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.
Showing posts with label Philosophy of Islam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philosophy of Islam. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
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.
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.
________________________________________
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.
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.
________________________________________
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).
________________________________________
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).
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).
________________________________________
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).
Did God Become Man?: A Natural Belief in God
The vast majority of human beings have always believed in God. From the most ancient civilizations to the most primitive of modern societies, religions with God at their center have formed the foundation of human culture. In fact, the denial of God’s existence (atheism) throughout history was limited to a few individuals until the rise of communism in the 20th century. Even today, in the secular societies of the West, where modern social scientists armed with Darwinian theories have argued that God is merely a figment of the human collective imagination, the overwhelming majority of citizens, laymen and even scientists, hold steadfast to their belief in God.
Consequently, the overwhelming body of archeological data in support of God’s existence has led some anthropologists to conclude that belief in God (deism) must be inborn and not learnt. Although the vast majority of social scientists proposed otherwise, recent scientific discoveries appear to support the minority view that deism is innate. In an article entitled “God Spot is found in the Brain,” Dr. Vilayanur Ramachandran of the University of Ca lifornia at San Diego said that the phenomenon of religious belief in God is hardwired into the brain.
‘God Spot’ is Found in Brain
by Steve Connor
Science Correspondent
SCIENTISTS believe they have discovered a “God module” in the brain, which could be responsible for man’s evolutionary instinct to believe in religion.
A study of epileptics, who are known to have profoundly spiritual experiences, has located a circuit of nerves in the front of the brain, which appears to become electrically active when they think about God.
The scientists said that although the research and its conclusions are preliminary, initial results suggest that the phenomenon of religious belief is “hardwired” into the brain.
Epileptic patients who suffer from seizures of the brain’s frontal lobe said they frequently experience intense mystical episodes and often become obsessed with religious spirituality.
A team of neuroscientists from the University of California at San Diego said the most intriguing explanation is that the seizure causes an over-stimulation of the nerves in a part of the brain dubbed the “God module”.
“There may be dedicated neural machinery in the temporal lobes concerned with religion. This may have evolved to impose order and stability on society,” the team reported at a conference last week.
The results indicate that whether a person believes in a religion or even in GOD may depend on how enhanced this part of the brain’s electrical circuitry is.
Dr. Vilayanur Ramachandran, head of the research team, said the study involved comparing epileptic patients with normal people and a group who said they were intensely religious.
Electrical monitors on their skin – a standard test for activity in the brains temporal lobes – showed that the epileptics and the deeply religious displayed a similar response when shown words invoking spiritual belief.
Evolutionary scientists have suggested that belief in God, which is a common trait, found in human societies around the world and throughout history, may be built into the brain’s complex electrical circuitry as a Darwinian adaptation to encourage cooperation between individuals.
If the research is correct and a “God module” exists, then it might suggest that individuals who are atheists could have a differently configured neural circuit.
A spokesman for Richard Harries, the Bishop of Oxford, said whether there is a “God module” is a question for scientists, not theologians. “It would not be surprising if God had created us with a physical facility for belief,” he said.[1]
Despite growing evidence that man is hardwired with a “physical facility for belief,” the fact that the concept of God has varied greatly among human societies still leads some thinkers, even those who believe in God, to conclude that religions must be manmade. However, thorough research reveals a common theological thread linking the various religions. That link is the belief in a Supreme Being among the various gods, a monotheistic foundation that can be found in even the most externally pantheistic of religious systems. For example, the concept of God in Hinduism exists as a single example among many religions, which supports the view that human beings were originally monotheistic and through various degenerative processes became polytheistic. In spite of its many gods and idols, Hinduism has a single Supreme God above all, Brahman.
Traditionally, most anthropologists have concluded that religion devolved from various stages of polytheism to monotheism, beginning with early man’s deification of the forces of nature, then, eventually, devolving into ditheism to consolidate all of the supernatural powers into two main gods (a god of good and a god of evil), and, finally, simplifying into a belief in one god, monotheism.
Thus, religion, according to anthropologists and social scientists, has no divine origin; it is merely a byproduct of the evolution of early man’s superstitions, based on his lack of scientific knowledge. Hence, these same theoreticians believe that science will eventually unlock all of the secrets of nature, resulting in the disuse of religion to explain natural phenomena, and, the consequential extinction of religion altogether.
Man’s innate belief in a Supreme Being, however, seems to support the opposite view, proposing instead that man began as a monotheist, but in time, strayed into various forms of polytheism. This view is further supported by fact that all of the so-called primitive tribes, which have been “discovered,” have been found to hold a belief in a Supreme Being. No matter what their evolutionary stage of religious development is found to have been at the time of “discovery,” most were found to believe in a Supreme God over all other gods and spirits. As such, the concept of a single Supreme Being remains in most of the religion’s as evidence that the masses strayed away from monotheism by giving some of God’s attributes to other aspects of creation, which eventually came to be regarded as lesser gods in some cases and as intercessors in others. Nevertheless, a Supreme God, in whatever form He takes, is at the core of most religions.[2]
________________________________________
Footnotes:
[1] The Sunday Times, 2 Nov. 97, p. 19.
[2] As God said in the Quran: “So set you your face towards the religion, hanifan (steering away from the association of any others with God), the nature [framed by] God with which He has created humankind. No change let there be in the creation of God, that is the straight religion, but most men do not know.” (Quran 30:30) – IslamReligion.com
Consequently, the overwhelming body of archeological data in support of God’s existence has led some anthropologists to conclude that belief in God (deism) must be inborn and not learnt. Although the vast majority of social scientists proposed otherwise, recent scientific discoveries appear to support the minority view that deism is innate. In an article entitled “God Spot is found in the Brain,” Dr. Vilayanur Ramachandran of the University of Ca lifornia at San Diego said that the phenomenon of religious belief in God is hardwired into the brain.
‘God Spot’ is Found in Brain
by Steve Connor
Science Correspondent
SCIENTISTS believe they have discovered a “God module” in the brain, which could be responsible for man’s evolutionary instinct to believe in religion.
A study of epileptics, who are known to have profoundly spiritual experiences, has located a circuit of nerves in the front of the brain, which appears to become electrically active when they think about God.
The scientists said that although the research and its conclusions are preliminary, initial results suggest that the phenomenon of religious belief is “hardwired” into the brain.
Epileptic patients who suffer from seizures of the brain’s frontal lobe said they frequently experience intense mystical episodes and often become obsessed with religious spirituality.
A team of neuroscientists from the University of California at San Diego said the most intriguing explanation is that the seizure causes an over-stimulation of the nerves in a part of the brain dubbed the “God module”.
“There may be dedicated neural machinery in the temporal lobes concerned with religion. This may have evolved to impose order and stability on society,” the team reported at a conference last week.
The results indicate that whether a person believes in a religion or even in GOD may depend on how enhanced this part of the brain’s electrical circuitry is.
Dr. Vilayanur Ramachandran, head of the research team, said the study involved comparing epileptic patients with normal people and a group who said they were intensely religious.
Electrical monitors on their skin – a standard test for activity in the brains temporal lobes – showed that the epileptics and the deeply religious displayed a similar response when shown words invoking spiritual belief.
Evolutionary scientists have suggested that belief in God, which is a common trait, found in human societies around the world and throughout history, may be built into the brain’s complex electrical circuitry as a Darwinian adaptation to encourage cooperation between individuals.
If the research is correct and a “God module” exists, then it might suggest that individuals who are atheists could have a differently configured neural circuit.
A spokesman for Richard Harries, the Bishop of Oxford, said whether there is a “God module” is a question for scientists, not theologians. “It would not be surprising if God had created us with a physical facility for belief,” he said.[1]
Despite growing evidence that man is hardwired with a “physical facility for belief,” the fact that the concept of God has varied greatly among human societies still leads some thinkers, even those who believe in God, to conclude that religions must be manmade. However, thorough research reveals a common theological thread linking the various religions. That link is the belief in a Supreme Being among the various gods, a monotheistic foundation that can be found in even the most externally pantheistic of religious systems. For example, the concept of God in Hinduism exists as a single example among many religions, which supports the view that human beings were originally monotheistic and through various degenerative processes became polytheistic. In spite of its many gods and idols, Hinduism has a single Supreme God above all, Brahman.
Traditionally, most anthropologists have concluded that religion devolved from various stages of polytheism to monotheism, beginning with early man’s deification of the forces of nature, then, eventually, devolving into ditheism to consolidate all of the supernatural powers into two main gods (a god of good and a god of evil), and, finally, simplifying into a belief in one god, monotheism.
Thus, religion, according to anthropologists and social scientists, has no divine origin; it is merely a byproduct of the evolution of early man’s superstitions, based on his lack of scientific knowledge. Hence, these same theoreticians believe that science will eventually unlock all of the secrets of nature, resulting in the disuse of religion to explain natural phenomena, and, the consequential extinction of religion altogether.
Man’s innate belief in a Supreme Being, however, seems to support the opposite view, proposing instead that man began as a monotheist, but in time, strayed into various forms of polytheism. This view is further supported by fact that all of the so-called primitive tribes, which have been “discovered,” have been found to hold a belief in a Supreme Being. No matter what their evolutionary stage of religious development is found to have been at the time of “discovery,” most were found to believe in a Supreme God over all other gods and spirits. As such, the concept of a single Supreme Being remains in most of the religion’s as evidence that the masses strayed away from monotheism by giving some of God’s attributes to other aspects of creation, which eventually came to be regarded as lesser gods in some cases and as intercessors in others. Nevertheless, a Supreme God, in whatever form He takes, is at the core of most religions.[2]
________________________________________
Footnotes:
[1] The Sunday Times, 2 Nov. 97, p. 19.
[2] As God said in the Quran: “So set you your face towards the religion, hanifan (steering away from the association of any others with God), the nature [framed by] God with which He has created humankind. No change let there be in the creation of God, that is the straight religion, but most men do not know.” (Quran 30:30) – IslamReligion.com
The Divine Mercy of God: The Sinner
God’s mercy is intimately close to everyone of us, awaiting to embrace when we are ready. Islam recognizes human propensity to sin, for God has created man weak. The Prophet stated:
“All the children of Adam constantly err…”
At the same time, God lets us know He forgives sins. Continuing the same hadeeth:
“…but the best of those who constantly err are those who constantly repent.” (Al-Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, Ahmad, Hakim)
God says:
“Say, ‘O My servants, who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the Mercy of God: for God forgives all sins, for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most-Merciful.’” (Quran 39:53)
Muhammad, the Prophet of Mercy, was charged to convey the good news to all people:
“Tell My servants that I am indeed the Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” (Quran 15:49)
Repentance attracts Divine Mercy:
“…Why do you not, rather, ask God to forgive you your sins, so that you might be graced with His mercy?” (Quran 27:46)
“…God’s mercy is ever near unto the doers of good!” (Quran 7:56)
Since ancient times, God’s saving mercy has rescued the faithful from pending doom:
“And so, when Our judgment came to pass, by Our mercy We saved Hud and those who shared his faith….” (Quran 11:58)
“And so, when Our judgment came to pass, by Our mercy We saved Shu’ayb and those who shared his faith….” (Quran 11:94)
Fullness of God’s compassion towards the sinner can be seen in the following:
1. God Accepts Repentance
“God does wish to turn to you, but the wish of those who follow their lusts is that you should turn away (from Him), -far, far away.” (Quran 4:27)
“Know they not that God accepts repentance from His votaries, and receives their gifts of charity, and that God is indeed He, the Oft-Forgiving, Most-Merciful.” (Quran 9:104)
2. God Loves The Sinner Who Repents
“…For God loves those who turn to Him constantly….” (Quran 2:22)
The Prophet said:
“If mankind were not to commit sins, God would create other creatures who would commit sins, then He would forgive them, for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most-Merciful.” (Al-Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, Musnad Ahmed)
3. God is Delighted When the Sinner Repents Because He Realizes He Has a Lord Who Forgives Sins!
The Prophet said:
“God is more delighted with the repentance of His slave when he repents, than any of you would be if (he found his) camel, which he had been riding in a barren desert, after it had escaped from him carrying his food and drink. After he despaired of it, he came to a tree and laid down in its shade. Then while he was despairing of it, the camel came and stood by his side, and he seized its reins and cried out in joy, ‘O God, You are my servant and I am your Lord!’ – making this mistake (in wording) out of his excessive joy.” (Saheeh Muslim)
4. Gate of Repentance is Open Day and Night
Divine mercy extends forgiveness every day and every night of the year. The Prophet said:
“God extends His Hand at night to accept the repentance of one who has sinned during the day, and He extends His Hand during the day to accept the repentance of one who has sinned during the night – until [the day comes when] the sun rises from the West (one of the major signs of the Day of Judgment).” (Saheeh Muslim)
5. God Accepts Repentance Even If Sins Are Repeated
Repeatedly God shows His compassion to the sinner. God’s loving-kindness to the Children of Israel can be seen before the sin of the golden calf had been committed, God dealt with Israel according to His compassion, even after their sinning, He dealt with them in mercy. Ar-Rahman says:
“…and when We appointed for Moses forty nights [on Mount Sinai], and in his absence you took to worshipping the [golden] calf, and thus became evildoers: yet, even after that, We blotted out this your sin, so that you might have cause to be grateful.” (Quran 2:51-52)
The Prophet said:
“A man committed a sin, and then said, ‘O my Lord, forgive my sin,’ so God said, ‘My slave has sinned, then he realized that he has a Lord who can forgive sins and can punish him for it.’ Then the man repeated the sin, then said, ‘O my Lord, forgive my sin.’ God said, ‘My slave has sinned, then he realized that he has a Lord who can forgive sins and can punish him for it.’ The man repeated the sin (the third time), then he said, ‘O my Lord, forgive my sin,’ and God said, ‘My slave has sinned, then he realized that he has a Lord who can forgive sins and can punish him for it. Do what you wish, for I have forgiven you.’” (Saheeh Muslim)
6. Entering Islam Erases All Previous Sins
The Prophet has explained that accepting Islam wipes off all previous sins of the new Muslim, no matter how serious they were with one condition: the new Muslim accepts Islam purely for God. Some people asked God’s Messenger, ‘O Messenger of God! Will we be held responsible for what we did during the days of ignorance before accepting Islam?’ He replied:
“Whoever accepts Islam purely for God will not be held to account, but one who does so for some other reason will be accountable for the time before Islam and after.” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari, Saheeh Muslim)
Although God’s mercy is sufficient to cover any sin, it does not free man from his responsibility to behave rightly. Discipline and hard work is required along the path to salvation. The Law of Salvation in Islam takes into account faith and keeping to the Law, not mere belief in God. We are imperfect and weak and God created us this way. When we fall short in keeping to the sacred Law, the Loving God is ready to forgive. Forgiveness is received simply through confessing one’s sins to God alone and begging of His mercy, having a firm intention not to return to it.. But one should always remember that Paradise is not earned by virtue of one’s deeds alone, but is awarded by divine mercy. The Prophet of Mercy made this fact clear:
“Not one of you will enter Paradise by his deeds alone.’ They asked, ‘Not even you, O Messenger of God?’ He said, ‘Not even me, unless God covers me with His grace and mercy.” (Saheeh Muslim)
Belief in God, keeping to His Law, and good works, are considered the reason, not the price for admission into Paradise.
