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Iman, the Arabic word for ‘faith’, is built from the triadic root of ’ – m – n, whence we derive the word mu’min for one who has faith, a believer. Other terms or concepts growing out of this root include confidence, reliance, trust, safety, protection, warrant, confirmation, corroboration, insurance, and assurance. Believers may tell us that their faith in GOD is enhanced and advanced by these semantic associations, but I wish to take this approach to GOD beyond the typical believer’s comfort zone by pointing out that one of the names of AL-LAH cited in the Qur’an (Q59:23) is Al-Mu’min. And since He is the First in all that is good, we can safely (but controversially) assert that He is the First Believer.
Before we proceed, let me remind the reader again that all GOD’s Names are not limited to what we think they mean when viewed from the perspective of Absolute Transcendence. Al-Mutakabbir (the Proud), As-Sami’ (the Hearer), Al-Basir (the Seer), Adh-Dhahir (the Manifest), Al-Batin (the Hidden), Adh-Dharr (the Harmful), and An-Nur (the Light) are but some of the names that cannot be understood literally lest they be interpreted as implying a defect, limitation, or material property. Other metaphorical expressions in the Qur’an, such as GOD’s Hands, His Eye, His Face, and His Footstool, are likewise to be taken as divine condescension to our blinkered human imagination and in no way as representations of actual bodily organs or functions of the type we normally envision.* Expressions of this sort are planted in the heart to nourish our emotional life. Even while being fruitfully watered by our feelings and memories, these tropes need constant pruning by the mind.
* Many commentators, while granting that AL-LAH does not have physical members (e.g., an Eye) or furniture (e.g., a Throne), insist that the signs He explicates (Q13:2) be understood literally, without specifying their actual features. If a ban is imposed on reasonable metaphorical connotations, however, such as awareness for ‘Eye’ or authority for ‘Throne’, our mind has nowhere to turn in its natural, irrepressible thirst for meaning, but is tied down to a sign that was intended as the launching point, not the destination, of our thought. As a result, either a clandestine materialistic image builds up in the mind of the reader, despite the warnings against it, or the word, for lack of a significant connection with the reader’s experience, asphyxiates and becomes a lifeless object of a faith deprived of meaning.
When parts of the Qur’an are walled off from the healthy, active mind by stern clerical warnings, a spineless intellectual climate such as we see today in the Islamic world is the logical outcome.
If Divine Reality is to be literally affirmed, let it be by reverse metaphor: our eyes and thrones are but poor similitudes to His visual and authoritative Archetypes. We will surely discover this on the Day of Resurrection, when what we thought was abstract becomes painfully tangible and what we thought was solidly ours evaporates into formlessness – a day on which the hearts and gazes will be overturned (Q24:37).
Were it not for its undeniable presence in the Qur’an and in the list of the 99 Beautiful Names of AL-LAH, Al-Mu’min would appear to be particularly unsuitable to qualify Divinity. For many of us, faith has numerous negative connotations, such as in the term ‘blind faith’. It has been portrayed as a weak, second-rate substitute for knowledge, signifying a hunger for pat answers and emotional reassurance in the face of unpleasant truths like death. Rather than facing facts, faith is seen as fleeing into a cloud of its own making. So if a believer can be characterized by blindness, weakness, lack of knowledge, neediness, and unwillingness to face facts, how can it be right to consider GOD, the Possessor of only good qualities, to be the ‘First Believer’?
Translators and commentators skirt around this apparent difficulty by providing alternatives to the regular definition of mu’min as ‘faithful’, ‘believing’, or ‘believer’. Thus we have translations such as “the Guardian of Faith”, “the Granter of Security”, “the Keeper of Faith”, and “the Bestower of Faith”. In his commentary on (Q59:23), Ibnu Kathir offers the following quotes regarding the meaning of Al-Mu’min: ‘Adh-Dhahhak said, from Ibnu ‘Abbas – “His creation is safe from Him wronging them.” And Qatadah said, “He has guaranteed by His Word that it is true.” And Ibnu Zaid said, “He has confirmed His believing servants in their faith in Him.”’
AL-LAH could easily have circumvented this awkwardness by selecting other Names, such as Adh-Dhamin, that would convey the same meanings without the uncomfortable resemblance to mu’min. Al-Mu’min was deliberately chosen, however; when does GOD do anything carelessly or inadvertently? It must be because of the resemblance, not in spite of it.
The GOD You Already Know 