Introduction to the Study of The Holy Quran — Page 304
304 Fatir means One Who extracts something by breaking the shell. The attribute Fatir, therefore, indicates that God has created matter with inherent faculties of development and that in due season He breaks open the shell or covering which confines the operation of these faculties and brings them into operation. For instance, a seed possesses the faculty of growing into a plant or a tree but this faculty comes into operation only at a certain season and under certain conditions. When those conditions arise and that season arrives, the seed begins to develop its faculty of growth. This attribute thus indicates that God has created the universe in accordance with a set of laws and that all sections of the universe continue to develop in accordance with those laws. All the time certain parts of the universe go on traversing preparatory stages and their inherent faculties come into play at certain seasons and then new forms of life become perceptible. The attribute of Khalq (creation) also signifies planning. Khaliq (Creator) therefore also means that God has arranged all things in their proper order and that the universe is controlled by a system. Bari signifies that God starts different manifestations of creation and then appoints laws in obedience to which the thing created goes on repeating and multiplying its species. This is reinforced by the attribute Mu‘id, which signifies repetition. Musawwir signifies that God has given each created thing a shape which is appropriate to its functions. This shows that the perfection of creation consists not merely in endowing the thing created with appropriate faculties but is achieved also by giving it appropriate shape. Rabb signifies that God after creating goes on fostering the faculties of created things by stages and thus leads them to perfection. All these attributes thus signify different aspects of creation. In the same way several other attributes which appear at first sight to be overlapping or mere repetitions are in fact intended to signify very fine distinctions. Once the significance of each attribute is clearly grasped, one is able to appreciate the beauty and the glory of the spiritual universe that the Quran describes. The New Testament makes little mention of the attributes of God. Neither the Torah nor any other single Scripture describes all these attributes. If, however, all the Jewish Scriptures are taken together, one finds mention in them at different places of a good many of the attributes that we have set out above, but even then all are not mentioned. It is commonly thought by Muslims that God possesses ninety-nine attributes. This idea is related to certain Jewish traditions which are based upon the attributes of God mentioned in the Jewish Scriptures. The Quran makes mention of many more than the one hundred and three attributes we have mentioned above but those we have not set out. In fact many of the attributes of God, the operation of which is not connected with man, have not been mentioned in the Quran and it would therefore not be right to assign any particular number to the attributes of God.