“All the children of Adam constantly err…”
At the same time, God lets us know He forgives sins. Continuing the same hadeeth:
“…but the best of those who constantly err are those who constantly repent.” (Al-Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, Ahmad, Hakim)
God says:
“Say, ‘O My servants, who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the Mercy of God: for God forgives all sins, for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most-Merciful.’” (Quran 39:53)
Muhammad, the Prophet of Mercy, was charged to convey the good news to all people:
“Tell My servants that I am indeed the Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” (Quran 15:49)
Repentance attracts Divine Mercy:
“…Why do you not, rather, ask God to forgive you your sins, so that you might be graced with His mercy?” (Quran 27:46)
“…God’s mercy is ever near unto the doers of good!” (Quran 7:56)
Since ancient times, God’s saving mercy has rescued the faithful from pending doom:
“And so, when Our judgment came to pass, by Our mercy We saved Hud and those who shared his faith….” (Quran 11:58)
“And so, when Our judgment came to pass, by Our mercy We saved Shu’ayb and those who shared his faith….” (Quran 11:94)
Fullness of God’s compassion towards the sinner can be seen in the following:
1. God Accepts Repentance
“God does wish to turn to you, but the wish of those who follow their lusts is that you should turn away (from Him), -far, far away.” (Quran 4:27)
“Know they not that God accepts repentance from His votaries, and receives their gifts of charity, and that God is indeed He, the Oft-Forgiving, Most-Merciful.” (Quran 9:104)
2. God Loves The Sinner Who Repents
“…For God loves those who turn to Him constantly….” (Quran 2:22)
The Prophet said:
“If mankind were not to commit sins, God would create other creatures who would commit sins, then He would forgive them, for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most-Merciful.” (Al-Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, Musnad Ahmed)
3. God is Delighted When the Sinner Repents Because He Realizes He Has a Lord Who Forgives Sins!
The Prophet said:
“God is more delighted with the repentance of His slave when he repents, than any of you would be if (he found his) camel, which he had been riding in a barren desert, after it had escaped from him carrying his food and drink. After he despaired of it, he came to a tree and laid down in its shade. Then while he was despairing of it, the camel came and stood by his side, and he seized its reins and cried out in joy, ‘O God, You are my servant and I am your Lord!’ – making this mistake (in wording) out of his excessive joy.” (Saheeh Muslim)
4. Gate of Repentance is Open Day and Night
Divine mercy extends forgiveness every day and every night of the year. The Prophet said:
“God extends His Hand at night to accept the repentance of one who has sinned during the day, and He extends His Hand during the day to accept the repentance of one who has sinned during the night – until [the day comes when] the sun rises from the West (one of the major signs of the Day of Judgment).” (Saheeh Muslim)
5. God Accepts Repentance Even If Sins Are Repeated
Repeatedly God shows His compassion to the sinner. God’s loving-kindness to the Children of Israel can be seen before the sin of the golden calf had been committed, God dealt with Israel according to His compassion, even after their sinning, He dealt with them in mercy. Ar-Rahman says:
“…and when We appointed for Moses forty nights [on Mount Sinai], and in his absence you took to worshipping the [golden] calf, and thus became evildoers: yet, even after that, We blotted out this your sin, so that you might have cause to be grateful.” (Quran 2:51-52)
The Prophet said:
“A man committed a sin, and then said, ‘O my Lord, forgive my sin,’ so God said, ‘My slave has sinned, then he realized that he has a Lord who can forgive sins and can punish him for it.’ Then the man repeated the sin, then said, ‘O my Lord, forgive my sin.’ God said, ‘My slave has sinned, then he realized that he has a Lord who can forgive sins and can punish him for it.’ The man repeated the sin (the third time), then he said, ‘O my Lord, forgive my sin,’ and God said, ‘My slave has sinned, then he realized that he has a Lord who can forgive sins and can punish him for it. Do what you wish, for I have forgiven you.’” (Saheeh Muslim)
6. Entering Islam Erases All Previous Sins
The Prophet has explained that accepting Islam wipes off all previous sins of the new Muslim, no matter how serious they were with one condition: the new Muslim accepts Islam purely for God. Some people asked God’s Messenger, ‘O Messenger of God! Will we be held responsible for what we did during the days of ignorance before accepting Islam?’ He replied:
“Whoever accepts Islam purely for God will not be held to account, but one who does so for some other reason will be accountable for the time before Islam and after.” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari, Saheeh Muslim)
Although God’s mercy is sufficient to cover any sin, it does not free man from his responsibility to behave rightly. Discipline and hard work is required along the path to salvation. The Law of Salvation in Islam takes into account faith and keeping to the Law, not mere belief in God. We are imperfect and weak and God created us this way. When we fall short in keeping to the sacred Law, the Loving God is ready to forgive. Forgiveness is received simply through confessing one’s sins to God alone and begging of His mercy, having a firm intention not to return to it.. But one should always remember that Paradise is not earned by virtue of one’s deeds alone, but is awarded by divine mercy. The Prophet of Mercy made this fact clear:
“Not one of you will enter Paradise by his deeds alone.’ They asked, ‘Not even you, O Messenger of God?’ He said, ‘Not even me, unless God covers me with His grace and mercy.” (Saheeh Muslim)
Belief in God, keeping to His Law, and good works, are considered the reason, not the price for admission into Paradise.
The Divine Mercy of God: Its Warm Embrace
Divine mercy wraps all existence in its fold, forever enduring. The caring Lord of mankind is merciful to them, full of compassion. The name of God, Ar-Rahman, suggests His loving mercy is a defining aspect of His being; the fullness of His compassion is limitless; a bottomless ocean with no shores. Ar-Razi, one of the classical Islamic scholars wrote, ‘It is unimaginable for creation to be more merciful to itself than God!’ Indeed Islam teaches that God is more merciful to a human being than his/her own mother.
In God’s abounding mercy, He sends down rain to produce fruits from orchards to provide for the human body. The soul as well needs intense spiritual nourishment the same way the body needs food. In His abounding mercy, God sent prophets and messengers to human beings and revealed scriptures to them to sustain the human spirit. Divine Mercy displayed itself in the Torah of Moses:
“…In the writing whereof there was guidance and mercy for all who stood in awe of their Lord.” (Quran 7:154)
And the revelation of the Quran:
“…This [revelation] is a means of insight from your Lord, and to provide guidance and, mercy unto people who will believe.” (Quran 7:203)
Mercy is not granted to some merit of one’s ancestors. Divine Mercy is granted for acting on the Word of God and listening to its recitation:
“And this (Quran) is a Book which We have bestowed from on high, a blessed one: follow it, then, and be conscious of God, so that you might be graced with His mercy.” (Quran 6:155)
“Hence, when the Quran is recited, listen to it, and listen in silence, so that you might be graced with [God’s] mercy.” (Quran 7:204)
Mercy is a result of obedience:
“Hence, (O believers!) be constant in prayer, and render the purifying dues, and obey the Messenger, so that you might be graced with God’s mercy.” (Quran 24:56)
God’s mercy is man’s hope. Consequently, the believers beseech God for His mercy:
“Affliction has befallen me: but You are the most merciful of the merciful!” (Quran 21:83)
They beseech God’s mercy for the faithful:
“O our Lord!, let not our hearts swerve from the truth after You have guided us; and bestow on us the gift of Your mercy: verily, You are the [true] Giver of Gifts.” (Quran 3:8)
And they beseech God’s mercy for their parents:
“…O my Lord!, Bestow Your mercy upon them, even as they brought me when I was a child!” (Quran 17:24)
Allotment of Divine Mercy
Divine mercy clasps in its arms the faithful and the faithless, the obedient and the rebel, but in the life to come it will be reserved for the faithful. Ar-Rahman is merciful to all creation in the world, but his mercy is reserved for the faithful in the life to come. Ar-Raheem will dispense His mercy to the faithful on Judgment Day:
“…With My chastisement do I afflict whom I will - but My Mercy overspreads everything: and so I shall confer it on those who fear Me and spend in charity, and who believe in Our messages - those who shall follow the [last] Messenger, the unlettered Prophet whom they find described in the Torah that is with them, and in the Gospel….” (Quran 7:156-157)
Divine allotment of mercy is described by the Prophet of Islam:
“God created a hundred portions of mercy. He placed one portion between His creation due to which they have compassion on each other. God has stored the remaining ninety nine portions for Judgment Day to grace His slaves.” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari, Saheeh Muslim, Al-Tirmidhi, and others.)
A mere portion of divine mercy fills the heavens and the earth, humans love one another, beasts and birds drink water.
Also, the divine mercy which will be manifested on Judgment Day is vaster than what we see in this life, just as divine punishment will be more intense than what we experience here. The Prophet of Islam explained the dual extreme of these divine attributes:
“If a believer were to know what punishment God has stored, he will despair and not a single one will anticipate making it to Paradise. If an unbeliever were to know the abounding mercy of God, not a single one will despair to make it to Paradise.” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari, Saheeh Muslim, Al-Tirmidhi)
Yet, in Islamic doctrine, divine mercy supersedes divine anger:
“Indeed, My mercy supersedes my punishment.” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari, Saheeh Muslim)
In God’s abounding mercy, He sends down rain to produce fruits from orchards to provide for the human body. The soul as well needs intense spiritual nourishment the same way the body needs food. In His abounding mercy, God sent prophets and messengers to human beings and revealed scriptures to them to sustain the human spirit. Divine Mercy displayed itself in the Torah of Moses:
“…In the writing whereof there was guidance and mercy for all who stood in awe of their Lord.” (Quran 7:154)
And the revelation of the Quran:
“…This [revelation] is a means of insight from your Lord, and to provide guidance and, mercy unto people who will believe.” (Quran 7:203)
Mercy is not granted to some merit of one’s ancestors. Divine Mercy is granted for acting on the Word of God and listening to its recitation:
“And this (Quran) is a Book which We have bestowed from on high, a blessed one: follow it, then, and be conscious of God, so that you might be graced with His mercy.” (Quran 6:155)
“Hence, when the Quran is recited, listen to it, and listen in silence, so that you might be graced with [God’s] mercy.” (Quran 7:204)
Mercy is a result of obedience:
“Hence, (O believers!) be constant in prayer, and render the purifying dues, and obey the Messenger, so that you might be graced with God’s mercy.” (Quran 24:56)
God’s mercy is man’s hope. Consequently, the believers beseech God for His mercy:
“Affliction has befallen me: but You are the most merciful of the merciful!” (Quran 21:83)
They beseech God’s mercy for the faithful:
“O our Lord!, let not our hearts swerve from the truth after You have guided us; and bestow on us the gift of Your mercy: verily, You are the [true] Giver of Gifts.” (Quran 3:8)
And they beseech God’s mercy for their parents:
“…O my Lord!, Bestow Your mercy upon them, even as they brought me when I was a child!” (Quran 17:24)
Allotment of Divine Mercy
Divine mercy clasps in its arms the faithful and the faithless, the obedient and the rebel, but in the life to come it will be reserved for the faithful. Ar-Rahman is merciful to all creation in the world, but his mercy is reserved for the faithful in the life to come. Ar-Raheem will dispense His mercy to the faithful on Judgment Day:
“…With My chastisement do I afflict whom I will - but My Mercy overspreads everything: and so I shall confer it on those who fear Me and spend in charity, and who believe in Our messages - those who shall follow the [last] Messenger, the unlettered Prophet whom they find described in the Torah that is with them, and in the Gospel….” (Quran 7:156-157)
Divine allotment of mercy is described by the Prophet of Islam:
“God created a hundred portions of mercy. He placed one portion between His creation due to which they have compassion on each other. God has stored the remaining ninety nine portions for Judgment Day to grace His slaves.” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari, Saheeh Muslim, Al-Tirmidhi, and others.)
A mere portion of divine mercy fills the heavens and the earth, humans love one another, beasts and birds drink water.
Also, the divine mercy which will be manifested on Judgment Day is vaster than what we see in this life, just as divine punishment will be more intense than what we experience here. The Prophet of Islam explained the dual extreme of these divine attributes:
“If a believer were to know what punishment God has stored, he will despair and not a single one will anticipate making it to Paradise. If an unbeliever were to know the abounding mercy of God, not a single one will despair to make it to Paradise.” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari, Saheeh Muslim, Al-Tirmidhi)
Yet, in Islamic doctrine, divine mercy supersedes divine anger:
“Indeed, My mercy supersedes my punishment.” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari, Saheeh Muslim)
The Divine Mercy of God: God the Most-Merciful, the Dispenser of Mercy
If someone were to ask, ‘Who is your God?’ A Muslim response would be, ‘The Most-Merciful, the Dispenser of Mercy.’ According to Islamic sources, the prophets, while emphasizing God’s judgment, also proclaimed His mercy. In Muslim scripture, God introduces Himself as:
“He is God, other than whom there is no deity, Knower of the unseen and the witnessed. He is the Most-Merciful, the Dispenser of Mercy.” (Quran 59:22)
In Islamic vocabulary ar-Rahman and al-Raheem are the personal names of the Living God. Both are derived from the noun rahmah, which signifies “mercy”, “compassion”, and “loving tenderness”. Ar-Rahman describes God’s nature of being All-Merciful, while ar-Raheem describes His acts of mercy dispensed to His creation, a subtle difference, but one which shows His all encompassing mercy.
