Tuesday, February 24, 2009

My Mercy Prevails Over My Wrath

“The willingness to forgive and not to punish” is a definition frequently used for the word mercy, but what is mercy in Islam?

With Islam, mercy was given a deeper meaning that created a vital aspect in the life of every Muslim, which he is rewarded by God for showing.

God’s mercy, which is bestowed on all His creatures, is seen in everything we lay eyes on: in the sun that provides light and heat, and in the air and water that are essential for all the living.

“The willingness to forgive and not to punish” is a definition frequently used for the word mercy, but what is mercy in Islam?

With Islam, mercy was given a deeper meaning that created a vital aspect in the life of every Muslim, which he is rewarded by God for showing.

God’s mercy, which is bestowed on all His creatures, is seen in everything we lay eyes on: in the sun that provides light and heat, and in the air and water that are essential for all the living.

An entire chapter in the Quran is named after God’s divine attribute Ar-Rahman or “The Most Gracious.” Also two of God’s attributes are derived from the word for mercy. They are Ar-Rahman and Ar-Rahim, which mean “The Most Gracious” and “The Most Merciful.” These two attributes are mentioned in the phrase recited at the beginning of 113 chapters of the Quran: “In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.” This phrase is a continuous reminder for the reader of God’s endless mercy and great bounties.

God assures us that whoever commits a sin will be forgiven if he repents and ceases this act, where He says:
“Your Lord hath inscribed for Himself (the rule of) mercy: verily, if any of you did evil in ignorance, and thereafter repented, and amend (his conduct), lo! He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful” (Quran 6:54)

This verse is affirmed by the narration of Prophet Muhammad, in which he said that God said:
“My mercy prevails over My wrath.”

Reward for kindness and compassion was also assured by the Prophet Muhammad:
“The merciful are shown mercy by the All-Merciful. Show mercy to those on earth, and He Who is in heaven will show mercy unto you” (As-Suyuti).

A Prophet’s Mercy

Concerning Prophet Muhammad’s mercy, it is best to mention first what God Himself has said about him:
“We have not sent thee save as a mercy to the worlds.” (Quran 21:107)
…which assures that Islam is founded on mercy, and that God sent Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, as mercy to all creatures with no exception.

God also says in the Quran:
“Now hath come to you an Apostle from amongst yourselves: it grieves him that ye should receive any injury or difficulty: ardently anxious is he over you: to the believers is he most kind and merciful” (Quran 9:128)

These verses were clearly manifested in the Prophet’s manners and dealings, for he bore many hardships for the sake of conveying God’s message. The Prophet was also most gentle in guiding his people, and whenever they used to harm him he always asked God to pardon them for their ignorance and cruelty.

The Prophet’s Companions

When describing the Companions God says in the Quran:
“Muhammad is the Apostle of God; and those who are with him are strong against unbelievers, but compassionate amongst each other” (Quran 48:29).

Some people may think it obvious for Muhammad to be moral, because he is a prophet, but the Companions were ordinary people who devoted their lives to the obedience of God and His Prophet. For instance Abu Bakr As-Siddiq dedicated all his wealth for buying slaves from their brutal masters and then he set them free for the sake of God.

When once clarifying the right concept of mercy to his Companions, the Prophet said that it is not by one’s kindness to family and friends, but it is by showing mercy and compassion to the general public, whether you know them or not.

A “Little” Mercy

Some of the heartless pre-Islamic traditions were the offering of one’s child as sacrifice for deities and the burial of girls alive. These acts against children were strictly prohibited by the Quran and Prophetic Sunnah many times.

As for the Prophet’s mercy towards children, he was once leading the prayer and his grandsons, Al-Hasan and Al-Husain, were still young boys playing and climbing over his back, so in the fear of hurting them if he should stand, the Prophet prolonged his prostration. Another time, the Prophet performed his prayer while carrying Umamah, his granddaughter.

This kindness of the Prophet was not only bestowed on his own children but also extended to children playing on the street. As soon as seeing the Prophet, they would run to him, and he would receive them all with a warm smile and open arms.

Even during prayer the Prophet’s innate kindness was clear, as he once said:
“(It happens that) I start the prayer intending to prolong it, but on hearing the cries of a child, I shorten the prayer because I know that the cries of the child will incite its mother’s passions” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari)

In many situations the Prophet taught us how children should be brought up in a kind and loving atmosphere, and that they should not be beaten, or hit across the face, to avoid their humiliation. When a man once saw the Prophet kissing his grandson, he was astonished at the Prophet’s leniency and said, “I have ten children but I have never kissed any one of them.” the Prophet replied,
“He who does not show mercy, no mercy would be shown to him” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari)

Just a Stroke of Hair

When God mentioned orphans in the Quran He said what means:
“Therefore, treat not the orphans with harshness” (Quran 93:9)

In accordance with this verse came the manners of the Prophet towards orphans, for he said:
“I and the person who looks after an orphan and provides for him, will be in Paradise like this,” putting his index and middle fingers together. (Abu Dawud)
In order to make the orphan feel appreciated and that if he has lost the affection of his parents there are still people who are willing to love and care for him, the Prophet encouraged kindness by saying that a person is rewarded by good deeds for each hair he strokes on an orphan’s head.

The protection of the orphan’s property was clearly confirmed by God and His Prophet. For instance, God says what means:
“Those who unjustly eat up the property of orphans, eat up a fire into their own bodies: they will soon be enduring a blazing fire!” (Quran 4:10)

A Prophetic saying also informs us that one of the seven most grievous sins is the devouring of the orphan’s property.

Could This Be War?

Mercy in Islam also extends to enemies, in times of war and peace, as Prophet Muhammad used to urge his Companions to maintain family ties with relatives who were still disbelievers by calling on them and giving them gifts.

As for times of war, God commands Muslims to grant refuge to enemies if they should ask for it, and forbids anyone to harm them. This is stated in the Quran, where God says what means:
“If one amongst the pagans ask thee for asylum, grant it to him, so that he may hear the word of God; and then escort him to where he can be secure. That is because they are men without knowledge” (Quran 9:6)

As for the Prophet, he forbade his Companions to harm the elderly, injured, women, children, and people in places of worship. Also, destroying fields was forbidden. Defacing the corpses of enemies was strictly banned and giving them rapid burial was commanded out of respect.

The Prophet’s orders regarding captives were strictly obeyed by his Companions. In one of the stories about a battle related to us by a captive, he says that he was staying with a Muslim family after being captured. Whenever they had their meals, they used to give him preference by offering him bread while they would eat only dates.

When the Prophet, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, victoriously entered Makkah after defeating the Quraish, he approached them and asked:
“How do you expect me to treat you?”
They replied, “You are a noble brother and the son of a noble brother! We expect nothing but goodness from you.”
Then the Prophet announced, “I speak to you in the same words as Yusuf (the Prophet Joseph) spoke unto his brothers:
“No reproach on you this day, God will forgive you, He is the Most Merciful of the Merciful” (Quran 12:92).

Go, for verily you are free.”

On this day, when tolerance and forgiveness were least expected, the Prophet set an example of mercy and forgiveness by releasing all the captives without ransom, and forgiving them for the persecution and brutal torture of the Muslims, which was continuous during the first 13 years of conveying the message of Islam.

All of God’s Creatures

Animals were not ignored and were given many rights in Islam. For instance, when the Prophet saw a donkey with a branded face, he said:
“Have you not heard that I have cursed anyone who brands an animal on its face or who hits it on its face?” (Saheeh Muslim).

The Prophet once said that a woman was sent to Hell because of a cat that she imprisoned, neither feeding it nor setting it free to hunt for its own food. On the other hand, the Prophet said, a man went to Paradise for giving water to a dog in the desert that was panting out of thirst.

The Prophet forbade that knives should be sharpened in front of animals before slaughtering. In addition, the slaughtering of an animal before another was prohibited. This is clear in one of the Prophetic sayings:
“God calls for mercy in everything, so be merciful when you kill and when you slaughter: sharpen your blade to relieve its pain” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari).
One of the Companions related this incident: When they were traveling with the Prophet, they found a bird with its young ones, so they took them from their mother. The bird came and started flapping its wings, so the Prophet asked:
“Who has distressed this bird by taking its young? Return them to it at once” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari).

Animal rights were affirmed by the Prophet when he said that anyone who took a living thing as a target is cursed. Forcing animals to fight till one gores the other was also strictly banned, for animals have feelings and this would be definite torture for them.

The Islamic concept of mercy is holistic and stresses the interconnectedness of all of creation with itself and with the Creator. Mercy starts with God and is bestowed by Him to every living creature. Animals and humans alike show each other mercy, to live harmoniously with one another, and in turn, by showing this mercy, they themselves are shown even more mercy from God. This vision of Islam encourages the breaking down of barriers between peoples and is the underlying foundation upon which both life and civilization are built.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Belief in God (part 3)

(III) God Alone Is Entitled To Worship

Islam lays much greater emphasis on how belief in God translates into righteous, obedient life and good morals rather than proving His existence through theological intricacies. Hence, the Islamic motto is that the primary message preached by the prophets was surrender to God’s will and His worship and not so much the proof of God’s existence:
“And We never send any Messenger before you (O Muhammad) without having revealed to Him: none has the right to be worshipped but I, therefore you shall worship Me (Alone).” (Quran 21:25)

God has the exclusive right to be worshipped inwardly and outwardly, by one’s heart and limbs. Not only can no one be worshipped apart from Him, absolutely no one else can be worshipped along with Him. He has no partners or associates in worship. Worship, in its comprehensive sense and in all its aspects, is for Him alone.
“There is no true god worthy of worship but He, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate.” (Quran 2:163)

God’s right to be worshipped can not be over emphasized. It is the essential meaning of Islam’s testimony of faith: La ilah illa Allah. A person becomes Muslim by testifying to the divine right to worship. It is the crux of Islamic belief in God, even all of Islam. It was the central message of all prophets and messengers sent by God - the message of Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Moses, the Hebrew prophets, Jesus, and Muhammad, may God praise him. For instance, Moses declared:
“Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord.” (Deuteronomy 6:4)
Jesus repeated the same message 1500 years later when he said:
“The first of all the commandments is, ‘Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord.’” (Mark 12:29)

And reminded Satan:

“Away from me, Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.” (Matthew 4:10)

Finally, the call of Muhammad some 600 years after Jesus reverberated across the hills of Mecca:
“And your God is One God: there is no god but He…” (Quran 2:163)
They all declared clearly:
“…Worship God! You have no other god but Him…” (Quran 7:59, 7:65, 7:73, 7:85; 11:50, 11:61, 11:84; 23:23)

What Is Worship?

