Al-Kareem is one of Allah's Beautiful Names:

 Dear brother, we are still tackling the Name of Allah Al-Kareem.

 Al-Kareem is mentioned as participial adjective and superlative:

 This great name is mentioned as an adjective in the form of the active participle and in the form of the superlative in the following Ayah:

﴾ Read! In the Name of your Lord, Who has created (all that exists), Has created man from a clot (a piece of thick coagulated blood). Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous, Who has taught (the writing) by the pen [the first person to write was Prophet Idrees (Enoch)], Has taught man that which he knew not.﴿

[Al-Alaq, 1-5]

Seeking Knowledge is linked to the sound faith:

 Dear brother, the first word of the first Ayah revealed to the heart of our Master Muhammad, peace be upon him, is the word:

﴾ Read!﴿

 This word means that one should seek knowledge in order to fulfill an exalted basic need of his. The Almighty Allah has honored man by giving him a cognitive power, but unless this need is satisfied by seeking knowledge, man will descend the humane level, he is at, to an inappropriate level.

﴾ Read!﴿

Seeking knowledge should be connected with having faith.

 The four sorts of readings:

1- Reading out of quest and believing:

﴾ Read!﴿

 The first sort of reading is the reading out of quest and believing.

﴾ Read!﴿

 Read in order to believe.

﴾ Read! In the Name of your Lord, Who has created (all that exists),﴿

 The closest Ayah (Sign of Allah's Greatness) to you is your ownself.

﴾ Read! In the Name of your Lord, Who has created (all that exists), Has created man from a clot (a piece of thick coagulated blood). ﴿

2- Reading out of acknowledgment:

 The second sort of reading:

﴾Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous,﴿

 This is the reading of gratitude to Allah for granting you the blessings of existence, provision and guidance.

﴾Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous, Who has taught (the writing) by the pen [the first person to write was Prophet Idrees (Enoch)],﴿

3- Reading of full submission to the Divine Revelation:

 The third sort of reading is the reading of full submission to the Divine Revelation.

﴾Has taught man that which he knew not.﴿

 Everything beyond your comprehension is reported to you by Allah.

4- The reading of oppression and tyranny:

 I repeat again, the first reading is the reading of quest and believing, the second reading is the reading of acknowledgement and recognition, the third reading is the one of full submission to the Divine Revelation, and we seek refuge with Allah from the forth sort of reading:

﴾ Nay! Verily, man does transgress all bounds (in disbelief and evil deed, etc.).﴿

[Al-Alaq, 6]

 Some people use knowledge to transgress other people:

﴾ Because he considers himself self-sufficient.﴿

[Al-Alaq, 7]

 When man becomes powerful, he tends to take what sh3er have by inventing new technologies and using biological weapons, chemical weapons, cluster bombs, firebombs, fission bombs and atomic bombs which kill people and keep buildings intact.

﴾ Nay! Verily, man does transgress all bounds (in disbelief and evil deed, etc.).﴿

[Al-Alaq, 6]

Al-Haqq (the Truth) in the west is derived from power:

 Man sometimes uses his knowledge to oppress sh3er, to extinguish people and to despoil sh3er' natural resources. Hence, the first three readings are indispensible, whereas we seek refuge with Allah from the fourth reading. According to the west, the powerful party is always right, but according to the people of faith, power is derived from the truth, not the other way round. Nevertheless, the truth needs power to support it:

((Abu Hurairah reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, "The strong believer is better and more beloved to Allah than the weak believer."))

[Muslim by Abi Hurairah]

The linguistic meanings of the word Kareem:

 If I refer to the meanings of Kareem according to the Arabic language, we can say that every exalted character is named Karam (generosity). Thus, it is an all-inclusive word; the word Karam embraces Hulm (tolerance), Sakha' (charity), Lutf (kindness), Sabr (endurance) and Muroo'ah (the sense of honor). Hence, Karam is a word which embraces a big number of noble characteristics, whereas vileness embraces a big number of abject characteristics.

The matters which are subjects of generosity (Karam):

1- The noble lineage:

 Karam refers also to the honorable lineage of a man. Who is the Kareem, the son of the Kareem, the son of the Kareem and the son of the Kareem? He is our Master Yusuf, peace be upon him.

((Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: It was asked, "O Messenger of Allah! Who is the most honourable amongst mankind?" He, peace be upon him, said, "The most honourable of them is one who is the most pious of them." They said, "We are not asking about this". He said, "Then, the most honourable of men was Yusuf (Joseph), peace be upon him, the Prophet of Allah, the son of Allah's Prophet, who was the son of the Prophet of Allah, who was the son of the Khalil of Allah (i.e., Ibrahim, peace be upon him)' They said, "We are not asking you about this." He enquired, "Are you then asking me about the classes of the Arabs? The best of them in the Pre-Islamic Period of Ignorance are the best of them in Islam, provided they comprehend the religious knowledge".))

[At-Tabarani by Abdullah Ibn Mas'ood]2- The good looking:

 Having a good looking is Karam. Allah says:

﴾ So when she heard of their accusation, she sent for them and prepared a banquet for them; she gave each one of them a knife (to cut the foodstuff with), and she said [(to Yusuf (Joseph)]: "Come out before them." Then, when they saw him, they exalted him (at his beauty) and (in their astonishment) cut their hands. They said: "How perfect is Allah (or Allah forbid)! No man is this! This is none other than a noble angel!"﴿

[Yusuf, 31]

 This is the Karam of the good looking.

3- The great benefit:

 Also, whatever is extremely useful is considered Kareem.

﴾She said: "O chiefs! Verily! Here is delivered to me a noble letter, ﴿

[An-Naml, 29]

 It has a great benefit.

4- The Book:

 The Book is described by the word Kareem in the sense that it is a useful book which is full of facts, pertinent guidelines, goodness and blessings, and this is why we say the Noble Quran:

﴾ Falsehood cannot come to it from before it or behind it ﴿

[Fussilat, 42]

 Dear brother, the absolute perfection lies in the Quran:

((The Rank of the Word of Allah over other forms of speech is like the rank of Allah over all His creation."))

5- The creations:

 Creatures are also described as generous, so we say, "This is a Kareem horse or a Kareem camel in the sense of giving a lot of milk." The Prophet, peace be upon him, sent our Master Mu'ad Ibn Jabal to Yemen and among the words he said to him:

((… then tell them that Allah, the Mighty and Sublime, has enjoined on them a charity (Zakah) to be taken from their rich and given to their poor. If they obey you in that, and avoid (do not take) the best property (Kareem) of the people as Zakat.))

 If someone owns a cow which he likes and prefers, leave it to him and take another one, and this is the meaning of "and avoid the best properties of the people as Zakat".

Zakat is based on taking, as it is an obligation and the foundation of social solidarity:

 By the way, when Allah says:

﴾ Take Sadaqah (alms) from their wealth in order to purify them and sanctify them with it, and invoke Allah for them. Verily! Your invocations are a source of security for them,﴿

[At-Taubah, 103]

 This means that Zakat is taken not given, because it is an obligatory act of worship, and it is considered the foundation of social solidarity.

﴾ Take ﴿

 In this Ayah, Allah addresses the Prophet, peace be upon him, as the one in charge (Wali) of this Ummah (Islamic nation) not as a Prophet, peace be upon him.

﴾ Take Sadaqah (alms) from their wealth ﴿

 Wealth is mentioned in the Ayah to refer to the fact that Zakat includes all sorts of possessions. Even oil has Zakat, and it is 20 % of the revenues from oil that should be distributed between all Muslims.

﴾Take Sadaqah (alms) from their wealth ﴿

 Zakat sometimes is called Sadaqah, because it reflects man's sincerity, given man tends to love his possessions.

﴾Beautified for men is the love of things they covet; women, children, much of gold and silver (wealth)﴿

[Aal-'Imran, 14]

﴾ Take Sadaqah (alms) from their wealth in order to purify them ﴿

 This means that Zakat purifies the rich from stinginess, purifies the poor from grudge and purifies the money from the rights of sh3er it might have.

