Note:
Without the third person absent pronoun
Hu/Huwa,
Allah would
have to be always present as the first or the second person pronoun
i.e. you or I and this would limit and forbid the absence, and in the
case of Allah the absolute absence. And if so, many of the Divine Names
and Attributes would be void. Therefore the third person absent pronoun
Hu is necessary for the veracity of the Divine Presence(s) and Divine
Names and Attributes and this pronoun cannot be taken out.
Similarly there are anomalies without the Self:
Normally we say: A dressed A which in this case a name is required as
identifier. Again we may say: A dressed itself, in this case one less
name can be used. Again, in absence of all information including the
name of A, we may say: it dressed itself. Now if there is no concept of
Self then the statement is reduced to the ambiguous: it dressed it. Why
ambiguous? Because we do not know if the first 'it' is the same entity
as the second 'it'! It could also have been: A dressed B and then we
used the third person absent pronoun and we get the ambiguity: it
dressed it!
So lets examine the verse:
Hu
inscribed Mercy upon Hu's Nafs (Self) or IT inscribed Mercy upon
ITself. Now lets remove the concept of Self: IT inscribed Mercy upon IT
and here we have the ambiguity who is the second IT, angels? Man? Or
Allah?!
Hu
inscribed Mercy upon Hu's Nafs (Self) is a statement made in absence,
even though the was already creation in place:
“ The Prophet narrated: "Indeed when
Allah created
the creation, Hu wrote with Hu’s (ITs, His) Hand upon Hu’s Nafs (Divine
Self): "My Mercy to overcome My Anger.""
Therefore the statement, ITs hand wrote upon ITself, is made in
absence-mode i.e. away from all the creation and if the term Self is
not there will be ambiguity.
Therefore Self is necessary for
Allah to
address Allah, as
Hu
addressing Hu, nameless and absolutely absent. Self is necessary for
such absolute absence-mode statements.
The statement:
Allah
inscribed Mercy upon Allah, is fine but THIS IS NOT WHAT HAPPENED! The
statement with the Name Allah would be a public statement, WHAT
HAPPENED was a statement made in absence of any creature and that is
why the term Hu is used in conjunction with the Self.
So why not:
Hu
inscribed Mercy upon Hu; since it is a statement made in the absent
mode and since
Allah
knows everything there should be no ambiguity. This is correct if the
statement was made only for Allah, however the truth is that this
statement was made—though in absent-mode—for human beings to read and
understand. So the human reader would not know who is the second Hu!
Therefore the concept of Nafs is necessary not for any reasons linked
to
Allah,
Allah is needless, Nafs is necessary for the human being to understand
reality and statements related to Allah. As the concept of Divine Names
and Attributes are not necessary for anything linked to Allah, but they
are necessary for human consumption.
©
2006-2002, Dara O. Shayda, Hind Rifai M.D.