Islam
describes God as a Perfect Being, possessing every excellence. The opening
verse of the Holy Quran states: "All
praise is due to Allah, the Creator and Sustainer of all the worlds."
As
God has created all things, and all things depend on Him for their sustenance,
He alone deserves all praise for the beauties and excellences to be found in
different things, for all these beauties and excellences are derived from God.
God has been called 'Rahman' in the Holy Quran, i.e. God has, out of His
pure Grace and Bounty, created all those things the need of which was to be
felt by man; for instance, parents to care for him, light and air, fire and
water, different kinds of food and medicines, timber, iron, stone, etc.
In
fact, man cannot possibly feel any need which has not been met and provided for
even before his birth! All this has been done under God's attribute of 'Rahmaniyyat'.
God has also been called 'Rahim' in the Holy Quran, that is to say, He
rewards all labour and effort according to its quality and merit. Man's effort
is never wasted, and he is ever rewarded in true proportion to his merit.
He
is called 'Malik-i-Yawm-id-Din', He is the Master of the Day of
Judgement. In other words, apart from the operation of the laws of Nature, and
the rewards or punishments which are meted out in this world, He has fixed the
limits of every action, and as soon as those limits are reached, final
judgement is passed on each action whereby the good are rewarded, and the evil
ones are punished - subject always to this,
that under His attribute of 'Malikiyyat' it is always open to Him to
forgive and to remit the punishment.