Worship in Islam consists of every act, belief, statement, or sentiment of the heart which God approves and loves; everything that brings a person closer to His Creator. It includes ‘external’ worship like the daily ritual prayers, fasting, charity, and pilgrimage as well as ‘internal’ worship such as faith in the six articles of faith, reverence, adoration, love, gratitude, and reliance. God is entitled to worship by the body, soul, and heart, and this worship remains incomplete unless it is done out of four essential elements: reverential fear of God, divine love and adoration, hope in divine reward, and extreme humility.
One of the greatest acts of worship is prayer, invoking the Divine Being for aid. Islam specifies that prayer should only be directed to God. He is deemed in total control of every man’s destiny and able to grant his needs and remove distress.

God, in Islam, reserves the right of prayer for Himself:
“And do not invoke, along with God, anything that can neither benefit you nor harm you, for behold, if you do it, you will surely be among the evildoers!” (Quran 10:106)

Giving anyone else - prophets, angels, Jesus, Mary, idols, or nature- a portion of one's worship, which is essentially due only to God, such as prayer, is called Shirk and is the most enormous of sins in Islam. Shirk is the only unforgivable sin if not repented from, and it denies the very purpose of creation.

(IV) God Is Known By His Most Beautiful Names and Attributes

God is known in Islam by His beautiful Names and Attributes as they appear in revealed Islamic texts without the corruption or denial of their obvious meanings, picturing them, or thinking of them in human terms.

“And the Most Beautiful Names belong to God, so call on Him by them…” (Quran 7:180)
Therefore, it is inappropriate to use First Cause, Author, Substance, Pure Ego, Absolute, Pure Idea, Logical Concept, Unknown, Unconscious, Ego, Idea, or Big Guy as divine Names. They simply lack beauty and that’s not how God has described Himself. Instead, Names of God indicate His majestic beauty and perfection. God does not forget, sleep, or get tired. He is not unjust, and has no son, mother, father, brother, associate, or helper. He was not born, and does not give birth. He stands in need of none as He is perfect. He does not become human to “understand” our suffering. God is The Almighty (al-Qawee), The One Incomparable (al-‘Ahad), The Acceptor of Repentance (al-Tawwaab), The Compassionate (al-Raheem), The Ever-Living (al-Hayy), The All-Sustaining (al-Qayyum), The all-Knowing (al-‘Aleem), The All-Hearing (al-Samee’), The All-Seeing (al-Baseer), The Pardoner (al-‘Afuw), The Helper (al-Naseer), The Healer of the Sick (al-Shaafee).

The two most frequently invoked Names are “The Compassionate” and “The Merciful.” All but one of the chapters of Muslim scripture begins with the phrase, “In the Name of God, the Most-Merciful, the Most Gracious.” The phrase is used, one might say, by Muslims more commonly than the names Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are heard in Christian invocations. Muslims begin in the Name of God and remind themselves of God’s Compassion and Mercy every time they eat, drink, write a letter, or perform anything of importance.

Forgiveness is an important dimension of human relationship with God. Human beings are realized to be weak and prone to sin, but God in His tender mercy is willing to forgive. The Prophet Muhammad said:
“God’s mercy outweighs His wrath.” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari)

Along with the divine names “The Compassionate” and “The Merciful,” the names “The Forgiver” (al-Ghafur), “The Oft-Forgiving” (al-Ghaf-faar), “The Acceptor of Repentance ” (at-Tawwaab) and “The Pardoner” (al-Afuw) are among the most used in Muslim prayers.

Belief in God (part 2)

Belief in God in Islam consists of four matters:

(I) Belief in God’s existence.
(II) God is the Supreme Lord.
(III) God Alone is entitled to worship.
(IV) God is known by His Most Beautiful Names and Attributes.

(I) Belief in God’s Existence

God’s existence does not require proof by scientific, mathematical, or philosophical arguments. His existence is not a ‘discovery’ to be made by the scientific method or a mathematical theorem to be proven. Simply said, mere common sense bears witness to God’s existence. From a ship one learns of the ship-builder, from the cosmos one learns of its Creator. God’s existence is also known by answers to prayers, miracles of prophets and the teaching in all revealed scriptures.
In Islam, a human being is not seen as sinful creature to whom the message of Heaven is sent to heal the wound of original sin, but as a being who still carries his primordial nature (al-fitrah), an imprint on his soul that lies deeply buried under layers of negligence. Humans are not born sinful, but forgetful as God has said:
“…Am I not your Lord? They said: ‘Yes, we bear witness...’” (Quran 7:172)

In this verse, the “they” refers to all human beings, male and female. The ‘yes’ confirms the affirmation of God’s oneness by us in our precosmic state. Islamic doctrine holds that men and women still carry the echo of this ‘yes’ deep down within their souls. The call of Islam is directed to this primordial nature, which uttered ‘yes’ even before they inhabited the earth. Knowledge that this universe has a Creator is something instinctive in Islam and therefore it requires no proof. Scientists, such as Andrew Newberg and Eugene D’Aquili, both affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania and pioneers in the neurological research of religion, say “We are wired for God.”[1]

The Holy Quran rhetorically asks:
“…Can there be any doubt about God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth?...” (Quran 14:10)

One might ask, ‘if belief in God is natural, then why do some people lack this belief?’ The answer is simple. Every human being has an innate belief in a Creator, but this belief is not a result of learning or personal deductive thinking. With the passage of time, outside influences effect this innate belief and confuse the person. So, one’s environment and upbringing veil the primordial nature from the truth. The Prophet of Islam, may God praise all, said:
“Every child is born in a state of fitrah (a natural belief in God), then his parents make him a Jew, a Christian, or a Magian.” (Saheeh Muslim)
Often these veils are lifted when a human being is faced with a spiritual crisis and left helpless and vulnerable.

(II) God Is the Supreme Lord

God is the only Lord of heaven and earth. He is the Lord of the physical universe and the Lawgiver for human life. He is the Master of the physical world and Ruler of the affairs of men. God is the Lord of every man, woman, and child.

Historically, only a few have denied the existence of the Lord, which means that throughout the ages people have, for most part, believed in One God, a Supreme Being, a supernatural Creator. That God is the Lord specifically contains the following meanings:

First, God is the sole Lord and Ruler of the physical world. Lord means He is the Creator, Controller, and Owner of the Kingdom of the heaven and the earth; they belong exclusively to Him. He alone brought existence out of non-existence, and all existence depends on Him for its conservation and continuance. He did not create the universe and leave it to pursue its own course according to fixed laws, thereafter ceasing to take any further interest in it. The power of the Living God is required at every moment to sustain all creatures. Creation has no Lord besides Him.

“Say (O Muhammad): ‘Who provides for you from the sky and the earth? Or who owns hearing and sight? And who brings out the living from the dead and brings out the dead from the living? And who disposes the affairs?’ They will say: ‘God.’ Say: ‘Will you not then be afraid of God’s punishment (for setting up rivals with Him)?’” (Quran 10:31)

He is the ever-ruling King and the Savior, the Loving God, full of wisdom. No one can change His decisions. Angels, prophets, human beings, and the animal and plant kingdoms are under His control.

Beauty in nature. The Grand Falls of the Chaudiere River near St. Georges, Quebec. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Second, God is the only Ruler of the affairs of men. God is the supreme Lawgiver,[2] the Absolute Judge, the Legislator, and He distinguishes right from wrong. Just like the physical world submits to its Lord, human beings must submit to the moral and religious teaching of their Lord, the Lord who sets right apart from wrong for them. In other words, God alone has the authority to make laws, determine acts of worship, decide morals, and set standards of human interaction and behavior. His is the command:

“…Surely, His is the creation and the command; blessed be God, the Lord of the worlds.” (Quran 7:54)


________________________________________
Footnotes:
[1] “Why God Won’t Go Away”. Science and the Biology of Belief, p. 107.
[2] God’s existence proven by the existence of a supreme Lawgiver is called the ‘ethical’ argument by Western theologians.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Belief in God (part 1)

Introduction

At the heart of Islam lies belief in God.

The core of the Islamic creed is bearing witness to the phrase, La illaha illa Allah, “There is no true deity deserving worship but God.” The testimony to this belief, called tawhid, is the axis around which all Islam revolves. Moreover, it is the first of the two testimonies by which a person becomes a Muslim. Striving after the realization of that oneness, or tawhid, is the core of Islamic life.

For many non-Muslims, the term Allah, the Arabic name of God, refers to some distant and strange deity worshipped by the Arabs. Some even think it to be some pagan “moon-god”. However, in Arabic, the word Allah means the One True God. Even, Arabic speaking Jews and Christians refer to the Supreme Being as Allah.

