Attributes of Mercy

Islam, in its essence, is built upon two great pillars. Everything we exhorted to do or made to believe in falls into two broad categories. One pillar is the accepting of Allah as the Supreme Lord and our intend to respect His exalted station and simultaneously recognizing our position as His humble servant. The second pillar is enshrined or projected in one’s attitude towards mankind in being merciful showing compassion towards all creatures of God.

Our lives are encompassed in these two categories in every respect and when we evaluate our actions according to the spirit of these principles, we may drive benefit from Islam in the way it was intended.

As a matter of Islamic principles each and every action of our must be dedicated to God, the benefactor; that is why we initiate all our actions with the invocation of His attributes of mercy. Allah Almighty Himself invoked these attributes of mercy when revealing the verse of the Holy Qur’an and the succeeding chapters, by saying: “In the name of Allah, most Merciful, the most Beneficent”.

For we Muslims, invoking these attributes of mercy is the key to success and acceptability in the Divine presence of our deeds of mercy towards our fellow creatures. We must always remember that without His divine help we cannot succeed in any of our good actions. Indeed, without His help or support we cannot even move our hands or feet. Once we have devoted our life and all our deeds to our Lord, invoking His attributes of mercy, we must equally strive to show mercy to all creatures of Allah. Even if we need to kill any creature we should do so as painlessly as possible. It is to this end that specific methods have been prescribed for slaughtering animals for food, a way that involves the least suffering for the animal or say the victim.

So much so that if we want to exterminated insect or harmful animals it is impressed to do so in the most painless way possible. It is strictly forbidden in Islamic creed to kill any living being by fire. Allah the Almighty has reserved for Himself the right to burn those who had earned such a fate as to be placed in the fire of Hell. God has not extended this right to any creature of His.

But what is happening around us today is that the powerful nations are on the path to annihilate the world with fire. All modern weapons are basically firearms that are prohibited not only in Islam but in other faiths too. We must be merciful even to the smallest creature. Islam does not allow even to step on ant without reason as it too has life like any other living being. It senses fear and tries to escape as it sees its foe approaching to harm. On the other hand, it glorifies the Lord. It does not harm you; you must not kill it otherwise you will be held accountable.

The message of Islam is clear to show mercy to all creatures of God. It is also the underlying theme of the teachings of all Sufi teachers…Farid.