Tenses Question

[Qualities of Allah]

[QuranSearchCom]

Wa Alaikum As'salam,

Past tense is used for Allah Almighty to tell every flesh and blood creation on this earth that Allah Almighty is the GOD Almighty of all times and all existence, and all infinity and all eternity.  Our earth and existence here is limited, and our logic can not encompass this.


Take care,
Osama Abdallah

[Qualities of Allah]

I get why Allah uses past tense for future events now but I do not get why Allah says "? ?? " (Allah WAS hearing and knowing). But Allah is always hearing and knowing. Like the Day of Judgement will come to pass, which is why it is past tense, but Allah being hearing and knowing will never come to pass because He is always hearing and knowing and those are His Attributes. So please explain to me why Allah uses ?? for Himself when His Attributes are always there.

[QuranSearchCom]

Kaana ?? when used for Allah Almighty it means what I described in the previous post, because it indeed is the closest word that can give us a simple picture of His Infinity.  Allah Almighty did use YAKOON (2:117), which is present of Kaana, when the Almighty Said when He wants to create something He commands it "be and it becomes" (2:117).  Here YAKOON was used, because it has beginning and end (all shall taste death) 3:185 ?? ?? ?? .  But with Allah Almighty past tense encompasses all past and present and future.  There is nothing comparable to Allah Almighty (112:004).  Our earthly grammar does not encompass Allah Almighty.  But the use of past tense is the most appropriate.


In a nutshell, before anything and everything was Allah Almighty.  Hence the use of past tense for Allah Almighty.

[Qualities of Allah]

It was just a question when I was reading the Quran. Obviously the infidels have nothing, if the infidels argue about ?? they have to know that there are present tenses for Allah. (? ?? ??) "And God is Hearing, Knowing." So forget about the infidels. I was just asking why ?? was sometimes used in the Quran. You have given a good answer saying ?? is for Allah and resembles the Eternal and Infinite Attributes and that they weren't just "become" one day.

?? ?

[QuranSearchCom]

Jazaka Allah Khayr as well, brother.

[QuranSearchCom]

Also brother, the past tense even in English can include the future.  For example, if you ask me "Do you own www.answering-christianity.com ?" or "Are you the owner of www.answering-christianity.com ?"

Technically, I can answer you something like this: "I've been since 1999".  "I've been" here doesn't stop at today and the future.  In other words, it doesn't mean that I stopped owning the website or no longer own the website.  No, on the contrary, it would mean here that I've been and I am still and will always insha'Allah be the owner of this website.  The context of "I've been" here means it is continuous.

So Allah Almighty using past tense is indeed most appropriate, because it does include the past, present and future and all infinity and all eternity.  So Kaana for Allah Almighty means that He's been and is and will always be.


Take care,
Osama Abdallah

[Qualities of Allah]

Yeah I was thinking about it. It sounds more powerful. Like when Allah says, "And God was the Forgiving, the Merciful," He basically means, "And God was [since the beginning of time] the Forgiving, the Merciful." Instead of using "is" which can mean God just learned how to be Merciful and Forgiving, was means always.

Take care too.

[Qualities of Allah]

I found a hadith which is related to this:

?? ?? ??

"God was and nothing else existed."

This hadith means that God always existed before anything (obviously) and it used ?? to say God existed. So, the Quran's use of ?? means that His Attributes "were" (with Him) and nothing was.