| AL-AALAMIIN
Al-Aalamiin
is plural for Aalam, which encompasses everything
in existence except Allah. The word Aalam is itself a plural
word, having no singular form. The term Aalamiin encompasses
all sorts and types of creation. All matter, energy, space
and everything, and their related forces are all included
in Aalamiin, which are manifestations of Existence of God.
In other words, Abdullah bin Ahmed Nasfi, in ‘Madarikul
tanziil wa haaqaiqul ta'wiil’, explains that except
God Himself everything else is included in the term Aalamiin.
According to Thomas Patrick Hughes in ‘A Dictionary
of Islam’, scholars have mentioned different Aalamiin,
e.g.:
Aalam: The universe, world, condition, state of
being.
Aalamul - Arwaah: The world of spirits
Aalamul - Khalq: The world: This life
Aalamul - Baaqi: The future state
Aalamul - A'zamah: The highest heaven
Aalamul - Shahaadah: The visible world
Aalamul - Ghaib: The invisible world
Aalamul - Ma'quul: The rational world
Abdullah Yusuf Ali says that there are many worlds-
astronomical and physical worlds, worlds of thought, spiritual
world, and so on. In everyone of them Allah is All-in-All.
The mystical division between (i) Naasuut (the human world
knowable by the senses), (ii) Malakuut (the invisible world
of angels), and (iii) Laahuut, the Divine world of Reality,
require a whole volume to explain them.
The term ‘Aalamiin’ is defined to
include different creations that exist in heavens, earth,
and sea. Every generation of creation is also called an Aalam.
In ‘Vocabulary of the Holy Quran’, Dr Abdullah
Abbas Nadvi explains that Al-Aalamiin signifies all categories
of existence, both in physical and spiritual sense. It indicates
also that the world is not only what man knew upto now but
there are numerous worlds to be discovered or to be known
in future. In this comprehensive sense Allah is the Lord of
all worlds-all creations of past, present and future - Rabbul
Aalamiin. Hence this word is related to one of the Attributes
of Allah. At some places the Holy Quran has used this term
in its figurative expression to denote surrounding people
of the addressed person or community, as in 2-47.
In Al-Faatihah, the term Aalamiin, in plural,
has been used at the beginning. Again in verse No. 5 the supplication
has been made in first person plural. These occurrences in
plural signify the unity of mankind, universality of laws
and a pattern in collective behaviour of all creations-all
worlds. Besides revealing universality of the message, the
statement signifies mysteries of all worlds-creations and
refers to the common history of mankind and universe.
Science
Presents an Interesting Clue in an Example of `Invisibility’:Engineering
Professor Susumu Tachi of University of Tokyo has developed
a system that can make you `invisible.' He demonstrated the
technology through a photo. It appeared as if three men walking
in the background can be seen through it. Tachi's second example
shows the image of the skeleton being projected onto a sheet
of the retro-reflective material, giving the impression that
the body has become transparent. The technology could be useful
in medicine, where surgeons might use it during operations
to avoid having their fingers or surgical tools block their
view. Visible, un-seen and un-visible express only the limitations
of reach of vision in physical frame of man and the state
of available technology. Allah ever knows all and everything
in the heavens and the earth.
“He
is Allah, beside Whom there is no god (ilaah),
The Ever All-Knower of the unseen-hidden and
the seen,
He is the Ever All-Gracious, the Ever All-Merciful.”
(59–22).
For Lexicography
see Appendix-12.
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