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He is not a man, nor is He an
ethereal spirit, therefore when Muslims talk about Allah there is no concept of
a trinity. He was not begotten nor does He beget, therefore He does not have
sons or daughters. He does not have partners or underlings; therefore, there
are no demi gods or minor deities inherent in the concept of Allah. He is not
part of His creation and Allah is not in everybody and
everything. Consequently, it is not possible to become allahlike or attain
allahhood. “Say (O Muhammad): He is Allah, (the Unique) One. Allah, the Eternal
(Foundation). He begets not, nor was He begotten; and there is none
co-equal or comparable unto Him.” (Quran 112) The Quran, God’s book of guidance
for all of humankind was revealed in Arabic; therefore, non-Arabic speakers can
become confused about terminology and names. When a Muslim says the word Allah,
he is talking about God. God the Supreme, God the Magnificent, God the
Omnipotent. The Creator of all that exists. “He has created the heavens and the
earth in truth. High be He Exalted above all they associate as partners with
Him.” (Quran 16:3) Muslims believe that Islam is the final message of God to
humankind, and they believe that God gave the Torah to Prophet Moses as he gave
the Gospel to Prophet Jesus Muslims believe that Judaism and Christianity, in
their pristine forms, were divine religions. In fact, one of the tenants of
Islam is to believe in all of God’s revealed books. The Prophets of Islam
include the same Prophets present in Jewish and Christian traditions; they all
came to their people with the same message – to recognize and to worship the
One God.
“...were you witnesses when death
approached Jacob? When he said unto his sons, ‘What will you worship after me?’
They said, ‘We shall worship your God, the God of your fathers,
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Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac, One God,
and to Him we submit (in Islam).” (Quran 2:133) Muslims love and respect all
the Prophets and Messengers of God. However, Muslims believe that the Quran
contains the only concept of God that has not been tainted by man made ideas
and idolatrous practices. He, Allah/God made it very clear in Quran that He had
sent messengers to every nation. We do not know all the names, or the dates; we
do not know all the stories or the calamities, but we do know that God did not
create even a single person and then abandon him. God’s message of mercy, love,
justice, and truth was made available to all of humankind. “And verily, We have
sent among every community or nation, a Messenger (proclaiming), "Worship
Allah (Alone), and avoid all false deities... ". (Quran 16:36) “And for
every nation there is a messenger...” (Quran 10:47) For thousands of years
humankind has lived and died across this wide earth. Every time a woman looks
towards the sky in search of a Creator, she is turning to Allah. Every time a
man buries his face in his hands and begs for mercy or relief, he is asking
Allah. Every time a child crouches fearfully in a corner, his heart is
searching for Allah. Allah is God. Whenever a person is thankful for the bright
new day, or the cool refreshing rain, or the wind whispering in the trees, he
or she is thankful to Allah, thankful to God.
Humankind has taken the purity of
God and mixed it up with wild imaginings and strange superstitions. God is not
three, He is One. God does not have partners or associates; He is Alone in His
majesty and in His dominion. It is not possible to become godlike because there
is nothing comparable to God. God is not part of His creation; He is beyond it.
He is the first, and the last. God is Allah, the Most Merciful.
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“… There is nothing like unto Him…”
(Quran 42:11) “And there is none co-equal or comparable unto Him.” (Quran
112:4) “He is the First (nothing is before Him) and the Last (nothing is after
Him), the Most High (nothing is above Him) and the Most Near (nothing is nearer
than Him). And He is the All-Knower of every thing.” (Quran 57:3) Yes! God is
Allah. Allah is God. He is the one you turn to in your hour of need. He is the
one you thank when the miracles of this life become clear. Allah is a word that
contains many layers of meaning. It is the name of God (the master of the
universe) and it is the foundation of the religion of Islam. He is Allah, the
One worthy of all worship.
“”He is the Originator of the
heavens and the earth. How can He have children when He has no wife? He created
all things and He is the All-Knower of everything. Such is Allah, your Lord! La ilaha
illa Huwa (none has the
right to be worshipped but He), the Creator of all things. So worship Him
(Alone), and He is the Trustee, Disposer of affairs, Guardian, over all things.
No vision can grasp Him, but His Grasp is over all vision. He is the Most
Subtle and Courteous, Well Acquainted with all things.” (Quran 6:101-103) In
the Arabic language, the word for God (Allah) comes from the verb ta’allaha
(or ilaha), which means, “to be worshipped”. Thus, Allah means, the One, who
deserves all worship.