“Say, ‘Call upon God or call upon the Most-Merciful (ar-Rahman), whichever name you call – to Him belong the most Beautiful Names….’” (Quran 17:110)
These two Names are some of the most frequently used Names of God in the Quran: ar-Rahman is used fifty seven times, while al-Raheem is used twice as much (a hundred and fourteen).[1] One conveys a greater sense of loving-kindness, the Prophet said:
“Indeed, God is Kind, and loves kindness. He grants with kindness what He does not grant with harshness.” (Saheeh Muslim)
Both are also divine attributes signifying God’s relationship with creation.
“Praise be to God, the Lord of All the Worlds; the Most Merciful, the Dispenser of Mercy.” (Quran 1:2-3)
In a prayer which Muslims recite at least seventeen times a day, they start with saying:
“In the Name of God, the Most Merciful, the Dispenser of Mercy. Praise be to God, the Lord of All the Worlds; the Most Merciful, the Dispenser of Mercy.” (Quran 1:1-3)These powerful words evoke a divine response:
“When the servant says: ‘Praise be to God, the Lord of All the Worlds,’ I (God) say: ‘My servant has praised Me.’ When he says: ‘the Most Merciful, the Dispenser of Mercy,’ I (God) say: ‘My servant has extolled Me.’” (Saheeh Muslim)
These names continuously remind a Muslim of divine mercy surrounding him. All but one of the chapters of Muslim scripture begins with the phrase, ‘In the Name of God, the Most-Merciful, the Dispenser of Mercy.’ Muslims begin in God’s Name to express their ultimate dependence upon Him and remind themselves of divine mercy every time they eat, drink, write a letter, or perform anything of importance. Spirituality blossoms in the mundane. The invocation at the beginning of every mundane act makes it important, calling down divine blessing upon this act and consecrates it. The formula is a popular motif of decoration in manuscripts and architectural ornamentation.
“In the Name of God, the Most-Merciful, the Dispenser of Mercy.” Calligraphy by Yousef, a Dutch artist.
Dispensing mercy requires someone to whom mercy is shown. The one who is shown mercy must be in need of it. Perfect mercy is caring for those in need, whereas boundless mercy stretches to those in need or not in need, extending from this world to the wonderful life after death.
In Islamic doctrine, human beings enjoy a personal relationship with the Loving, Merciful God, ever ready to forgive sins and respond to prayers, but He is not merciful in the human sense of feeling sorrow and pity for one in distress. God does not become human to understand suffering. Rather, God’s mercy is an attribute befitting His holiness, bringing divine aid and favors.
God’s mercy is vast:
“Say: ‘Limitless is your Lord in His mercy….’” (Quran 6:147)
Stretching to all existence:
“…but My mercy encompasses all things….” (Quran 7:156)
Creation itself is an expression of divine favor, mercy and love. God invites us to observe the effects of His mercy around us:
“Behold, then, (O man,) these signs of God’s mercy - how He gives life to the earth after it had been lifeless!...” (Quran 30:50)
God Loves the Compassionate
God loves compassion. Muslims view Islam to be a religion of mercy. To them, their Prophet is God’s gift of mercy to all humanity:
“And (thus, O Prophet) We have sent you as [an evidence of Our] mercy towards all the worlds.” (Quran 21:107)
Just as they believe Jesus was God’s mercy to people:
“And that We may make him a symbol unto mankind and an act of mercy from Us.” (Quran 19:21)
One of the daughters of Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, sent him the news of his ailing son. He reminded her that God is the One who gives, He is the One who takes, and everyone has an appointed term. He reminded her to be patient. When the news of his son’s death reached him, tears of compassion ran in his eyes. His companions were surprised. The Prophet of Mercy said:
“This is compassion God has placed in the hearts of His servants. Of all His slaves, God only has mercy on the compassionate.” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari)
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy, as Prophet Muhammad said:
“God will not have mercy on one who is not compassionate towards people.” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari)
He also said:
“The Merciful shows mercy to those merciful. Have mercy to those on earth, and the One above the heavens will have mercy upon you.” (At-Tirmidhi)
Footnotes:
[1] On the contrary, the ‘Merciful’ does not appear as a divine name in the Bible. (Jewish Encyclopedia, ‘Names of God,’ p. 163)
“He is God, other than whom there is no deity, Knower of the unseen and the witnessed. He is the Most-Merciful, the Dispenser of Mercy.” (Quran 59:22)
In Islamic vocabulary ar-Rahman and al-Raheem are the personal names of the Living God. Both are derived from the noun rahmah, which signifies “mercy”, “compassion”, and “loving tenderness”. Ar-Rahman describes God’s nature of being All-Merciful, while ar-Raheem describes His acts of mercy dispensed to His creation, a subtle difference, but one which shows His all encompassing mercy.
“Say, ‘Call upon God or call upon the Most-Merciful (ar-Rahman), whichever name you call – to Him belong the most Beautiful Names….’” (Quran 17:110)
These two Names are some of the most frequently used Names of God in the Quran: ar-Rahman is used fifty seven times, while al-Raheem is used twice as much (a hundred and fourteen).[1] One conveys a greater sense of loving-kindness, the Prophet said:
“Indeed, God is Kind, and loves kindness. He grants with kindness what He does not grant with harshness.” (Saheeh Muslim)
Both are also divine attributes signifying God’s relationship with creation.
“Praise be to God, the Lord of All the Worlds; the Most Merciful, the Dispenser of Mercy.” (Quran 1:2-3)
In a prayer which Muslims recite at least seventeen times a day, they start with saying:
“In the Name of God, the Most Merciful, the Dispenser of Mercy. Praise be to God, the Lord of All the Worlds; the Most Merciful, the Dispenser of Mercy.” (Quran 1:1-3)These powerful words evoke a divine response:
“When the servant says: ‘Praise be to God, the Lord of All the Worlds,’ I (God) say: ‘My servant has praised Me.’ When he says: ‘the Most Merciful, the Dispenser of Mercy,’ I (God) say: ‘My servant has extolled Me.’” (Saheeh Muslim)
These names continuously remind a Muslim of divine mercy surrounding him. All but one of the chapters of Muslim scripture begins with the phrase, ‘In the Name of God, the Most-Merciful, the Dispenser of Mercy.’ Muslims begin in God’s Name to express their ultimate dependence upon Him and remind themselves of divine mercy every time they eat, drink, write a letter, or perform anything of importance. Spirituality blossoms in the mundane. The invocation at the beginning of every mundane act makes it important, calling down divine blessing upon this act and consecrates it. The formula is a popular motif of decoration in manuscripts and architectural ornamentation.
“In the Name of God, the Most-Merciful, the Dispenser of Mercy.” Calligraphy by Yousef, a Dutch artist.
Dispensing mercy requires someone to whom mercy is shown. The one who is shown mercy must be in need of it. Perfect mercy is caring for those in need, whereas boundless mercy stretches to those in need or not in need, extending from this world to the wonderful life after death.
In Islamic doctrine, human beings enjoy a personal relationship with the Loving, Merciful God, ever ready to forgive sins and respond to prayers, but He is not merciful in the human sense of feeling sorrow and pity for one in distress. God does not become human to understand suffering. Rather, God’s mercy is an attribute befitting His holiness, bringing divine aid and favors.
God’s mercy is vast:
“Say: ‘Limitless is your Lord in His mercy….’” (Quran 6:147)
Stretching to all existence:
“…but My mercy encompasses all things….” (Quran 7:156)
Creation itself is an expression of divine favor, mercy and love. God invites us to observe the effects of His mercy around us:
“Behold, then, (O man,) these signs of God’s mercy - how He gives life to the earth after it had been lifeless!...” (Quran 30:50)
God Loves the Compassionate
God loves compassion. Muslims view Islam to be a religion of mercy. To them, their Prophet is God’s gift of mercy to all humanity:
“And (thus, O Prophet) We have sent you as [an evidence of Our] mercy towards all the worlds.” (Quran 21:107)
Just as they believe Jesus was God’s mercy to people:
“And that We may make him a symbol unto mankind and an act of mercy from Us.” (Quran 19:21)
One of the daughters of Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, sent him the news of his ailing son. He reminded her that God is the One who gives, He is the One who takes, and everyone has an appointed term. He reminded her to be patient. When the news of his son’s death reached him, tears of compassion ran in his eyes. His companions were surprised. The Prophet of Mercy said:
“This is compassion God has placed in the hearts of His servants. Of all His slaves, God only has mercy on the compassionate.” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari)
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy, as Prophet Muhammad said:
“God will not have mercy on one who is not compassionate towards people.” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari)
He also said:
“The Merciful shows mercy to those merciful. Have mercy to those on earth, and the One above the heavens will have mercy upon you.” (At-Tirmidhi)
Footnotes:
[1] On the contrary, the ‘Merciful’ does not appear as a divine name in the Bible. (Jewish Encyclopedia, ‘Names of God,’ p. 163)
The Big Questions : The Need for Revelation
In the previous two parts of this series, we answered the two “big questions.” Who made us? God. Why are we here? To serve and worship Him. A third question naturally arose: “If our Creator made us to serve and worship Him, how do we do that?” In the previous article I suggested that the only way we can serve our Creator is through obeying His mandates, as conveyed through revelation.
But many people would question my assertion: Why does mankind need revelation? Isn’t it enough just to be good? Isn’t it enough for each of us to worship God in our own way?
Regarding the need for revelation, I would make the following points: In the first article of this series I pointed out that life is full of injustices, but our Creator is fair and just, and He establishes justice not in this life, but in the afterlife. However, justice cannot be established without four things—a court (i.e., the Day of Judgment); a judge (i.e., the Creator); witnesses (i.e., men and women, angels, elements of creation); and a book of laws upon which to judge (i.e., revelation). Now, how can our Creator establish justice if He did not hold humankind to certain laws during their lives? It’s not possible. In that scenario, instead of justice, God would be dealing out injustice, for He would be punishing people for transgressions they had no way of knowing were crimes.
Why else do we need revelation? To begin with, without guidance mankind cannot even agree on social and economic issues, politics, laws, etc. So how can we ever agree on God? Secondly, nobody writes the user manual better than the one who made the product. God is the Creator, we are creation, and nobody knows the overall scheme of creation better than the Creator. Are employees allowed to design their own job descriptions, duties and compensation packages as they see fit? Are all citizens allowed to write their own laws? No? Well then, why should we be allowed to write our own religions? If history has taught us anything, it is the tragedies that result when mankind follows its caprice. How many who have claimed to banner of free thought have designed religions that committed themselves and their followers to nightmares on Earth and damnation in the hereafter?
So why isn’t it enough just to be good? And why isn’t it enough for each of us to worship God in our own way? To begin with, peoples’ definitions of “good” differ. For some it is high morals and clean living, for others it is madness and mayhem. Similarly, concepts of how to serve and worship our Creator differ as well. More importantly and to the point, nobody can walk into a store or a restaurant and pay with a different currency than the merchant accepts. So it is with religion. If people want God to accept their servitude and worship, they have to pay in the currency God demands. And that currency is obedience to His revelation.
Imagine raising children in a home in which you have set “house rules.” Then, one day, one of your children tells you he or she has changed the rules, and is going to do things differently. How would you respond? More than likely, with the words, “You can take your new rules and go to Hell!” Well, think about it. We are God’s creation, living in His universe under His rules, and “go to Hell” is very likely what God will say to any who presume to override His laws with their own.
Sincerity becomes an issue at this point. We should recognize that all pleasure is a gift from our Creator, and deserving of thanks. If given a gift, who uses the gift before giving thanks? And yet, many of us enjoy God’s gifts for a lifetime and never give thanks. Or give it late. The English poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, spoke of the irony of the distressed human appeal in The Cry of the Human:
And lips say “God be pitiful,”
Who ne’er said, “God be praised.”
Should we not show good manners and thank our Creator for His gifts now, and subsequently for the rest of our lives? Don’t we owe that to Him?
You answered “Yes.” You must have. Nobody will have read this far without being in agreement, but here’s the problem: Many of you answered Yes, knowing full well that your heart is not in the Bible. Or perhaps it is in the Bible, but not entirely. You agree we were created by a Creator. You struggle to understand Him. And you yearn to serve and worship Him in the manner He prescribes. But you don’t know how, and you don’t know where to look for the answers. And that, unfortunately, is not a subject that can be answered in an article. Unfortunately, that issue has to be addressed in a book.
On the other hand, the good news is that I have written this book, and its title is The First and Final Commandment (soon to be republished under the title, MisGod’ed). So if you like what you’ve read here, I invite you to read what I’ve written there.
But many people would question my assertion: Why does mankind need revelation? Isn’t it enough just to be good? Isn’t it enough for each of us to worship God in our own way?
Regarding the need for revelation, I would make the following points: In the first article of this series I pointed out that life is full of injustices, but our Creator is fair and just, and He establishes justice not in this life, but in the afterlife. However, justice cannot be established without four things—a court (i.e., the Day of Judgment); a judge (i.e., the Creator); witnesses (i.e., men and women, angels, elements of creation); and a book of laws upon which to judge (i.e., revelation). Now, how can our Creator establish justice if He did not hold humankind to certain laws during their lives? It’s not possible. In that scenario, instead of justice, God would be dealing out injustice, for He would be punishing people for transgressions they had no way of knowing were crimes.
Why else do we need revelation? To begin with, without guidance mankind cannot even agree on social and economic issues, politics, laws, etc. So how can we ever agree on God? Secondly, nobody writes the user manual better than the one who made the product. God is the Creator, we are creation, and nobody knows the overall scheme of creation better than the Creator. Are employees allowed to design their own job descriptions, duties and compensation packages as they see fit? Are all citizens allowed to write their own laws? No? Well then, why should we be allowed to write our own religions? If history has taught us anything, it is the tragedies that result when mankind follows its caprice. How many who have claimed to banner of free thought have designed religions that committed themselves and their followers to nightmares on Earth and damnation in the hereafter?
So why isn’t it enough just to be good? And why isn’t it enough for each of us to worship God in our own way? To begin with, peoples’ definitions of “good” differ. For some it is high morals and clean living, for others it is madness and mayhem. Similarly, concepts of how to serve and worship our Creator differ as well. More importantly and to the point, nobody can walk into a store or a restaurant and pay with a different currency than the merchant accepts. So it is with religion. If people want God to accept their servitude and worship, they have to pay in the currency God demands. And that currency is obedience to His revelation.
