‘Who will be my helpers in Allah’s cause?’ The disciples said, ‘We are Allah’s helpers. We believe in Allah; bear witness that we are Muslims.’”

The Queen of Sheba said:

“My Lord, I have wronged myself, and I submit with Solomon to Allah, Lord of all worlds.”

Islam is thus the religion of the inhabitants of the heavens and of those on earth who affirm Allah’s oneness. Allah accepts no other religion from anyone. The religions of the people of the earth are six: one belongs to the Most Merciful, and five belong to Satan. The religion of the Most Merciful is Islam; those belonging to Satan are Judaism, Christianity, Magianism, Sabianism, and the religion of the polytheists.

These are some of the profound truths concerning Allah’s oneness and spiritual knowledge contained in these magnificent verses. Do not regard this discussion as unduly lengthy, for it is more important than discussing the words of the author of al-Manāzil.

[Surah Āl ‘Imrān (3): verse 26]

“Say: O Allah, Owner of sovereignty, You grant sovereignty to whom You will and take sovereignty away from whom You will. You honor whom You will and humble whom You will. In Your hand is all good. Indeed, You have power over all things.” (26)

There is no disagreement that the expression Allāhumma means “O Allah.” It is therefore used only in supplication. One does not say, “Allāhumma, You are All-Forgiving, Most Merciful,” but rather, “Allāhumma, forgive me and have mercy on me.”

The grammarians differed concerning the doubled mīm at the end of this name.

Sībawayh said that it was added to compensate for the vocative particle. Accordingly, the two cannot be combined in ordinary usage: one does not say “yā Allāhumma,” except in rare instances, such as the poet’s words:

Whenever a calamity befalls me,
I cry, “Yā Allāhumma! Yā Allāhumma!”

An element of this kind is termed a compensatory addition because it occupies a position other than that of the omitted element. If it occupies the same position, it is called a replacement, as with the alif in qāma (“he stood”) and bā‘a (“he sold”), where it replaces wāw and yā, respectively. According to him, this name also cannot be qualified by an adjective. Thus one may not say, “Yā Allāhumma al-rahīm, have mercy on me,” nor may another noun be placed in apposition to it.

The u-vowel on the hā is the vowel assigned to a standalone noun in direct address. The final mīm takes an a-vowel because it and the preceding mīm would otherwise both be vowelless. This is one of the distinctive features of this name, just as