The Exalted said: “He is Allah, the Creator, the Inventor of all things, the Bestower of forms.” (Al-Hashr: 24)
The Linguistic Meaning:
Al-Musawwir = The one who is able to form, who made for something a special form or image. The image of the creature: it is the appearance of his creation and its nature and description.
Al-Tasweer: forming and creating the images of the creatures, with their distinct features. God, the Praiseworthy, is the Creator of Images, Who gave His creatures their forms as He wished, for He formed each creature with a special image, and with a unique appearance that the creature would be distinguished by it, in spite of its differences and numerousness, and God had created every image not out of an imitated model or copied example, and not out of a standard drawing, as He is far above that.
The difference between: (Al-Khaleq), (Al-Barie) and (Al-Musawwir): (Al-Khaleq): He is the Estimator of all things before creating them, according to His Great Wisdom.
(Al-Barie): He is Able to actually implement what He had estimated, meaning bringing into existence something out of nothing, according to His Perfect Ability to create, because no one is able to create everything that was estimated beforehand, except God, the Exalted.
(Al-Musawwir): Forming every existent being, according to the image that He created for it. Therefore, Al-Khaleq is very broad (general in connotation), and Al-Barie is more specific, while Al-Musawwir is even much more specific.
The Grandeur of Al-Musawwir
He, The Exalted, had given all creatures their numerous images, images that are clear, hidden, materialistic and visual, and in spite of their multitudes, no two species are similar, and no two types are equal, for each creature has its own image, that distinguish it from the others by its color, form and characteristics. He is also Sublime in that He not only created different images of the body, but He also created different forms of behavior, temper and ideology.
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