11-29-2004, 08:14 PM
Bismallah,
I understand your point, and that it is a dogmatic teaching of your faith that you refer to God as Allah. And I also realize that faith is an almost, if not entirely, impossible point from wich to base a counter-point for a debate. People will cling with faith to a belief in total contradiction of all other history.
Let me explain this:
As a Muslim, you trace your religious lineage through Ishmael to Abraham. Abraham, according to contemporary historical accounts was the son of a man named Terah who, in turn, was a son of Noah.
But let's not even go that far back, let's just stick with Abraham.
Abraham can be seen as the genealogical starting point for all religious interpretations that have manifested from the Middle-East: Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Samaritan, Aramaic, Hebrew. All concepts of "The One God" stem from one place.
Now, take that one place and add time and you get multiple names for God. A few examples:
El, Elohim, Allah, El Shaddai, Adonai, Jehovah, Jehovah-Jireh, Jehovah-Rophe, Jehovah-Nissi, Jehovah-Shalom, Tsidkenu, Rohi, Shammah, Sabaoth, El Elyon, Abhir, Branch, Kadosh, Shaphat, El Roi, Kanna, Palet, Yesha, Gaol, Magen, Eyaluth, Tsaddiq, El-Olam, El-Berith, El-Gibhor, Zur, Melekh, FATHER, The First And Last.
This is not Christian theology or dogma. These are the names I have been able to uncover from MULTIPLE religious documetation and historical accounts.
And so, your belief that God must only be referred to as Allah, while it is obviously a strongly held conviction of faith, is not substantiated or upheld by historical research.
You quote the Quran and you and others have referred to the Hadith, of which there are quite a few:
al-Bukhari (d. 870) included 7275 hadiths
Muslim b. al-Hajjaj (d. 875) included 9200.
Abu Da'ud (d. 888)
al-Tirmidhi (d. 892)
al-Nasa'i (d. 915)
Ibn Maja (d. 886).
You say that, in the Quran, God COMMANDS that he be referred to as Allah. However, as I said above, this is not borne out by the progression of the concept of The One God. And, in truth, your Hadith would seem to contradict such "blind" faith:
"The superiority of the learned man over one who only worships is like the superiorty of the moon when it is full, covering the stars. The learned are the heirs of the Prophets who do not leave a legacy of dirhams and dinars but only of knowledge."
"God has not created anything better than reason, or anything more perfect or more beautiful than reason. The benefits which God gives are on its account; and understanding is by it, and God's wrath is caused by it, and by it are rewards and punishment."
I find the Hadith very interesting, because, as these examples reveal, the hadith often have blunt advice for Muslims that enters the realm of professional choices or political culture or philosophy - akin in influence to views of Aristotle.
Another interesting point is a verse from the Christian book of "Revelations", which is most often considered to have been written by the Apostle John. Revelations says that, upon his physical return to Earth, the One True Name of the One True God will be called out and every knee on earth shall bow and every tongue confess.
That's interesting because, even at the time of its writing, several hundred years before the time of Muhammed, we see, already, some discord related to the name of The One God. It's also interesting that John does not claim that Jehovah is THE NAME. In fact, he seems to imply that it isn't and that none of us know the true name of God.
And finally (and only because you asked), Christians do not view Jesus as a god or the One God. We believe that Jesus, along with an unseen guiding spirit we call "The Holy Ghost", share a very special relationship with God that we refer to as The Holy Trinity.
In closing, let me say that I find it disappointing that, from my entire previous discourse, the only point of discussion that anyone seems to care to debate is my semantic use of the word "Father" to refer to "God".
-Child Of Nowhere