An Exposition of Hadith by Imam Khomeini

With my chain of authorities reaching up to the august shaykh, the Pillar of Islam, Muhammad ibn Ya’qub al-Kulayni (R) from several of our Companions, from Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Khalid, from Ibn Mahbub and Ali ibn al-Hakam, from Mu’awiyah ibn Wahab, who said: I heard Abu ‘Abd Allah (A) say: “Verily, among that which God had revealed to Moses (A) and sent it down to him in the Torah was this passage: Verily I am Allah, and there is no god except I. I originated the creation, and I created everything that is good, bringing it about by the hands of those that I love. So happy is he by whose hands I cause it to happen. And I am Allah, there is no god except I. I created the creation and I created everything that is evil, and I bring it about by the hands of those that I will, so woe to him by whose hand I cause it to happen.”[617]

Exposition

As to the word ilah, [whose related derivatives are] alaha (with fathah on the hamzah and lam, meaning ‘he worshiped’) and ilahatan, it is in the sense of ‘abada, ‘ibadatan, and ilah, vowelized as fi’al, is in the sense of the object (maf’ul [that is, the object of worship]), like imam, which mean someone who is followed (man yu’tammu bih), ilah is the original root of ‘Allah,’ and after the addition of alif and lam [i.e. al-making it al-ilah), the hamzah has been deleted for the sake of ease of pronunciation, and some have opined that the alif and lam substitute for the hamzah. Each of these two opinions has grammatical justifications[618] whose mention is not necessary

In the terminology of the Divine sages (ahl Allah, i.e. the urafa), ilahiyyat and uluhiyyat are mostly applied to the station of tajalli at the plane of Act and the station of the Sacred Effusion (fayd-e muqaddas). ‘Allah’ is the Name of the Glorious One, applied mostly to the station of the Essence as encompassing all the Attributes.

Source: alhassanain