It is not surprising that it is easy to prove the existence of Allah, but it is difficult fully to understand His real Being and His attributes. First of all we must know that Allah is Ever-existing and Limitless.
He is limitless in respect of knowledge, power, time and space, whereas our knowledge and power, whatsoever vast these could be, are still limited and have an end. As such, how can a limited being completely grasp the very essence of an Unlimited Being? It is not possible for a chick which has grown inside the shell of an egg to know what happens inside the limitless space of the far-off galaxies.
But that does not mean that we cannot understand the attributes of Allah to the extent of our powers of thinking, knowing and understanding.
From the study of the phenomena of the universe we can find out that He is:
All-Knowing and All-wise: This is evidenced by the extra-ordinarily marvelous diversity of life and all that exists on the earth and in the heavens.
Ever-living: Life in the real sense is nothing but a combination of knowledge and power. Allah is All-knowing and All-powerful. Hence He is All-living.
For the same reason, He has will and comprehension also. He sees everything and hears every sound and every voice. He is All-pervading and All-aware. He is Eternal and Ever-existing. He has always existed and shall always exist.
These are some of His attributes, known as Positive Attributes. for they have positive aspects. There are Negative Attributes also, which have a negative aspect.
Being Limitless and Perfect in every sense, He is free from ignorance, inability, need and defect.
He can have no associate and none can be like Him. It is not possible to imagine the existence of two beings, limitless in every respect, for each of them will be lacking in the essence of the other
From this it is also evident that Allah has no physical body, for all bodies sooner or later disintegrate. As such, an Ever existing Being cannot have a body, which is liable to disintegration, decomposition and every sort of change.
Divine Unity
Divine unity is the Infrastructure of all religious Teachings. The question of divine unity has supreme importance in Islam. In one way or the other it forms a part of all Islamic tenets and teachings. Islam rejects every kind of polytheism, dualism and trinity. According to it, Allah is one. He has no components and none is like Him. This stage is known as Unity of Being.
Unity of Attributes
A number of qualities like knowledge, power, eternity and ever-existence are attributed to Allah. They all are the very essence of His Being and are in no way separate from Him. He is a Limitless Being and a limitless being can be nothing but a Reality. All His attributes turn to one attribute, viz. limitlessness. This stage is called Unity of Attributes.
Unity of Worship
Further, according to the teachings of Islam, only Allah is worthy to be worshiped. Islam does not allow in any form the worshiping of anyone or anything else. Neither the sun or the stars nor any human being is worthy of worshiping because all things have been created by Him and He has sovereign control over all of them. Hence only He is worth of being worshiped. This stage is called Unity of Worship.
Unity of Action
A careful study of all that happens in the world will show that Allah is the Creator and the real source of all power. If we accomplish any job, it is He who provides the necessary power. In view of this, it may be said that all our actions are accomplished with His help. Nobody has power independent of His power. Absolute and independent power pertains only to him. This is called Unity of Actions.
Anyhow, this should not be misconstrued to mean that we have no free will or responsibility. He himself has bestowed freedom on us. He wants us freely to choose our way to better life in this world and hereafter. He has done us a favor and put at our disposal all the necessary means to reach this goal.
References
The following sources are used to prepare the above article.
1. Group of Scholars, Rationality of Islam (1978), under the auspices of Ayatullah Sayyid Abu’l Qasim al-Khu’I, Publisher: Islamic Seminary Publications, Pakistan