Finding God

Western philosophers, Eastern mystics as well as today’s scientists attempt to reach God in their own way. Mystics teach of a God who is found through spiritual experiences, a God who is part of the world and resides within His creation. The philosophers seek God though pure reason and often speak of a God as a detached Watch-Maker with no interest in His creation. A group of philosophers teach agnosticism, an ideology that holds that one can neither prove nor disprove God's existence. Practically speaking, an agnostic asserts he must be able to perceive God directly in order to have faith. God has said:
“And those who are devoid of knowledge say: ‘Why does not God speak unto us or why is not a [miraculous] sign shown to us?’ So said the people before them words of similar import. Their hearts are all alike...” (Quran 2:118)
The argument is nothing new; people in the past and present have raised the same objection.

According to Islam, the correct way of finding God is through the preserved teachings of the prophets. Islam maintains that the prophets were sent by God Himself throughout the ages to guide human beings to Him. God says in the Holy Quran that the correct path to belief is to reflect upon His signs, which point to Him:
“…Indeed, We have made all the signs manifest unto people who are endowed with inner certainty.” (Quran 2:118)
Mention of God’s handiwork occurs often in the Quran as the locus of divine revelation. Anyone who sees the natural world in all its wonder with open eyes and an open heart will see the unmistakable signs of the Creator.
“Say: Go all over the earth and behold how [wondrously] He has created [man] in the first instance: and thus, too, will God bring into being your second life – for, verily, God has power to will anything.” (Quran 20:29)

God’s handiwork is also present within the individual:
“And on earth there are signs [of God’s existence, visible] to all who are endowed with inner certainty, just as [there are signs thereof] within your own selves: can you not, then see?” (Quran 51:20-21)

Belief in Life after Death

Everyone is scared of dying and rightly so. The uncertainty of what lies beyond is frightening. It may be that of all religions, Islam, provides the most graphic details of what comes after death and lies beyond. Islam views death to be a natural threshold to the next stage of existence.

Islamic doctrine holds that human existence continues after the death of the human body in the form of spiritual and physical resurrection. There is a direct relation between conduct on earth and the life beyond. The afterlife will be one of rewards and punishments which is commensurate with earthily conduct. A Day will come when God will resurrect and gather the first and the last of His creation and judge everyone justly. People will enter their final abode, Hell or Paradise. Faith in life after death urges us to do right and to stay away from sin. In this life we sometimes see the pious suffer and the impious enjoy. All shall be judged one day and justice will be served.

Faith in life after death is one of the six fundamental beliefs required of a Muslim to complete his faith. Rejecting it renders all other beliefs meaningless. Think of a child who does not put his hand in fire. He does not do so because he is sure it will burn. When it comes to doing school work, the same child may feel lazy because he does not quite understand what a sound education will do for his future. Now, think of a man who does not believe in the Day of Judgment. Would he consider belief in God and a life driven by his belief in God to be of any consequence? To him, neither obedience to God is of use, nor is disobedience of any harm. How, then, can he live a God-conscious life? What incentive would he have to suffer the trials of life with patience and avoid overindulgence in worldly pleasures? And if a man does not follow the way of God, then what use is his belief in God, if he has any? The acceptance or rejection of life after death is perhaps the greatest factor in determining the course of an individual’s life.

The dead have a continued and conscious existence of a kind in the grave. Muslims believe that, upon dieing, a person enters an intermediate phase of life between death and resurrection. Many events take place in this new “world”, such as the “trial” of the grave, where everyone will be questioned by angels about their religion, prophet, and Lord. The grave is a garden of paradise or a pit of hell; angels of mercy visit the souls of believers and angels of punishment come for the unbelievers.

Resurrection will be preceded by the end of the world. God will command a magnificent angel to blow the Horn. At its first blowing, all the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth will fall unconscious, except those spared by God. The earth will be flattened, the mountains turned into dust, the sky will crack, planets will be dispersed, and the graves overturned.

People will be resurrected into their original physical bodies from their graves, thereby entering the third and final phase of life. The Horn will blow again upon which people will rise up from their graves, resurrected!

God will gather all humans, believers and the impious, jinns, demons, even wild animals. It will be a universal gathering. The angels will drive all human beings naked, uncircumcised, and bare-footed to the Great Plain of Gathering. People will stand in wait for judgment and humanity will sweat in agony. The righteous will be sheltered under the shade of God’s Magnificent Throne.

When the condition becomes unbearable, people will request the prophets and the messengers to intercede with God on their behalf to save them from distress.
The balances will be set and the deeds of men will be weighed. Disclosure of the Records of the deeds performed in this life will follow. The one who will receive his record in his right hand will have an easy reckoning. He will happily return to his family. However, the person who will receive his record in his left hand would wish he were dead as he will be thrown into the Fire. He will be full of regrets and will wish that he were not handed his Record or he had not known it.

Then God will judge His creation. They will be reminded and informed of their good deeds and sins. The faithful will acknowledge their failings and be forgiven. The disbelievers will have no good deeds to declare because an unbeliever is rewarded for them in this life. Some scholars are of the opinion that the punishment of an unbeliever may be reduced in lieu of his good deeds, except the punishment of the great sin of disbelief.

The Siraat is a bridge that will be established over Hell extending to Paradise. Anyone who is steadfast on God’s religion in this life will find it easy to pass it.
Paradise and Hell will be the final dwelling places for the faithful and the damned after the Last Judgment. They are real and eternal. The bliss of the people of Paradise shall never end and the punishment of unbelievers condemned to Hell shall never cease. Unlike a pass-fail system in some other belief-systems, the Islamic view is more sophisticated and conveys a higher level of divine justice. This can be seen in two ways. First, some believers may suffer in Hell for unrepented, cardinal sins. Second, both Paradise and Hell have levels.

Paradise is the eternal garden of physical pleasures and spiritual delights. Suffering will be absent and bodily desires will be satisfied. All wishes will be met. Palaces, servants, riches, streams of wine, milk and honey, pleasant fragrances, soothing voices, pure partners for intimacy; a person will never get bored or have enough!

The greatest bliss, though, will be the vision of their Lord of which the unbelievers will be deprived.

Hell is an infernal place of punishment for unbelievers and purification for sinful believers. Torture and punishment: for the body and the soul: burning by fire, boiling water to drink, scalding food to eat, chains, and choking columns of fire. Unbelievers will be eternally damned to it, whereas sinful believers will eventually be taken out of Hell and enter Paradise.

Paradise is for those who worshipped God alone, believed and followed their prophet, and lived moral lives according to the teachings of scripture.

Hell will be the final dwelling place of those who denied God, worshipped other beings besides God, rejected the call of the prophets, and lead sinful, unrepentant lives.

Belief in Angels

Reality of Angels

In common folklore, angels are thought of as good forces of nature, hologram images, or illusions. Western iconography sometimes depicts angels as fat cherubic babies or handsome young men or women with a halo surrounding their head. In Islamic doctrine, they are real created beings who will eventually suffer death, but are generally hidden from our senses.

They are not divine or semi-divine, and they are not God’s associates running different districts of the universe. Also, they are not objects to be worshipped or prayed to, as they do not deliver our prayers to God. They all submit to God and carry out His commands.

In the Islamic worldview, there are no fallen angels: they are not divided into ‘good’ and ‘evil’ angels. Human beings do not become angels after death. Satan is not a fallen angel, but is one of the jinn, a creation of God parallel to human beings and angels.

Angels were created from light before human beings were created, and thus their graphic or symbolic representation in Islamic art is rare. Nevertheless, they are generally beautiful beings with wings as described in Muslim scripture.

Angels form different cosmic hierarchies and orders in the sense that they are of different size, status, and merit.

The greatest of them is Gabriel. The Prophet of Islam actually saw him in his original form. Also, the attendants of God’s Throne are among the greatest angels. They love the believers and beseech God to forgive them their sins. They carry the Throne of God, about whom the Prophet Muhammad, may God praise him, said:
“I have been given permission to speak about one of the angels of God who carry the Throne. The distance between his ear-lobes and his shoulders is equivalent to a seven-hundred-year journey.” (Abu Daud)

They do not eat or drink. The angels do not get bored or tired of worshipping God:
“They celebrate His praises night and day, nor do they ever slacken.” (Quran 21:20)

The Number of Angels

How many angels there are? Only God knows. The Much-Frequented House is a sacred heavenly sanctuary above the Kaaba, the black cube in the city of Mecca. Every day seventy thousand angels visit it and leave, never returning to it again, followed by another group.[1]

The Names of Angels

Muslims believe in specific angels mentioned in the Islamic sources like Jibreel (Gabriel), Mika'eel (Michael), Israfeel, Malik - the guard over Hell, and others. Of these, only Gabriel and Michael are mentioned in the Bible.

Angelic Abilities

The angels possess great powers given to them by God. They can take on different forms. The Muslim scripture describes how at the moment of Jesus’ conception, God sent Gabriel to Mary in the form of a man:
“…Then We sent to her Our angel, and he appeared before her as a man in all respects.” (Quran 19:17)

Angels also visited Abraham in human form. Similarly, angels came to Lot to deliver him from danger in the form of handsome, young men. Gabriel used to visit Prophet Muhammad in different forms. Sometimes, he would appear in the form of one of his handsome disciples, and sometimes in the form of a desert Bedouin.

Angels have the ability to take human forms in some circumstances involving common people.

