Assalamu Alykum,
This is your sister Danielle LoDuca. We’ve been discussing the Beautiful Names of Allah Almighty and today we’ll be discussing the Name Al-Hayy (The Ever Living).
Let’s take a second to think about the things that we’re pursuing in our lives: maybe a degree, maybe we’re hoping to get married, maybe we’re looking forward to retirement, maybe we’re hoping for a job or for children… there is one quality that most of our desires have in common and that is that they’re finite, none of them will live or go on for ever.
But not Allah Al-Hayy. He is The Ever Living, The Alive, The Ever Lasting, The Deathless. He has no beginning and He has no end.
This is the concept that makes kids really like to discuss, especially my older son. He’s only 8 years old but he put his hands on his head and he’s just like: “I can’t understand! I can imagine something had no ending but I can’t imagine Allah had no beginning.”
I totally understand why. In our context, we are subject to time. We see that it goes on and on and our imaginations allow for the possibility that things could go on and on like that forever but no beginning? How can that be?
This is a question that atheist really have a problem with. Now, they don’t believe in the creator, an intelligent being that intentionally produced and sustained everything.
They speak about the Big Bang, and they speak about the evolution but they have absolutely no answer for what caused the Big Bang; and if they did, we have to ask them what cause that.
So I told my kids that Allah Almighty had a beginning then we will have to ask what caused Him to come into being and then that question would have to be asked infinitely.
The only logical explanation is that there has to be one who is Ever Living, perpetual with no beginning that causes the things that we can observe to exist.
One of the problems that makes this concept a little bit difficult for us to understand is that our minds are shackled by time.
When we think about life, we think about it in a context of time; when we think about death, we think about it in the context of time: when will I die? Will I be 70? Will I be 60? Will I be 90? Will I be 50?… I don’t know… but those are points in time. But Allah Almighty is that Al-Hayy is not subject to time as we are; in fact He is the creator of time.
So we’re trying to understand Him within the construct of His own creation. When in fact He’s separate entirely from His creation.
So why we may not be able to fully fathom this concept of never beginning and never ending?
What we do come away with is the understanding that “There is absolutely nothing like Allah”. We are not like Allah, we will die, and everything that we pursue in this life will also end. But Allah Akbar; He ‘s greater than everything.
If you think about every single problem you’ve ever had in your life or any difficulties you may be facing right now, any distress, whether it’s money, family… all these things will end.
Now if you think about some of the things you might be relying on for your future in this world, may be it’s money, maybe your car in the morning to drive you to work, maybe you’re relying on your parents, your husband, your wife… most of the things that we rely on are finite and they will end.
So knowing that Allah Almighty Al-Hayy, does not end, then it indicates that we should be relying upon Him instead. And Allah Almighty said in the Quran in fact in Chapter Al-Furqan: {Rely on the Ever Living who does not die.} (25:58)
In fact, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) used to call upon Al-Hayy when he was in serious difficulty and he would say:
“O Ever Living One, O self Existing One. By your mercy I seek help”
So let’s turn to Him and seek His assistance in our daily affairs, and let’s seek His protection from the Last Day that He describes in chapter Ta-Ha: {All faces will be humbled before the Ever Living, the sustainer of existence and he who had failed who carried injustice} (20:111)
We don’t want our failures to be left in our own hands. Let’s really strive to place our trust in the Ever Living and ask Him Al-Hayy, the one who Has been aware of us since the moment of our inception and who will be with us and aware of us until the moment of death.
Let’s ask Him to make our lives a source of good.
Let’s ask Him to give us good endings and to inspire us to constantly turn only to Him. And may He grant us eternal life in the gardens of Jannatul Firdaws.
Ameen.