Allah is God, the Creator, and
Sustainer of the world, but differences and confusions arise because the
English word god is able to be made plural as in gods, or change gender, as in
goddess. This is not the case in Arabic. The word Allah stands alone, there is
no plural or gender. The use of the words He or Him are
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grammatical only and in no way
indicate that Allah has any form of gender that is comprehensible to us. Allah
is unique. In the Arabic language, His name is unchangeable. Allah describes
Himself to us in the Quran:
“Say (O Muhammad), He is Allah,
(the) One. Allah-us-Samad (The Self-Sufficient Master, Whom all creatures need,
He neither eats nor drinks). He begets not, nor was He begotten; And there is
none co-equal or comparable unto Him.” (Quran 112) This short chapter of the
Quran is known as the chapter of purity, or sincerity. In just a few short
words, it sums up the Islamic belief system; that Allah or God is One. He is
alone in His majesty; He is alone in His omnipotence. He has no partners or
associates. He was there in the beginning and He will be there in the end. God
is One. Some may ask, ‘If God is One, why then does Quran use the word We?’ In
the English language we understand the use of the royal “we”, or the
grammatical construction known as the majestic plural. Many other languages use
this construction including Arabic, Hebrew, and Urdu. We hear members of
various royal families or dignitaries using the word we, as in “we decree”, or “we
are not amused”. It does not indicate that more than one person is speaking;
rather it denotes the excellence, power or dignity of the one who is speaking.
When we hold that concept in mind, it is obvious that there is none more worthy
to use the royal we than Allah – God. “(This is) a Book, which We have revealed
unto you (O Muhammad) in order that you might lead humankind out of darkness
into light (of belief in the Oneness of Allah)...” (Quran 14:1)
“And indeed, We have honoured
the Children of Adam, and We have carried them on land and sea, have provided them
with lawful
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good things, and have preferred them
above many of those whom We have created with a marked preferment.” (Quran 17:70) “And
if We willed, We could surely
take away that which We have revealed to you (i.e. this Quran). Then you would
find no protector for you against Us in that
respect.” (Quran 17:86) “O humankind! If you are in doubt about the
Resurrection, then verily We have created you (i.e. Adam) from
dust...” (Quran 22:5) Respected Islamic scholar of the 13th century, Sheikh al
Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said that, “Every time Allah uses the plural to refer to
Himself, it is based on the respect and honour that He deserves, and on the
great number of His names and attributes, and on the great number of His troops
and angels The use of the words we, nahnu, or verily we, inna, in no way
indicate that there is more than one god. They have no correlation at all to
the concept of a trinity. The entire foundation of the Islamic religion rests
upon the belief that there is only One God, and Muhammad is His final messenger.
“And your god is One God; there is none who has the right to be worshipped but
He, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.” (Quran 2:163) Misinformed people
sometimes refer to Allah as a modern interpretation of an ancient moon god.
This gross misrepresentation of Allah is often combined with strange
unsubstantiated claims that Prophet Muhammad, may God praise him, resurrected
this god and made him the focal point of the religion of Islam. This is
categorically untrue. Allah is God, the One, and Only, the Most Merciful. Allah
is the God of Abraham, the God of Moses, and the God of Jesus.
“There is no god but Allah (none has
the right to be worshipped but Allah, the One and the only True God, Who has
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neither a wife nor a son). And
indeed, Allah is the All-Mighty, the All-Wise.” (Quran 3:62)
Very little is known about the
religion of the Arabs before Prophet Abraham. There is little doubt that the
Arabs wrongly worshipped idols, heavenly bodies, trees, and stones, and that
some of their idols even had animal characteristics. Although a number of minor
deities across the Arabian Peninsula may have been associated with the moon1 there is no
evidence of the Arabs ever worshipping a moon god above other gods.
On the other hand there is evidence
that the sun, constructed as a feminine god was worshipped throughout Arabia.
The Sun (Shams) was honoured by the several Arabian tribes with both
sanctuaries and idols. The name Abdu Shams (slave of the
sun) was found in many parts of Arabia. In the North the name Amr-I-Shams, “man of the
Sun” was common and the name. Abd-al-Sharq “slave of the Raising one” is
evidence for the worship of the rising sun. 2 One of Prophet Muhammad’s uncles was named Abdu Shams,
so to was the man nicknamed Abu Hurairah , a renowned Islamic scholar from
the first generation of Muslims. When Abu Hurairah converted to Islam, Prophet
Muhammad changed his name to Abdu Rahman (slave of the Most Merciful).
Muslims believe with complete
certainty that, since the beginning of creation, Allah has sent prophets and
messengers to guide and teach humankind. Therefore, humankind’s original
religion was submission to Allah. The first Arabs worshipped Allah, however,
over time their worship became corrupted by man made ideas and superstitions.