Imagine raising children in a home in which you have set “house rules.” Then, one day, one of your children tells you he or she has changed the rules, and is going to do things differently. How would you respond? More than likely, with the words, “You can take your new rules and go to Hell!” Well, think about it. We are God’s creation, living in His universe under His rules, and “go to Hell” is very likely what God will say to any who presume to override His laws with their own.
Sincerity becomes an issue at this point. We should recognize that all pleasure is a gift from our Creator, and deserving of thanks. If given a gift, who uses the gift before giving thanks? And yet, many of us enjoy God’s gifts for a lifetime and never give thanks. Or give it late. The English poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, spoke of the irony of the distressed human appeal in The Cry of the Human:
And lips say “God be pitiful,”
Who ne’er said, “God be praised.”
Should we not show good manners and thank our Creator for His gifts now, and subsequently for the rest of our lives? Don’t we owe that to Him?
You answered “Yes.” You must have. Nobody will have read this far without being in agreement, but here’s the problem: Many of you answered Yes, knowing full well that your heart is not in the Bible. Or perhaps it is in the Bible, but not entirely. You agree we were created by a Creator. You struggle to understand Him. And you yearn to serve and worship Him in the manner He prescribes. But you don’t know how, and you don’t know where to look for the answers. And that, unfortunately, is not a subject that can be answered in an article. Unfortunately, that issue has to be addressed in a book.
On the other hand, the good news is that I have written this book, and its title is The First and Final Commandment (soon to be republished under the title, MisGod’ed). So if you like what you’ve read here, I invite you to read what I’ve written there.
The Big Questions: The Purpose of Life
The first of the two big questions in life is, “Who made us?” We addressed that question in the previous article and (hopefully) settled upon “God” as the answer. As we are creation, God is the Creator.
Now, let us turn to the second “big question,” which is, “Why are we here?”
Well, why are we here? To amass fame and fortune? To make music and babies? To be the richest man or woman in the graveyard for, as we are jokingly told, “He who dies with the most toys wins?”
No, there must be more to life than that, so let’s think about this. To begin with, look around you. Unless you live in a cave, you are surrounded by things we humans have made with our own hands. Now, why did we make those things? The answer, of course, is that we make things to perform some specific function for us. In short, we make things to serve us. So, by extension, why did God make us, if not to serve Him?
Our purpose, then, is to serve God. We receive this message from the prophets, as well as from scripture, but nowhere more clearly than in the Quran, the holy book of Islam:
“And I [God] did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me” (Quran 51:56)
Which brings us to the next point. If we acknowledge our Creator, and that He created humankind to serve Him, the next question is, “How? How do we serve Him?” No doubt, this question is best answered by the One who made us. If He created us to serve Him, then He expects us to function in a particular manner, if we are to achieve our purpose. But how can we know what that manner is? How can we know what God expects from us?
Well, consider this: God gave us light, by which we can find our way. Even at night, we have the moon for light and the stars for navigation. God gave other animals guidance systems best suited for their conditions and needs. Migrating birds can navigate, even on overcast days, by light polarization. Whales migrate by “reading” the Earth’s magnetic fields. Salmon return from the open ocean to spawn at the exact spot of their birth by smell, if that can be imagined. Fish sense distant movements through pressure receptors that line their bodies. Bats and the blind river dolphins “see” by sonar. Certain marine organisms (the electric eel being a high-voltage example) generate and sense magnetic fields, allowing them to “see” in muddy waters, or in the blackness of ocean depths. Insects communicate by pheromones, the trail of which guides them to food, and then home again. Plants sense sunlight and grow towards it (phototropism); their roots sense gravity and grow into the earth (geotropism). In short, God has gifted every element of His creation with guidance. Can we seriously believe he would not give us guidance on the one most important aspect of our existence, namely our raison d’etre—our reason for being? That he would not give us the tools by which to achieve salvation?
Of course not. Hence, revelation.
Think of it this way: Every product has specifications and rules. For more complex products, whose specifications and rules are not intuitive, owner’s manuals are provided. These manuals are written by the one who knows the product best, which is to say the manufacturer. A typical owner’s manual begins with warnings about improper use and the hazardous consequences thereof, moves on to a description of how to use the product properly and the benefits to be gained thereby, and provides product specifications and a troubleshooting guide whereby we can correct product malfunctions.
How is that different from revelation?
Revelation tells us what to do, what not to do and why, tells us what God expects of us, and shows us how to correct our deficiencies. Revelation is the ultimate user’s manual, provided as guidance to the one who will use us—ourselves.
In the world we know, products that meet or exceed specifications are considered successes whereas those that don’t are … hmm … let’s think about this. Any product that fails to meet factory specifications is either repaired or, if hopeless, recycled. In other words, destroyed. Ouch. Suddenly this discussion turns scary-serious. Because in this discussion, we are the product—the product of creation.
But let’s pause for a moment and consider how we interact with the various items that fill our lives. As long as they do what we want, we’re happy with them. But when they fail us, we get rid of them. Some are returned to the store, some donated to charity, but eventually they all end up in the garbage, which gets … buried or burned. Similarly, an underperforming employee gets … fired. Now, stop for a minute and think about that word. Where did that euphemism for the punishment due to an underperformer come from? Hmm … the person who believes the lessons of this life translate into lessons about religion could have a field day with this.
But that doesn’t mean these analogies are invalid. Just the opposite, we should remember that both Old and New Testaments are filled with analogies, and Jesus Christ taught using parables.
So perhaps we had better take this seriously.
No, I stand corrected. Most definitely we should take this seriously. Nobody ever considered the difference between heavenly delights and the tortures of hellfire a laughing matter.
Now, let us turn to the second “big question,” which is, “Why are we here?”
Well, why are we here? To amass fame and fortune? To make music and babies? To be the richest man or woman in the graveyard for, as we are jokingly told, “He who dies with the most toys wins?”
No, there must be more to life than that, so let’s think about this. To begin with, look around you. Unless you live in a cave, you are surrounded by things we humans have made with our own hands. Now, why did we make those things? The answer, of course, is that we make things to perform some specific function for us. In short, we make things to serve us. So, by extension, why did God make us, if not to serve Him?
Our purpose, then, is to serve God. We receive this message from the prophets, as well as from scripture, but nowhere more clearly than in the Quran, the holy book of Islam:
“And I [God] did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me” (Quran 51:56)
Which brings us to the next point. If we acknowledge our Creator, and that He created humankind to serve Him, the next question is, “How? How do we serve Him?” No doubt, this question is best answered by the One who made us. If He created us to serve Him, then He expects us to function in a particular manner, if we are to achieve our purpose. But how can we know what that manner is? How can we know what God expects from us?
Well, consider this: God gave us light, by which we can find our way. Even at night, we have the moon for light and the stars for navigation. God gave other animals guidance systems best suited for their conditions and needs. Migrating birds can navigate, even on overcast days, by light polarization. Whales migrate by “reading” the Earth’s magnetic fields. Salmon return from the open ocean to spawn at the exact spot of their birth by smell, if that can be imagined. Fish sense distant movements through pressure receptors that line their bodies. Bats and the blind river dolphins “see” by sonar. Certain marine organisms (the electric eel being a high-voltage example) generate and sense magnetic fields, allowing them to “see” in muddy waters, or in the blackness of ocean depths. Insects communicate by pheromones, the trail of which guides them to food, and then home again. Plants sense sunlight and grow towards it (phototropism); their roots sense gravity and grow into the earth (geotropism). In short, God has gifted every element of His creation with guidance. Can we seriously believe he would not give us guidance on the one most important aspect of our existence, namely our raison d’etre—our reason for being? That he would not give us the tools by which to achieve salvation?
Of course not. Hence, revelation.
Think of it this way: Every product has specifications and rules. For more complex products, whose specifications and rules are not intuitive, owner’s manuals are provided. These manuals are written by the one who knows the product best, which is to say the manufacturer. A typical owner’s manual begins with warnings about improper use and the hazardous consequences thereof, moves on to a description of how to use the product properly and the benefits to be gained thereby, and provides product specifications and a troubleshooting guide whereby we can correct product malfunctions.
How is that different from revelation?
Revelation tells us what to do, what not to do and why, tells us what God expects of us, and shows us how to correct our deficiencies. Revelation is the ultimate user’s manual, provided as guidance to the one who will use us—ourselves.
In the world we know, products that meet or exceed specifications are considered successes whereas those that don’t are … hmm … let’s think about this. Any product that fails to meet factory specifications is either repaired or, if hopeless, recycled. In other words, destroyed. Ouch. Suddenly this discussion turns scary-serious. Because in this discussion, we are the product—the product of creation.
But let’s pause for a moment and consider how we interact with the various items that fill our lives. As long as they do what we want, we’re happy with them. But when they fail us, we get rid of them. Some are returned to the store, some donated to charity, but eventually they all end up in the garbage, which gets … buried or burned. Similarly, an underperforming employee gets … fired. Now, stop for a minute and think about that word. Where did that euphemism for the punishment due to an underperformer come from? Hmm … the person who believes the lessons of this life translate into lessons about religion could have a field day with this.
But that doesn’t mean these analogies are invalid. Just the opposite, we should remember that both Old and New Testaments are filled with analogies, and Jesus Christ taught using parables.
So perhaps we had better take this seriously.
No, I stand corrected. Most definitely we should take this seriously. Nobody ever considered the difference between heavenly delights and the tortures of hellfire a laughing matter.
The Big Questions: Who Made Us?
At some point in our lives, everybody asks the big questions: “Who made us,” and “Why are we here?”
So who did make us? Atheists speak of the Big Bang and evolution, whereas all others speak of God. Those who answer “I don’t know” are atheist for all intents and purposes, not because they deny God’s existence, but because they fail to affirm it.
Now, the Big Bang may explain the origin of the universe, but it doesn’t explain the origin of the primordial dust cloud. This dust cloud (which, according to the theory, drew together, compacted and then exploded) had to come from somewhere. After all, it contained enough matter to form not just our galaxy, but the billion other galaxies in the known universe. So where did that come from? Who, or what, created the primordial dust cloud?
Similarly, evolution may explain the fossil record, but it falls far short of explaining the quintessential essence of human life—the soul. We all have one. We feel its presence, we speak of its existence and at times pray for its salvation. But only the religious can explain where it came from. The theory of natural selection can explain many of the material aspects of living things, but it fails to explain the human soul.
Furthermore, anyone who studies the complexities of life and the universe cannot help but witness the signature of the Creator.[1] Whether or not people recognize these signs is another matter—as the old saying goes, denial isn’t just a river in Egypt. (Get it? Denial, spelled “de Nile” … the river Ni … oh, never mind.) The point is that if we see a painting, we know there is a painter. If we see a sculpture, we know there’s a sculptor; a pot, a potter. So when we view creation, shouldn’t we know there’s a Creator?
The concept that the universe exploded and then developed in balanced perfection through random events and natural selection is little different from the proposal that, by dropping bombs into a junkyard, sooner or later one of them will blow everything together into a perfect Mercedes. In the color and trim of our hearts’ desire, no less.
If there is one thing we know for certain, it is that without a controlling influence, all systems degenerate into chaos. The theories of the Big Bang and evolution propose the exact opposite, however—that chaos fostered perfection. Would it not be more reasonable to conclude that the Big Bang and evolution were controlled events? Controlled, that is, by the Creator?
The Arabs tell the tale of a nomad finding an exquisite palace at an oasis in the middle of an otherwise barren desert. When he asks how it was built, the owner tells him it was formed by the forces of nature. The wind shaped the rocks and blew them to the edge of this oasis, and then tumbled them together into the shape of the palace. Then it blew strands of sheep’s wool together into rugs and tapestries, stray wood together into furniture, doors, windowsills and trim, and positioned them in the palace at just the right locations. Lightning strikes melted sand into sheets of glass and blasted them into the window-frames, and smelted black sand into steel and shaped it into the fence and gate with perfect alignment and symmetry. The process took billions of years and only happened at this one place on earth—purely through coincidence.
When we finish rolling our eyes, we get the point. Obviously, the palace was built by design, not by happenstance. To what (or more to the point, to Whom), then, should we attribute the origin of items of infinitely greater complexity, such as our universe and our lives?
Another classic argument for atheism focuses upon what people perceive to be the imperfections of creation. These are the “How can there be a God if such-and-such happened?” arguments. The issue under discussion could be anything from a natural disaster to birth defects, from genocide to grandmother’s cancer. That’s not the point. The point is that denying God based upon what we perceive to be injustices of life presumes that a divine being would not have designed our lives to be anything other than perfect, and would have established justice on Earth.
Hmm … is there no other option?
We can just as easily propose that God did not design life on Earth to be paradise, but rather a test, the punishment or rewards of which are to be had in the next life, which is where God establishes his ultimate justice. In support of this concept we can well ask who suffered more injustices in their worldly lives than God’s favorites, which is to say the prophets? And who do we expect to occupy the highest stations in paradise, if not those who maintain true faith in the face of worldly adversity?
I would hope that, by this line of reasoning, we can agree upon the answer to the first “big question.” Who made us? Can we agree that if we are creation, God is the Creator?
If we can’t agree on this point, there probably isn’t much point in continuing. However, for those who do agree, let’s move on to “big question” number two—why are we here? What, in other words, is the purpose of life?
Footnotes:
[1] To this end, and leaving all of the author’s religious inclinations aside, I heartily recommend reading A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson.
So who did make us? Atheists speak of the Big Bang and evolution, whereas all others speak of God. Those who answer “I don’t know” are atheist for all intents and purposes, not because they deny God’s existence, but because they fail to affirm it.
Now, the Big Bang may explain the origin of the universe, but it doesn’t explain the origin of the primordial dust cloud. This dust cloud (which, according to the theory, drew together, compacted and then exploded) had to come from somewhere. After all, it contained enough matter to form not just our galaxy, but the billion other galaxies in the known universe. So where did that come from? Who, or what, created the primordial dust cloud?
Similarly, evolution may explain the fossil record, but it falls far short of explaining the quintessential essence of human life—the soul. We all have one. We feel its presence, we speak of its existence and at times pray for its salvation. But only the religious can explain where it came from. The theory of natural selection can explain many of the material aspects of living things, but it fails to explain the human soul.
