Basic · Knowing Allah · Faith & Theology · Ages 5–99
Allah Always Was
Discover that Allah has no beginning and no end, and that Allah needs nothing, while everything needs Allah.
What you will learn
- Explain that Allah has no beginning and no end: Allah always was and always will be.
- Explain that Allah needs nothing, while everything needs Allah at every moment.
A baker makes bread. Allah creates the world. What is the difference?
Answer: The baker needs flour, but Allah creates from nothing.
A baker makes bread from flour that is already there. Allah makes things from nothing. Before the world, there was only Allah. The world is here because Allah wanted it to be.
A baker makes bread. Allah creates the world. What is the real difference?
Answer: The baker shapes flour that already exists; Allah brings things into being from nothing
The baker needs flour that is already there. Allah needs nothing: before the world there was nothing but Allah, and the world exists because Allah willed it.
Everything you see started at some time. A lamb was born. A flower grew from a seed. And you began too: once, you were not here at all!
What do the lamb, the flower and you all have?
Answer: A beginning
Once, none of them was here, and then each one began.
Think of anything: a bike, a school, the oldest tree in town, even the mountains. Each of them began at some point, and none of them will stay in this world forever.
What do a bike and the mountains have in common?
Answer: Both began and will not last forever.
The bike is new and the mountains are very old, but both had a beginning, and neither will last forever in this world.
Everything around us has a beginning. Some people say the universe itself has always existed. But every part of it changes and depends on other things, and what changes and depends on others cannot be the source of its own being. Only Allah has no beginning and depends on nothing. Everything else began because Allah brought it into being.
Why can't the universe be the source of its own existence?
Answer: Every part of it changes and depends on other things
What changes and depends on others cannot give itself being, however old it is. Only Allah depends on nothing.
Phones, apps, companies and trends appear and vanish within a few years. Even things that seem permanent, like cities and mountains, once began and, in time, will pass.
What does the text say about things that seem permanent?
Answer: They too began and will, in time, pass.
Cities and mountains last far longer than phones, but they too had a beginning and will, in time, pass.
By midlife you have seen a great deal begin and end: jobs, homes, plans, whole chapters of life. Everything in this world begins and, sooner or later, passes.
A building that stood in your town for decades has been taken down, and a new one is going up in its place. Which thought fits what you have just read?
Answer: Like everything in this world, it began and in time it passed
Decades is a long time, but the building still had a first day and a last one, like everything in this world.
Over a long life you have watched much begin and pass: places changed, ways of living came and went. Everything in this world has a beginning, and in time each thing passes.
Think of a street or a custom from your youth that has since changed. Which thought fits what you have just read?
Answer: Everything in this world begins and, in time, passes
What changed around you was no exception, because everything in this world has its time.
Allah is different. Allah never started. Allah has always been, before everything. And Allah will never end.
Did Allah have a beginning too?
Answer: No, never
Allah never began and will never end. Allah was there before anything else, and Allah depends on nothing. Everything else began, and it lasts only as long as Allah keeps it. Even what lasts forever, like the life to come, lasts because Allah keeps it.
Did Allah ever have a beginning?
Answer: No, Allah never began.
Allah is not like that. Allah has no beginning and no end. Time itself is part of what Allah created, so Allah is not inside time and does not grow older or wait for what comes next. Allah always is.
Why does Allah not grow older?
Answer: Time is Allah's creation; Allah is not inside it.
Growing older happens to things inside time. Time is something Allah created, so Allah is not inside it and does not age or change.
A man named Nafi' once asked Imam al-Baqir, peace be upon him, when Allah came into existence. The Imam answered with a question: 'When was Allah ever not there, so that you could ask when He began?' Then he said: 'Glory be to the One who always was and always will be.'
al-Kafi, vol. 1, Book of Tawhid, ch. 6 ('Being and place'), hadith 1 (Sarwar's translation, thaqalayn.com); al-Majlisi (Mir'at al-'Uqul) grades its chain sahih.
How did the Imam answer the question Nafi' asked?
Answer: He asked when Allah had ever not existed
He answered with a question: there was never a time without Allah, so there is no 'when' at which He began.
True or false?
- A tree had a beginning. — True
- Allah had a beginning. — False
- Allah will never end. — True
True or false?
- The mountains had a beginning. — True
- Allah began a very long time ago. — False
- Allah will never come to an end. — True
True or false?
- Allah is the oldest being there is. — False
- Allah has no beginning and no end. — True
- Time is part of what Allah created. — True
- Before the world existed, Allah was waiting for it to begin. — False
We need food and water. We need sleep. We get tired. Allah cannot get hungry or tired, because Allah needs nothing.
Does Allah need food or sleep?
Answer: No, never
We need food, sleep and help from others. Allah needs nothing at all: not food, not rest, not help. Allah cannot get tired and never runs out of anything.
Does Allah need anything, like food, rest or help?
Answer: No, nothing at all.
It is a fair question. Anything that is made needs a maker. If Allah had been made, His maker would need a maker too, and so on without end, and nothing would ever have come to exist. So there must be One who was never made and needs nothing: Allah.
People often ask: 'If Allah made everything, who made Allah?' What do you think?
Answer: Allah was never made.
But we need many things: air to breathe, water, food and sunshine. They all come from Allah. We need Allah all the time.
When do we need Allah?
Answer: All the time
Even right now, as you breathe in, you need Allah.
Everything apart from Allah needs Allah. A plant needs sun and water, and you need air and food. But the sun, the water, the air and you yourself exist only because Allah keeps them in existence.
What is true, according to this text?
