Posted on 06/28/2005 12:47:49 PM PDT by forty_years
Asked if Muslims worship the same Almighty as Jews and Christians, President Bush replied some months ago, "I believe we worship the same God." The Islamic deity, known as Allah, in other words, is the same Supreme Being to whom Jews and Christians pray.
The president's statement provoked widespread dismay among Evangelicals; one poll found 79% of their leadership disagreeing with this view. Pat Robertson pungently explained why, observing "the entire world is being convulsed by a religious struggle. … whether Hubal, the Moon God of Mecca, known as Allah, is supreme, or whether the Judeo-Christian Jehovah, God of the Bible, is Supreme."
Muslims at times agree that God and Allah are different. Irshad Manji has recounted how her teachers at a madrassah in Canada taught her this. And a Jewish scholar, Jon D. Levenson, finds the claim that Christians and Muslims worship the same God "if not false, then certainly simplistic and one-sided."
This debate plays out at many levels. In the American scouting movement, Muslims promise "I will do my best to do my duty to God"; their British counterparts instead do their "duty to Allah."
This might seem like a minor semantic quibble, but the definition of Allah has profound importance. Consider two alternate ways of translating the opening line of Islam's basic declaration of faith (Arabic: la ilaha illa-la). One reads "I testify that there is no God but Allah," and the other "I testify that there is no deity but God."
The first states that Islam has a distinct Lord, one known as Allah, and implies that Jews and Christians worship a false god. The second states that Allah is the Arabic word for the common monotheistic God and implies a commonality with Jews and Christians.
The first translation is 40 times more common in a Google search than the second. Yet, the latter is accurate. Mr. Bush was right. There are several reasons to use the translation that equates Allah with God:
Scriptural: The Koran itself in several places insists that its God is the same as the God of Judaism and Christianity. The most direct statement is one in which Muslims are admonished to tell Jews and Christians "We believe in that which has been revealed to us and revealed to you; our God and your God is One, and to Him we do submit" (E.H. Palmer translation of Sura 29:46) Of course, the verse can also be rendered "our Allah and your Allah is One" (as it is in the notorious Abdullah Yusuf Ali translation)
Historical: Chronologically, Islam followed after Judaism and Christianity, but the Koran claims Islam actually preceded the other monotheisms. In Islamic doctrine (Sura 3:67), Abraham was the first Muslim. Moses and Jesus introduced mistakes into the Word of God; Muhammad brought it down perfectly. Islam views Judaism and Christianity as flawed versions of itself, correct on essentials but wrong in important details. This outlook implies that all three faiths share the God of Abraham.
Linguistic: Just as Dieu and Gott are the French and German words for God, so is Allah the Arabic equivalent. In part, this identity of meaning can be seen from cognates: In Hebrew, the word for God is Elohim, a cognate of Allah. In Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus, God is Allaha. In the Maltese language, which is unique because it is Arabic-based but spoken by a predominantly Catholic people, God is Alla.
Further, most Jews and Christians who speak Arabic routinely use the word Allah to refer to God. (Copts, the Christians of Egypt, do not.) The Old and New Testaments in Arabic use this word. In the Arabic-language Bible, for instance, Jesus is referred to as the son of Allah. Even translations carried out by Christian missionaries, such as the famous one done in 1865 by Cornelius Van Dyke, refer to Allah, as do missionary discussions.
The God=Allah equation means that, however hostile political relations may be, a common "children of Abraham" bond does exist and its exploration can one day provide a basis for interfaith comity. Jewish-Christian dialogue has made great strides and Jewish-Christian-Muslim trialogue could as well.
Before that can happen, however, Muslims must first recognize the validity of alternate approaches to the one God. That means leaving behind the supremacism, extremism, and violence of the current Islamist phase.
http://netwmd.com/articles/article1056.html
God is by definition beyond definition.
It comes from taking the four consonants of the Tetragrammaton (ancient Hebrew did not use vowels) and superimposing the Masoretic vowel markers for the word "adonai," the Hebrew word for Lord.
Muslims are forbidden to drink wine.
Not in paradise.
I could be wrong, but I've seen no reason to think there are mystical supernatural forces.
To Jews, Jesus isn't God, and they reject Him as such. Christians OTOH look to God in the OT as Jesus...ironic or paradoxical? In any event, if Jesus was correct, Jews who reject him are no more saved than Muslims, since they have to pay for their own sins..which of course they cant.
It means self...it means greed...Gimme.
It is the language of Shayateen...it is the language of Allah, the moon god. He is a liar and a murderer.
Follow him at your eternal risk.
See #80 above. Tell me what you think.
What have you got to lose. Listen only to the voice of Good and Love.
Take charge...demand an answer and keep on demanding.
If there is a spirit of Love...He will answer.
He loves you...more than you can imagine (of course I could be wrong...but find out for yourself).
I have asked out. In return I started having epileptic seizures when my life started falling apart a few years.
It eventually go better, but without any supernatural help I can guarantee you. For me, I asked out, and heard nothing back whatsoever.
I believe anyone that 'hears' things like that are suffering from delusional thinking. It appears that our desire to have a god is genetically based, so I really can't say it's abnormal or unexpected that many people do feel supernatural powers.
It's your business, of course, but what have you got to lose.
You can imagine the reason I might care. It isn't about selling or proselitizing. It is about asking a fellow man to look. Seek it and seek it diligently...if it isn't there, you will learn that.
But if He is there (and He has been for me), your life will kick up so high that you won't even care if you have arms or legs.
I came back from a bad place...nothing worse than depression. Depression is as bad as is needed for you to feel rotten.
Best of luck and much love.
Thanks. I don't belittle people that do find something when they look.. But I did look, and there's nothing to be found for me at least.
"I don't expect you to agree; I simply hope that I have communicated effectively, and that you understand my point."
Well, I, at least, understand that you are not the actual king of the elves. It's disappointing, but I understand it.
Any religion that attempts to establish a world-wide, temporal authority in the name of God is acting in the name of Satan. "My kingdom is not of this world," is what the true God wishes to instill in the hearts and minds of man. A good many understand this, but it is nevertheless a little flock.
Or are you afraid of the answer? Are you afraid that life might be worth living? You must find out for yourself...it is after all, your life.
Come on...be a man...or a woman.
Stand up for something. Don't lose your life because you are afraid to fight for it.
in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells, bodily.
the muzzies say jesus is NOT god.
Thus allah and jesus are clearly NOT the same god.
I asked a nice imam once to explain the prohibition on alcohol to me, and asked about the wine in islams paradise. He reaffirmed the belief that Allah will be providing them with non-alcoholic wine in those rivers of wine, milk and honey that will run thru the gardens of Allahs celestial whorehouse.
Of course, one of the few ways to guarantee that I would get my "houris" and beautiful young boys would be to become a shaheed, but then, that's exactly how they find other outcasts in their society and get then to "redeem themselves" in allahs eyes...
I once had a Muslim ask me (online, on an Islamic forum) how I would feel if I died and then found myself in Islams heaven facing their Allah.
To be honest, if I ever ended up in the same place as their shaheeds, I would know instantly that I would be in hell.
They can keep Allahs temptations and perversions for themselves...
Oddly enough I am a distant cousin of King Oberon, and hold a largely ceremonial position in the Elves' Office of the Exchequer. It causes no end of confusion...misrouted memos, undelivered mail...At one time I nearly changed my name to Puck simply to put an end to it.
Wiser heads prevailed.
As I understand it, the Trinity is 1 x 1 x 1 = 1. Some would say that the Trinity is 1 + 1 + 1 = 3.
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