Furthermore, anyone who studies the complexities of life and the universe cannot help but witness the signature of the Creator.[1] Whether or not people recognize these signs is another matter—as the old saying goes, denial isn’t just a river in Egypt. (Get it? Denial, spelled “de Nile” … the river Ni … oh, never mind.) The point is that if we see a painting, we know there is a painter. If we see a sculpture, we know there’s a sculptor; a pot, a potter. So when we view creation, shouldn’t we know there’s a Creator?
The concept that the universe exploded and then developed in balanced perfection through random events and natural selection is little different from the proposal that, by dropping bombs into a junkyard, sooner or later one of them will blow everything together into a perfect Mercedes. In the color and trim of our hearts’ desire, no less.
If there is one thing we know for certain, it is that without a controlling influence, all systems degenerate into chaos. The theories of the Big Bang and evolution propose the exact opposite, however—that chaos fostered perfection. Would it not be more reasonable to conclude that the Big Bang and evolution were controlled events? Controlled, that is, by the Creator?
The Arabs tell the tale of a nomad finding an exquisite palace at an oasis in the middle of an otherwise barren desert. When he asks how it was built, the owner tells him it was formed by the forces of nature. The wind shaped the rocks and blew them to the edge of this oasis, and then tumbled them together into the shape of the palace. Then it blew strands of sheep’s wool together into rugs and tapestries, stray wood together into furniture, doors, windowsills and trim, and positioned them in the palace at just the right locations. Lightning strikes melted sand into sheets of glass and blasted them into the window-frames, and smelted black sand into steel and shaped it into the fence and gate with perfect alignment and symmetry. The process took billions of years and only happened at this one place on earth—purely through coincidence.
When we finish rolling our eyes, we get the point. Obviously, the palace was built by design, not by happenstance. To what (or more to the point, to Whom), then, should we attribute the origin of items of infinitely greater complexity, such as our universe and our lives?
Another classic argument for atheism focuses upon what people perceive to be the imperfections of creation. These are the “How can there be a God if such-and-such happened?” arguments. The issue under discussion could be anything from a natural disaster to birth defects, from genocide to grandmother’s cancer. That’s not the point. The point is that denying God based upon what we perceive to be injustices of life presumes that a divine being would not have designed our lives to be anything other than perfect, and would have established justice on Earth.
Hmm … is there no other option?
We can just as easily propose that God did not design life on Earth to be paradise, but rather a test, the punishment or rewards of which are to be had in the next life, which is where God establishes his ultimate justice. In support of this concept we can well ask who suffered more injustices in their worldly lives than God’s favorites, which is to say the prophets? And who do we expect to occupy the highest stations in paradise, if not those who maintain true faith in the face of worldly adversity?
I would hope that, by this line of reasoning, we can agree upon the answer to the first “big question.” Who made us? Can we agree that if we are creation, God is the Creator?
If we can’t agree on this point, there probably isn’t much point in continuing. However, for those who do agree, let’s move on to “big question” number two—why are we here? What, in other words, is the purpose of life?
Footnotes:
[1] To this end, and leaving all of the author’s religious inclinations aside, I heartily recommend reading A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson.
How Does Islam Differ from other Faiths?
Simplicity, Rationality and Practicality
Islam is a religion without any mythology. Its teachings are simple and intelligible. It is free from superstitions and irrational beliefs. The oneness of God, the Prophet-hood of Muhammad, and the concept of life after death are the basic articles of its faith. They are based on reason and sound logic. All of the teachings of Islam flow from those basic beliefs and are simple and straightforward. There is no hierarchy of priests, no farfetched abstractions, no complicated rites or rituals.
Everybody may approach the Quran directly and translate its dictates into practice. Islam awakens in man the faculty of reason and exhorts him to use his intellect. It enjoins him to see things in the light of reality. The Quran advises him to seek knowledge and invoke God to expand his awareness:
Say ‘O, my Lord! Advance me in knowledge. (Quran 20: 114)
God also says:
“Are those who know equal with those who know not? But only men of understanding will pay heed.” (Quran 39: 9)
It is reported that the Prophet, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, said that:
“He who leaves his home in search of knowledge (walks) in the path of God.” (At-Tirmidhi)
and that,
“Seeking knowledge is obligatory upon every Muslim.” (Ibn Majah and al-Bayhaqi)
This is how Islam brings man out of the world of superstition and darkness and initiates him into the world of knowledge and light.
Again, Islam is a practical religion and does not allow indulgence in empty and futile theorizing. It says that faith is not a mere profession of beliefs, but rather that it is the very mainspring of life. Righteous conduct must follow belief in God. Religion is something to be practiced and not an object of mere lip service. The Quran says:
“Those who believe and act righteously, joy is for them, and a blissful home to return to.” (Quran 13: 29)
The Prophet is also reported to have said:
“God does not accept belief if it is not expressed in deeds, and does not accept deeds if they do not conform to belief.” (At-Tabarani)
Thus Islam’s simplicity, rationality and practicality are what characterize Islam as a unique and true religion.
Unity of Matter and Spirit
A unique feature of Islam is that it does not divide life into watertight compartments of matter and spirit. It stands not for denial of life but for the fulfillment of life. Islam does not believe in asceticism. It does not ask man to avoid material things. It holds that spiritual elevation is to be achieved by living piously in the rough and tumble of life, not by renouncing the world. The Quran advises us to pray as follows:
“Our Lord! Give us something fine in this world as well as something fine in the Hereafter.” (Quran 2:201)
But in making use of life luxuries, Islam advises man to be moderate and keep away from extravagance, God says:
“…and eat and drink and be not extravagant; surely He does not love the extravagant.” (Quran 7:31)
On this aspect of moderation, the Prophet said:
“Observe fasting and break it (at the proper time) and stand in prayer and devotion (in the night) and have sleep, for your body has its right over you, and your eyes have rights over you, and your wife has a claim upon you, and the person who pays a visit to you has a claim upon you.”
Thus, Islam does not admit any separation between “material” and “moral,” “mundane” and “spiritual” life, and enjoins man to devote all of his energies to the reconstruction of life on healthy moral foundations. It teaches him that moral and material powers must be welded together and that spiritual salvation can be achieved by using material resources for the good of man in the service of just ends and not by living a life of asceticism or by running away from the challenges of life.
The world has suffered at the hands of the one-sidedness of many other religions and ideologies. Some have laid emphasis on the spiritual side of life but have ignored its material and mundane aspects. They have looked upon the world as an illusion, a deception, and a trap. On the other hand, materialistic ideologies have totally ignored the spiritual and moral side of life and have dismissed it as fictitious and imaginary. Both of these attitudes have resulted in disaster, for they have robbed mankind of peace, contentment, and tranquility.
Even today, the imbalance is manifested in one or the other direction. The French scientist Dr. De Brogbi rightly says:
“The danger inherent in too intense a material civilization is to that civilization itself; it is the disequilibria which would result if a parallel development of the spiritual life were to fail to provide the needed balance.”
Christianity erred on one extreme, whereas modern western civilization, in both of its variants of secular capitalistic democracy and Marxist socialism has erred on the other. According to Lord Snell:
“We have built a nobly-proportioned outer structure, but we have neglected the essential requirement of an inner order; we have carefully designed, decorated and made clean the outside of the cup; but the inside was full of extortion and excess; we used our increased knowledge and power to administer to the comforts of the body, but we left the spirit impoverished.”
Islam seeks to establish equilibrium between these two aspects of life - the material and the spiritual. It says that everything in the world is for man, but man was created to serve a higher purpose: the establishment of a moral and just order that will fulfill the will of God. Its teachings cater for the spiritual as well as the temporal needs of man. Islam enjoins man to purify his soul and to reform his daily life - both individual and collective - and to establish the supremacy of right over might and of virtue over vice. Thus Islam stands for the middle path and the goal of producing a moral man in the service of a just society.
Islam, a Complete Way of Life
Islam is not a religion in the common and distorted sense, for it does not confine its scope to one’s private life. It is a complete way of life and is present in every field of human existence. Islam provides guidance for all aspects of life - individual and social, material and moral, economic and political, legal and cultural, and national and international. The Quran enjoins man to embrace Islam without any reservation and to follow God’s guidance in all areas of life.
In fact, it was an unfortunate day when the scope of religion was confined to the private life of man and its social and cultural role was reduced to naught, as has happened in this century. No other factor, perhaps, has been more important in causing the decline of religion in the modern age than its retreat into the realm of private life. In the words of a modern philosopher: “Religion asks us to separate things of God from those of Caesar. Such a judicial separation between the two means the degrading of both the secular and the sacred ... That religion is worth little if the conscience of its followers is not disturbed when war clouds are hanging over us all and industrial conflicts are threatening social peace. Religion has weakened man’s social conscience and moral sensitivity by separating the things of God from those of Caesar.”
Islam totally denounces this concept of religion and clearly states that its objectives are the purification of the soul and the reform and reconstruction of society. As we read in the Quran:
“We verily sent Our messengers with clear proofs, and revealed with them the Scripture and the Balance, that mankind may observe right measure; and He revealed iron, wherein is mighty power and (many) uses for mankind, and that God may know him who helpeth Him and His messengers, though unseen. Lo! God is Strong, Almighty.” (Quran 57: 25)
God also says:
“The decision rests with God only, Who hath commanded you that ye worship none save Him. This is the right religion, but most men know not.” (Quran 12: 40)
Thus even a cursory study of the teachings of Islam shows that it is an all-embracing way of life and does not leave out any field of human existence to become a playground for the forces of evil.
Balance between the Individual and Society
Another unique feature of Islam is that it establishes a balance between individualism and collectivism. It believes in the individual personality of man and holds everyone personally accountable to God. The Prophet, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, says:
“Everyone of you is a guardian, and responsible for what is in his custody. The ruler is a guardian of his subjects and responsible for them; a husband is a guardian of his family and is responsible for it; a lady is a guardian of her husband’s house and is responsible for it, and a servant is a guardian of his master’s property and is responsible for it.”
I heard that from God’s Apostle and I think that the Prophet also said, “A man is a guardian of is father’s property and is responsible for it, so all of you are guardians and responsible for your wards and things under your care.” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari, Saheeh Muslim)
Islam also guarantees the fundamental rights of the individual and does not permit anyone to tamper with them. It makes the proper development of the personality of man one of the prime objectives of its educational policy. It does not subscribe to the view that man must lose his individuality in society or in the state.
In Islam, all men are equal, regardless of color, language, race, or nationality. It addresses itself to the conscience of humanity and banishes all false barriers of race, status, and wealth. There can be no denying the fact that such barriers have always existed and continue to exist today in the so-called enlightened age. Islam removes all of these impediments and proclaims the ideal of the whole of humanity being one family of God.
Islam is international in its outlook and approach and does not admit barriers and distinctions based on color, clan, blood, or territory, as was the case before the advent of Muhammad. Unfortunately, these prejudices remain rampant in different forms even in this modern age. Islam wants to unite the entire human race under one banner. To a world torn by national rivalries and feuds, it presents a message of life and hope and of a glorious future.
The historian, A. J. Toynbee, has some interesting observations to make in this respect. In Civilization on Trial, he writes: “Two conspicuous sources of danger - one psychological and the other material - in the present relations of this cosmopolitan proletariat, i.e., [westernized humanity] with the dominant element in our modern Western society are race consciousness and alcohol; and in the struggle with each of these evils the Islamic spirit has a service to render which might prove, if it were accepted, to be of high moral and social value.
The extinction of race consciousness between Muslims is one of the outstanding moral achievements of Islam, and in the contemporary world there is, as it happens, a crying need for the propagation of this Islamic virtue ... It is conceivable that the spirit of Islam might be the timely reinforcement which would decide this issue in favor of tolerance and peace.
As for the evil of alcohol, it is at its worst among primitive populations in tropical regions which have been ‘opened up’ by Western enterprise. The fact remains that even the most statesmanlike preventive measures imposed by external authority are incapable of liberating a community from a social vice unless a desire for liberation and a will to carry this desire into voluntary action on its own part are awakened in the hearts of the people concerned. Now Western administrators, at any rate those of ‘Anglo-Saxon’ origin, are spiritually isolated from their ‘native’ wards by the physical ‘color bar’ which their race-consciousness sets up; the conversion of the natives’ souls is a task to which their competence can hardly be expected to extend; and it is at this point that Islam may have a part to play.
In these recently and rapidly ‘opened up’ tropical territories, the Western civilization has produced an economic and political plenum and, in the same breath, a social and spiritual void.
Here, then, in the foreground of the future, we can remark two valuable influences which Islam may exert upon the cosmopolitan proletariat of a Western society that has cast its net around the world and embraced the whole of mankind; while in the more distant future we may speculate on the possible contributions of Islam to some new manifestation of religion.”
Permanence and Change
The elements of permanence and change coexist in human society and culture and are bound to remain so. Different ideologies and cultural systems have erred in leaning heavily towards one or other of these ends of the equation. Too much emphasis on permanence makes the system rigid and robs it of flexibility and progress, while a lack of permanent values and unchanging elements generate moral relativism, shapelessness, and anarchy.
What is needed is a balance between the two – a system that could simultaneously cater for the demands of permanence and change. An American judge, Mr. Justice Cardozo, rightly says that “the greatest need of our time is a philosophy that will mediate between conflicting claims of stability and progress and supply a principle of growth.” Islam presents an ideology, which satisfies the demands of stability as well as of change.
Deeper reflection reveals that life has within it elements of permanence and change - it is neither so rigid and inflexible that it cannot admit of any change even in matters of detail, nor it is so flexible and fluid that even its distinctive traits have no permanent character of their own. This becomes clear from observing the process of physiological change in the human body, for every tissue of the body changes a number of times in one’s lifetime even though the person remains the same. A tree’s leaves, flowers, and fruits change but its character remains unchanged. It is a law of life that elements of permanence and change must co-exist in a harmonious equation.
Only such a system of life that can provide for both these elements can meet all of the cravings of human nature and all of the needs of human society. The basic problems of life remain the same in all ages and climes, but the ways and means to solve them as well as the techniques of handling the phenomenon undergo change with the passage of time. Islam brings to focus a new perspective on this problem and tries to solve it in a realistic way.
The Quran and the Sunnah contain the eternal guidance given by the Lord of the universe. This guidance comes from God, who is free from the limitations of space and time and, as such, the principles of individual and social behavior revealed by Him are based on reality and are eternal. But God has revealed only broad principles and has endowed man with the freedom to apply them in every age in the way suited to the spirit and conditions of that age. It is through ijtihad (intellectual effort to arrive at the truth) that people of every age try to implement and apply the divine guidance to the problems of their times. Thus the basic guidance is of a permanent nature, while the method of its application can change in accordance with the peculiar needs of every age. That is why Islam always remains as fresh and modern as tomorrow’s morn.