﴾ and sanctify them with it, ﴿

 Zakat enhances the rich's soul and makes him feel the greatness of his remarkable deed after he puts a smile on the face of the wretched, and it soothes the soul of the poor when he feels that the society, he belongs to, honors, remembers and cares for him:

﴾In order to purify them and sanctify them with it, and invoke Allah for them. Verily! Your invocations are a source of security for them, ﴿

 These are the subtle meanings of the word Kareem, and if we carry on discussing this adjective, we will find that every precious, expensive and rare stone is described as Kareem (gemstone).

Al-Kareem is one of the Attributes of Allah because of the following reasons:

2- Allah forgives the sins of His servants:

 As we have discussed earlier, the word Kareem has many meanings. When we say that Allah, may His Glory be glorified, is Kareem, this means that He overlooks His servants' flaws, unlike the mean person who traces down people's shortcomings. Also, Allah is Kareem in the sense that He, may His Glory be glorified, overlooks the sins of His servants, unlike the mean person who looks for the trivial violations of other people. This Divine overlooking is different from being unaware, and though Allah overlooks, everything with Him is in (due) proportion.

﴾ Allah knows the fraud of the eyes, and all that the breasts conceal. ﴿

[Ghafir, 19]

 Not a secret is hidden from Him. Al-Kareem overlooks sh3er' faults, whereas the mean person traces them down. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said:

((Take refuge in Allah from the following destructive three: a bad neighbor who covers your good and spreads out your evil, a bad wife who is foul- mouthed in your presence and treacherous in your absence, and a bad leader who ignores your good deeds and does not forgive your wrongdoings.))

[Al-Baihaqi in Shu'ab Al-Iman by Abi Hurairah]

 Al-Kareem is the One Who covers people's sins and hide their flaws, and this is a Divine Attribute of Allah, Glorified and Sublime be He.

2- Allah abundantly rewards the one who obeys Him:

 When you say Al-Kareem, this means that when Allah's worshipping servants shows little submissiveness towards Him, Allah will reward them abundantly. Can you believe that the bite of food which you put in your wife's mouth will become on the Day of Resurrection as great as the mountain of Uhud. Thus, let your commerce be doing good deeds and be rewarded by Allah. Is there any investing company which gives you 100 thousand million Liras as profits for one Lira? There is none. On the other hand, the one bite of food, which you put in your wife's mouth, is considered a Sadaqah you give, and it will be as huge as the mountain of Uhud on the Day of Resurrection. Allah the Almighty says:

﴾ And march forth in the way (which leads to) forgiveness from your Lord, and for Paradise as wide as are the heavens and the earth, prepared for Al-Muttaqun (the pious - see V.2:2). ﴿

[Aal-'Imran, 11]

3- Allah raises high the fame of the unknown wretched servant of His:

 When we say Allah is Al-Kareem, this means that He makes man, who is wretched poor and needy, a well-known man. Furthermore, Allah will raise high his servant's fame and rank and will cast love for him in the hearts of His creations.

((O My salve! You desire (something) and I desire (something else). If you surrender to that which I desire, I suffice you concerning that which you desire; but if you refuse to surrender to that which I desire, I tire you out in that which you desire, and then you get nothing but that which I desire.))

[Mentioned in the relic]

 Allah will make this poor, weak, wretched and needy servant someone to be mentioned by concealing his flaws from people and showing them the goodness he has.

﴾And fulfill (your obligations to) My Covenant (with you) so that I fulfill (My Obligations to) your covenant (with Me), and fear none but Me. ﴿

[Al-Baqarah, 40]

((Abu Sa'eed radia Allahu Anhu (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that the Prophet salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam (peace be upon him) said, "Allah the Most High says, 'When engrossment with the Qur'aan preoccupies a person from making Dhikr and asking from me, I grant him better than what I grant to those who ask from Me.' The Rank of the Word of Allah over other forms of speech is like the rank of Allah over all His creation."))

[At-Tirmizi by Abi Sa'eed Al-Khidri]

4- Allh clarifies to us the purpose of His Ordainments:

 When we say Al-Kareem this means that Allah, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, is Generous enough to give the purpose of His orders to His servants, though He Has the power to impose His Orders without any justification. The powerful person gives orders without explaining the purpose of doing them, and he just says, "Do what I ordered you, or I will crush you". The Creator of the heavens and the earth says to you:

﴾O you who believe! Observing As-Saum (the fasting) is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may become Al-Muttaqun (the pious).﴿

[Al-Baqarah, 183]

 Allah gives you the purpose of Sawm (which is that you may become Al-Muttaqun).