Answer: Everything needs Allah just to exist.
Everything needs Allah all the time, simply to exist: the sun and the air as much as plants and people, and not only when something goes wrong.
Allah needs nothing: no food, no rest, no help, not even our thanks. Everything else needs Allah at every moment, simply to exist. The rich, the powerful and the brilliant need Allah as much as anyone.
According to this text, who needs Allah?
Answer: Everyone, the powerful included.
Everything needs Allah at every moment just to exist, so wealth, power or brilliance make no one less in need of Allah.
al-Ghani al-Ghani
The Self-Sufficient, the One who needs nothing
One of Allah's names. Allah needs nothing at all, while everything else needs Allah. Here it has nothing to do with money.
Al-Ghani is the One who…
Answer: needs nothing
Al-Ghani is a name of Allah: the One who needs nothing at all. It is not about money. It means being free of every need.
al-Ghani al-Ghani
The Self-Sufficient, the One who needs nothing
One of Allah's names. Allah needs nothing at all, while everything else needs Allah. Here it has nothing to do with money.
Allah is al-Ghani. What does this name tell us?
Answer: Allah needs nothing at all, and everything needs Allah
Al-Ghani is a name of Allah: the One who needs nothing at all. It is not about money. It means being free of every need.
Who needs what? Match them.
- A plant — sun and water
- You — food and sleep
- A fish — water to swim in
- Allah — nothing at all
Fill in the gaps.
Allah has always been: Allah has no ___. Allah will always be: Allah has no ___. Allah needs nothing, but everything ___ Allah.
- beginning
- end
- needs
- helps
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ أَنتُمُ ٱلْفُقَرَآءُ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ وَٱللَّهُ هُوَ ٱلْغَنِىُّ ٱلْحَمِيدُ
O men! you are they who stand in need of Allah, and Allah is He Who is the Self-sufficient, the Praised One.
Fatir · 15 · M. H. Shakir (Tanzil)
According to these words, who needs Allah?
Answer: All people
These words speak to all people: all of us need Allah, and Allah needs nothing.
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ أَنتُمُ ٱلْفُقَرَآءُ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ وَٱللَّهُ هُوَ ٱلْغَنِىُّ ٱلْحَمِيدُ
O men! you are they who stand in need of Allah, and Allah is He Who is the Self-sufficient, the Praised One.
Fatir · 15 · M. H. Shakir (Tanzil)
According to these words, who is in need, and who is not?
Answer: People need Allah; Allah needs nothing.
The words say that people are the ones in need of Allah, and that Allah is the Self-sufficient, who needs nothing.
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ أَنتُمُ ٱلْفُقَرَآءُ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ وَٱللَّهُ هُوَ ٱلْغَنِىُّ ٱلْحَمِيدُ
O mankind! You are the ones who stand in need of Allah, and Allah—He is the All-sufficient, the All-laudable.
Fatir · 15 · Ali Quli Qara'i (Tanzil)
According to these words, who is in need, and who is not?
Answer: People need Allah; Allah needs nothing.
The words say that people are the ones in need of Allah, and that Allah is the All-sufficient, who needs nothing.
Your toy stops when its batteries run out. You get tired at night. What is true about Allah?
Answer: Allah cannot get tired, because Allah needs nothing.
Toys stop and people get tired, because they need things. Allah needs nothing, so Allah cannot get tired.
You are very hungry after school, and that evening you are so tired that you go to bed early. What does this show about you and Allah?
Answer: I need things all the time; Allah needs nothing.
Hunger and tiredness show how much we need every day. Allah cannot get hungry or tired, because Allah needs nothing. And we need Allah at every moment, not only in trouble.
You get your best grade ever after weeks of hard work, and for a moment you feel you don't need anyone. Which thought is right?
Answer: Even at my best, I depend on Allah for everything I have.
Your effort is real and worth being glad about. But the mind you studied with, the time you had and every breath you took came from Allah. Only Allah needs nothing; everyone else needs Allah, at their best as much as at their worst.
Suppose that after years of hard work you stand on your own feet, with your own income and your own decisions. A thought comes: 'Now I can manage on my own.' Which thought is right?
Answer: Standing on my own feet is good; I still need Allah for everything.
Standing on your own feet means not being a burden on others, and it is good. Depending on Allah is different: everything you have and are exists because Allah keeps it in existence, so no amount of independence makes anyone less in need of Allah.
Many people rely on you, and some days it feels as if everything rests on your shoulders. Which thought is right?
Answer: I rely on Allah too, as everyone does.
Others may rely on you, but you, like everyone, rely on Allah at every moment, not only once the work is done. Allah needs no one's help, and everything, including your strength to carry what you carry, exists because Allah keeps it in being.
Over a long life you have relied on many people, such as teachers, doctors, friends and neighbours, and many people have relied on you. Which thought is right?
Answer: Everyone relies on others and on Allah; only Allah needs nothing.
Relying on one another is part of being created, at every age. Behind all that help, helper and helped alike need Allah at every moment. Only Allah needs nothing.
Suppose a school building is old, and the hills nearby are much older. What is true about Allah?
Answer: Allah has no beginning at all.
The school and the hills both began, one long after the other. Allah did not begin earlier than them: Allah never began at all.
Which statements are true about Allah? Select all that apply.
Answer: Allah has no beginning and no end. / Allah needs nothing at all. / Everything needs Allah in order to exist.
Allah has no beginning and no end, and was never made: if Allah had a maker, that maker would need a maker too, without end. Allah needs nothing and no one, while everything needs Allah at every moment to exist.