19. Al-'Alim — The All-Knowing
This page explains the meaning of Allah's name Al-'Alim, namely the One whose knowledge encompasses everything, from what is manifest to what is hidden.
He is the One whose knowledge encompasses everything manifest, everything hidden, everything subtle, everything great, the beginning, the end, its opening, and its closing. This is in terms of clarity and the most perfect expression possible; nothing is clearer than it.
It is said that the meaning of Al-Alim is the One who possesses knowledge, that is, an attribute that is qadim (eternal) standing together with the Essence of Allah SWT, connected to all things that are necessary, possible, and impossible to know. Allah SWT knows His Essence, His names, His attributes, and He also knows what has happened and what will happen of everything possible, and He knows what is impossible, and knows what is unseen. Only Allah alone knows when the Hour will occur, and knows what is contained within the womb, and knows when rain will fall, and knows what every person will earn and in what land he will die.
It is not impossible that a servant obtains a share of this attribute of knowledge, but it differs from Allah's knowledge in three respects. First, in the amount of knowledge. However vast a servant's knowledge may be, it remains limited. How could it be compared with Allah's knowledge, which has no end and no limit? Second, that the kasyaf (seeing with the inner eye) of a servant, however clear it may be, cannot reach an endless goal; his witnessing of something is like seeing it from behind a thin veil. It cannot be denied that there are differences in the degree of kasyaf, for the vision of the inner eye is like the outer eye in perceiving everything it beholds, like the difference between seeing at dusk and seeing in bright daylight. Third, that Allah's knowledge is not obtained from something, rather it is that something which obtains its existence from Him. Whereas a servant's knowledge follows something and is produced from it. If you still do not fully understand this explanation, take the example of the knowledge of someone newly learning chess and the person who makes the chess set, for instance. The chess-maker becomes the cause of the chess set's existence, and the existence of the chess set becomes the cause of the chess-learner's knowledge. But the chess-maker's knowledge comes first, by bringing the chess set into being, whereas the chess-learner's knowledge comes last. So it is also with the knowledge of Allah SWT; it precedes everything and is the cause of it.
The benefit is Ism this is beneficial for bringing knowledge and spiritual insight. Whoever remembers Allah with it routinely will come to know Allah truly, as befits Him. And whoever recites it one hundred times routinely after every obligatory prayer will surely become a master of kasyaf (able to perceive with the inner eye) and possess strong faith.
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