Ar-Rahmaan Ar-Raheem

The Opening Chapter (Image by Firas Alkaheel from Pixabay)

When you open up the Qur’an, in the second ayah (verse) of the very first Surah (chapter), Allah (God) mentions His two names: Ar-Rahmaan and Ar-Raheem. These two names are translated as The Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful.

There is an issue with the translation. The word “mercy” in English means to spare someone. For example, when a King was about to kill a culprit, but then he decided to show mercy and let the culprit go, or when you were about to get punished by your mom and she decided not to punish you, hence she showed you mercy. When you think of the word “mercy”, you think of something negative was about to happen and then for some reason, it didn’t because there was mercy.

The words Ar-Rahmaan and Ar-Raheem come from the same root; Rahm. Rahm means the womb of a mother; a woman is expecting and the baby is in her Rahm. At that stage, what does the baby has to worry about? Nothing. The baby does not have to worry about anything at all, not food, not work, nothing at all. The entire burden is upon the mother. This child is completely wrapped up inside the care of his mother, he has no idea what the mother goes through to care for him. The baby is in the state of Rahma.

Rahm (Image by Raman Oza from Pixabay)

Rahma of Allah is unimaginable, we cannot phantom it. But, if you want to get any idea, ANY IDEA at all, about the Rahma of Allah, then the closest thing to it is the womb of the mother. You have NO idea what Allah does to take care of you and how many ways He is taking care of you. The child is not conscious of how he is being taken care of, you cannot even be conscious of the fact that Allah is taking care of you. Allah is taking care of each and every cell in your body. Allah is taking care of each and every organ, just ponder upon your eyes, such a small thing but how many parts, cells, veins come together to make the functioning of the eyes possible. If only the water in the eyes dries up, the pain is excruciating, you would not even be able to blink. Take a look at the heart, it keeps on pumping blood to all parts of the body 24/7, day and night, we cannot even think of how it is pumping blood and how the blood is traveling till the toes. Who is Allah doing this for? He is doing it for you and me. I am not even remembering Him, but He is still doing countless favors for me. I am just as ignorant as the baby in the womb of the mother.

Mercy does not fit into the meaning of Rahma. The closest words that could come in meaning are love and care.

Difference between Ar-Rahmaan and Ar-Raheem

As I had said before, these two words come from the same origin. There is, however, a small difference between the two:

The word Ar-Rahmaan embodies 3 qualities;

1. Ar-Rahmaan suggests extremism. So Allah is not just loving and caring, He is extremely loving and caring.
2. It also suggests that it is happening right now, it has this immediate effect embedded in it. To understand it’s immediate effect, let me share with you an example; if I say, “my brother is being patient”, I mean that he is being patient when???? RIGHT NOW, but if I say, “my teacher is patient”, I am not necessarily meaning that he is patient right now, as a matter of fact, he can be really angry right now, and not acting patiently at all. When Allah says that He is Ar-Rahmaan, He does not only mean that He is extremely loving and caring, He also means that He is intensely loving and caring RIGHT NOW.
3. The third thing about Ar-Rahmaan is that it is temporary, something or some action can take it away. Sounds scary right? I would get back to this third quality later on.

Ar-Raheem, on the other hand, has two qualities;

1. It is permanent, meaning that Allah is ALWAYS loving and caring.
2. It is NOT necessarily happening right now. Someone can have a quality, like my teacher has the quality of being patient, but my teacher may or may not be acting upon the quality right now. To give you another example, let us say you have a boss who pays you every Thursday at 4.30 p.m. One Thursday, at around the same time, he is stuck somewhere in the traffic and you are getting late as you wait for your paycheck. Your friend says to you, “do not worry, the boss is always reliable”, you reply to him, “I know! I know he is always reliable, but I want him to be reliable RIGHT NOW!”

Ar-Rahmaan Compliments Ar-Raheem

I go home one day, after work, and I am really hungry. I ask my wife, “honey, is the food ready?”, “just in 5 minutes”, she replies. Tik… Tik… Tik….. each and every second feels like forever… Before the food is ready, my wife comes to me and asks me, “what would you like to eat tomorrow?”. The question is, would I be able to answer her? No, I would not be able to answer her about tomorrow, because my immediate need for hunger has not been taken care of. I cannot think about tomorrow until my present has been taken care of.

Allah first says Ar-Rahmaan, which means extremely loving and caring right now, Allah first takes care of the immediate need in the most intense way, and as soon as the immediate need has been taken care of, where does the mind wander? It starts thinking of the future, “but what about tomorrow? Will He take care of me tomorrow?” Allah answers this by saying Ar-Raheem, He will always be loving and caring. Ar-Rahmaan covers the present and Ar-Raheem covers the future. Ar-Raheem has not come out yet, it is for the future, but when it would come out, it would be Ar-Rahmaan, it would be intense, isn’t this beautiful?

The Scary Part

Ibn Abbas, one of the companions of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said that Ar-Rahmaan is for this life and Ar-Raheem is for the Hereafter. This life is not permanent, is it? Just like Ar-Rahmaan does not contain the quality of being permanent. The life of the Hereafter is permanent, just like the word Ar-Raheem contains the quality of being permanent.

Remember I had mentioned that I would get back to the third quality of Ar-Rahmaan that it is not permanent? I would do this now.

Your actions in this life can take away the love and care of Allah in the Hereafter. He would always be Ar-Rahmaan to you in this life, but He would not be Ar-Raheem to you in the Hereafter if you continue spreading corruption on the earth and doing actions that do not please Him.

All Praise and Gratitude are for Allah and how Supreme He is without ANY faults at all.

And Allah knows better.

Credits go to Ust. Nouman Ali Khan

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