Al-Kareem (The Most Generous) is one of the Attributes of Allah because of the following reasons:
1- The Most Generous forgives the sins of His servants
When Allah gives, He gives His servant abundantly, and when He is disobeyed, He covers the sins of His servant.
As we have discussed earlier, the word Kareem has many meanings. When we say that Allah (may His Glory be glorified) is Kareem, this means that He overlooks His servants’ flaws, unlike the mean person who traces down people’s shortcomings.
Also, Allah is Kareem in the sense that He overlooks the sins of His servants, unlike the mean person who looks for the trivial violations of other people.
This Divine overlooking is different from being unaware, and though Allah overlooks, everything with Him is in (due) proportion.
Allah knows the fraud of the eyes, and all that the breasts conceal. (Ghafir 40:19)
Not a secret is hidden from Him. Al-Kareem overlooks others’ faults, whereas the mean person traces them down. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said:
“Take refuge in Allah from the following destructive three: a bad neighbor who covers your good and spreads out your evil, a bad wife who is foul-mouthed in your presence and treacherous in your absence, and a bad leader who ignores your good deeds and does not forgive your wrongdoings.” (Narrated by Abu Hurairah)
Al-Kareem is the One Who covers people’s sins and hide their flaws, and this is a Divine Attribute of Allah (Glorified and Sublime be He).
2- Allah abundantly rewards the one who obeys Him
When you say Al-Kareem, this means that when Allah’s worshipping servants shows little submissiveness towards Him, Allah will reward them abundantly. Can you believe that the bite of food which you put in your wife’s mouth will become on the Day of Resurrection as great as the mountain of Uhud. Thus, let your commerce be doing good deeds and be rewarded by Allah.
Is there any investing company which gives you 100 thousand million Liras as profits for one Lira? There is none. On the other hand, the one bite of food, which you put in your wife’s mouth, is considered a sadaqah (charity) you give, and it will be as huge as the mountain of Uhud on the Day of Resurrection. Allah says:
And march forth in the way (which leads to) forgiveness from your Lord, and for Paradise as wide as are the heavens and the earth, prepared for the pious). (Aal `Imran 3:11)
3- Allah raises high the fame of the unknown wretched servant of His
When we say Allah is Al-Kareem (Most Generous), this means that He makes man, who is wretched poor and needy, a well-known man. Furthermore, Allah will raise high his servant’s fame and rank and will cast love for him in the hearts of His creations.
“O My salve! You desire (something) and I desire (something else). If you surrender to that which I desire, I suffice you concerning that which you desire; but if you refuse to surrender to that which I desire, I tire you out in that which you desire, and then you get nothing but that which I desire.” (Mentioned in the relic)
Allah will make this poor, weak, wretched and needy servant someone to be mentioned by concealing his flaws from people and showing them the goodness he has.
And fulfill (your obligations to) My Covenant (with you) so that I fulfill (My Obligations to) your covenant (with Me), and fear none but Me. (Al-Baqarah 2:40)
“Abu Sa`eed (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, ‘Allah (the Most High) says, ‘When engrossment with the Qur’an preoccupies a person from making dhikr and asking from me, I grant him better than what I grant to those who ask from Me.’ The Rank of the Word of Allah over other forms of speech is like the rank of Allah over all His creation.” (At-Tirmidhi)
4- Allah clarifies to us the purpose of His Ordainments
When we say Al-Kareem this means that Allah, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, is Generous enough to give the purpose of His orders to His servants, though He Has the power to impose His orders without any justification.
The powerful person gives orders without explaining the purpose of doing them, and he just says, “Do what I ordered you, or I will crush you”. The Creator of the heavens and the earth says to you:
O you who believe! Observing sawm (the fasting) is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may become (the pious). (Al-Baqarah 2:183)
Allah gives you the purpose of sawm (which is that you may become the pious).
Take Sadaqah (alms) from their wealth in order to purify them and sanctify them with it, and invoke Allah for them. Verily! Your invocations are a source of security for them. (At-Tawbah 9:103)
Hence, justifying the Divine Orders is out of the Karam (generosity) of Allah the Almighty. Some ruthless fathers give orders to their sons and hit them if they do not obey, whereas the merciful father gives his orders to his son and says, ‘O son, obeying my orders will add up to your own good, future, reputation and superiority’.
5- Allah subjugated everything to man, because the latter accepted to bear the trust
When we say Allah is Kareem (Generous), this means that He subjugated everything to us just because we, as human beings, bore the trust:
All that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth; it is all as a favor and kindness from Him﴿ (Al-Jathiyah 45:13)
He it is Who created for you all that is on earth. (Al-Baqarah 2:29)
These things are subjected exclusively for you. There are hundreds of thousands of kinds of flowers, plants and indoor ornamental plants which live without the sunlight, and they are all subjected for you. A joke goes as follows: A man gave a Jasmine to a donkey, and it ate it. The moral: Jasmine is created for man to smell, but the one who gives it to the donkey is a donkey himself.
All that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth; it is all as a favour and kindness from Him. (Al-Jathiyah 45:13)
Hence, when we say that Allah is Al-Kareem this means that when He gives, He gives His servant abundantly, and when He is disobeyed, He covers the sins of His servant.
6- All hopes are pinned on Him
When we say Allah is Al-Kareem (the Most Generous), it means that all hopes are pinned to Him. In order to understand this point, consider the example of a very generous person who said to another person, ‘Ask for my help whenever you need something, and do not ask anyone else to help you’. There are very generous people to such an extent that they feel jealous if you humiliate yourself and ask someone else other than them to help you fulfill your need. Hence, The Almighty Allah gets angry if His servant asks someone else to fulfill his need. The poet said:
Do not ask the son of Adam for a need
and ask Him whose gates never close
for the Lord gets Upset if you stop asking Him
while the son of Adam gets upset when asked for help
7- Allah never abandons the one who seeks His shelter and takes refuge with Him
Al-Kareem has another meaning: Allah never abandons whoever seeks His shelter and takes refuge with Him:
And will never decrease the reward of your good deeds. (Muhammad 47:35)
Pin all your hopes on Allah, put all your trust in Him and count on Allah.
One of the basic weakness of your faith you more confidence to treasure in your hands than what’s on the side of Allah. (At-Tirmidhi)
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Source: nabulsi.com
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