Complete Record of Teachings Preserved
Last, but not least, is the fact that the teachings of Islam have been preserved in their original form. As a result, God’s guidance is available without adulteration of any kind. The Quran is the revealed book and word of God, which has been in existence for the last fourteen hundred years. It is still available in its original form. Detailed accounts of the life of the Prophet and of his teachings are available in their pristine purity. There has not been even one change made in this unique historic record. The sayings and the entire record of the life of the Prophet have been handed down to us with unprecedented precision and authenticity in works of the Hadith and the Sirah (the Prophet’s Biography). Even a number of non-Muslim critics admit this eloquent fact.
These are some of the unique features of Islam that establish its credentials as the religion of man the religion of today and the religion of tomorrow. These aspects have appealed to millions of people in the past and the present and have made them affirm that Islam is the religion of truth and the right path for mankind. There is no doubt that these aspects will continue to appeal to even more people in the future. Men with pure hearts and sincere longing for truth will always continue to say:
“I affirm that there is none worthy of worship except God, that He is One, sharing His authority with no one, and I affirm that Muhammad is His Servant and His Prophet.”
Here, here let us conclude with the following words that George Bernard Shaw is reported to have said:I have always held the religion of Muhammad in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion, which appears to me to possess that assimilating capacity to the changing phases of existence, which can make itself appeal to every age. I have studied him - the wonderful man - and in my opinion far from being an Antichrist, he must be called the Savior of Humanity. I believe that if a man like him were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world, he would succeed in solving its problems in a way that would bring it much needed peace and happiness. I have prophesied about the faith of Muhammad that it would be acceptable to the Europe of tomorrow as it is beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of today.
Islam is a religion without any mythology. Its teachings are simple and intelligible. It is free from superstitions and irrational beliefs. The oneness of God, the Prophet-hood of Muhammad, and the concept of life after death are the basic articles of its faith. They are based on reason and sound logic. All of the teachings of Islam flow from those basic beliefs and are simple and straightforward. There is no hierarchy of priests, no farfetched abstractions, no complicated rites or rituals.
Everybody may approach the Quran directly and translate its dictates into practice. Islam awakens in man the faculty of reason and exhorts him to use his intellect. It enjoins him to see things in the light of reality. The Quran advises him to seek knowledge and invoke God to expand his awareness:
Say ‘O, my Lord! Advance me in knowledge. (Quran 20: 114)
God also says:
“Are those who know equal with those who know not? But only men of understanding will pay heed.” (Quran 39: 9)
It is reported that the Prophet, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, said that:
“He who leaves his home in search of knowledge (walks) in the path of God.” (At-Tirmidhi)
and that,
“Seeking knowledge is obligatory upon every Muslim.” (Ibn Majah and al-Bayhaqi)
This is how Islam brings man out of the world of superstition and darkness and initiates him into the world of knowledge and light.
Again, Islam is a practical religion and does not allow indulgence in empty and futile theorizing. It says that faith is not a mere profession of beliefs, but rather that it is the very mainspring of life. Righteous conduct must follow belief in God. Religion is something to be practiced and not an object of mere lip service. The Quran says:
“Those who believe and act righteously, joy is for them, and a blissful home to return to.” (Quran 13: 29)
The Prophet is also reported to have said:
“God does not accept belief if it is not expressed in deeds, and does not accept deeds if they do not conform to belief.” (At-Tabarani)
Thus Islam’s simplicity, rationality and practicality are what characterize Islam as a unique and true religion.
Unity of Matter and Spirit
A unique feature of Islam is that it does not divide life into watertight compartments of matter and spirit. It stands not for denial of life but for the fulfillment of life. Islam does not believe in asceticism. It does not ask man to avoid material things. It holds that spiritual elevation is to be achieved by living piously in the rough and tumble of life, not by renouncing the world. The Quran advises us to pray as follows:
“Our Lord! Give us something fine in this world as well as something fine in the Hereafter.” (Quran 2:201)
But in making use of life luxuries, Islam advises man to be moderate and keep away from extravagance, God says:
“…and eat and drink and be not extravagant; surely He does not love the extravagant.” (Quran 7:31)
On this aspect of moderation, the Prophet said:
“Observe fasting and break it (at the proper time) and stand in prayer and devotion (in the night) and have sleep, for your body has its right over you, and your eyes have rights over you, and your wife has a claim upon you, and the person who pays a visit to you has a claim upon you.”
Thus, Islam does not admit any separation between “material” and “moral,” “mundane” and “spiritual” life, and enjoins man to devote all of his energies to the reconstruction of life on healthy moral foundations. It teaches him that moral and material powers must be welded together and that spiritual salvation can be achieved by using material resources for the good of man in the service of just ends and not by living a life of asceticism or by running away from the challenges of life.
The world has suffered at the hands of the one-sidedness of many other religions and ideologies. Some have laid emphasis on the spiritual side of life but have ignored its material and mundane aspects. They have looked upon the world as an illusion, a deception, and a trap. On the other hand, materialistic ideologies have totally ignored the spiritual and moral side of life and have dismissed it as fictitious and imaginary. Both of these attitudes have resulted in disaster, for they have robbed mankind of peace, contentment, and tranquility.
Even today, the imbalance is manifested in one or the other direction. The French scientist Dr. De Brogbi rightly says:
“The danger inherent in too intense a material civilization is to that civilization itself; it is the disequilibria which would result if a parallel development of the spiritual life were to fail to provide the needed balance.”
Christianity erred on one extreme, whereas modern western civilization, in both of its variants of secular capitalistic democracy and Marxist socialism has erred on the other. According to Lord Snell:
“We have built a nobly-proportioned outer structure, but we have neglected the essential requirement of an inner order; we have carefully designed, decorated and made clean the outside of the cup; but the inside was full of extortion and excess; we used our increased knowledge and power to administer to the comforts of the body, but we left the spirit impoverished.”
Islam seeks to establish equilibrium between these two aspects of life - the material and the spiritual. It says that everything in the world is for man, but man was created to serve a higher purpose: the establishment of a moral and just order that will fulfill the will of God. Its teachings cater for the spiritual as well as the temporal needs of man. Islam enjoins man to purify his soul and to reform his daily life - both individual and collective - and to establish the supremacy of right over might and of virtue over vice. Thus Islam stands for the middle path and the goal of producing a moral man in the service of a just society.
Islam, a Complete Way of Life
Islam is not a religion in the common and distorted sense, for it does not confine its scope to one’s private life. It is a complete way of life and is present in every field of human existence. Islam provides guidance for all aspects of life - individual and social, material and moral, economic and political, legal and cultural, and national and international. The Quran enjoins man to embrace Islam without any reservation and to follow God’s guidance in all areas of life.
In fact, it was an unfortunate day when the scope of religion was confined to the private life of man and its social and cultural role was reduced to naught, as has happened in this century. No other factor, perhaps, has been more important in causing the decline of religion in the modern age than its retreat into the realm of private life. In the words of a modern philosopher: “Religion asks us to separate things of God from those of Caesar. Such a judicial separation between the two means the degrading of both the secular and the sacred ... That religion is worth little if the conscience of its followers is not disturbed when war clouds are hanging over us all and industrial conflicts are threatening social peace. Religion has weakened man’s social conscience and moral sensitivity by separating the things of God from those of Caesar.”
Islam totally denounces this concept of religion and clearly states that its objectives are the purification of the soul and the reform and reconstruction of society. As we read in the Quran:
“We verily sent Our messengers with clear proofs, and revealed with them the Scripture and the Balance, that mankind may observe right measure; and He revealed iron, wherein is mighty power and (many) uses for mankind, and that God may know him who helpeth Him and His messengers, though unseen. Lo! God is Strong, Almighty.” (Quran 57: 25)
God also says:
“The decision rests with God only, Who hath commanded you that ye worship none save Him. This is the right religion, but most men know not.” (Quran 12: 40)
Thus even a cursory study of the teachings of Islam shows that it is an all-embracing way of life and does not leave out any field of human existence to become a playground for the forces of evil.
Balance between the Individual and Society
Another unique feature of Islam is that it establishes a balance between individualism and collectivism. It believes in the individual personality of man and holds everyone personally accountable to God. The Prophet, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, says:
“Everyone of you is a guardian, and responsible for what is in his custody. The ruler is a guardian of his subjects and responsible for them; a husband is a guardian of his family and is responsible for it; a lady is a guardian of her husband’s house and is responsible for it, and a servant is a guardian of his master’s property and is responsible for it.”
I heard that from God’s Apostle and I think that the Prophet also said, “A man is a guardian of is father’s property and is responsible for it, so all of you are guardians and responsible for your wards and things under your care.” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari, Saheeh Muslim)
Islam also guarantees the fundamental rights of the individual and does not permit anyone to tamper with them. It makes the proper development of the personality of man one of the prime objectives of its educational policy. It does not subscribe to the view that man must lose his individuality in society or in the state.
In Islam, all men are equal, regardless of color, language, race, or nationality. It addresses itself to the conscience of humanity and banishes all false barriers of race, status, and wealth. There can be no denying the fact that such barriers have always existed and continue to exist today in the so-called enlightened age. Islam removes all of these impediments and proclaims the ideal of the whole of humanity being one family of God.
Islam is international in its outlook and approach and does not admit barriers and distinctions based on color, clan, blood, or territory, as was the case before the advent of Muhammad. Unfortunately, these prejudices remain rampant in different forms even in this modern age. Islam wants to unite the entire human race under one banner. To a world torn by national rivalries and feuds, it presents a message of life and hope and of a glorious future.
The historian, A. J. Toynbee, has some interesting observations to make in this respect. In Civilization on Trial, he writes: “Two conspicuous sources of danger - one psychological and the other material - in the present relations of this cosmopolitan proletariat, i.e., [westernized humanity] with the dominant element in our modern Western society are race consciousness and alcohol; and in the struggle with each of these evils the Islamic spirit has a service to render which might prove, if it were accepted, to be of high moral and social value.
The extinction of race consciousness between Muslims is one of the outstanding moral achievements of Islam, and in the contemporary world there is, as it happens, a crying need for the propagation of this Islamic virtue ... It is conceivable that the spirit of Islam might be the timely reinforcement which would decide this issue in favor of tolerance and peace.
As for the evil of alcohol, it is at its worst among primitive populations in tropical regions which have been ‘opened up’ by Western enterprise. The fact remains that even the most statesmanlike preventive measures imposed by external authority are incapable of liberating a community from a social vice unless a desire for liberation and a will to carry this desire into voluntary action on its own part are awakened in the hearts of the people concerned. Now Western administrators, at any rate those of ‘Anglo-Saxon’ origin, are spiritually isolated from their ‘native’ wards by the physical ‘color bar’ which their race-consciousness sets up; the conversion of the natives’ souls is a task to which their competence can hardly be expected to extend; and it is at this point that Islam may have a part to play.
In these recently and rapidly ‘opened up’ tropical territories, the Western civilization has produced an economic and political plenum and, in the same breath, a social and spiritual void.
Here, then, in the foreground of the future, we can remark two valuable influences which Islam may exert upon the cosmopolitan proletariat of a Western society that has cast its net around the world and embraced the whole of mankind; while in the more distant future we may speculate on the possible contributions of Islam to some new manifestation of religion.”
Permanence and Change
The elements of permanence and change coexist in human society and culture and are bound to remain so. Different ideologies and cultural systems have erred in leaning heavily towards one or other of these ends of the equation. Too much emphasis on permanence makes the system rigid and robs it of flexibility and progress, while a lack of permanent values and unchanging elements generate moral relativism, shapelessness, and anarchy.
What is needed is a balance between the two – a system that could simultaneously cater for the demands of permanence and change. An American judge, Mr. Justice Cardozo, rightly says that “the greatest need of our time is a philosophy that will mediate between conflicting claims of stability and progress and supply a principle of growth.” Islam presents an ideology, which satisfies the demands of stability as well as of change.
Deeper reflection reveals that life has within it elements of permanence and change - it is neither so rigid and inflexible that it cannot admit of any change even in matters of detail, nor it is so flexible and fluid that even its distinctive traits have no permanent character of their own. This becomes clear from observing the process of physiological change in the human body, for every tissue of the body changes a number of times in one’s lifetime even though the person remains the same. A tree’s leaves, flowers, and fruits change but its character remains unchanged. It is a law of life that elements of permanence and change must co-exist in a harmonious equation.
Only such a system of life that can provide for both these elements can meet all of the cravings of human nature and all of the needs of human society. The basic problems of life remain the same in all ages and climes, but the ways and means to solve them as well as the techniques of handling the phenomenon undergo change with the passage of time. Islam brings to focus a new perspective on this problem and tries to solve it in a realistic way.
The Quran and the Sunnah contain the eternal guidance given by the Lord of the universe. This guidance comes from God, who is free from the limitations of space and time and, as such, the principles of individual and social behavior revealed by Him are based on reality and are eternal. But God has revealed only broad principles and has endowed man with the freedom to apply them in every age in the way suited to the spirit and conditions of that age. It is through ijtihad (intellectual effort to arrive at the truth) that people of every age try to implement and apply the divine guidance to the problems of their times. Thus the basic guidance is of a permanent nature, while the method of its application can change in accordance with the peculiar needs of every age. That is why Islam always remains as fresh and modern as tomorrow’s morn.
Complete Record of Teachings Preserved
Last, but not least, is the fact that the teachings of Islam have been preserved in their original form. As a result, God’s guidance is available without adulteration of any kind. The Quran is the revealed book and word of God, which has been in existence for the last fourteen hundred years. It is still available in its original form. Detailed accounts of the life of the Prophet and of his teachings are available in their pristine purity. There has not been even one change made in this unique historic record. The sayings and the entire record of the life of the Prophet have been handed down to us with unprecedented precision and authenticity in works of the Hadith and the Sirah (the Prophet’s Biography). Even a number of non-Muslim critics admit this eloquent fact.
