Qur'anic Reflections

Mercy, a two way street

Allah has 99 attributes, all of them encompassing His ambivalence and power, yet He chose one particular name to introduce Himself in His final revelation to mankind—Ar-Rahman.

It is the only name of Allah to have an entire surah named after it. Surah Rahman is a magnificent surah, one that has given us goosebumps and tears, awe and fear, all alike and I always wondered what is about this surah that invariably everyone feels a deep connection with it.

The answer, I think, lies within the etymology. The word Rahm in Arabic literally means womb. It implies the love and mercy a woman has for the child growing inside of her. And I realized that this is what our entire existence is all about.

Mercy is the reason you and I are here, right now, breathing and alive.

It is because of Allah's mercy that we were sent here, with clothes on our bodies and a shelter over our heads. It is because of His undying mercy that we are able to get back up after multiple falls. It is because of the mercy that He put inside of our mothers that we have gotten through our lives with love and care.

It is because of His Mercy that when He sent down the last messenger to all of humanity, He sent him down as a "Mercy for all of mankind." (Surah Anbiya 107) 

We exist today, because our Lord has put His Mercy before His Wrath and we feel the effects of it day in and day out, reinforcing in us, the spirit of gratitude. 

Salman Farisi reported Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying:

Verily, there are one hundred (parts of) mercy for Allah, and it is one part of this mercy by virtue of which there is mutual love between the people and ninety-nine reserved for the Day of Resurrection.
(Sahih Muslim)

It would not be an exaggeration if I said that mercy forms the core of Islam. A virtue the world does not want to associate with us, but there nonetheless, glaringly obvious in our history books.

We are from the legacy of Prophets and leaders embodying mercy to even their toughest enemies.

Prophet Yusuf with his brothers, Prophet Muhammad with the Makkans, the great emperor Salahuddin Ayyubi after the conquest of Jerusalem--all of them resonating with the same Quranic verse, "He said, "No blame will there be upon you today. Allah will forgive you; and He is the most merciful of the merciful." (12:92)

Narrated Jabir bin 'Abdullah:

Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "Allah will not be merciful to those who are not merciful to mankind." (Sahih Bukhari)

Relations with fellow human beings are founded on mercy, a trait that focuses on not just what you feel, but also on what you do. 

Today, the world is burning, stained with the blood of innocents and haunted with the cries of the oppressed. We're all lamenting at our supposed humanity being butchered at the hands of the tyrants.

But this has been a process long established. Our humanity has been dying a slow death since the day we stopped showing mercy to each other.

It is easy to turn back to God and complain. But it takes courage to look past the grief and ask the questions that matter.

How did we end up here? Has God lifted His Mercy away from us?

To lose the Mercy of an infinitely Merciful Lord is a huge feat, one that we have accomplished by our collective apathy and cruelty. Mercy is a two-way street and we will never get ahead until we take the first step in giving it.

In our very own countries, we're seeing things take a dark turn. Divisions running deep and misconceptions fanning the air, we are at a crossroads where we can either make or break our relationships with each other.

At this crucial time, there is a need to revive the Islamic principle of mercy that is essentially color, religious, caste, creed and all sorts of blind. Because when Allah puts an obligation upon us to show mercy, He does so inclusive of all humanity--unadulterated and unbiased.

There is a need for us to be merciful to our friends in and out of Islam by looking out for them, being patient with their flaws and  sensitive to their struggles, respecting their circumstances and just recognising the strength it takes to remain human.

The thing about goodness is that its impact is a chain reaction that needs only a slight push. In this world of increasing instability, one thing that will always remain is the impact you made in someone else's life.

So go ahead and show a little mercy today, to the grumpy neighbour next door, your colleagues and the ones who work for you, to a beggar at a signal or maybe just the stray cat in your colony.

When our collective world will heal itself, only God knows, but while it mends, make sure you make yours worth living in.