Gabriel is God’s heavenly messenger to mankind. He would convey the revelation from God to His human messengers. God says:
“Say: whoever is an enemy to Gabriel - for he brings down the (revelation) to your heart by God’s will...” (Quran 2:97)

Tasks of the Angels

Some angels are put in charge of executing God’s law in the physical world. Michael is responsible for rain, directing it wherever God wishes. He has helpers who assist him by the command of his Lord; they direct the winds and clouds, as God wills. Another is responsible for blowing the Horn, which will be blown by Israafeel at the onset of the Day of Judgment. Others are responsible for taking souls out of the bodies at the time of death: the Angel of Death and his assistants. God says:
“Say: the Angel of Death, put in charge of you, will (duly) take your souls, then shall you be brought back to your Lord.” (Quran 32:11)

Then there are guardian angels responsible for protecting the believer throughout his life, at home or traveling, asleep or awake.

Others are responsible for recording the deeds of man, good and bad. These are known as the “honorable scribes.”

Two angels, Munkar and Nakeer, are responsible for testing people in the grave.
Among them are keepers of Paradise and the nineteen ‘guards’ of Hell whose leader is named ‘Malik.’

There are also angels responsible for breathing the soul into the fetus and writing down its provisions, life-span, actions, and whether it will be wretched or happy.
Some angels are roamers, traveling around the world in search of gatherings where God is remembered. There are also angels constituting God’s heavenly army, standing in rows, they never get tired or sit down, and others who bow or prostrate, and never raise their heads, always worshipping God.

As we learn from above, the angels are a grandiose creation of God, varying in numbers, roles, and abilities. God is in no need of these creatures, but having knowledge and belief in them adds to the awe that one feels towards God, in that He is able to create as He wishes, for indeed the magnificence of His creation is a proof of the magnificence of the Creator.


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Footnotes:
[1] Saheeh Al-Bukhari.

The Concept of God in Islam (part 2): His Attributes and His Oneness

God’s Attributes

If the Creator is Eternal and Everlasting, then His attributes must also be eternal and everlasting. If this is so, then his attributes are absolute. Can there be more than one Creator with such absolute attributes? Can there be, for example, two absolutely powerful Creators? A moment’s thought shows that this is not feasible.

The Quran summarizes this argument in the following verses:
“God has not taken to Himself any son, nor is there any god with Him: for then each god would have taken of that which he created and some of them would have risen up over others.” (Quran 23:91)

Also,
“And why, were there gods on earth and heaven other than God, they (heaven and earth) would surely go to ruin.” (Quran 21:22)

The Oneness of God

The Quran reminds us of the falsity of all alleged gods. To the worshippers of man-made objects it asks:
“Do you worship what you have carved yourself?” (Quran 37:95)

Also,
“…Or have you taken unto yourself others beside Him to be your protectors, even such as have no power either for good or for harm to themselves?...” (Quran 13:16)

To the worshippers of heavenly bodies it cites the story of Abraham:
“When night outspread over him, he saw a star and said, ‘This is my Lord.’ But when it set, he said, ‘I love not the setters.’ When he saw the moon rising, he said, ‘This is my Lord.’ But when it set, he said, ‘If my Lord does not guide me, I shall surely be of the people gone astray.’ When he saw the sun rising, he said, ‘This is my Lord; this is greater.’ But when it set, he said, ‘O my people, surely I quit that which you associate, I have turned my face to Him who originated the heavens and the earth; a man of pure faith, I am not one of the idolaters.’” (Quran 6:76-79)

The Believer’s Attitude

In order to be a Muslim, that is, to surrender oneself to God, it is necessary to believe in the oneness of God, in the sense of His being the only Creator, Preserver, Nourisher, etc. But this belief is not enough. Many of the idolaters knew and believed that only the Supreme God could do all this. But this was not enough to make them Muslims. In addition to this belief, one must acknowledge the fact that it is God alone who deserves to be worshipped, and thus abstains from worshipping any other thing or being.

Having achieved this knowledge of the one true God, man should constantly have faith in Him, and should allow nothing to induce him to deny truth.

What this means is that, if one submits knowingly to God without reservations, and admits He is the only one worthy of your worship, one must consequently worship Him. That is, knowing we owe Him obedience means putting into practice what we acknowledge in our hearts. God asks, rhetorically:
“Did you think that We had created you in without purpose, and that you would not be brought back to Us?” (Quran 23:115)

He also states categorically:
”I did not create Mankind and Jinn except that they should worship me.” (Quran 51:56)
Hence, when faith enters a person’s heart, it causes certain mental states that result in certain actions. Taken together, these mental states and actions are the proof for the true faith. The Prophet, may God praise him, said:
“Faith is that which resides firmly in the heart and which is proved by deeds.”
Foremost among these mental states is the feeling of gratitude towards God, which could be said to be the essence of worship.

The feeling of gratitude is so important that a non-believer is called ‘kafir’, which means ‘one who denies a truth’ and also ‘one who is ungrateful’.
A believer loves, and is grateful to God for the bounties He has bestowed upon him, but being aware of the fact that his good deeds, whether mental or physical, are far from being commensurate with Divine favors, he is always anxious lest God should punish him, here or in the Hereafter. He therefore fears Him, surrenders himself to Him and serves Him with great humility. One cannot be in such a mental state without being almost all the time mindful of God. Remembering God is thus the life force of faith, without which it fades and withers away.

The Quran tries to promote this feeling of gratitude by repeating the attributes of God very frequently. We find most of these attributes mentioned together in the following verses of the Quran:
“He is God; there is no god but He. He is the Knower of the unseen and the visible; He is the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate. He is God; there is no god but He. He is the King, the All-Holy, the All-Peace, the Guardian of the Faith, the All-Preserver, the All-Mighty, the All-Compeller, the All-Sublime. Glory be to God, above that they associate! He is God, the Creator, the Maker, the Shaper. To Him belong the Names Most Beautiful. All that is in the heavens and the earth magnifies Him; He is the Almighty, the All-Wise.” (Quran 59:22-24)

Also,
“There is no god but He, the Living, the Everlasting. Slumber seizes Him not, nor sleep. To Him belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth. Who is there that shall intercede with Him save by His leave? He knows what lies before them, and what is after them, and they comprehend not anything of His knowledge save such as He wills. His footstool extends over the heavens and the earth. The preserving of them oppresses Him not; He is the All-High, the All-Glorious.” (Quran 2:255)

Also,
“People of the Book, go not beyond the bounds in your religion, and say not as to God but the truth. The Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, was only the Messenger of God, and His Word that He laded on Mary, and a Spirit from Him. So believe in God and His Messengers, and say not “Three”. Refrain; better it is for you. God is only one God. Glory be to Him – (He is) above having a son.” (Quran 4:171)

Thus we have three parts to our acknowledgement of God as the Only True God. We must believe he is the ultimate Creator, Controller and Judge of the universe and everything in it; we must refrain from the worship of anything except Him, and then actually direct our Worship to Him; and we must know that He alone has all the divine attributes and names, and we cannot apply them to any other being, no matter who they are. If one merely acknowledges with one’s lips these necessities, even should we refrain from applying them to other gods, it is not enough. They must be sincerely directed to the One you acknowledge as well.

The Concept of God in Islam (part 1): A Unique Concept

It is a known fact that every language has one or more terms that are used to refer to God and sometimes to lesser deities at the same time. This is not the case with Allah. Allah is the personal name of the One true God. Nothing else can be called Allah. The term has no plural or gender. This shows its uniqueness when compared with the word “god,” which can be made plural, as in “gods,” or made feminine, as in “goddess.” It is interesting to note that Alah is the personal name of God in Aramaic, the language of Jesus and a sister language of Arabic.

The One true God is a reflection of the unique concept that Islam associates with Allah. To a Muslim, Allah is the Almighty Creator and Sustainer of the universe, Who is similar to nothing, and nothing is comparable to Him. The Prophet Muhammad was asked by his contemporaries about Allah; the answer came directly from Allah Himself in the form of a short chapter of the Quran, which is considered to be the essence of the unity or the motto of monotheism. This is chapter 112, which reads:
“In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate.”

“Say (O Muhammad), He is Allah, the One God, the Self-Sufficient, who has not begotten, nor has been begotten, and equal to Him is not anyone.”

Some non-Muslims allege that God in Islam is a stern and cruel God who demands to be obeyed fully and is, consequently, not loving and kind. Nothing could be farther from the truth than this allegation. It is enough to know that, with the exception of one, each of the 114 chapters of the Quran begins with the verse, “In the name of God, the Merciful; the Compassionate.” In one of the sayings of Prophet Muhammad, may God praise him, we are told that:

“God is more loving and kind than a mother to her dear child.”

On the other hand, God is also Just. Hence, evildoers and sinners must have their share of punishment, and the virtuous must have God’s bounties and favors.
Actually, God’s attribute of Mercy has full manifestation in His attribute of Justice. People suffering throughout their lives for His sake should not receive similar treatment from their Lord as people who oppress and exploit others their whole lives. Expecting similar treatment for them would amount to negating the very belief in the accountability of man in the Hereafter and thereby negate all the incentives for a moral and virtuous life in this world. The following Quranic verses are very clear and straightforward in this respect.

“Verily, for the Righteous are gardens of Delight, in the Presence of their Lord. Shall We then treat the people of Faith like the people of Sin? What is the matter with you? How judge you?” (Quran 68:34-36)

Islam rejects characterizing God in any human form or depicting Him as favoring certain individuals or nations on the basis of wealth, power or race. He created human-beings as equals. They may distinguish themselves and get His favor through virtue and piety only.

The concepts, such as God resting on the seventh day of creation, God wrestling with one of His soldiers, God being an envious plotter against mankind, or God being incarnate in any human being, are considered blasphemy from the Islamic point of view.

The unique usage of Allah as a personal name of God is a reflection of Islam’s emphasis on the purity of the belief in God that is the essence of the message of all God’s messengers. Because of this, Islam considers associating any deity or personality with God as a deadly sin that God will never forgive, despite the fact that He may forgive all other sins.

