2الحَمدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ العالَمينَMir Ahmed Ali(all) praise1,I is (only) God’s, the Lord2,II of the worlds3,III,Alhamdu, means, not mere thanks as any one of us gives to another as a routine in our life expressing our verbal gratitude for any act of obligation. Alhamdu means that all praise, thanks, gratitude, indebtedness and obligation in the real meaning and in every sense of the word, from the beginning of the Universe up to its end, is due to none else but God and God alone, not by force or under any compulsion but because He alone and none else deserves it. The praise or gratitude due to Him is not only for His granting our own desires but for all the bounties and blessings which surround man in his existence. The love of the All-Merciful towards His creation is so abundant, and unbounded that He needs no compensation even in the form of gratitude from His creatures. The Divine Mercy is so independent of anybody’s gratitude that it reaches one and all of the creation irrespective of any one being grateful or not, for the unlimited favours and the invaluable bounties every one freely enjoys in the life. The smallest bounty or favour from God is a huge boon to us. We do not at all deserve it, nor do we have any right to claim any favour from the Lord but it is the All-Enveloping Mercy of the All-Merciful Lord that His favours reach one and all of the creation even if any creature asks for it or not, and even if the recipient of any Divine Grace acknowledges it or not.Hamd— Praise. Discussing the truth about the praise and the praising on the part of man, the question arises as to who praises whom. If man praises God, in the first place man’s existence is established along with God’s and the question is asked as to who created man and who guided him to the praise. In fact the praise as well as the praising both belong to none but God. God is the Haamid i.e. the praiser and at the same time also the Mahmood i.e. the praised one. There is none else besides Him as He is the subject as well as the object of the praise, and in this sense none can share His praise. This is implied in the preposition ‘lil’ i.e. ‘for’ which signifies the exclusive assignment. (A.P.)Hamd or adoration through praise always goes after the acknowledgement of favours or bounties. By making man know and realise that praise in any form or meaning, is due only to God and to none else and God alone deserves every praise and adoration, the human mind gets freed from the clutches of the mental corruption and servitude of all kinds of false notions of his indebtedness to and the dread against the awesome nature of the Ruler of the destinies. Man. by nature, is always ready to submit himself to love even to the extent of complete and unconditional surrender of himself and everything his. This is because the feeling of dependency upon others co-operation and help, is inherent in the human nature and whosoever he finds attached to him with interest in his well-being, he is automatically drawn to him. The will to live and the desire for happiness, rules the human soul, and man by nature, feels indebted to whomsoever he thinks even in the least degree, helpful in his life interest, and similarly he dreads everything he imagines harmful to his existence and welfare. By introducing man to God as the Lord of Beneficence and Mercy and teaching him to approach the Divine Ruler of his destiny though praise, he is freed from the necessity to dread his Lord and is invited and encouraged to get as nearer to Him as he would like to earn furthermore grace and bounties from the All-Gracious and All-bountiful Benefactor, Who by Himself is ready to bestow any amount of favours and blessings to anyone who sincerely desires for himself and for those he is interested in. There is no appropriate word in the English language to convey the correct meaning of the Arabic word Hamd i.e. praise. The English word, praise, permeated with the sense of gratitude and thankfulness related to the Arabic word ‘Shukr’ which implies gratitude for some particular favour shown to the self, whereas Hamd is quite an impersonal gratitude for all that is good and gracious to whomsoever, of profit and advantage, it may be involving the idea of free, unrestricted and unqualified admiration for it, but admiration refers to the Arabic word ‘Madh’ which unlike Hamd, used both for the animate as well as the inanimate objects without necessarily implying that the existence of the qualities admired depends on the conscious will of the object, in which ease admiration will qualify the qualities and not the possessor of those attributes. The praise or the gratitude due to God is never in this sense. The prefix ‘al’ denotes that praise or gratitude in any form, in any sense and to any extent is due to none but God, Who alone, not merely at the manifestation of the glory of those Divine Attributes but because He alone deserves as the sole Owner of those matchless qualities, identifying His Self-Existent Absolute Self. This is not as the addition to His Perfect Self, in any meaning or sense whatsoever but as identified with His Matchless Perfection. These qualities belong only to Him and Him alone and to none else besides Him and such was it for all times since the inception of time in the Universe. Hamd or the praise, as we would call it, is God’s; it has no beginning and no ending what we the creatures offer, is merely an expression of that real Hamd according to our individual limitation. As His Grace is unlimited, the Hamd or praise which is His is also continuous. None can praise the All-Merciful Almighty even for a whole life-time and say that he has done justice to offering the praise or paying his gratitude to God for every time one gives thanks to God he inhales and also exhales and has breathed the good life-giving air and discharged the spoiled air from his body. For this one act itself he has to thank the Bountiful Lord twice but he is called to do so only once. Besides, what is the amount of gratitude due to the All-Merciful for the innumerable bounties enjoyed by man simultaneously both within his