Allah's Compassion

Narrated Abu Huraira (radi Allahu anhu): "I heard Allah's Apostle (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) saying, ‘Allah divided Mercy into one-hundred parts and kept ninety-nine parts of it with Him and sent down one part on earth. And because of that, its one single part, His creations are Merciful to each other, so that even the mare lifts up its hoofs away from its baby animal, lest it should trample on it.’" [Sahih Bukhari]

The other ninety-nine parts Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) has reserved for the Day of Judgement. The one single part of Mercy which He sent down is the cause of all the love and care that is seen on earth by any and all creatures, since creatures first came into existence, until the end of their existence at the end of time. It is a part of this mercy that a mare carefully lifts her legs so she does not trample her foal and a cat does not scratch her kittens and that a mother loves her child.

It is estimated that there are 10-100 different species of organisms alive on earth today, and each species has an uncountable number of organisms. The sum total of this love thus becomes difficult to imagine. Yet this is not even close to one hundredth of Allah’s Mercy.

Imam Ibn Qayyim said that a believer has two wings, one of good hope in Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) and the other of fear of Allah's punishment. These two feelings should balance each other out in a believer, so that he/she becomes neither over-confident of Allah’s forgiveness nor despairs of the mercy of Allah (subhana wa ta’ala).