The Creator must be of a different nature from the things created because, if He is of the same nature as they are, He will be temporal and will therefore need a maker. It follows, therefore, that nothing is like Him. Furthermore, if the Maker is not temporal, then He must be eternal. If He is eternal, however, He cannot be caused, and if nothing caused Him to come into existence, nothing outside Him causes Him to continue to exist, which means that He must be self-sufficient. And if He does not depend on anything for the continuance of His own existence, then this existence can have no end, so the Creator is, therefore, eternal and everlasting. Hence we know that He is Self-sufficient or Self-subsistent, and Everlasting or, to use a Quranic term, Al-Qayyum: “He is the First and the Last.”

The Creator does not create only in the sense of bringing things into being, He also preserves them and takes them out of existence and is the ultimate cause of whatever happens to them.

“God is the Creator of everything. He is the guardian over everything. Unto Him belong the keys of the heavens and the earth…” (Quran 39:62-63)
And God says:

“No creature is there crawling on the earth, but its provision rests on God. He knows its lodging place and its repository...” (Quran 11:6)

Belief in Scriptures

Belief in the scriptures revealed by God is the third article of Islamic faith.

We can identify four main reasons for the revelation of scriptures:

(1) The scripture revealed to a prophet is a point of reference to learn the religion and obligations towards God and fellow human beings. God reveals Himself and explains the purpose of human creation through revealed scriptures.

(2) By referring to it, 'disputes and differences between its followers in matter of religious belief and practice or in matters of social practice could be settled.

(3) The scriptures are meant to keep the religion safe from corruption and deterioration, at least for some time after the death of the prophet. At the present time, the Quran revealed to our Prophet Muhammad, may God praise him, is the only scripture to remain safe from corruption.

(4) It is God’s proof against human beings. They are not allowed to oppose or overstep it.

A Muslim firmly believes that divinely revealed books were actually revealed by the Compassionate God to His prophets to guide mankind. The Quran is not the only spoken Word of God, but God also spoke to prophets before Prophet Muhammad.
“…and to Moses God spoke directly.” (Quran 4:164)

God describes true believers are those who:

“…believe in what has been sent down to you (Muhammad) and what has been sent down before you…” (Quran 2:4)

The most important and central message of all scriptures was to worship God and God alone.

“And we sent never a prophet before you except that we revealed to him, saying, ‘there is no God but I, so worship Me.’” (Quran 21:25)
Islam is more inclusive in the holy revelations it affirms than any other heavenly religion in its present form.

Muslims uphold and respect the following scriptures:

(i) The Quran itself, revealed to the Prophet Muhammad.

(ii) The Torah (Tawrah in Arabic) revealed to the Prophet Moses (different from the Old Testament read today).

(iii) The Gospel (Injeel in Arabic) revealed to Prophet Jesus (different from the New Testament read in churches today).

(iv) The Psalms (Zaboor in Arabic) of David.

(v) The Scrolls (Suhuf in Arabic) of Moses and Abraham.

Third, Muslims believe whatever is true in them and has neither been altered or deliberately misconstrued.

Fourth, Islam affirms that God revealed the Quran as a witness over the previous scriptures and confirmation of them, because He says therein:

“And We have sent down to you (O Muhammad) the Book (the Quran) in truth, confirming the scripture that came before it and trustworthy in highness and a witness over it (the collection of old scriptures)…” (Quran 5:48)

Meaning the Quran confirms whatever is true in previous scriptures and rejects whatever alterations and changes human hands have made to them.

Original Scriptures and the Bible

We must distinguish between two matters: the original Torah, Gospel, and Psalms and the present day Bible. The originals were God’s revelation, but the present day Bible does not have the exact original scripture.

No divine scripture exists today in the original language it was revealed in, except the Quran. The Bible was not revealed in English. Different books of today’s Bible are at best tertiary translations and different versions exist. These multiple translations were done by people whose knowledge, skill, or honesty is not known. As a result, some bibles are larger than others and have contradictions and internal inconsistencies! No originals exist. The Quran, on the other hand, is the only scripture in existence today in its original language and words. Not one letter of the Quran has been changed since its revelation. It is internally consistent with no contradictions. It is today as it was revealed 1400 years ago, transmitted by a rock-solid tradition of memorization and writing. Unlike other sacred texts, the entire Quran has been memorized by almost every Islamic scholar and hundreds of thousands of ordinary Muslims, generation after generation!

The previous scriptures essentially consist of:

(i) Stories of man’s creation and earlier nations, prophesies of what was to come like signs before the Judgment Day, appearance of new prophets, and other news.

The stories, prophecies, and news in the Bible read in churches and synagogues today are partly true and partly false. These books consist of some translated fragments of the original scripture revealed by God, words of some prophets, mixed with explanations of scholars, errors of scribes, and outright malicious insertions and deletions. Quran, the final and trustworthy scripture, helps us sort out fact from fiction. For a Muslim, it is the criterion to judge the truth from the falsehood in these stories. For example, the Bible still contains some clear passages pointing to God’s unity.[1] Also, some prophecies regarding the Prophet Muhammad are found in the Bible as well.[2] Yet, there are passages, even whole books, almost entirely recognized to be forgeries and the handiwork of men.[3]

(ii) Law and rulings, the allowed and prohibited, like the Law of Moses.
If we were to assume the law, that is the lawful and the prohibited, contained in the previous books did not suffer corruption, the Quran still abrogates those rulings, it cancels the old law which was suitable for its time and is no longer applicable today. For example, the old laws pertaining to diet, ritual prayer, fasting, inheritance, marriage and divorce have been cancelled (or, in many cases, reaffirmed) by the Islamic Law.

The Holy Quran

The Quran is different from other scriptures in the following respects:

(1) The Quran is miraculous and inimitable. Nothing similar to it can be produced by human beings.

(2) After the Quran, no more scriptures will be revealed by God. Just as the Prophet Muhammad is the last prophet, the Quran is the last scripture.

(3) God has taken it upon Himself to protect the Quran from alteration, to safeguard it from corruption, and to preserve it from distortion. On the other hand, previous scriptures suffered alteration and distortion and do not remain in their originally revealed form.

(4) The Quran, for one, confirms early scriptures and, for another, is a trustworthy witness over them.

(5) The Quran abrogates them, meaning it cancels the rulings of the previous scriptures and renders them inapplicable. The Law of the old scriptures is no longer applicable; the previous rulings have been abrogated with the new Law of Islam.


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Footnotes:
[1] For example the declaration of Moses: “Hear, O Israel The Lord our God is one Lord” (Deuteronomy 6:4) and the announcement of Jesus: “...The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord.” (Mark 12:29).
[2] Refer to (Deuteronomy 18:18), (Deuteronomy 33:1-2), (Isaiah 28:11), (Isaiah 42:1-13), (Habakkuk 3:3), (John 16:13), (John 1:19-21), (Matthew 21:42-43), and more.
[3] For example, refer to books of the Apocrypha.

Belief in the Prophets

Belief in certain prophets who God chose to relay His message to humans is a required article of Islamic faith.

“The Prophet (Muhammad) believes in what has been sent down to him from his Lord, and (so do) the believers. Each one believes in God, His Angels, His Books, and His prophets. (They say,) ‘We make no distinction between one another of His prophets...’” (Quran 2:285)

God conveys His message and relates His will through human prophets. They form a link between the earthly beings and the heavens, in the sense that God has picked them to deliver His message to human beings. There are no other channels to receive divine communications. It is the system of communication between the Creator and the created. God does not send angels to every single individual, nor does He open the skies so people can climb up to receive the message. His way of communication is through human prophets who receive the message through angels.

To have faith in the prophets (or messengers) is to firmly believe that God chose morally upright men to bear His message and pass it to humanity. Blessed were those who followed them, and wretched were those who refused to obey. They faithfully delivered the message, without hiding, altering, or corrupting it. Rejecting a prophet is rejecting the One who sent him, and disobeying a prophet is disobeying the One who commanded to obey him.

God sent to every nation a prophet, mostly from amongst them, to call them to worship God alone and to shun false gods.

“And ask (O Muhammad) those of Our prophets whom We sent before you: ‘Did We ever appoint gods to be worshipped besides the Most Merciful (God)?’” (Quran 43:45)

Muslims believe in those prophets mentioned by name in Islamic sources, such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, David, Solomon, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, may God praise him, to name a few. A general belief is held in those not mentioned by name, as God says:

“And, indeed We have sent prophets before you (O Muhammad), of some of them We have related to you their story, and of some We have not related to you their story...” (Quran 40:78)

Muslims firmly believe the final prophet was the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, and there will be no prophet or messenger after him.

To appreciate this fact, one must understand that the teachings of the last prophet are preserved in original language in their primary sources. There is no need for another prophet. In the case of earlier prophets, their scriptures were lost or their message was corrupted to the point that truth was hardly distinguishable from falsehood. The message of the Prophet Muhammad is clear and preserved and will remain so till the end of time.

The Purpose for Sending Prophets

We can identify the following main reasons for sending prophets:

(1) Guiding humanity from the worship of created beings to the worship of their Creator, from being in a state of servitude to the creation to the freedom of worshipping their Lord.

(2) Clarifying to humanity the purpose of creation: worshipping God and obeying His commands, as well as clarifying that this life is a test for each individual, a test of which its results will decide the type of life one will lead after death; a life of eternal misery or eternal bliss. There is no other definite way to find the true purpose of creation.

(3) Showing humanity the right path that will lead them to Paradise and to salvation from Hellfire.

