If at night, before going to sleep, bismillahirrahma nirraheem.is read 21 times , the wealth and belongings [of thereciter] will remain secured, and he will remain secured fromsudden death. (Jannatī Zaīwar, p. 579)
The word Allah
To understand the meaning of the two attributes of God ar-rahman and ar-rahim specially mentioned here, it is necessary to study the meaning of these words. Allah is the personal name of God the most high, and this is the greatest name and incorporates within it all the other names of God. It is certainly not derived from ilah (God) for ilah is used for that which is worshipped besides God, whereas the word Allah has never, either before or after the advent of Islam, been used for any other object of worship. Nor is "Allah" a shortened form of al-ilah (the God), for if it were so then when the particle of invocation ya (O!) preceded it, then al would be dropped. For instance, al-Rahman (The Beneficent, pronounced ar-Rahman) is a name of God. When the particle ya precedes it, the al is dropped. We call on God by saying: ya Rahman (O Beneficent!) and not as ya al-rahman (O the Beneficent!). In the same way if Al in Allah was an addition to the word ilahthen on using the invocative ya, the prefix Al would be dropped and instead of saying ya Allah (O Allah) we would say ya ilah. But this is not what happens, so it is apparent that Al is not a prefix to ilah but is an integral part of the word Allah.
To sum up, Allah is an independent word which is the personal name of God, and this is unique to the Arabic language as no other language has a personal name for God. The Quran itself explains the meaning of the name Allah where it states:
La-hu al-asma al-husna
"To him belong (all) the beautiful names." (20:8)
That is, Allah means a being who possesses the complete perfect attributes. Now no attribute is perfect unless it possesses within itself both Husn (beauty) and Ihsan (beneficence).That is, on the one hand the attribute has no fault, flaw or dependency and is thus perfect in its Husn and on the other hand its Ihsan, that is the benefits of the attribute, should also be reaching creation. For instance generosity is a husn but no matter to what extent it is present in any being, until its Ihsan, that is its beneficence, reaches some other being, then until that time it is of no import whether that attribute exists or does not exist. That is why God's attributes are not only perfect in their Husn (Goodness/beauty) but are also perfect in their Ihsan(Beneficence) and it is the blessing of these attributes which is responsible for the emergence and sustenance of the entire creation.
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