These are some of the unique features of Islam that establish its credentials as the religion of man the religion of today and the religion of tomorrow. These aspects have appealed to millions of people in the past and the present and have made them affirm that Islam is the religion of truth and the right path for mankind. There is no doubt that these aspects will continue to appeal to even more people in the future. Men with pure hearts and sincere longing for truth will always continue to say:
“I affirm that there is none worthy of worship except God, that He is One, sharing His authority with no one, and I affirm that Muhammad is His Servant and His Prophet.”
Here, here let us conclude with the following words that George Bernard Shaw is reported to have said:I have always held the religion of Muhammad in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion, which appears to me to possess that assimilating capacity to the changing phases of existence, which can make itself appeal to every age. I have studied him - the wonderful man - and in my opinion far from being an Antichrist, he must be called the Savior of Humanity. I believe that if a man like him were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world, he would succeed in solving its problems in a way that would bring it much needed peace and happiness. I have prophesied about the faith of Muhammad that it would be acceptable to the Europe of tomorrow as it is beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of today.
The Purpose of Creation: The Hindu Tradition
Everything is God
The Hindu scriptures teach that there are many gods, incarnations of gods, persons of God and that everything is God, Brahman. In spite of the belief that the self (atman) of all living beings is actually Brahman, an oppressive caste system evolved in which the Brahmans, the priestly caste, possess spiritual supremacy by birth. They are the teachers of the Vedas and represent the ideal of ritual purity and social prestige. On the other hand, the Sudra caste are excluded from religious status and their sole duty in life is “to serve meekly” the other three castes and their thousands of subcastes.
According to Hindu monist philosophers, humankind’s purpose is the realization of their divinity and -following a path (marga) to emancipation (moksha) from the wheel of rebirth - the reabsorbtion of the human soul (atman) into the ultimate reality, Brahman. For those following the bhakti path, the purpose is to love God because God created humankind to “enjoy a relationship - as a father enjoys his children” (Srimad Bhagwatam). For the ordinary Hindu, the main aim of worldly life lies in conforming to social and ritual duties, to the traditional rules of conduct for one’s caste - the karma path.
Although most of the religion of the Vedic texts, which revolves around rituals of fire sacrifice, has been eclipsed by Hindu doctrines and practices found in other texts, the absolute authority and sacredness of the Veda remains a central tenet of virtually all Hindu sects and traditions. The Veda is composed of four collections, the oldest of which is the Rigveda (“Wisdom of the Verses”). In these texts, God is described in the most confusing terms. The religion reflected in the Rigveda is a polytheism mainly concerned with appeasing deities associated with the sky and the atmosphere, the most important of which were Indra (god of the heavens and rain), Baruna (guardian of the cosmic order), Agni (the sacrificial fire), and Surya (the Sun). In later Vedic texts, interest in the early Rigvedic gods declines, and polytheism begins to be replaced by a sacrificial pantheism to Prajapati (“Lord of Creatures”), who is the All. In the Upanishads (secret teachings concerning cosmic equations), Prajapati merges with the concept of Brahman, the supreme reality and substance of the universe, replacing any specific personification, thus transforming the mythology into abstract philosophy. If the contents of these scriptures were all that human beings had to choose from for guidance, one would have to conclude that God hid both Himself and the purpose of creation from humankind.
God is not the author of confusion, nor does He wish difficulty for mankind. Consequently, when He revealed His final communication to humankind one thousand four hundred years ago, He ensured that it was perfectly preserved for all of the generations of human beings to come. In that final scripture, the Quran (Koran), God revealed His purpose for creating mankind and, through His last prophet, He clarified all of the details which man could comprehend. It is on the basis of this revelation and the prophetic explanations that we [must] analyze the precise answers to the question “Why did God create man?”...
The Hindu scriptures teach that there are many gods, incarnations of gods, persons of God and that everything is God, Brahman. In spite of the belief that the self (atman) of all living beings is actually Brahman, an oppressive caste system evolved in which the Brahmans, the priestly caste, possess spiritual supremacy by birth. They are the teachers of the Vedas and represent the ideal of ritual purity and social prestige. On the other hand, the Sudra caste are excluded from religious status and their sole duty in life is “to serve meekly” the other three castes and their thousands of subcastes.
According to Hindu monist philosophers, humankind’s purpose is the realization of their divinity and -following a path (marga) to emancipation (moksha) from the wheel of rebirth - the reabsorbtion of the human soul (atman) into the ultimate reality, Brahman. For those following the bhakti path, the purpose is to love God because God created humankind to “enjoy a relationship - as a father enjoys his children” (Srimad Bhagwatam). For the ordinary Hindu, the main aim of worldly life lies in conforming to social and ritual duties, to the traditional rules of conduct for one’s caste - the karma path.
Although most of the religion of the Vedic texts, which revolves around rituals of fire sacrifice, has been eclipsed by Hindu doctrines and practices found in other texts, the absolute authority and sacredness of the Veda remains a central tenet of virtually all Hindu sects and traditions. The Veda is composed of four collections, the oldest of which is the Rigveda (“Wisdom of the Verses”). In these texts, God is described in the most confusing terms. The religion reflected in the Rigveda is a polytheism mainly concerned with appeasing deities associated with the sky and the atmosphere, the most important of which were Indra (god of the heavens and rain), Baruna (guardian of the cosmic order), Agni (the sacrificial fire), and Surya (the Sun). In later Vedic texts, interest in the early Rigvedic gods declines, and polytheism begins to be replaced by a sacrificial pantheism to Prajapati (“Lord of Creatures”), who is the All. In the Upanishads (secret teachings concerning cosmic equations), Prajapati merges with the concept of Brahman, the supreme reality and substance of the universe, replacing any specific personification, thus transforming the mythology into abstract philosophy. If the contents of these scriptures were all that human beings had to choose from for guidance, one would have to conclude that God hid both Himself and the purpose of creation from humankind.
God is not the author of confusion, nor does He wish difficulty for mankind. Consequently, when He revealed His final communication to humankind one thousand four hundred years ago, He ensured that it was perfectly preserved for all of the generations of human beings to come. In that final scripture, the Quran (Koran), God revealed His purpose for creating mankind and, through His last prophet, He clarified all of the details which man could comprehend. It is on the basis of this revelation and the prophetic explanations that we [must] analyze the precise answers to the question “Why did God create man?”...
The Purpose of Creation: The Judeo-Christian Answer
Judeo-Christian Scriptures
A survey of the Bible leaves the honest seeker of truth lost. The Old Testament seems more concerned with laws and the history of early man and the Jewish people than with answering the vital question concerning humanity’s creation. In Genesis, God creates the world and Adam and Eve in six days and ‘rests’ from His work on the seventh. Adam and Eve disobey God and are punished and their son Cain kills their other son Abel and goes to live in the land of Nod. And God was ‘sorry’ that he had made man! Why are the answers not there in clear and unmistakable terms? Why is so much of the language symbolic, leaving the reader to guess at its meanings? For example, in Genesis 6:6 it is stated:
“When men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took to wife such of them as they chose.”
Who are these ‘sons of God?’ Each Jewish sect and each of the many Christian sects who followed them have their own explanations. Which is the correct interpretation? The truth is that the purpose of man’s creation was taught by the prophets of old, however, some of their followers - in collusion with the devils - later changed the scriptures. The answers became vague and much of the revelation was hidden in symbolic language. When God sent Jesus Christ to the Jews, he overturned the tables of those merchants who had set up businesses inside the temple, and he preached against the ritualistic interpretation of the law practiced by the Jewish rabbis. He reaffirmed the law of Prophet Moses and revived it. He taught the purpose of life to his disciples and demonstrated how to fulfill it until his last moments in this world. However, after his departure from this world, his message was also distorted by some who claimed to be among his followers. The clear truth which he brought became vague, like the messages of the prophets before him. Symbolism was introduced, especially through the “Revelations” of John, and the Gospel which was revealed to Jesus was lost. Four other gospels composed by men were chosen by Athanasius, a fourth century bishop, to replace the lost Gospel of Jesus Christ. And the 23 books of writings of Paul and others included in the New Testament outnumbered even the four versions of the gospel. As a result, New Testament readers cannot find precise answers to the question “Why did God create man?” And one is forced to blindly follow the contrived dogmas of whatever sect they happen to belong to or adopt. The gospels are interpreted according to each sect’s beliefs, and the seeker of truth is again left wondering, which one is correct?
The Incarnation of God
Perhaps the only common concept to most Christian sects regarding the purpose of mankind’s creation is that God became man so that He could die at the hands of men to cleanse them of sin inherited from Adam and his descendants. According to them, this sin had become so great that no human act of atonement or repentance could erase it. God is so good that sinful man cannot stand before Him. Consequently, only God’s sacrifice of Himself could save humankind from sin.
Belief in this man-made myth became the only source for salvation, according to the Church. Consequently, the Christian purpose of creation became the recognition of the ‘divine sacrifice’ and the acceptance of Jesus Christ as the Lord God. This may be deduced from the following words attributed to Jesus in the Gospel according to John:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
However, if this is the purpose of creation and the prerequisite for everlasting life, why was it not taught by all the prophets? Why did God not become man in the time of Adam and his offspring so that all mankind would have an equal chance to fulfill their purpose for existence and attain everlasting life. Or did those before Jesus’ time have another purpose for existence? All people today whom God has destined never to hear of Jesus also have no chance to fulfill their supposed purpose of creation. Such a purpose, is obviously too limited to fit the need of humankind.
A survey of the Bible leaves the honest seeker of truth lost. The Old Testament seems more concerned with laws and the history of early man and the Jewish people than with answering the vital question concerning humanity’s creation. In Genesis, God creates the world and Adam and Eve in six days and ‘rests’ from His work on the seventh. Adam and Eve disobey God and are punished and their son Cain kills their other son Abel and goes to live in the land of Nod. And God was ‘sorry’ that he had made man! Why are the answers not there in clear and unmistakable terms? Why is so much of the language symbolic, leaving the reader to guess at its meanings? For example, in Genesis 6:6 it is stated:
“When men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took to wife such of them as they chose.”
Who are these ‘sons of God?’ Each Jewish sect and each of the many Christian sects who followed them have their own explanations. Which is the correct interpretation? The truth is that the purpose of man’s creation was taught by the prophets of old, however, some of their followers - in collusion with the devils - later changed the scriptures. The answers became vague and much of the revelation was hidden in symbolic language. When God sent Jesus Christ to the Jews, he overturned the tables of those merchants who had set up businesses inside the temple, and he preached against the ritualistic interpretation of the law practiced by the Jewish rabbis. He reaffirmed the law of Prophet Moses and revived it. He taught the purpose of life to his disciples and demonstrated how to fulfill it until his last moments in this world. However, after his departure from this world, his message was also distorted by some who claimed to be among his followers. The clear truth which he brought became vague, like the messages of the prophets before him. Symbolism was introduced, especially through the “Revelations” of John, and the Gospel which was revealed to Jesus was lost. Four other gospels composed by men were chosen by Athanasius, a fourth century bishop, to replace the lost Gospel of Jesus Christ. And the 23 books of writings of Paul and others included in the New Testament outnumbered even the four versions of the gospel. As a result, New Testament readers cannot find precise answers to the question “Why did God create man?” And one is forced to blindly follow the contrived dogmas of whatever sect they happen to belong to or adopt. The gospels are interpreted according to each sect’s beliefs, and the seeker of truth is again left wondering, which one is correct?
The Incarnation of God
Perhaps the only common concept to most Christian sects regarding the purpose of mankind’s creation is that God became man so that He could die at the hands of men to cleanse them of sin inherited from Adam and his descendants. According to them, this sin had become so great that no human act of atonement or repentance could erase it. God is so good that sinful man cannot stand before Him. Consequently, only God’s sacrifice of Himself could save humankind from sin.
Belief in this man-made myth became the only source for salvation, according to the Church. Consequently, the Christian purpose of creation became the recognition of the ‘divine sacrifice’ and the acceptance of Jesus Christ as the Lord God. This may be deduced from the following words attributed to Jesus in the Gospel according to John:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
However, if this is the purpose of creation and the prerequisite for everlasting life, why was it not taught by all the prophets? Why did God not become man in the time of Adam and his offspring so that all mankind would have an equal chance to fulfill their purpose for existence and attain everlasting life. Or did those before Jesus’ time have another purpose for existence? All people today whom God has destined never to hear of Jesus also have no chance to fulfill their supposed purpose of creation. Such a purpose, is obviously too limited to fit the need of humankind.
The Purpose of Creation: An Introduction
Introduction
The purpose of creation is a topic that puzzles every human being at some point in his or her lifetime. Everybody at some time or another asks themselves the question “Why do I exist?” or “For what purpose am I here on earth?”
The variety and complexity of the intricate systems which constitute the fabric of both human beings and the world in which they exist indicate that there must have been a Supreme Being who created them. Design indicates a designer. When human beings come across footprints on a beach, they immediately conclude that a human being had walked by there some time previously. No one imagines that the waves from the sea settled in the sand and by chance produced a depression looking exactly like human footprints. Nor do humans instinctively conclude that they were brought into existence without a purpose. Since purposeful action is a natural product of human intelligence, humans conclude that the Supreme Intelligent Being who created them must have done so for a specific purpose. Therefore, human beings need to know the purpose for their existence in order to make sense of this life and to do what is ultimately beneficial for them.
Throughout the ages, however, there has been a minority among humans who have denied the existence of God. Matter, in their opinion, is eternal and mankind is merely a chance product of accidental combinations of its elements. Consequently, to them, the question “Why did God create man?” had and still has no answer. According to them, there simply is no purpose to existence. However, the vast majority of humankind over the ages have believed and continue to believe in the existence of a Supreme Being who created this world with a purpose. For them it was, and still is, important to know about the Creator and the purpose for which He created human beings.
The Answer
To answer the question “Why did God create man?” it must first be determined from which perspective the question is being asked. From the point of view of God it would mean, “What caused God to create human beings?” while from the human point of view it would mean “For what purpose did God create humans?” Both points of view represent aspects of the intriguing question “Why do I exist?” ...both aspects of the question will be explored based on the clear picture painted by divine revelation. This is not a topic for human speculation, because human guesswork cannot possibly produce the whole truth in this matter. How can human beings intellectually deduce the reality of their existence when they can hardly understand how their own brain or its higher entity, the mind, functions? Consequently, the many philosophers who have speculated on this question down through the ages have come up with innumerable answers, all of which are based on assumptions which cannot be proven. Questions on this topic have even led a number of philosophers to claim that we do not really exist and that the whole world is imaginary. For example, the Greek philosopher Plato (428-348 BC) argued that the everyday world of changeable things, which man comes to know by the use of his senses, is not the primary reality, but is a shadow world of appearances. Many others, as was previously mentioned, claimed and continue to claim that there is no purpose for the creation of humans at all. According to them, human existence is merely a product of chance. There can be no purpose if life evolved from inanimate matter which only became animate by pure luck. Humankind’s supposed ‘cousins,’ the monkey and apes are not bothered with questions of existence, so why should human beings be bothered with them?