(4) Establishing proof against humanity by sending prophets, so people will not have an excuse when they will be questioned on the Day of Judgment. They will not be able to claim ignorance to the purpose of their creation and life after death.

(5) Uncovering the unseen ‘world’ which exists beyond the normal senses and the physical universe, such as the knowledge of God, existence of angels, and the reality of the Day of Judgment.

(6) Providing human beings practical examples to lead moral, righteous, purpose-driven lives free of doubts and confusion. Innately, human beings admire fellow human beings, so the best examples of righteousness for humans to imitate are those of God’s prophets.

(7) Purifying the soul from materialism, sin, and heedlessness.

(8) Conveying to humanity the teachings of God, which is for their own benefit in this life and in the Hereafter.

Their Message

The single most important message of all prophets to their people was to worship God alone and none else and to follow His teachings. All of them, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Moses, Aaron, David, Solomon, Jesus, Muhammad and others, in addition to those we do not know - invited people to worship God and shun false gods.
Moses declared: “Hear, O Israel The Lord our God is one Lord.” (Deuteronomy 6:4).
This was repeated 1500 years later by Jesus, when he said: “The first of all the commandments is, ‘Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord.’” (Mark 12:29).
Finally, the call of Muhammad some 600 years later reverberated across the hills of Mecca:
“And your God is One God: there is no god but He...” (Quran 2:163)
The Holy Quran states this fact clearly:
“And We did not send any Messenger before you (O Muhammad) but We revealed to him (saying): ‘none has the right to be worshipped but I, so worship Me.’” (Quran 21:25)

The Message Bearers

God chose the best among humanity to deliver His message. Prophethood is not earned or acquired like higher education. God chooses whom He pleases for this purpose.

They were the best in morals and they were mentally and physically fit, protected by God from falling into cardinal, major sins. They did not err or commit mistakes in delivering the message. They were over one hundred thousand prophets sent to all mankind, to all nations and races, in all corners of the world. Some prophets were superior to others. The best among them were Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, may God praise him.

People went to extremes with the prophets. They were rejected and accused of being sorcerers, madmen, and liars. Others turned them into gods by giving them divine powers, or declared them to be His children, like what happened to Jesus.

In truth, they were fully human with no divine attributes or power. They were God’s worshipping slaves. They ate, drank, slept, and lived normal human lives. They did not have the power to make anyone accept their message or to forgive sins. Their knowledge of future was limited to what God revealed to them. They had no part in running the affairs of the universe.

Out of the Infinite Mercy and Love of God, He sent to humanity prophets, guiding them to that which is the best. He sent them as an example for humanity to follow, and if one does follow their example, they would live a life in accordance to the Will of God, earning His Love and Pleasure

Who is Allah?

Some of the biggest misconceptions that many non-Muslims have about Islam have to do with the word “Allah.” For various reasons, many people have come to believe that Muslims worship a different God than Christians and Jews. This is totally false, since “Allah” is simply the Arabic word for “God” - and there is only One God. Let there be no doubt - Muslims worship the God of Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus - peace be upon them all. However, it is certainly true that Jews, Christians and Muslims all have different concepts of Almighty God. For example, Muslims - like Jews - reject the Christian beliefs of the Trinity and the Divine Incarnation. This, however, does not mean that each of these three religions worships a different God - because, as we have already said, there is only One True God. Judaism, Christianity and Islam all claim to be “Abrahamic Faiths”, and all of them are also classified as “monotheistic.” However, Islam teaches that other religions have, in one way or another, distorted and nullified a pure and proper belief in Almighty God by neglecting His true teachings and mixing them with man-made ideas.

First of all, it is important to note that “Allah” is the same word that Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews use for God. If you pick up an Arabic Bible, you will see the word “Allah” being used where “God” is used in English. This is because “Allah” is a word in the Arabic language equivalent to the English word “God” with a capital “G”. Additionally, the word “Allah” cannot be made plural, a fact which goes hand-in-hand with the Islamic concept of God.
It is interesting to note that the Aramaic word “El”, which is the word for God in the language that Jesus spoke, is certainly more similar in sound to the word “Allah” than the English word “God.” This also holds true for the various Hebrew words for God, which are “El” and “Elah”, and the plural or glorified form “Elohim.” The reason for these similarities is that Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic are all Semitic languages with common origins. It should also be noted that in translating the Bible into English, the Hebrew word “El” is translated variously as “God”, “god” and “angel”! This imprecise language allows different translators, based on their preconceived notions, to translate the word to fit their own views. The Arabic word “Allah” presents no such difficulty or ambiguity, since it is only used for Almighty God alone. Additionally, in English, the only difference between “god”, meaning a false god, and “God”, meaning the One True God, is the capital “G”. Due to the above mentioned facts, a more accurate translation of the word “Allah” into English might be “The One -and-Only God” or “The One True God.”
More importantly, it should also be noted that the Arabic word “Allah” contains a deep religious message due to its root meaning and origin. This is because it stems from the Arabic verb ta’allaha (or alaha), which means “to be worshipped.” Thus in Arabic, the word “Allah” means “The One who deserves all worship.” This, in a nutshell, is the Pure Monotheistic message of Islam.

Suffice it to say that just because someone claims to be a “monotheistic” Jew, Christian or Muslim, that does not keep them from falling into corrupt beliefs and idolatrous practices. Many people, including some Muslims, claim belief in “One God” even though they’ve fallen into acts of idolatry. Certainly, many Protestants accuse Roman Catholics of idolatrous practices in regards to the saints and the Virgin Mary. Likewise, the Greek Orthodox Church is considered “idolatrous” by many other Christians because in much of their worship they use icons. However, if you ask a Roman Catholic or a Greek Orthodox person if God is “One”, they will invariably answer: “Yes!.” This claim, however, does not stop them from being “creature worshipping” idolaters. The same goes for Hindus, who just consider their gods to be “manifestations” or “incarnations” of the One Supreme God.

Before concluding… there are some people out there, who are obviously not on the side of truth, that want to get people to believe that “Allah” is just some Arabian “god”[1], and that Islam is completely “other” - meaning that it has no common roots with the other Abrahamic religions (i.e. Christianity and Judaism). To say that Muslims worship a different “God” because they say “Allah” is just as illogical as saying that French people worship another God because they use the word “Dieu”, that Spanish-speaking people worship a different God because they say “Dios” or that the Hebrews worshipped a different God because they sometimes call Him “Yahweh.” Certainly, reasoning like this is quite ridiculous! It should also be mentioned, that claiming that any one language uses the only the correct word for God is tantamount to denying the universality of God’s message to mankind, which was to all nations, tribes and people through various prophets who spoke different languages.
We would like to ask our readers about the motives of these people? The reason is that the Ultimate Truth of Islam stands on solid ground and its unshakeable belief in the Unity of God is above reproach. Due to this, Christians can’t criticize its doctrines directly, but instead fabricate things about Islam that aren’t true so that people lose the desire to learn more. If Islam were presented in the proper way to the world, it surely might make many people reconsider and re-evaluate their own beliefs. It is quite likely that when they find out that there is a universal religion in the world that teaches people to worship and love God, while also practicing Pure Monotheism, would at least feel that they should re-examine the basis for their own beliefs and doctrines.


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Footnotes
[1] Such as the claim propagated by Robert Morey in his work, The Moon-god Allaah in the Archeology of the Middle East. For a discussion of this work, please see the following links:
(http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Sources/Allah/moongod.html)

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Did God Become Man?: Did God have a Son?

If God did not become Man, did He have a son? Since He is able to do all things, He should be able to have a son. However, this claim reduces God to the lowly status of His creation. Creatures procreate by giving birth to mini versions of themselves that later grow up and reproduce copies of themselves, and so on and so forth. Dogs have puppies, cats have kittens, cows have calves, and men have children. So, what does God have – a baby God? Gods must give birth to Gods. But, for God to have a son, there has to exist another God besides Him. It is not befitting for God to have a son as such an act equates Him with His creation.
Everything other than God comes into existence by the commandment of God, not that God becomes His creation or a part of God becomes creation. God does not become His creation nor does God give birth to creation. God is God, the Creator, and man and the contents of the universe are His creation. Although humans cannot grasp the concept of creation from nothing, that is exactly what God did and does. He alone creates from nothing, which is among the attributes that make Him unique and distinct from His creation. His act of creation is entirely different from that of human beings.
This was the essence of the message of all the true messengers and prophets of God sent to humanity – Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad – as well as those sent throughout the world whose names are now unknown to humanity - may God’s peace and blessings be on them all. Today, this precise message can only be found in the Quran; the last scripture revealed by God to humankind. The message remains loud and clear only in the Quran because it has remained unchanged since the time of its revelation, one thousand four hundred years ago, until today.
God states in the Quran for those who make Him like His creation or vice versa:
“…There is nothing similar to Him...” (Quran 42:11)
He also states for those who attributed to Him a son:
“But it is not suitable for Ar-Rahman (the Most Beneficent – God) that He should beget a child.” (Quran 19:92)
He further states for those who believe that He created the world from Himself:
“If He wishes anything to exist, He merely commands it: ‘Be’, and it is.” (Quran 36:82)
For the polytheists He states:
“…There was no other god along with Him, for if there were each would have taken away what he created and tried to overcome the other…” (Quran 23:91)
He asks the atheists:
“Did nothing create them or did they create themselves?” (Quran 52:35)
And in reference to Jesus and his mother, Mary, He confirmed their humanity by saying simply:
“…They both used to eat food…” (Quran 5:75)
The concept of God not becoming man is very important for every human being to grasp because it lies at the foundation of the difference between Islam and all other existing religions. All other religions have a distorted concept of God, to one degree or another. The most important idea which needs to be understood, is that God did not become man. God is unique; He alone deserves to be worshipped by His creation. To believe that a man is God or that a man became God and to worship that man is the greatest sin and the greatest evil that humans can do on this earth. This understanding is most important because it forms the foundation for salvation. There can be no salvation without it. However, this belief alone is not the key salvation. True, correct belief must be translated into practice, and not merely remain in the realm of knowledge, for it to become pure faith. A person has to live a righteous life based on the correct belief to attain salvation. Nevertheless, the starting point is, knowing who God is, knowing that God never became and will never become a human being.