﴾Take Sadaqah (alms) from their wealth in order to purify them and sanctify them with it, and invoke Allah for them. Verily! Your invocations are a source of security for them,﴿

[At-Taubah, 103]

 Hence, justifying the Divine Orders is out of the Karam of Allah the Almighty. Some ruthless fathers give orders to their sons and hit them if they do not obey, whereas the merciful father gives his orders to his son and says, "O son, obeying my orders will add up to your own good, future, reputation and superiority."

5- Allah subjugated everything to man, because the latter accepted to bear the trust:

 When we say Allah is Kareem, this means that He subjugated everything to us just because we, as human beings, bore the trust:

﴾All that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth; it is all as a favour and kindness from Him﴿

[Al-Jathiyah, 13]

﴾He it is Who created for you all that is on earth.﴿

[Al-Baqarah, 29]

 These things are subjected exclusively for you. There are hundreds of thousands of kinds of flowers, plants and indoor ornamental plants which live without the sunlight, and they are all subjected for you. A joke goes as follows: A man gave a Jasmine to a donkey, and it ate it. The moral: Jasmine is created for man to smell, but the one who gives it to the donkey is a donkey himself.

﴾ All that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth; it is all as a favour and kindness from Him﴿

[Al-Jathiyah, 13]

 Hence, when we say that Allah is Al-Kareem this means that when He gives, He gives His servant abundantly, and when He is disobeyed, He covers the sins of His servant.

6- All hopes are pinned on Him:

 When we say Allah is Al-Kareem, it means that all hopes are pinned to Him. In order to understand this point, consider the example of a very generous person who said to another person, "Ask for my help whenever you need something, and do not ask anyone else to help you". There are very generous people to such an extent that they feel jealous if you humiliate yourself and ask someone else other than them to help you fulfill your need. Hence, The Almighty Allah gets angry if His servant asks someone else to fulfill his need. The poet said:

Do not ask the son of Adam for a need
and ask Him whose gates never close
for the Lord gets Upset if you stop asking Him
while the son of Adam gets upset when asked for help

7- Allah never abandons the one who seeks His shelter and takes refuge with Him:

 Al-Kareem has another meaning: Allah never abandons whoever seeks His shelter and takes refuge with Him:

﴾And will never decrease the reward of your good deeds. ﴿

[Muhammad, 35]

 Pin all your hopes on Allah, put all your trust in Him and count on Allah.

((One of the basic weakness of your faith you more confidence to treasure in your hands than what's on the side of Allah.))

[At-Tirmizi by Abi Dhar Al-Ghafari]

Man gets close to Allah by acting in a manner stemmed from the Divine Perfection:

 You can get close to Allah by acting in a perfect manner stemmed from the Divine Perfection, and this is the meaning of the following Ayah:

﴾ And (all) the Most Beautiful Names belong to Allah, so call on Him by them ﴿

[Al-A'raf, 180]

 You should get close to Allah by acting in a perfect manner stemmed from the Divine Perfection. Allah is Al-Kareem, but how about you?

 A heavy woman came once to a notable judge in Damascus, and there was a step before she reaches him, so when she ascended the step, she broke wind unintentionally, and she became so embarrassed of what happened. Her sister was standing next to her, so when she reached the judge, he said, "What is your name sister?", and she told him her name, but the judge said, "I cannot hear you, say your name louder". Then, she said her name again, but one more time, he said, "I cannot hear you I have a faint hearing", so she said to her sister, "He did not hear me breaking wind then".

 Al-Kareem overlooks flaws, unlike the mean person who keeps looking for the slightest mistakes sh3er make.. This Kareem judge noticed that the woman was embarrassed after she made that sound, so he pretended to have faint hearing in order to spare her the embarrassment.

Al-Kareem maintains good ties with you even if you severe them:

 Al-Kareem maintains his ties with you even if you break up with him.

