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How Allah displays His Mercy


My question is that I have heard in a hadith that Allah(swt) is some 70 times more merciful than your own mother. But my mind cannot understand that; I cannot see a mother giving lashes to her son for not doing correct tahara, out of her mercy, but the punishment in Jahannum for not doing correct tahara is severe. So please explain how I can understand this hadith better, on how Allah(swt) displays Mercy in a different manner than a mother would to her son?

The hadith is in al-Bukhari [adab] and Muslim [tawba] from ĘżUmar (ra) without the mention of 70 times.

Allah Most High said {And there is life for you in retaliation, O men of understanding, that ye may ward off (evil)} (2:179). A mother shows mercy to her son in a way that does not necessarily redress the son and teach him to correct his mistakes. Whereas the way of Allah is to show mercy by endowing His creature with the ability to enter Paradise and share in its intense purity and light.

If the sinner entered Paradise without cleansing first, he would be unable to see or taste anything, no more than swine could appreciate a diamond necklace or one of red sulfur - the purest gold - if you were to adorn it with it. And neither diamond nor red sulphur can be extracted without first going through a burning furnace.

A worldly illustration of this is that if a man finds the perfect wife for his son but knows that his son is unfit to fulfill her rights, should he out of unquestioning love for his son go ahead and marry them off, or should he first test and train him to try and make him a better man?

And Allah knows best.

Hajj Gibril ©

 

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2001-06-16
latest update: Thu, 12 Feb 2009
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