Did God Become Man?: Did God Become Man, Can God Become Man?

The question which remains is Did God become Man? Logically speaking, the answer is no, because the concept of God becoming man contradicts the basic meaning of the term “God.” People commonly say that God is able to do all things; whatever He wants to do, He can do. In the Bible of Christians it is said, “... through God all things are possible (Matthew, 19: 26; Mark 10: 27, 14: 36).”
The Quran of Muslims states:
“…Indeed, Allah (God) is able to do all things.” (Quran 2:20)
…and the Hindu scriptures carry texts of similar meanings.
All the major religious texts contain general expressions regarding the basic concept of God’s omnipotence. He is Greater than all things, and through Him all things are possible. If this general concept is to be translated into practical terms, one has to first identify and understand the basic attributes of God. Most societies perceive God as an eternal being without beginning or end. If, on the basis that God is able to do all things, and it was asked whether God could die, what would be the answer? Since dying is part of “all things,” can it be said, “If He wants to?” Of course this cannot be said.
So, there is a problem here. God is defined as being ever-living, without end, and dying means “coming to an end.” Consequently, to ask if He can die is actually a nonsensical question. It is self-contradictory. Similarly, to ask whether God can be born, is also absurd because God has already been defined as eternal, having no beginning. Being born means having a beginning, coming into existence after not existing. In this same vein, atheist philosophers enjoy asking theists: “Can God create a stone too heavy for Him to lift?” If the theist says yes, it means that God can create something greater than Himself. And if he says no, it means that God is unable to do all things.
Therefore, the term “all things” in the phrase “God is able to do all things” excludes the absurdities. It cannot include things that contradict His divine attributes; things that would make Him less than God, like, forgetting, sleeping, repenting, growing, eating, etc. Instead, it includes only “all things” that are consistent with Him being God. This is what the statement “God is able to do all things” means. It cannot be understood in the absolute sense; it must be qualified.
The claim that God became man is also an absurdity. It is not befitting of God to take on human characteristics because it means that the Creator has become His creation. However, the creation is a product of the creative act of the Creator. If the Creator became His creation, it would mean that the Creator created Himself, which is an obvious absurdity. To be created, He would first have to not exist, and, if He did not exist, how could He then create? Furthermore, if He were created, it would mean that He had a beginning, which also contradicts His being eternal. By definition creation is in need of a creator. For created beings to exist they must have a creator to bring them into existence. God cannot need a creator because God is the Creator. Thus, there is an obvious contradiction in terms. The claim that God became His creation implies that He would need a creator, which is a ludicrous concept. It contradicts the fundamental concept of God being uncreated, needing no creator and being the Creator.

Can Man Become God?
Man is a finite being (i.e., creation). Man is born, and he dies. These are characteristics which cannot be attributed to God because they equate Him with His creation. Therefore, God did not and will not ever become man. On the other hand, man also cannot become God. The created cannot become its own creator. The created at one time did not exist. It came into being by the creative act of a Creator who always existed. What is nonexistent cannot make itself exist.
As for the parallel concept that the human soul or spirit is divine, it is a way of claiming that man can become God. This philosophy forms the foundation of Greek, Christian and Muslim mysticism, as well as Hindu theology, and extends divinity to all humans and possibly all living creatures. It starts from the premise that, at some time in the history of the universe, bits and pieces of God became surrounded by material bodies and were confined to the earth. In other words, the infinite became contained in the finite. This belief attributes pure evil to God and ultimately eliminates the meaning of good and evil all together. When the human soul intends evil and does it by God’s permission, such an act is purely evil and worthy of punishment. Hence, the concept of karma was invented. Whatever goes around comes around. Karma explains inexplicable suffering by claiming that it is the consequence of evil in a previous life. God ultimately punishes any evil done by the parts of Himself within man. However, if human souls have independent wills from God, they cannot be at the same time God. Thus, each human becomes himself a god.

Did God Become Man?: God Becomes One Man, Men Become God, Why?

God Becomes One Man
Christian belief in God’s incarnation has its origins in the beliefs of the ancient Greeks. The very terms used to describe God becoming Man exist in the Gospel of John 1:1 & 14, “In the beginning there was the Word (logos) and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Then the author of John goes on to say, “...And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth...” Although the Greek term logos is translated as “word,” there is no single English term equivalent to it. Its importance lies in its use as a technical term in Greek metaphysical thought from the sixth century B.C., until the third century C.E., and in its appropriation by both Jewish and Christian thinkers. It first appeared in the expressions of Heraclites (540-480 B.C.) as the motivating principle of the universe, but was, by Aristotle’s time, supplanted by the immaterial power nous and made the material power. Logos reappeared in the system of the Stoics who termed their principle of teleology both logos and God. Philo (d. 50 C.E.), a Jewish Alexandrian philosopher, identified the creative word of the Old Testament with the logos of the Stoics. The logos thus became a transcendent principle, as the means by which God expresses Himself in the world. But logos also had a redemptive function; it was the means to a higher spiritual nature. In the Gospel of John, the logos are both creative and redemptive; the latter aspect is given greater emphasis than the former.[1]
This belief required a reason, for which the concept of original sin and divine sacrifice were invented. It was claimed that due to the sin of Adam, which accumulated down the generations until it became so great that no human sacrifice could remove it, a divine sacrifice was needed. Consequently, God had a human son, who was God, Himself, incarnate. God’s son later died on a cross as a sacrifice for all humankind to God, Himself. The son, who is God, Himself, was later resurrected and currently sits on the right side of God’s throne waiting to judge humankind at the end of this world. So for Christians, also one-fifth of humankind, God became a man at one and only one point in the history of this world, and belief in His incarnation is essential for salvation.

Men Become God
From the perspective of Jesus’ humanity, the Christian belief that he is God could be perceived as elevating a single human being to the status of Godhood. There is, however, another body of beliefs among many of the followers of Islam, which, like Hinduism and Buddhism, offer human beings the opportunity to become God.
The origin of their beliefs can be found in mysticism whose roots are in ancient Greek mystery religions. Mysticism is defined as an experience of union with God and the belief that man’s main goal in life lies in seeking that union. The Greek philosopher Plato proposed this concept in his writings, particularly in his Symposium. In it he describes how the human soul can climb the spiritual ladder until it finally becomes one again with God.[2] The basis of this belief is the teaching that human beings are, in fact, parts of God that have become trapped in this material world. The physical body cloaks the human soul. Consequently, the soul in their view is divine. The trapped part of God in this world must free itself from the material world and reunite with God.
There arose among Muslim people, a sect, which promoted this very same idea. Its followers are traditionally called “Sufis” and their system of beliefs is called “Sufism”. This term is usually translated into English as “mysticism” or “Islamic mysticism.” It is based on the same concept as that of the Greek mystics – that the human soul is divine and that the way that it becomes reunited with God is through certain spiritual exercises. Various groups of Sufis evolved into cults called “Tareeqahs” (ways or paths). Each cult was named after its actual or supposed founder, and each had its own set of special spiritual exercises which members had to strictly adhere to. Most taught that after the followers performed the prescribed spiritual, emotional and physical exercises, they would become one with God. This oneness was given the Arabic title fanaa, meaning “dissolution”[3] or wusool, meaning “arrival.” The concept of “unity with God” was rejected by mainstream Muslim scholars but was embraced by the masses. In the tenth century, a Sufi devotee, al-Hallaaj (858-922), publicly announced that he was God and wrote poems and a book called Kitaab at-Tawaseen to that effect. In it he wrote, “If you do not recognize God, at least recognize his sign; I am the ultimate absolute truth because through the truth I am eternal truth. My friends and teachers are Iblees[4], and Pharaoh. Iblees was threatened by the Hellfire, yet he did not acknowledge anything between himself and God, and although I am killed and crucified, though my hands and feet are cut off, I do not recant.”[5]
Ibn ‘Arabee (d. 1240) took the unity with God belief a step further by claiming that only God exists. He wrote the following in one of his works, “Glory be to He, who made all things appear while being their essence.”[6] And in another he wrote, “He is the essence of whatever appears, and He is the essence of what is hidden while He appears. The one who sees Him is none other than Him and no one is hidden from Him because He appears to Himself while being hidden.”[7] His concept is called Wahdatul-wujood (unity of existence) and became popular in the Sufi circles throughout the Muslim world.

