2:163 And your God is one God. There is no god but He, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful.
This is the description of the one Lord, the one Lord God, and King. He is one in magnanimity and governance, one in forbearance and beautiful doing, one in generosity and peerlessness, one in loving kindness and servant-caressing. Every magnificence is the mantle of His majesty, and in that He is one. Every tremendousness and all-compellingness is the shawl of His Lordhood, and in that, He is one. He is one in Essence, one in attributes, one indeed and mark, one in loyalty and compact, one in gentleness and caressing, one in love and friendship.
On the day of apportioning, who was there but He, the One? Before the day of apportioning who was there? That same One. After the day of apportioning, who handed over those portions? That same One. Who shows? That same One. Who adorns? That same One. He is more apparent than everything in the world of apparentness, and in this apparentness, He is one. He is more hidden than anything in the world of hiddenness, and in this hiddenness, He is one.
How disloyal the Adamite who does not know the worth of this declaration and the exaltedness of this ascription! God says, “And your God is one God.” The wonder is not that He ascribed the servants to Himself, joined them to Himself, and said, “Surely My servants” [15:42]. The wonder is that He ascribed Himself to the servants and joined His name to their name, saying, “Your God.” This is not because His Lordhood must be joined to the servant’s servanthood, or that the servants are deserving of that. Rather, in generosity and loving-kindness He Himself is unique and one. In magnanimity, He is worthy of every generous bestowal and every gift.
And your God is one God. There was no world and no Adam. There were no tracks and no traces, there was no one. He was the care-taking and loving Lord, writing out your good fortune and accepting you to be His creation while you were still in nonexistence.
On the night of the Prophet’s ascent to God, when secrets were told to the Master of the world, one of them was this: “Belong to Me as you always were, and I will belong to you as I have always been.” Belong totally to Me and be nothing, just as you were; then I will be for you as I was in the Beginningless.
Shaykh al-Islām Anṣārī said in his whispered prayers, “I am happy that You were there at first and I was not. Your work took effect and mine did not. You put forth Your worth and You sent Your Messenger.
“O God! Whatever You have given us without our seeking—do not ruin it with what we deserve! Whatever good You have done for us—do not cut it off because of our defects! Whatever You have made without our worthiness—do not separate it from us by our unworthiness! O God! Do not bring to fruit what we ourselves have planted! Keep blights away from what You planted for us!”
There is no god but He, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful. Other than He there is no Lord, and other than He there is none worthy of worship, for no one caresses and bestows bounty like Him. He is the All-Merciful who gives when they ask of Him, and He is the Ever-Merciful who becomes angry when they do not ask. A report has come, “When someone does not ask from God, God becomes wrathful toward him.”
He is the All-Merciful who accepts the servants’ obedience, even if it is little, and He is the Ever-Merciful who forgives their disobedient acts even if they are great. He is the All-Merciful who adorns outwardness and sculpts the form, and He is the Ever-Merciful who makes inwardness flourish and guards the hearts in His grasp. He is the All-Merciful who makes subtle lights appear in your face, and He is the Ever-Merciful who places the deposits of secrets in your heart.