own body and without it, in the world surrounding him. Even taking for granted the impossible as possible that one could thank the Lord successfully for all the bounties but even then the question arises as to with whose guidance he did it. It was God, his true Master under whose guidance did he offer his thanks or praise, to Him. Thus every creature in the universe is ever under the indebtedness to the Bountiful Grace of God.Rububiyat:—‘A’ta kulla shaiyin khalqahu thumma hada’He is the one who gave everything its shape and guided it to reach it, which is implied in ‘Rahmar’.Rububiyat implies another attribute ‘Luff’ i.e. tenderness and the subtlety in penetration in every one’s mind, heart and body to know the needs to supply the necessary provision. This attribute is responsible to exercise the legislative authority which implies the establishment of the Apostolic Ministry. (A.P.)By our approaching God and praising Him, we get at the very first step towards our Lord, in communion with the infinite goodness and divinity which purges out of us the taste for evil and creates in us the eagerness to get nearer and nearer to God to earn His Mercy, qualifying for it, by purifying ourselves and getting reflected in us the Divine Attributes. By calling God ‘Rabbul-Aalameen’, Islam has brought home to mankind that God is not the God of mankind or the animate, or of only the Visible objects in the world but He is the Lord of everything in the Universe, be that human, animal, vegetable or mineral, perceptive to man or imperceptive, visible to anyone or invisible, near or distant, in the earth or in the heavens or in between them. With infinite creative power or the ability of Almighty and the All-Wise Creator of matter and meaning Who is Absolutely Supreme in every aspect of His authority, and His independent will extends the vastness of all the kinds of the worlds of His creatures. However, the mystic division of the kinds of the worlds, classifies the innumerable number of the kinds into five:—1. ‘Nasoot’2. ‘Malakoot’3. ‘Jabaroot’4. ‘Lahoot’5. ‘Ghaibul Ghayoob’(Material or physical)Metaphysical or Supernatural)(Spiritual)(Divine)The State Imperceivable and absolutely unknowable.By introducing to man ‘Rabbul-Aalameen’ as one of the names of God, Islam has alerted mankind against any kind of injustice not only to their own kind but to anyone in the creation of God, for, God being the All-Merciful Lord Who has nourished and cherished a being, if even in the least be hurt, will not be pleased, and Himself being the All-Just also, will not leave the unjust offender, unpunished. The connection of the ‘Rububiyat’ of God extends as far, and as long as there is the Universe. The function of the ‘Rububiyat’ is not restricted to any place, time, length or the kind of the creation. It extends to the worlds, known and unknown to us, to the past, the present, and the future of the Universe. The limits of the ‘Rububiyat’ of God go with the limits of the Universe in all aspects of its existence. The role of ‘Rab’ starts as early as the will to create a being and when the being is created, to nurture it with love, devotion, never ceasing vigilance and care, providing with everything the creature needs according to the changes it is evolved through. It is the self-imposed duty of the ‘Rab’ to guide the creature with the awakening or conscience to avoid harm of hurt and only to profit it, to serve its needs. God the Rabbul-Aalameen has provided everything with all its needs, with every provisions arranged in form, measure and manner in which one needs them:“Verily We have created in (the right) proportion and measure” (54:49).This one single name of God as the ‘Rabbul-Aalameen’ totally annihilates all beliefs in all the false imaginary deities. It automatically establishes the truth against all falsehood, that everything in the Universe depends upon the One Supreme Lord of the whole Universe, for its very existence, sustenance and protection. It does not leave the least room for anyone in the universe to claim any position of a god or a goddess of any use to anyone who also is co-dependent upon the Same Supreme Authority. The unity and the perfect harmony found in the creation, necessarily and also eloquently implies the Unity of the Creator and His Supreme Authority over the creation as a whole.Rabbul-Aalameen i.e. the Lord-Cherisher of the worlds (26:22-23). Defining ‘Rabbul-Aalameen’ i.e. the Lord-Cherisher of the worlds, Aalameen means the heavens, the earth and what is in between. The heavens according to the Qur’an are Seven, the lowest of which is the starred space, ‘Sama-ad-Dunya’ which means that the Qur’an considers the physical space as the lowest region above which are the six skies or heavens of non-physical nature controlling the physical region as the intermediary states or stages to the ultimate. According to Qur’an the definition of the ups and downs, is not confined to the physical directions which are relative. The most Sublime Being encompassing and penetrating the whole of the Universe, is postulated as the Absolute Up (80:42-45) and the most finite and least encompassing and the least penetrating, is compared to the Down which is termed by the Qur’an as the water which void of all forms recipient of any form or shape, something between being and non-being that may be termed as matter of the Aristotelian philosophy or the Maya of the Indian School, i.e., this ‘Ma’a’ i.e. the water or the primitive matter. God is the Ultimate up and ‘Ma’a’ in this sense of the Ultimate Down. The Lowest Up, in comparison to this, is the starred space i.e. the present world of which our Earth is a part.Verses (80:42-45) give the most beautiful explanation of the Anchorage of all strives to be in God, which has been termed as ‘Saa’at’ i.e. the ‘Qiyamat’ in the Qur’an. Taking the Absolute Ups and Downs in the order of existence as explained here will be a guidance for the solution of many theological problems of utmost importance such as ‘Me’raaj’ i.e. the Ascent or the ‘Qiyamat’ the angelical spheres and the other abstract realms. (A.P.)Arabic ‘Hamd’.Arabic ‘Rab’.Arabic ‘Aalameen’.