The Creator Before There Was a Creation

A question that naturally arises is whether Allah (swt) had all of these attributes even before He created them. Was He Qayyūm before even having anybody to look after and to sustain? To phrase it another way: has Allah (swt), for example, been the Creator and the Provider even before there was a creation, and before there was anybody to sustain and provide for? Yes. Imam al-Ṭaḥāwī reiterates this point again and again, in various different ways. Imam Abū Ḥanīfah does the same, because that is such an essential point: to dispel the notion that Allah (swt) did not have certain attributes, and then developed them later on, and was able to create.

Again, this comes from the whole human weakness: of people growing up through infancy, and then suddenly developing the ability to speak, and then the ability to do things, to walk and to talk, and so on. Allah provides certain basic capabilities, like eating; otherwise the baby would take the breast in the mouth and not drink. But this is a natural thing that Allah (swt) has given to the child. It is not something that came through evolution; it is something that Allah (swt) created the human being with, that ability. But slowly, slowly, they begin to learn to walk and to speak, and they study things, they learn things: their attributes, the attributes of the human being, of knowledge and of other things.

Sight: a baby of a week or two weeks, even up to three weeks, cannot really see the person in front of it. It is a blurry thing. This is the common experience with children: they cannot really see anyone. When they smile, it is just a gesture on their face; they are not necessarily smiling at something. These are just various facial expressions that they are making. After that, they start to see. So the sight develops.

In fact, children are able to see things at different frequencies which adults cannot, just as dogs are able to hear things at different frequencies which human beings cannot. There is a dog whistle, for instance, which the human being cannot hear, but a dog can. They work at different frequencies. It is just like what the Prophet (peace be upon him) mentioned about the ʿadhāb of the qabr, where he mentioned that particular individuals in their graves were being punished: though none of the humans could hear their screams, he said the animals can, and that is why his mount was moving at the time.

That is Allah (swt): He has been the Creator before all of this. So what we think is that the human being develops these things later on, and then they diminish afterwards. So one sees older people.

Radadnāhu asfala sāfilīn, as Allah (swt) says: We return them to the lowest of the low. So there is this decline at the end of age for some people, except those whom Allah (swt) protects. And we should actually always make a duʿāʾ to Allah: Allāhumma innī aʿūdhu bika min al-haram, with a small hāʾ, haram, which means evil old age. Wa aʿūdhu bika min an uradda ilā ardhali al-ʿumur: that I be returned to evil old age. That should be one of our duʿāʾs.