((The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said, "My Lord has commanded me nine qualities: Fearing Allaah both secretly and openly, saying only the words of justice both when angry and when happy))

[Ziyadat Razin, by Abi Hurairah]

 Some people praise the man who asks for their daughter's hand and make him an angel, but if they do not get along and the engagement does not take place, they turn him into a devil, start accusing him of having epilepsy, say bad things about family and describe him using million bad characteristics.

((The Messenger of Allah said, "My Lord has commanded me nine qualities: Fearing Allaah both secretly and openly, saying only the words of justice both when angry and when happy, maintaining moderation both during poverty and affluence, making up (social obligations and relationships) with a relative who shirks his obligation to me or breaks away from me, giving even to the person who deprives me, forgiving him who is unjust to me, reflecting when I am quiet, remembering Allaah when I speak, learning lessons from what I see, enjoining good and Forbidding evil."))

[Ziyadat Razin by Abi Hurairah]

 Hence, Al-Kareem maintains the ties of those who severe them with him, gives those who deprive him and forgives those who oppress him, so are you Kareem? Al-Kareem is the one who maintains the ties with you even if you abandon him, he visits you when you are sick, he welcomes you when you come back from your travel and he is generous to you when you are poor.

 Al-Kareem is the one who blames himself for not being able to realize other people's need before they ask for his help. This is generosity at its highest level; whose generosity reaches this high level, blames himself for not being able to notice someone's needs before being asked to help him fulfill it. When a relative of yours knocks on your door and asks you for money, you should blame yourself for not knowing beforehand about his need, for you should check on him every now and then in order to know his needs before he asks for your help.

Al-Kareem forgives the wrongdoings of sh3er and he is beneficial to all creations:

 Al-Kareem admonishes himself if he is asked for a favor, for not being aware of that man's need ahead of time. He would say to himself, "If I had not fallen short in checking on that man, he would not have needed to ask me". Allah says in this respect:

﴾ The one who knows them not, thinks that they are rich because of their modesty. ﴿

[Al-Baqarah, 273]

 This person is called Al-Mahrum (the deprived).

﴾And in their properties there was the right of the beggar, and the Mahrum (the poor who does not ask the sh3er), ﴿

[Adh-Dhariyat, 19]

 The beggar is the one who solicits you pressingly, whereas the Mahrum is the one whose dignity, self-respect and modesty prevent him from asking you, and when he does not ask, he will be deprived. Therefore, you should look for this kind of people. Since whoever belongs to them never asks for your money, you should check on him and be the initiator of asking him how he can help him. Generous people do not wait for the Mahrum to ask them for their help, but rather they check on him and meet his needs without embarrassing him of asking for money.

 Al-Kareem also overlooks the flaws of the wrongdoers, and he serves all Allah's creatures without any discrimination. There are bad habits in that regard; the charitable person asks the one to whom he is about to give money, "Where are you from?" This is unacceptable, for this is a servant of Allah regardless of his origin.

((Man is a construct from Allah, cursed is the one who demolishes it.))

The one who comprehends the Names of Allah rushes to Allah:

 When the Almighty Allah says:

﴾ And (all) the Most Beautiful Names belong to Allah, so call on Him by them ﴿

[Al-A'raf, 180]

 This means that you will never establish a connection with Allah unless you act in a perfect manner stemmed from the Divine Perfection. Allah the Almighty says in another Ayah:

﴾ And (all) the Most Beautiful Names belong to Allah, so call on Him by them ﴿

﴾ Say (O Muhammad, peace be upon him): "Invoke Allah or invoke the Most Beneficent (Allah), by whatever name you invoke Him (it is the same), for to Him belong the Best Names. ﴿

[Al-Isra', 110]

 This means that when you get acquainted with Allah's Beautiful Names, you will fully submit to Him. When you are in need of a house, and you heard of a charitable man who owns a house, and he is looking for a good person to give it to, you will resort to this man, but when do you resort to him? You do that after you are informed about this piece of information. Much in the same line, when you get acquainted with Allah's Beautiful Names, you will resort and submit to Him.

((Whoever focuses all his concerns on one issue, namely the Hereafter, Allah will suffice him and spare him the worries of this world.))

[Al-Hakim by Abdullah Ibn Umar]

((Offer your deeds seeking the Countenance of Allah, so that Allah will suffice you and make you dispense with the faces of all people.))