AL IKHLAS (The Purity of Faith)
In the Name of God,1 the Gracious, the Merciful 2
1 Say: He is God, the one and only;3
2 God, the eternal, absolute;
3 He sires no offspring,4 nor is he anyone’s offspring;5
4 And there is none like him.
- God, in Arabic allah, referring to the one true God, as opposed to an idol or “god.” It is the Arabic equivalent of elohim and eloah (Hebrew), alaha (Syriac), and theos (Greek), all of which accurately translate into English as “God.” This translation choice is consistent with respected English Quran translations including those of A. Yusuf Ali (original edition), S.H. Nasr (Study Quran), T.B. Irving, and T. Itani (Clear Quran). ↩︎
- the Gracious, the Merciful, the highlighting of God’s grace and mercy predates the Quran, coming down from the many hundreds of references in the Taurat, Zabur, and Injil. A few samples follow:
Taurat, Exodus 34:6 — …YAHWEH, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth.
Zabur 145:8 — YAHWEH is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great loving kindness.
Taurat, Joel 2:13 — Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to YAHWEH your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.
Taurat, Yunus 4:2 — …I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and you relent of doing harm.”
Injil, 1 Timothy 1:2 — …Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and AL-MASIH ‘ISA our Lord.
Injil, Hebrews 4:16 — Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace for help in time of need. ↩︎ - 112:1 the one and only, The consistent testimony of Al-Kitab is that there is only one God. The Taurat declares, “Hear, O Israel: YAHWEH is our God; YAHWEH is one” (Deut. 6:4). The Holy Injil teaches the same thing, “Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Mark 12:29). ↩︎
- 112:3 God has no physical sons or daughters. He is not anyone’s “father” physically. Al-Kitab rightly refers to God as “Father” in both the Taurat and Injil, but this must be understood in a figurative, spiritual sense, not a physical sense. The Quran also uses “father” in a figurative sense. For example, in Surah 111 there is the case of a man who is figuratively called “father of flame” (Abu Lahab). More about the phrase “children of God” can be found in the study course “The Way of Truth”, lesson 12. ↩︎
- 112:3 The holy Injil states plainly that ‘Isa is the SON OF GOD, but no one should understand this to mean that God has physically fathered a son. The title SON OF GOD must be understood in a figurative, spiritual sense, not a physical sense. For example, Surah 18:50 mentions the “children” of Iblis, but Shaitan has no physical offspring, so it is speaking figuratively, not literally. The study course “Eternal Word” deals with these matters in Lesson Four. ↩︎