Allah is "Emmanuel"

[Faith Hope Charity]

Glory to God, peace on earth, goodwill to all.


Hi naseeha :wavey:


Okay, here's my take...

I would beg to differ FHC when you said "Same end.. different means"


I would say this because, the belief that Allah is above all is central to the Islamic Aqeedah (Creed). To believe that he's amongst us.. here there and everywhere is something that is frowned upon in islam.


You see, this belief can lead to practices that are completely alien to islam and the rise of actions that would shake the very foundation of someone's faith if they saw allah as being here there and everywhere.

I totally understand where you're coming from. But if we believe God/Allah (SWT) created everything then He is in some form or another present & manifested in everything... whether it be by His knowledge, power, or essence.

For instance... Lets just say... over the course of 1000 years the thought patterns of the people where to go as follows;
______________________________


After 1 Year - Allah is everywhere


After 100 years - If Allah is everywhere then he's in this rock on the ground.


After 300 years - If Allah is in this rock in the ground maybe I can use it to help me concentrate during my prayer..


After 800 years - I'll carve a statue out of this rock and use it as a form of focusing my concentration on god.


After 1000 years - I'll worship this rock....


______________________________

That sounds like Pantheism - the furthest thing from both our beliefs. We can look at a rock, flower, waterfall, butterfly etc., & appreciate the beauty & goodness of God's/Allah's creation but we can't say that those things <i>are</i> God/Allah.


To "worships a rock" is to believe that the rock itself possesses power, glory, wisdom etc., minus God.

another way of looking at this issue is this.....
"If Allah is here, there and everywhere, then that means that he is in the faeces that the dog left in the front lawn " NA AUDHU BILLAH!!! and surely our lord is not there....

Try looking at it a different way. Nothing in the universe came to be without the awesome hands of God/Allah bringing it into existence... that includes the dog, the lawn & the faeces. He's the ultimate first principle, mover & sustainer of all things.


Again, it's difficult to speak about God/Allah in human terms.


Perhaps it would be more appropriate to say that God is not in the faeces but the faeces are in, or part or, God's creation.

As for your question above.....


Allah refers to himself in the plural in many parts of the quran. this is what we call in islam "first person plural" It's a part of speech that indicates Majesty....


From the little reading that I have done, this form of speech is also not foreign to the kings of the past who would refer to tehmselves as "We"

Are you serious?


I can understand why kings, popes, leaders etc., would use "We" in the first person plural (because of their predecessors/successors), but I'm quite surprised that Allah did in the Koran. Anyways, it's no big deal. Thanks for answering :thumb:

Hope I cleared some things up FHC....

Hope I didn't blur your vision, mate ;)

Hidaaya

One more thing... what does "Hidaaya" mean?


Thanks again, naseeha :thumb:


God bless.