8. Al-Aziz, The All-Mighty

Perhaps not the ideal metaphor, but I intended the grey text here be reminiscent of steel. 

When skeptics and atheists talk to people who believe in a God who is active in the universe, one of the questions that comes up a great deal of the time is, "Do you believe that God is all-powerful? If you do, do you believe he can make a stone so strong that he can't move it?" The more sophisticated version of this question is, "If God is all-powerful and all-loving, then why does he let bad things happen?"

Without any attempt to give a sophisticated answer to this question (there is a whole branch of theology called theodicy which does nothing but study aspects of this), I was delighted to learn that in the Qur'an many of the references to God as Al-Aziz are coupled with the idea that God is all-wise and all-knowing. He has the ability to do all things (except logical impossibilities), but he does not choose to do foolish things, and we in our limitations, frequently don't have a full understanding of what that entails.

I am reminded of a snatch of a song a friend of mine, Joel Davis, once sang, giving words speaking as if from God, to a young woman who was going through the normal difficulties of adolescence. This is the half remembered form of the song that has stuck with me through the years:

I could make you all big and grown-up
With all the wisdom that a grown-up ought to have
And I could make you never feel any pain--
I could make the rivers turn to sand
And I could make the flowers never bloom again.
I could easily do all these things,
But I would not deprive you.



Other aspects of this name of God include the idea that God cannot be conquered; God is the one who conquers all, and God is also the one who is the most worthy of honor.  There are aspects of this name that are in the Quran that are also biblical--to God belong "the troops of the heaven and the earth" (Q 48:7).  The phrase "The LORD of Hosts", also translated, "The LORD Almighty" (NIV) and "The LORD of Heaven's Armies" (NLT), is used over 100 times in the Hebrew Bible.

There is one usage of this name in the Quran which is associated with an idea that runs completely contrary to Christianity.  In Q 4:157, the Quran, speaking of the Jews, states "And for their saying, “We have killed the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah.” In fact, they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but it appeared to them as if they did. Indeed, those who differ about him are in doubt about it. They have no knowledge of it, except the following of assumptions. Certainly, they did not kill him." (ClearQuran). The next verse is the one that uses Al-Aziz.  "Rather Allah raised him up to Himself. Allah is Mighty and Wise."  The idea that God in Power caused Jesus not to be killed on the cross, but rather only to seem to be crucified runs completely contrary to Christianity, for Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross is central to our faith.  While in many points we can agree, here is one point on which we cannot agree.

As I pondered this name, this is the song that came:

Al-Aziz

Al-Aziz, Al-Aziz

All Mighty, All Powerful

All Mighty All Powerful

There is nothing You can't do

No one wins when they fight against you

All Mighty, All Powerful

All Mighty, All Powerful

I bow before You,

Al-Aziz