Understanding Salat — Page 48
Understanding S al A t 48 but we reflect on His praiseworthy attribute of being the All- Knowing; ‘We know what his self whispers to him, and We are nearer to him than even his jugular vein. ’ (50:17) When we do Tasb īh (saying Sub ha nall a h ), we look inwards and find all of the imperfections that we ourselves attribute to Allah Almighty. When we do Ta h m ī d (saying Al h amdulill a h ), we look outwards and observe all of the per- fections of Allah Almighty. The emphasis of Tasb īh is not to affirm a reality that exists; it is to negate a falsehood that does not exist. This is why there are very few ways of doing Tasb īh , but there are a hundred ways of doing Ta h m ī d. In almost all the places that we do Tasb īh , we express it with only one word, which is Sub ha n. We don’t need a vast vocab- ulary to negate the imperfections we invented ourselves, but we do need a vast vocabulary to describe the countless beau- ties of Allah Almighty. When we do Ta h m ī d , then we can say ‘Holy is my Lord, the Most Great,’ or ‘Holy is my Lord, the Most High,’ or ‘Holy is Allah, Lord of the Throne,’ or ‘Holy is Allah, Lord of all the worlds,’ or ‘Holy is Allah, and all praise is His. ’ When we say ‘and all praise is Yours’ ( َ وَبِحَمْدِك ) in Than a ’ , we look outward and observe all of the different ways that Allah Almighty is praiseworthy. 1. ‘and praise be to You’ One meaning of َ بِحَمْدِك is, “praise be to You. ” This makes َ وَبِحَمْدِك َّ هُم ّٰ سُبْحَانَك َ ٱلل into two separate statements. Its translation What does َ وَبِحَمْدِك mean?