Praise be to Allah!

This is the most important facet of ones existence to know his own creator. Allah can be known in two ways:

• Through His Divine revelation and
• Through Pondering over His creation

The former are His signs which are heard and understood, and the latter are His signs that are seen and witnessed.

The knowledge through divine revelation is expressed through Allah’s words:

Then have they not reflected over the Qur'an, (Al Quran 23:68)

[This is] a blessed Book which We have revealed to you, [O Muhammad], that they might reflect upon its verses and that those of understanding would be reminded. (Al Quran 38:29)

Then do they not reflect upon the Qur'an, or are there locks upon [their] hearts? (Al Quran 47:24)

Through above Ayahs, Allah invites us to ponder over His Divine revelation to know Him. The second type is referred to in Allah’s saying:

Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and earth, and the alternation of the night and the day, and the [great] ships which sail through the sea with that which benefits people, and what Allah has sent down from the heavens of rain, giving life thereby to the earth after its lifelessness and dispersing therein every [kind of] moving creature, and [His] directing of the winds and the clouds controlled between the heaven and the earth are signs for a people who use reason. (Al Quran 2:164)

Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day are signs for those of understanding. (Al Quran 3:190)

Verses like these occur frequently in the Qur’an.

There is no doubt that knowing Allah is the greatest and noblest of knowledge. It is the Ilm – the beneficial knowledge we are encouraged to seek. When you learn about Allah SWT, you are learning about the purpose of your existence. You are learning about living a life set on the right course.