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(61) The LIFE-GIVER (AL-MUHYI)
(62) The DEATH-INFLICTOR (AL-MUMEET )
Allah, the Life-GIVER created life in every living being, and He, the Death-INFLICTOR created death in every being on whom He inflicts death. Allah is the Creator of life and death; He bestows life on whom He pleases and inflicts death on whom He pleases, where life-giving and death-inflicting are two Divine Acts that are related to His Will and Power. He is the Creator of life in every living being; He raises tolife everything from non-existence to existence, then on Doomsday He resurrects them after their death.
Allah, Glory be to Him says, “How can ye reject the faith in God? Seeing that ye were without life, and He gave you life; then will He cause you to die, and will again bring you to life; and again to Him will ye return” (BAQARA, 28). He gives life to the earth, “Then contemplate the memorials of God’s Mercy! How He gives life to the earth after its death” (RUM, 50). Moreover, He bestows life on hearts and souls by endowing them with the light of Faith, “Can he who was dead, to whom We gave life, and a Light whereby he can walk amongst men” (AN‘AM, 122).
The Death-INFLICTOR takes away life, “That it is He Whogranteth Death and Life.” (NAJM,44); He inflicts death on living beings by making them sleep andgives them life by waking them up, “..but God caused him to die fora hundred years, then raised him up again.” (BAQARA, 259); Allah differentiated between deathand murder, He says “If he died or were slain” (AL-I-‘IMRAN, 144).
Moreover, we are forbidden to think of those who were slain fighting for the cause of Allah as dead. He, Glory be to Him, says, “Think not of those who were slain in God’s way as dead. Nay, they live finding their sustenance in the Presence of their Lord” (AL-I-‘IMRAN, 169), “And say not of those who wereslain in the way of God: They are dead. Nay, They are living, though yeperceive it not” (BAQARA, 154). Anyone who killsor causes death for instance by hunting, slaughtering or murdering, doesnot take life nor does it inflict death but it only inflicts damage onthe body or destroys it, whereas the true Death-INFLICTOR is Allah.
Life and death are created by Allah, “He Who created Death and Life” (MULK, 2). Death precedes life as the universe had been non-existent. Allah said, “..seeing that ye were without life, and He gave you life” (BAQARA, 28).
Life-giving and Death-inflicting are inaccessible save to Allah, because life itself is a great secret and death is a far greater secret and a labyrinthine mystery. Forms of life in human beings, animals, plants and all living organisms such as microbes, viruses, bacteria, and minute organisms, are awe-inspiring and thought-provoking. The secret of life in the human being lies in the Spirit, and the true essence of the Spirit is known only to Allah, He says, “When I have fashioned him in due proportion and breathed into him of My spirit” (HIJR, 29), “But He fashioned him in due proportion, and breathed into him something of His Spirit” (SAJDA, 9).
The body’s contact with the spirit and its parting with it are two matters beyond science and the human mentality. Thereupon, no one can ever perfectly know the Life-GIVER and the Death-INFLICTOR save Allah, Who possesses these two epithets. Praise and Glory be to Him, He is Allah.
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