Attributes of God
Senior 6 · General and Religious Studies
Attributes of God
Lesson 5 of 5
24 min
All but one of the 114 surahs of the Qur'an begin with the same words, recited by Muslims before meals, journeys and lessons: "In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful." Christians across Rwanda sing and pray a three-word sentence from the First Letter of John: "God is love" (1 John 4:8). Of all the attributes of God, love and mercy are the ones believers mention most, and the ones that shape daily life most directly.
This lesson studies love and mercy in both traditions, then draws the unit together by asking why the attributes of God matter at all, for believers and for the societies they live in.
Definition
Love (of God): God's self-giving goodwill towards creation, seeking its good. Christians often use the Greek word agape for this unconditional love.
Mercy: compassion shown to someone in need or in the wrong, by relieving suffering or by not giving the punishment deserved.
Grace: favour that is given freely, not earned.
Forgiveness: releasing a person from the debt of a wrong they have done, and giving up resentment.
Al-Rahman and al-Rahim: the Beneficent and the Merciful, two names of God from the Arabic root r-ḥ-m, which is also the root of raḥim, the womb. Many scholars explain al-Rahman as mercy that embraces all creation and al-Rahim as mercy shown especially to believers.
Al-Wadud: the Loving, one of the ninety-nine names (85:14).
| Attribute | The Bible (World English Bible) | The Qur'an (Pickthall, 1930) |
|---|---|---|
| Love | "He who doesn't love doesn't know God, for God is love." (1 John 4:8) "For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3:16) | "And He is the Forgiving, the Loving" (85:14) "Say, (O Muhammad, to mankind): If ye love Allah, follow me; Allah will love you and forgive you your sins. Allah is Forgiving, Merciful." (3:31) "Lo! Allah loveth the beneficent." (2:195) |
| Mercy | "Yahweh is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness." (Psalm 103:8) "Yahweh is good to all. His tender mercies are over all his works." (Psalm 145:9) | "In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful." (1:1) "My mercy embraceth all things" (7:156) "Despair not of the mercy of Allah, Who forgiveth all sins. Lo! He is the Forgiving, the Merciful." (39:53) |
For Christians, love is not only something God does; it is what God is (1 John 4:8, 16). They see it in creation, in God's faithfulness to Israel, and above all in Jesus: "God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). The command follows from the attribute: "Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another" (1 John 4:11), and "he who doesn't love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?" (1 John 4:20).
The Qur'an places mercy at its opening and at the start of nearly every surah. "My mercy embraceth all things" (7:156) teaches that no creature is outside it. A well-known hadith in the collections of al-Bukhari and Muslim reports that when God created creation he wrote, "My mercy prevails over My anger." Mercy is offered to every sinner who turns back: "Despair not of the mercy of Allah, Who forgiveth all sins" (39:53), followed by "Turn unto Him repentant" (39:54). Love is also God's: al-Wadud, "the Loving" (85:14), loves "the beneficent" (2:195), those who do good.
Worked example 1: does mercy cancel justice?
Question: If God is perfectly just, wrongdoing must be punished. If God is perfectly merciful, it may be forgiven. Can God be both?
Christian answer. Christians teach that justice and mercy meet in the death of Jesus: sin is taken seriously, and forgiveness is offered freely to those who repent and believe (Romans 5:8). The father in the parable of the prodigal son runs to his returning son "moved with compassion" (Luke 15:20), but only after the son has come home.
Islamic answer. God is both al-Adl (the Just) and al-Rahim (the Merciful). Mercy is offered to all who turn back (39:53–54), and God's mercy "prevails over" his anger; yet those who persist in wrong without repentance face justice.
Conclusion. In both faiths mercy does not pretend wrong did not happen; it responds to repentance. This shapes human justice too: forgiveness and accountability can go together, as Unit 11 shows.
The attributes are not only ideas for examinations. Believers say they shape two relationships at once: with God and with other people (Figure 1).
| Area of life | How the attributes matter |
|---|---|
| Worship and prayer | People praise God for what God is, using the attributes as names: "Allah's are the fairest names. Invoke Him by them" (7:180). |
| Hope and resilience | Belief in a loving, all-powerful God helps many people endure illness, poverty and grief. |
| Morality | Communicable attributes become a pattern: "be merciful, even as your Father is also merciful" (Luke 6:36). |
| Accountability | An all-knowing, just God makes honesty a matter of conscience, not only of being caught. |
| Society | Faith communities run schools, health centres and help for the poor, and they can lead in forgiveness and reconciliation, as after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. When believers ignore these attributes, religion can be misused to divide. |
People of no religion also value love, mercy, honesty and justice, grounding them in human dignity, empathy and reason. A Rwandan classroom can therefore discuss these values together, while respecting that believers and non-believers explain them differently.
Worked example 2: applying the attributes to a real decision
A shopkeeper in Huye discovers that a young employee has stolen 20,000 Frw. The employee confesses, apologises and offers to repay from wages.
Mercy and love suggest forgiving the employee and keeping him on, as God forgives the one who repents (39:53; Luke 15:20).
Justice suggests that the money be repaid and trust rebuilt step by step.
A decision that reflects both: forgive the wrong, agree a repayment plan, and give the employee a chance to rebuild trust. This is mercy that responds to repentance, not mercy that ignores the wrong.
Tip
Link attribute to action. For "Explain the importance of the attributes of God", give each point in three parts: the attribute, the verse, and what a believer does because of it. Figure 1 is a ready-made plan.
Warning
Mercy is not weakness or permission. Both traditions teach that God's mercy calls for repentance and change. Answers that say "God forgives, so sin does not matter" misrepresent both.
Important
Discuss. Is it harder to believe that God loves everyone, or to act as if you did? What would change in your school if every student treated others according to Luke 6:36 or Qur'an 7:156?
Practice
Further reading
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa: Figure 1, the tables, the worked examples and the exercises.
