Understanding Salat — Page 44
Understanding S al A t 44 with that name. For example, if you don’t know anybody named Zaid, Zaid is a meaningless word to you. However, if someone close to you is named Zaid, then the person comes to your mind when you hear their name. You picture his face along with who he is. Think of the name of someone very close to you. The mention of that word brings with it an immediate recognition and a flow of thoughts and emotions. It brings to mind the person you know. With the word Allah, we are addressing Allah Almighty personally. In the Arabic language, this word is never used for any other being or thing. No other language has a distinctive name for the Supreme Being. The names found in other languages are attributive or descrip- tive. Allah is always used in the singular. ( Dictionary of the Holy Quran, pp. 28) The name Allah can only be meaningful to us if we know Him. When we say Allah, we think of the Being we know. The degree to which we are familiar with Allah is the degree to which this name will carry meaning for us. There is, however, a distinction between how we recog- nize people and how we recognize Allah Almighty. Hadrat Mu s le h Mau‘ ū d ra said, We see people’s beauty first, and then we see their