can address as "He" and as "You": that is Allah.
People who understand nothing wrongly imagine that something exists somewhere.
With the hopes those misconceptions give them, they go to this person or that.
Then comes the flattering talk of "everything is right, everything is valid," which is perfectly suited to exploiting all those hopes.
The great trap of "everything is right, everything is valid" is that anyone, however petty, can make any claim or romanticized pronouncement and exploit people who walk around carrying such hopes.
"Allah is One,
the One alone,
there is nothing else,
and nothing else may be beside Him or between"
This completely eliminates every possibility of claims that exploit the poor, innocent hopes of such people.
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