The reason for this is shrouded in the mists of time but they may have fell
into the practice of idolatry in much the same way as the people of Prophet
Noah.
1http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/31651/Arabian-religion/68308/Pre-Islamic-deities
2 Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, Article “Ancient Arab”, Vol. 1, p. 661.
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The descendents of Prophet Noah were
one community, believing in the Oneness of Allah, but confusion and deviation
crept in. Righteous men tried to remind the people of their obligations to
Allah but time passed and Satan saw an opportunity to lead the people astray.
When the righteous men died, Satan suggested to the people that they build
statues of the men to help them to remember their obligations to Allah. The
people built statues in their meeting places and their homes, and Satan left
them alone until everyone had forgotten the reason the statues existed. Many
years later, the devious Satan appeared amongst the people again, this time
suggesting that they worship the idols directly. An authentic narration of
Prophet Muhammad, may God praise him, sums up the beginning of idolatry in the
following way.
“The names (of the idols) formerly
belonged to some pious men of the people of Noah, and when they died Satan
inspired their people to prepare and place idols at the places where they used
to sit, and to call those idols by their names. The people did so, but the
idols were not worshipped till those people (who initiated them) had died and
the origin of the idols had become obscure, whereupon people began worshipping
them.” 3 When prophet
Abraham and his son Ishmael rebuilt the Holy House of Allah (the Kaba) most of
the Arabs followed his example and returned to the worship of the One God,
however as time passed the Arabs fell into their old habit of worshipping idols
and demi-gods. There is little doubt and much evidence to suggest that in the
years between Prophets Abraham and Muhammad the religion of Arabian Peninsula
came to be dominated by idol worship.
Each tribe or household had graven
images and statues, the Arabs believed in seers, used divining arrows to
predict future
3 Saheeh Al-Bukhari
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events and performed animal
sacrifices and rituals in the name of their idols. It is said that the
principle idols of Noah’s people were found buried in the area of present day
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and distributed amongst the Arabian tribes4. When Prophet Muhammad returned
triumphantly to Mecca, the Kaba5 contained more
than 360 different idols.
The most well known idols that
existed in pre Islamic Arabia were known as Manat, al Lat, and al Uzza. 6 There is no
evidence linking any of these idols with moon gods or moon The Arabs worshipped
these idols and called on them for intercession. Allah repudiated this false
idol worship. “Have you then considered al-Lat, and al-’Uzza (two idols of the
pagan Arabs). And Manat (another idol of the pagan Arabs), the other third? Is
it for you the males and for Him the females? That indeed is a division most
unfair! They are but names, which you have named, you and your fathers, for
which Allah has sent down no authority. They follow but a guess and that which
they themselves desire, whereas there has surely come to them the Guidance from
their Lord!” (Quran 53:19-23) In the midst of overwhelming paganism and
polytheism the pre Islamic Arabs never called upon a moon god as a supreme
deity, in fact there is no evidence that they ever called upon a moon god. For
generation after generation they did not loose their belief in One supreme
ruler of the universe (even though most of the time they held the wrong concept
of belief in Allah). They were aware of His blessings and His punishment and
believed in a Day of Judgement. Poets of the time referred to Allah regularly.
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4 Safi-ur-Rahman al-Mubarkpur,
(2002) The Sealed Nectar, revised 2nd edition. Darussalam, Riyadh. 5 The cube
shaped building, in the centre of the Holy Masjid, in the city of Mecca, Saudi
Arabia. 6 Hisham Ibn Al-Kalbi, Kitab al-Asnam, edited by Ahmad Zaki Pasha. (Cairo, 1927), pp. 9-14.
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Nabigha, a well-known poet of the 5th century
CE said, “I took an oath and left no margin of doubt for who
else can support man, besides Allah, and Zuhair
b. Abi. Salma affirms his faith in the Day of Judgement by saying “The
deeds are recorded in the scroll to be presented on The day of Judgement;
Vengeance can be taken in this world too”. Quran also testifies to the fact
that the pre Islamic Arabs were aware of Allah –God – the One. “If you were to
ask them “Who has created the heavens and the earth and subjected the sun and
the moon?” They will surely reply, “Allah.” How then are they deviating (as
polytheists and disbelievers)? Allah enlarges the provision for which He wills
of His slaves, and limits it for whom (He wills). Verily, Allah is the All
Knower of everything. If you were to ask them, “Who sends down water (rain)
from the sky, and gives life therewith to the earth after its death?” They will
surely reply, “Allah.” Say: “All the praises and thanks be to Allah!” Nay! Most of them have no sense.” (Quran
29: 61-63)
Source: islamhouse.com/
Source: islamhouse.com/
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