Although most people put the question of why we are created aside after occasional brief reflection, it is extremely critical for human beings to know the answer. Without knowledge of the correct answer, human beings become indistinguishable from the other animals around them. The animal necessities and desires of eating, drinking and procreating become the purpose of human existence by default, and human effort is then focused in this limited sphere. When material satisfaction develops into the most important goal in life, human existence becomes even more degraded than that of the lowest of animals. Human beings will consistently misuse their God-given intelligence when they lack knowledge of their purpose of existence. The degraded human mind uses its abilities to create drugs and bombs and becomes engrossed in fornication, pornography, homosexuality, fortunetelling, suicide, etc. Without knowledge of the purpose of life, human existence loses all meaning and is consequently wasted, and the reward of an eternal life of happiness in the hereafter is completely destroyed. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that human beings correctly answer the question “Why are we here?”
Humans most often turn to other human beings like themselves for the answers. However, the only place that clear and precise answers to these questions can be found is in the books of divine revelation. It was necessary that God reveal the purpose to man through His prophets, because human beings are incapable of arriving at the correct answers by themselves. All of the prophets of God taught their followers the answers to the question “Why did God create man?”
The purpose of creation is a topic that puzzles every human being at some point in his or her lifetime. Everybody at some time or another asks themselves the question “Why do I exist?” or “For what purpose am I here on earth?”
The variety and complexity of the intricate systems which constitute the fabric of both human beings and the world in which they exist indicate that there must have been a Supreme Being who created them. Design indicates a designer. When human beings come across footprints on a beach, they immediately conclude that a human being had walked by there some time previously. No one imagines that the waves from the sea settled in the sand and by chance produced a depression looking exactly like human footprints. Nor do humans instinctively conclude that they were brought into existence without a purpose. Since purposeful action is a natural product of human intelligence, humans conclude that the Supreme Intelligent Being who created them must have done so for a specific purpose. Therefore, human beings need to know the purpose for their existence in order to make sense of this life and to do what is ultimately beneficial for them.
Throughout the ages, however, there has been a minority among humans who have denied the existence of God. Matter, in their opinion, is eternal and mankind is merely a chance product of accidental combinations of its elements. Consequently, to them, the question “Why did God create man?” had and still has no answer. According to them, there simply is no purpose to existence. However, the vast majority of humankind over the ages have believed and continue to believe in the existence of a Supreme Being who created this world with a purpose. For them it was, and still is, important to know about the Creator and the purpose for which He created human beings.
The Answer
To answer the question “Why did God create man?” it must first be determined from which perspective the question is being asked. From the point of view of God it would mean, “What caused God to create human beings?” while from the human point of view it would mean “For what purpose did God create humans?” Both points of view represent aspects of the intriguing question “Why do I exist?” ...both aspects of the question will be explored based on the clear picture painted by divine revelation. This is not a topic for human speculation, because human guesswork cannot possibly produce the whole truth in this matter. How can human beings intellectually deduce the reality of their existence when they can hardly understand how their own brain or its higher entity, the mind, functions? Consequently, the many philosophers who have speculated on this question down through the ages have come up with innumerable answers, all of which are based on assumptions which cannot be proven. Questions on this topic have even led a number of philosophers to claim that we do not really exist and that the whole world is imaginary. For example, the Greek philosopher Plato (428-348 BC) argued that the everyday world of changeable things, which man comes to know by the use of his senses, is not the primary reality, but is a shadow world of appearances. Many others, as was previously mentioned, claimed and continue to claim that there is no purpose for the creation of humans at all. According to them, human existence is merely a product of chance. There can be no purpose if life evolved from inanimate matter which only became animate by pure luck. Humankind’s supposed ‘cousins,’ the monkey and apes are not bothered with questions of existence, so why should human beings be bothered with them?
Although most people put the question of why we are created aside after occasional brief reflection, it is extremely critical for human beings to know the answer. Without knowledge of the correct answer, human beings become indistinguishable from the other animals around them. The animal necessities and desires of eating, drinking and procreating become the purpose of human existence by default, and human effort is then focused in this limited sphere. When material satisfaction develops into the most important goal in life, human existence becomes even more degraded than that of the lowest of animals. Human beings will consistently misuse their God-given intelligence when they lack knowledge of their purpose of existence. The degraded human mind uses its abilities to create drugs and bombs and becomes engrossed in fornication, pornography, homosexuality, fortunetelling, suicide, etc. Without knowledge of the purpose of life, human existence loses all meaning and is consequently wasted, and the reward of an eternal life of happiness in the hereafter is completely destroyed. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that human beings correctly answer the question “Why are we here?”
Humans most often turn to other human beings like themselves for the answers. However, the only place that clear and precise answers to these questions can be found is in the books of divine revelation. It was necessary that God reveal the purpose to man through His prophets, because human beings are incapable of arriving at the correct answers by themselves. All of the prophets of God taught their followers the answers to the question “Why did God create man?”
Can We See God?
The human mind is a true marvel, but in certain areas it is limited. God is different from anything the human mind can think of or imagine, so the mind will become confused if it tries to picture God. Nevertheless, it is possible to understand the attributes of God that do not require one to make any mental pictures of Him. For example, one of God’s names is al-Ghaffar, which means He forgives all sins. Everyone can understand this easily because that is how the human mind can think of God. Jewish and Christian teachings on God are confused partly because of incorrect understanding of this issue. The Jewish Torah teaches God is like man,
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…so God made man in His own image.’” (Genesis 1:26-27)
Moreover, certain churches contain statues or images of an old white bearded man depicting God. Some of these were produced by the likes of Michelangelo who depicted the Face and Hand of a god – a tough looking old man - in paintings.
Rendering images of God in Islam is an impossibility, and amounts to disbelief, as God tells us in the Quran that nothing resembles Him:
“There is nothing like Him, but He is All-Hearing, All-Seeing.” (Quran 42:11)
“There is nothing comparable to Him.” (Quran 112:4)
The Request of Moses to See God
Eyes can not bear the vision of God. He tells us in the Quran:
“Vision cannot grasp Him, but His Grasp is over all vision.” (Quran 6:103)
Moses, to whom God spoke and gave great miracles, was chosen by God to be His Prophet. It is said that he thought that, since God used to speak to him, he might be able to actually see God. The story is in the Quran, where God tells us what happened:
“And when Moses arrived at Our appointed time and his Lord spoke to him, he said, ‘My Lord, show me (Yourself) that I may look at You.’ (God) said, ‘You will not see Me, but look at the mountain; if it should remain in place, then you will see Me.’ But when his Lord appeared to the mountain, He rendered it level, and Moses fell unconscious. And when he awoke, he said, ‘Exalted are You! I have repented to You, and I am the first of the believers.’” (Quran 7:143)
God made it clear that no-one, including the great prophet Moses, can bear the sight of the divine, for God is too great to be grasped by human eyes in this life. According to the Quran, Moses realized his request was in error; therefore, he sought forgiveness from God for having asked.
Did Prophet Muhammad See God In This Life?
Prophet Muhammad traveled in a miraculous journey through the heavens and met God. People thought that since Prophet Muhammad spoke to God in that journey, he probably saw God too. One of the companions, Abu Dahrr, asked him about it. The Prophet replied:
“There was only light, how could I see Him?” (Saheeh Muslim)
What was the light he saw? The Prophet explained:
“Surely, God does not sleep nor is it befitting for Him to sleep. He is the one who lowers the scales and raises them. The deeds of the night go up to Him before the deeds of the day and those of the day before those of the night, and His veil is light.” (Saheeh Muslim)
Visions of God in Spiritual Experiences
Some people, including some who claim to be Muslims, report spiritual experiences where they claim to have seen God. Common reported experiences also include seeing light, or a magnificent being seated on a throne. In the case of Muslims, such an experience is usually accompanied by dropping basic Islamic practices like salah and fasting, under the mistaken opinion that such practices are only for common people who had not had their type of experience.
So what does Islam teach about this? Islam teaches us that it is Satan who pretends to be God to deceive ignorant people who believe in such experiences and go astray. One of the fundamental foundations of Islam is that the law revealed to Prophet Muhammad cannot be changed or canceled. God neither makes lawful for some what He has made unlawful for others, nor does He communicate His Law through such experiences to people. Rather, divine law is revealed through the proper channel of revelation to the prophets, a channel that was closed after the advent of the prophet Muhammad, the last of God’s prophets.
Seeing God in Afterlife
In Islamic doctrine, God cannot be seen in this life, but the believers will see God in the next life; even then, God will not be grasped in totality. This is stated clearly in the Quran and the Sunnah. The Prophet said,
“The Day Of Resurrection is the first day any eye will look at God, the Mighty and Exalted.”[1]
Describing the events of Resurrection Day, God states in the Quran:
“On that day some faces will be bright, looking at their Lord.” (Quran 75:22-23)
The Prophet was asked if we will see God on the Day of resurrection. He replied, “Are you harmed by looking at the moon when it is full?”[2] ‘No,’ they replied. Then he said, “Surely, you will see Him likewise.” In another hadith the Prophet said, “Surely, each of you will see God on the day when you shall meet Him, and there will be no veil or translator between Him and you.”[3] Seeing God will be a favor that is additional to Paradise on the people who will dwell therein. As a matter of fact, the joy of seeing God for a believer will be greater than the all the joys of Paradise combined together. The unbelievers, on the other hand, will be deprived of seeing God, and this will be greater punishment for them than all the pain and suffering of Hell combined together.
________________________________________
Footnotes:
[1] Darqutni, Darimi
[2] Saheeh Al-Bukhari, Saheeh Muslim
[3] Saheeh Al-Bukhari
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…so God made man in His own image.’” (Genesis 1:26-27)
Moreover, certain churches contain statues or images of an old white bearded man depicting God. Some of these were produced by the likes of Michelangelo who depicted the Face and Hand of a god – a tough looking old man - in paintings.
Rendering images of God in Islam is an impossibility, and amounts to disbelief, as God tells us in the Quran that nothing resembles Him:
“There is nothing like Him, but He is All-Hearing, All-Seeing.” (Quran 42:11)
“There is nothing comparable to Him.” (Quran 112:4)
The Request of Moses to See God
Eyes can not bear the vision of God. He tells us in the Quran:
“Vision cannot grasp Him, but His Grasp is over all vision.” (Quran 6:103)
Moses, to whom God spoke and gave great miracles, was chosen by God to be His Prophet. It is said that he thought that, since God used to speak to him, he might be able to actually see God. The story is in the Quran, where God tells us what happened:
“And when Moses arrived at Our appointed time and his Lord spoke to him, he said, ‘My Lord, show me (Yourself) that I may look at You.’ (God) said, ‘You will not see Me, but look at the mountain; if it should remain in place, then you will see Me.’ But when his Lord appeared to the mountain, He rendered it level, and Moses fell unconscious. And when he awoke, he said, ‘Exalted are You! I have repented to You, and I am the first of the believers.’” (Quran 7:143)
God made it clear that no-one, including the great prophet Moses, can bear the sight of the divine, for God is too great to be grasped by human eyes in this life. According to the Quran, Moses realized his request was in error; therefore, he sought forgiveness from God for having asked.
Did Prophet Muhammad See God In This Life?
Prophet Muhammad traveled in a miraculous journey through the heavens and met God. People thought that since Prophet Muhammad spoke to God in that journey, he probably saw God too. One of the companions, Abu Dahrr, asked him about it. The Prophet replied:
“There was only light, how could I see Him?” (Saheeh Muslim)
What was the light he saw? The Prophet explained:
“Surely, God does not sleep nor is it befitting for Him to sleep. He is the one who lowers the scales and raises them. The deeds of the night go up to Him before the deeds of the day and those of the day before those of the night, and His veil is light.” (Saheeh Muslim)
Visions of God in Spiritual Experiences
Some people, including some who claim to be Muslims, report spiritual experiences where they claim to have seen God. Common reported experiences also include seeing light, or a magnificent being seated on a throne. In the case of Muslims, such an experience is usually accompanied by dropping basic Islamic practices like salah and fasting, under the mistaken opinion that such practices are only for common people who had not had their type of experience.
So what does Islam teach about this? Islam teaches us that it is Satan who pretends to be God to deceive ignorant people who believe in such experiences and go astray. One of the fundamental foundations of Islam is that the law revealed to Prophet Muhammad cannot be changed or canceled. God neither makes lawful for some what He has made unlawful for others, nor does He communicate His Law through such experiences to people. Rather, divine law is revealed through the proper channel of revelation to the prophets, a channel that was closed after the advent of the prophet Muhammad, the last of God’s prophets.
Seeing God in Afterlife
In Islamic doctrine, God cannot be seen in this life, but the believers will see God in the next life; even then, God will not be grasped in totality. This is stated clearly in the Quran and the Sunnah. The Prophet said,
“The Day Of Resurrection is the first day any eye will look at God, the Mighty and Exalted.”[1]
Describing the events of Resurrection Day, God states in the Quran:
“On that day some faces will be bright, looking at their Lord.” (Quran 75:22-23)
The Prophet was asked if we will see God on the Day of resurrection. He replied, “Are you harmed by looking at the moon when it is full?”[2] ‘No,’ they replied. Then he said, “Surely, you will see Him likewise.” In another hadith the Prophet said, “Surely, each of you will see God on the day when you shall meet Him, and there will be no veil or translator between Him and you.”[3] Seeing God will be a favor that is additional to Paradise on the people who will dwell therein. As a matter of fact, the joy of seeing God for a believer will be greater than the all the joys of Paradise combined together. The unbelievers, on the other hand, will be deprived of seeing God, and this will be greater punishment for them than all the pain and suffering of Hell combined together.
________________________________________
Footnotes:
[1] Darqutni, Darimi
[2] Saheeh Al-Bukhari, Saheeh Muslim
[3] Saheeh Al-Bukhari
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