Who Is God?
Here are some answers for the hundred or so emailers from last week who were confused and/or upset at my post saying that Christians and Jews worship the same god that Muslims do.
A review of the Koran shows Allah creating Adam, and then Eve. Later, Abraham is instructed by Allah to take his son to a hill and to sacrifice him, which Abraham prepares to do. The Koran includes a variance here from the Bible/Torah/Pentateuch in that the son to be sacrificed was not Isaac but Ishmael, his first son. As in the Bible, Allah stopped Abraham from completing the sacrifice, but Abraham had proven his total Devotion, establishing himself as the very first true believer in the One Allah.
As such, Abraham, and Ishmael are central to Muslim Faith, and they face Mecca for all Prayers to Allah because they believe that Abraham built a special building there, the Kaaba, on instructions from Allah.
The Koran also includes the entire story of Moses, including the Ten Commandments, his brother Aaron's errors regarding the Golden Calf, Egypt, the desert, and all the rest. Often, when Allah chose to give guidance to individuals, the Angel Jibril (Gabriel) appeared. Dozens of other familiar people and stories from the first five Books of the Bible are similarly presented in the Koran.
Scholars all agree that these many similarities necessarily establish that Allah is one and the same as the God YHWH (Jehovah) of the Jews and the same as He Who Christians call Father. In hundreds of places, the Koran refers to "the Book" as being the Pentateuch, the first five Books of the Bible, as being the center of all Faith. To a great extent, the Koran initially expressed a Faith that was essentially identical to Judaism, being based on the exact same Scriptures and the same Deity, Allah / YHWH. Later Muslim leaders and teachers chose to make different interpretations of verses in the Koran, sometimes out of context, to establish claims of support for their leadership, which gradually developed into rather severe animosity toward Jews and Christians.
But it cannot be dismissed, that Allah is the exact same One and Only God that Jews and Christians believe in. Individuals on either side may want to claim otherwise, but this is an unavoidable truth.
A review of the Koran shows Allah creating Adam, and then Eve. Later, Abraham is instructed by Allah to take his son to a hill and to sacrifice him, which Abraham prepares to do. The Koran includes a variance here from the Bible/Torah/Pentateuch in that the son to be sacrificed was not Isaac but Ishmael, his first son. As in the Bible, Allah stopped Abraham from completing the sacrifice, but Abraham had proven his total Devotion, establishing himself as the very first true believer in the One Allah.
As such, Abraham, and Ishmael are central to Muslim Faith, and they face Mecca for all Prayers to Allah because they believe that Abraham built a special building there, the Kaaba, on instructions from Allah.
The Koran also includes the entire story of Moses, including the Ten Commandments, his brother Aaron's errors regarding the Golden Calf, Egypt, the desert, and all the rest. Often, when Allah chose to give guidance to individuals, the Angel Jibril (Gabriel) appeared. Dozens of other familiar people and stories from the first five Books of the Bible are similarly presented in the Koran.
Scholars all agree that these many similarities necessarily establish that Allah is one and the same as the God YHWH (Jehovah) of the Jews and the same as He Who Christians call Father. In hundreds of places, the Koran refers to "the Book" as being the Pentateuch, the first five Books of the Bible, as being the center of all Faith. To a great extent, the Koran initially expressed a Faith that was essentially identical to Judaism, being based on the exact same Scriptures and the same Deity, Allah / YHWH. Later Muslim leaders and teachers chose to make different interpretations of verses in the Koran, sometimes out of context, to establish claims of support for their leadership, which gradually developed into rather severe animosity toward Jews and Christians.
But it cannot be dismissed, that Allah is the exact same One and Only God that Jews and Christians believe in. Individuals on either side may want to claim otherwise, but this is an unavoidable truth.
7 Comments:
Conflict is inherent in religious belief since in order to be a true believer you have to have faith, faith that your religion is right. If you didn't have faith in the rigtheousness of your religion, then why would you believe in that religion? Now since you do have faith that your religion is right, all others must be wrong since there cannot be other religions that are right too, I mean, there must be only one right way to live.
It's very unfortunate that fundamentalism is on the rise because modernism of religion can only be a good thing if it teaches acceptance. Religions such as Buddhism which teach acceptance and humbility and respect of other beliefs are very relevant in today's society. Imagine if Bush was a Buddhist, instead of a Christian fundamentalist.
Hello Matt,
I think there is a possibility you're right here! There is a definate similarity and i don't think you're the first to point this out!
Islam also reveres Christ although in a different context, Mary too
Both religions, theoretically abhor interest on a loan, something linked to Christ.
I would say that they are the same, however the religions perhaps wer usurped at some stage. The pharisees usurped Judaism with their money lending practices, which unfortunately still happens today.
Christianity has been usurped by the "Christian right, the so called Christian zionists.
I think that there is a connection between th religions to the one God!
maybe you should do some more reading or talk to some intelligent religious people before coming up with this crap. you are obviously operating in intellectual isolation.
christians believe that god came to earth in the form of a man to win back mankind at a time when people were slipping away from god. this belief is what defines christianity, yet you totally ignore it.
jews and muslims both believe the jesus the man existed, they don't believe that jesus is god. christians, jews and muslims might share a similar concept of creator (not to mention scripture as you point out), but the fact that to christians jesus is god means they can't possibly believe in the same god as the other two groups.
I have done quite a bit of reading, and I also fraternize with several well-known theologians. The debate over "Jesus" being "God" or not is not that clear-cut.
Here's some fodder for the argument whether He is Him:
John 7:16 "Jesus answered them and said, 'My doctrine is not mine, but His who sent me.' "
John 14:24 "He who does not love me does not keep my words; and the word which you hear is not mine but The Father's who sent me."
John 12:49 "For I have not spoken on my own authority; but the Father who sent me gave me a command, what I should say and what I should speak."
"The debate over "Jesus" being "God" or not is not that clear-cut."
It's good that you have some examples, though they are all from John which is the "oddball' gospel and the one which really plays up the "son of god" angle. Most christians though believe in the Holy Trinity even though it isn't devloped in the scriptures themselves.
Jews and Muslims don't believe in any unity between God and Jesus Christ, so it can be argued they believe in the same god but with a different set of prophets and 'rules' (the Talmud and Hadiths it's islamic counterpart).
Muslims might say that Christians believe in the same god but they've been led astray to worship Jesus.
A more important distinction is that the mainstream Protestant view is that faith is the most important trait, not actions, whereas the importance of actions is in addition to faith is always stressed by Jews and Muslims (as well as Catholics).
nikmat's views..
Sallam to all brothers and sisters. Well I'm a muslim and very interested with the articles written on Islam, Jews and Christians. In most of the articles, agree that Allah is GOD or so called The Father by the Christians. If it is so then why do the Christians worshipping JESUS, whereelse HE is the son of GOD not the GOD.
John 7:16 "Jesus answered them and said, 'My doctrine is not mine, but His who sent me.' "
John 14:24 "He who does not love me does not keep my words; and the word which you hear is not mine but The Father's who sent me."
From those two phrases clearly stated that JESUS was sent to earth by someone else, THE CREATOR. Meaning to say that GOD/ALLAH/THE FATHER is the creater and not JESUS. So why should we worship someone who was sent to us as a messanger or HIS SON, we should worship THE CREATOR, HIS FATHER.
Anyhow, since we have our own faith in our religin, therefore there shouldn't be any problem. Let us hold each others hands, be nice to each other and let us stay peacefully and happily on this world
You spelled quran wrong.
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