Two of the most basic and powerful words of dhikr, known even to Muslim pre-schoolers, are the beautiful words SubhanAllah (سبحان الله ) and Alhamdul-Illah (الحمد لله) . Found sprinkled throughout the Quran and Prophetic sayings, the former is often translated as ‘Glory be to Allah’, while the latter as ‘Praise to Allah’.
And ever since ever, I’ve always had a difficult time internalizing these two most fundamental words of divine remembrance.
What does it really mean to Glorify Allah? After all, the entire heavens and earth are in a constant state of divine glorification. How can I join them, notwithstanding my mere vocalization of the term? Why are these two terms so often found interconnected? How are the two different from each other? Glory is in some ways similar to Praise, so aren’t these two adhkaar (pl. dhikr) somewhat redundant?
I felt that I needed a deeper connection with these two terms. And the common translations and explanations simply weren’t cutting it.
Until I heard a recent lecture where the speaker really broke it down in a most effective manner.
He explained that SubhanAllah is declaring Allah’s purity. Allah (swt) is pure from all negative qualities. He is free from all deficiencies. He is void of all defects - defects we may commonly associate with His creation. Thus, we are affirming Allah’s divinity by freeing Him of any and all anthropomorphic qualities.
He is free from all that is Evil.
And when we follow it with Alhamdul-Illah, we are praising Allah for all His positive traits. After having removed the possibility of any negative qualities, we are now declaring that He is perfect in all His positive qualities. He is perfect in His power, His knowledge, His mercy, His love, His sight, His hearing, and so on.
He is perfect in all that is Good.
While the former negates, the latter affirms.
While the former voids, the latter validates.
While the former empties, the latter fills.
Together, they form the perfect symbiotic relationship of words to describe and praise Allah (swt).
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10 comments:
Honestly, I didn't know that. Shukran for the explanation, it will prove useful in our next discussion / debate at home.
wow thats awesome. that makes so much sense. thanks for posting that!
As a regular reader of this blog, I'd really like to read more about the situation in egypt and other cool stuff!
Assalaam Alaikum brother Naeem,
Beautiful explanation, MashaAllah. I never looked at those two adhkaar in such a light. JazakAllah khair for sharing that information! =)
BTW, which lecture/speaker was it from?
Allah reward you for that!
:)
assalam alaikum
Hmmm i dont know if im right or wrong but these 2 words have always had a simple meaning for me .. I mean i use the word 'subhanallah' to praise Allah to say how perfect he is , whenever i am amazed by His creations ... Whenever i read the Quran or a hadith which show us how Allah swt is GREAT or even when i read something about the prophet Muhammed saw peace be upon him.
As far as the word alhamdul illah is concerned i mostly use it to Thank AllAh swt .
Am i wrong ? However this not only about me all muslims i have known do the same .
AA- Anon,
Your understanding is the exact same one that I have had since childhood. And I don't believe it to be incorrect.
I just found the explanation as I posted it to be more complete, especially since these two terms are so often interlinked, such as 'Subhanallahi wa bi Hamdihi'.
In the way you explained it, there isn't any really interconnection between these two words of dhikr, right?
Right ! That is exactly my point .
That is how we explain these words to children and that is how my parents explained it to me. However, as you said it that is not a complete explanation of these terms.
My point is that should we explain things about islam to people the way that our parents taught us? Is not that wrong in a certain way? I mean i know that we have to learn things 'step by step'. However, it is not that simple because when you are a muslim living in Europe it is very hard to 'progress' in islam because you need 'good teachers' and that is not easy to find. it is hard to find somebody who won't mislead you .
i used to live in France before and trust me it is really hard to increase your knowledge in islam over there. there are many muslims over there but they do not have much knowledge about islam and peolpe would often misguide you. where i used to live there were no masjid at all and that was the case in many other cities in France the only masjid i knew is located in Paris.
i still had my parents to guide me but there is another issue here ... My parents... i do not know if it is because we are pakistani but they have a different perspective about islam . I mean they do not make any difference between islam and our culture. They always give more import. to their culture so they teach us things that we thaught were right but when we grow up we realise that there is a contradiction between what they thaught us and islam.
The conclusion here is that it's soooo hard to be a pakistani muslim living in a europ. country.
Lovely - thank you!
the lecture that u heard it from... is this lecture online?
Taahiro, sorry but I don't have the exact link. As I recall, it was a lecture by the late Dr. Israr Ahmed.
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