Among
the signs He has provided are through revelations (wahy). Major
religions such as Islam, Christianity and Hinduism, to name a few, have their
own scriptures, believed to be the words of God (or at least the words that
speak on behalf of God). For instance, Islam with the Al-Quran and the
Christianity with the Bible (Old and New Testaments). Common sense will tell us
easily, that the most important aspect of a religion is its concept of God.
Hence, while all above religions believe in God/gods, it is now necessary to
provide a set of criteria or yardstick taught in each religion, to prove who is
and who is not God. The most reliable source for this is definitely the
scriptures of each religion. As I am going to represent my beloved deen, Islam, I will explain the concept
of God in Islam, and in doing so, will make fine comparisons between Allah as
God with the God believed by the Christians, Jesus Christ being one of them (so
that we can test how the criteria of God works).
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However, as mentioned earlier, I will firstly speak in brief about the
existence of Quran itself as a proof that Allah is the God, One and Only. This is a very simple argument. Firstly, just to get things clear here, Al-Quran is not the words of Prophet
Muhammad SAW, but are the EXACT words of Allah SWT (revealed through him to the
whole mankind). Insya Allah (God willing), I will elaborate more on this in the
other upcoming episode, but suffice to say now, that the words of Muhammad SAW,
is called ahadith (plural of hadith) instead.
Now, going back to the argument, Al-Quran has mentioned explicitly that it was
revealed by Allah SWT and Allah will protect it until the end of time. Now, imagine this. If all religions were to reach a global consensus, that
today we shall burn and destroy all the scriptures and textual documents of
religions (Quran, Bible, Veda etc.) including those on the net without any
trace or backup copy whatsoever, guess what will happen?
Within only few days, only the Quran will come back to its absolute original
form, with no alteration at all, not even an alphabet! And why is this? Because Al-Quran (which is in Arabic language) is the only book memorized in
totality by many Muslims worldwide! We have children as young as 5 years old (if not younger) who memorizes the
Quran from cover to cover, and in addition to that, many of them don't even
speak (or understand) Arabic language!
This is a guarantee from Allah (in Surah Al-Hijr, aayat no.9) that the
preservation of Quran will last! It has been more than 14 hundred years now, yet it has not been altered, not in
the slightest!
(The case for Bible is significantly different, because even the
Bible scholars would agree that not only Bible has gone through so many changes
(addition and deletion) here and there throughout the course of its long
history, in fact now there are so many different versions of Bible!)
The fact that Al-Quran explicitly mentions Allah as the One and only true God,
and the fact that its preservation is impossible without permission (and work)
of God, we have now come to the end of our first premise, that is, Al-Quran
through its existence is a proof that Allah is the God. Now, this last point may be the most interesting part to analyse together. In the Quran, the 112th chapter is called Suratul Al-Ikhlas.
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It is one of the shortest Surah in it, nevertheless carries huge weight and
significance when it comes to the concept of God in Islam. In fact we shall now analyse the 4 criteria of God it outlines from its short
yet eloquent four verses. The verses explain that Allah is the God, and then beautifully continue with
the attributes of Allah as God (hence the criteria of God in Islam) which is
fulfilled by only Allah and none others.
For comparison, now let's take Jesus Christ and put him on test (whether he
fulfills the criteria to be God). Before I continue though, it's necessary to mention here that Jesus
Christ (in Arabic, Isa) is regarded as a great prophet by us Muslims. This comparison is in no way attempting to condemn him. In reality (for the
Muslims), elevating him as God, is something he himself (Jesus) will despise
and disprove of, hence a true form of insult instead! The first verse says that God must be One and Only. Christians believe that
Jesus is the Son of God, apart from The Father God and the Holy Spirit (in a
concept called Trinity). Hence, the fact that now we have more than one God, we
will say that Jesus is not a God.
The second verse refers to the absolute and eternal nature of God i.e God has
neither beginning nor ending. Muslims and Christians alike believe that Jesus
was born by Mary (in Arabic, Maryam). However, only the Christians believe that Jesus died. The fact that he was born means that he has a beginning. And the fact that he
dies means that he also has an ending. Therefore, according to the second criteria, Jesus must not be God because he
begins and ends (which makes more sense if we consider him a human being, but a
prophet, as believed by Muslims).
Thirdly, God must not beget nor is he begotten. What this means is that a God
must not be born or that he gives birth. Jesus was born. Hence, he is not a
God. The last verse, hence the last criteria suggests that God is not God if he is
the same (or possess any similarity with His creation). Jesus obviously appears to be in the form of a man during his lifetime, which
again makes him not a God, but as believed by the Muslim, more logically a
prophet. With a rather long discussion above, I shall put an end to this part
here. Let me end with this testimony. I firmly bear witness that there is no God
except Allah SWT, He is One and Only, and Muhammad SAW was his Messenger.
Suratul Al Anbiya verse 24
"Or have they taken for worship (other) gods besides Him
(Allah)? Say: Bring your proof. This (the Quran) is the
Reminder for those with me and the Reminder for those before me. But most of
them know not the Truth, so they are averse."
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