As Salaamu alaykum Can you explain how Allaah has gheerah? and if possible…what is gheerah?
All praise be to Allah, and may His blessings and peace be on His last prophet and messenger, Muhammad,
The revelation used the language developed by humans to denote things and concepts within their experience in order to point to things and concepts whose realities are beyond human apprehension.
When it comes to the Divine attributes, we must first establish our beliefs as conveyed in the revelation (the supreme teller of the Truth), within the linguistic conventions and intellectual framework of the first audience, for they were meant to have the purest understanding of these beliefs – and they did.
Firstly, there are three different types of attributes: 1- attributes of perfection only, 2- attributes of deficiency only, and 3- those that may indicate perfection or deficiency based on the context. Allah is described by the attributes of perfection. Those of deficiency may not be ascribed to Him. As for those that are dependent on the context, He may only be described by them within the appropriate context. Jealousy is one of those.
Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that Allah’s Messenger (blessings and peace be upon him) said:
“إن الله يغار و المؤمن يغار، وغيرة الله أن يأتي المؤمن ما حرم الله “
“Verily Allah gets jealous, and the believer gets jealous, and the jealousy of Allah is about the believer violating his bounds.” [Narrated by Muslim]
In another hadeeth, it mentioned Allah getting jealous when his servant fornicates. A father gets jealous when a foreign man violates the chastity of his daughter. Allah is the Creator of us all, and He cares more about us than our parents. There are, also, many other reports regarding this attribute.
Jealousy, in the positive context, is about care, protectiveness, responsiveness and integrity. Every king has a sanctuary which he declares forbidden for people to violate. Jealousy is to show anger when this sanctuary is violated. In this context, it is an attribute of excellence, not deficiency.
The golden rule in approaching the issue of Allah’s names and attributes is to have a steadfast conviction that:
“وَلِلَّهِ الْمَثَلُ الأَعْلَى.”
“and for Allah is the highest attribute.” [Quran, Sahih International, 16:60]
It is also essential to understand that:
“لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ.”
“There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the Hearing, the Seeing.”
After priming our understanding with His transcendence and incomparability, we allow the revelation to form our conception of God, unimpeded by the objections of abstract reasoning, which has no place in metaphysics, as even some of the most distinguished philosophers, like Kant, admitted.
So, while believing in the obvious meanings of those attributes, as understood from the language of the text of the Quran and Sunnah -the only sources for this knowledge – as well as the particular context of their mention, you should never try to imagine the actual nature or modality of those attributes, as they pertain to Allah, because whatever you think, Allah is not like that. After all, how can we perceive His true nature with our severe limitations?
Allah knows best.