Allah The Exalted — Page 130
1 We have explained it several times that since eternity, Divine attributes are of two kinds: the attribute of resem- blance and the attribute of transcendence. As it was necessary to set out both attributes in His Word, for the declaration of His attribute of resemblance, He men- tioned His hand and eye and love and anger in the Holy Qur’ a n, and then to remove the suspicion of resemblance He stated at one place: 110 and at other places it is said that He settled Himself on the ‘ Arsh as, for instance, in the verse: 111 Your God is the One Who raised up the heavens without any pillars, as you can see. Then He settled Himself on the Throne. From the literal meaning of this verse, it would seem to follow that God was not settled on the ‘ Arsh before. The explanation of this is that the ‘ Arsh is nothing material, but is a state of being beyond of beyond which is God's attribute. God created heaven and earth and all other things and bestowed upon the sun and the moon and stars light from His own light by way of reflection and created man, metaphorically speaking, in His Own image and breathed into him His Holy attributes. He thus created a resemblance unto Himself. But as He is free from any resemblance He described His transcendence by the ex- pression of ‘settling on the Throne. ’ Despite having created everything He is not His very creation itself, but 110 ‘There is nothing whatever like unto Him. ’—al-Sh u r a, 42:12 [Publisher] 111 al-Ra‘d, 13:3 [Publisher]