Why?
What led ancient people to have the belief that the God became man or that God and man were one and the same? The fundamental reason was their inability to understand or accept the concept of God creating this world from nothingness. They perceived God to be like themselves, creating from what already exists. Humans create things by manipulating existing things into other states, shapes and forms having different functions. For example, a wooden table was once a tree in a forest, and its nails and screws were once iron ore in rocks underneath the earth. Humans cut down the tree and shaped its wood into a tabletop and legs; they dug up the iron ore, melted it and poured in into moulds to produce nails and screws. Then they assembled the pieces to create a table for a variety of uses. Similarly, the plastic chairs people now sit on were once liquid oil, stored deep in the bowels of the earth. One cannot imagine sitting on oil the way people sit on chairs. However, through the human ability to manipulate the chemical components of oil, plastic is produced and chairs are made for humans to sit on. This is the essence of human activity; humans already merely modify and transform what already exists. They do not create the trees or produce the oil. When they discuss oil production, they really mean oil extraction. The oil was created millions of years before by geological processes; then humans extracted it from the earth and refined it. They also did not create the trees. Even if they planted them, they did not create the seeds that they planted.
Consequently, human, in their ignorance of God, often conceive of God as being just like them. For example, in the Old Testament, it is written, “God created man after his own image; in the image of God he created Man.” For Hindus, Purusa is the creator God, Brahma, in human form, and just as humans create by manipulating the existing world around them, then the creator god must do likewise.
According to Hindu philosophy, Purusa is a giant offspring of Brahma, having a thousand heads and a thousand eyes. From him arose Viraaj, his feminine counterpart and mate in the creation process. The divine Purusa is also the sacrificial offering (vv. 6-10) and from his dismembered body arose the four traditional social castes (varnas).[8] Perusa Hymn states that Brahmins were Purusa’s mouth; Ksatriyas (noblemen), his arms; Vaishyas, his thighs; and Shoodras, his feet.[9] The Hindus’ inability to conceive of God creating this world from nothing, led them to the concept of God creating the world from himself and its people from His body parts.
Human ability to understand ideas and concepts is limited and finite. Human beings cannot grasp and understand the infinite. The belief, which God taught Adam, was that God created this world from nothing. When He wanted something to exist, He merely said, “Be!” and His command brought into existence those things that did not previously exist. This world and its contents were not created from Himself. In fact, the concept of God creating the world from Himself reduces God to the level of His creatures, who merely create something from something else. Those who held and continue to hold this belief are unable to grasp the uniqueness of God. He is Uniquely One and there is nothing like Him. If He had created the world from Himself, he would be like His creatures.


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Footnotes:
[1] Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion, p. 314.
[2] Colliers Encyclopedia, vol. 17, p. 114.
[3] Ihyaa ‘Uloom ad-Deen, vol. 4, p. 212.
[4] The proper name of Satan according to Muslim belief.
[5] Idea of Personality, p. 32.
[6] Al-Futoohaat al-Makkiyyah, vol. 2, p. 604.
[7] Fusoos al-Hikam, vol.1, p. 77.
[8] Dictionary of World Religions, p. 587.
[9] The New Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 20, p. 552.

Did God Become Man?: The Gods, Man is God, and God Becomes His Creatures

The Gods
However, there does remain an aspect of belief in God which defies all logic and reason, but which has become a corner stone of faith. It is the belief that God became man. Where the original monotheistic belief in God degenerated into a belief that there must be intermediaries between human beings and the Supreme Being to either convey human quests or to act on behalf of God in the world, the intermediaries became objects of worship. The intermediaries were often conceived as spirits found in all manifestations of nature. Consequently, humans from primitive times have worshiped spirits of the forest, rivers, skies and the earth etc., until the present time. Occasionally nature itself was worshiped, and at other times, symbols representing nature were worshiped. The religious systems, which evolved from these types of beliefs tended to be localized and remain scattered among primitive people around the world till today. Such beliefs did not converge in the form of a single belief system of international impact, as far as is known in the current records of human history.
On the other hand, where the monotheistic belief degenerated into the personification of God’s power as separate intermediary entities represented by images, idols became a focal point for worshipping God. The powers of God became gods. Such beliefs have culminated in ancient and modern times as natural religions of international impact. Ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman religions have died out due to the complete subversion of these empires by Christianity. However, the Indian expression of Hinduism survived both Muslim and Christian colonization and remains the national religion of approximately one billion people in India. Christianity and Islam, with exception of Bali in Indonesia, have supplanted their direct international impact in the majority of the Far East. However, the different forms of Buddhism, its offshoot, have become the main religion of hundreds of millions in the Far East. Different forms of this Hindu reform movement continue to spread in the West today.

Man is God
According to Hinduism, the basic concept is that everything is God. There is, fundamentally, no distinction between God and His creation. In Hindu philosophy, every living being has a self or a soul that is called Atman. It is generally believed that the soul is actually God, called Brahman. Consequently, the essence of Hindu belief is the idea that Atman and Brahman are one and the same; in other words, the human soul is divine. Furthermore, human society is divided into castes or classes, where each caste represents human beings who came into existence from different parts of the divine being, Brahman. The upper caste, the Brahmins, came from the head of God; whereas, the lowest caste, the Sudras, came from God’s feet. Though there are officially only four main castes, there are, in reality, many sub-castes. Each one of the main castes is subdivided into thousands of lesser castes. Hindus believe that when a person dies, he or she is reincarnated. The soul, Atman, of the dead person never dies but is continually reborn. If people are good in this life, then they will be reborn into a higher level of the caste system in their next life. Conversely, if they are bad in this life, they will be reborn into a lower level, which is one of the main reasons why so many Hindus commit suicide annually. Daily, newspapers regularly record incidents of individuals and families hanging themselves from fans in their homes. In a recent edition of one of the local papers, a Hindu man killed himself when India lost a cricket match to Sri Lanka. When one’s belief system espouses reincarnation, suicide becomes an easy route to evade difficulties in this life.
When a person reaches the top caste, the Brahmins, after various re-incarnations, the cycle of rebirth ends, and he reunites with Brahman. This process of reunification is called Moksha, and in Buddhism it is called Nirvana[1]. The Atman becomes once again reunited with Brahman. Thus, man becomes God.

God Becomes His Creatures
In Hindu belief, the attributes of Brahman are manifest as different gods. The attribute of creation becomes the creator god, Brahma, the attribute of preservation becomes the preserver god, Vishnu, and the attribute of destruction becomes the destroyer god, Siva. The most popular one amongst them, Vishnu, becomes incarnate among human beings at different points in time. This incarnation is called in Sanskrit avatar, which means “descent.” It represents the descent of God into the human world by becoming a human being or one of the other creatures of this world. Primarily, the term avatar refers to the ten main appearances of the god Vishnu. Among them is Matsya, the incarnation of God as a fish; Kurma as a tortoise; Varaha as a boar (a wild pig); Narasimha as a half-man, half-lion; Vamana as a dwarf; and probably the most common one is Rama, the human incarnation. Rama is the hero of the epic, Ramayana, about which movies are made and shown regularly in India. The other popular god is Krishna, the other incarnation of Vishnu as a human being. His epic is the Mahabharata, which describes the descent of the gods in human forms to save the Goddess Earth, oppressed by demons, burdened by overpopulation and in danger of dissolution[2]. There are different variations of this belief regarding how many incarnations there are and what other animal forms they adopt, but all generally follow these manifestations. Consequently, in Hinduism, the belief of one-fifth of humankind, man is God or part of God. The difference between the Creator and His creation is only superficial.
Popular Buddhism shares the Hindu incarnation concept with its own modifications. It teaches that every conscious being possesses the “Buddha nature” and is, therefore, capable of becoming a Buddha. Buddha, in earlier teachings[3], was truly a human teacher who lived and taught. However, in Mayahana Buddhism, the idea of the “eternal” Buddha, embodying the absolute truth, developed, and Buddha was elevated to Godhood. In order to reveal his message to humankind, this eternal Buddha manifests himself from time to time as an earthly Buddha to live and work among humans. Thus, Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, became just one of the earthly appearances, a phantom apparition created by the eternal Buddha[4]. Buddhism incorporated the elements of the Indian system of the gods and heavens and responded to the popularity of Bhakti Hinduism, personal devotion to savior deities. The Absolute or Buddha nature was seen by some as having attributes manifest as eternal Buddhas and bodhisattvas[5] who existed in spiritual realms and offered their merits, protection and help toward enlightenment to all their followers who were devoted to them.
The chief ones among the eternal bodhisattvas were Avalokitesvara, a personification of compassion, and Manjusri, a personification of wisdom. And among the eternal Buddhas were Aksobhya (the Imperturbable), Amitabha (Eternal Light) and Amitayus (Eternal life).


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Footnotes:
[1] This is a Sanskrit term meaning “blown out,” referring to the extinction of all worldly desires, or salvation. Though the term originated in Vedantic writings (Bhagavad-Gita and the Vedas), it is most often associated with Buddhism. In Hinayana Buddhism the term is equated with extinction, while in Mahayana Buddhism it is a state of bliss (Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion, p. 393).
[2] The theological centerpiece of the epic is the Bhagavad Gita (Dictionary of World Religions, p. 448).
[3] Theravada Buddhism, Doctrine of the Elders, is essentially a discipline, which an individual practices in order to achieve salvation for himself by himself. Only monks who have the stamina and will power to live the strenuous religious life can reach this goal, and one who achieves it is called an arhant. There are two types of Nirvana, one with residue and one without. The first is achieved by the arhant here and now, the five aggregates (skandhas: which comprise all individuals; matter, sensation, perception, predisposition and consciousness) are still present, although the cravings that lead to continued rebirth are extinguished. Nirvana without residue refers to the state of the arhant after death about which the Buddha remains silent. There can only be one Buddha in an eon and enlightenment is reserved for an elite few. This aspect of Buddhism is called Hinayana, or Lesser Vehicle.
With the passage of time after the Buddha’s death, Theravada monks were criticized as being too narrow and individualistic in their teachings. Dissensions arose and Buddhism evolved. A new form, Mahayana, or Great Vehicle, came to dominate. (Dictionary of World Religions, pp. 126-127)
[4] Dictionary of World Religions, p. 129.
[5] Originally this term referred to former Buddhas while they were still in their quest for enlightenment. In Mahayana the bodhisattva postpones his final complete enlightenment and attainment of nirvana in order to aid all other beings in their quest for enlightenment. (Dictionary of World Religions, p. 112).