The Islamic Solution: "Defining" The One God
The Islamic Solution: "Defining" The One God
Many religions and their various denominations say that they believe in
"The One God" and often each such Faith has a "name" for The One God,
in (or derived from) the particular language of their faith and their
particular
interpretations of their scriptures and other sources of religious authority
for their particular religious Faith.
While Christianity, Judaism, and Islam each claim that each Faith is the
Faith of The God of Abraham, The One God, each of these Three Faiths of
Jerusalem uses a different "name" or "names" for The One God due to the
different languages of origin of these Faiths/Religions which seem to not
agree that it is the same One God that they each claim to worship regardless
of the "name" assigned.
However, "How The One God Operates in The World" is viewed differently by
the various denominations and interpretations of these and other
"monotheistic" religions.
The fundamental difference it would seem, between many predominant Christian
and Jewish interpretations and the basic Fundamental outlook/belief of
Islam,
is in the very nature of the "definition" of "The One God" -- called in
Arabic language Allah meaning "The God".
"By definition" in the Faith of Islam, "if/when something happens, it
can/does only happen in accord with 'The Will' of The One God." In the
understanding of "How The One God Operates in The World" of the Faith of
Islam, everything that happens, "by definition" happens "By The Will of The
God" and nothing that happens can possibly not be due to "The Will of The
One God."
This is evinced in the common colloquialisms of greetings and in daily life
where one of the faithful of Islam always qualifies any personal goal or
desire or expectation or plan for the future with the invariably voiced
caveat, "In'sha'Allah" meaning in English, "If The God Wills." When
something happens that is not what the believer would want to have happened,
or doesn't happen as expected, the similarly invariably voiced reaction is
"Ma'a'sha'Allah" or roughly in English meaning "As With The Will of The
God."
This clear and fundamental precept of Islam is similar if not identical to
fundamentals of Christianity and Judaism but in practice, for some reason,
the various Judeo-Christian denominations and interpretations seem to have
lots of accepted disclaimers and caveats and confusing reasons why The One
God does not operate this way in the world in their views, eg, "the devil
made me do it" or "the free will of human beings caused the problem and God
had nothing to do with it", etc etc etc., ie, different "definitions of
God".
In Judaism it is taught that there is a Law by which even God must operate
in the world and cannot contradict in such operation in the world. This One
Law is depicted by the teachings of the scriptures of The Torah.
Similarly in Buddhism, which instead of "defining God" as The Creator,
defines The Mind as the "Creator," as also does its parent religion Hinduism
but with the involvement of The One God in many forms which are venerated
also for what their understanding offers to what Hinduism sees as a Mind-God
interaction at work operational according to the cause and effect principle
of Karma and also the One Law principle (as above) depicted by Dharma as The
Law operational beyond the confines of cause and effect, ie, including the
principle of "inevitability" often termed "synchronicity" by Jungian
terminologies as interpreted in "The West".
In order to reconcile different seemingly conflicting religious beliefs, it
is
necessary to understand their different language roots and patterns of
thinking, and to understand that the variations in these from culture to
culture and language to language is the main culprit in the
misunderstandings and conflicts that exist between followers of different
religions and denominations in today's times.
For example, the English language is a language of unique "multiple
entendre" meanings of some words, and since most people do not study
dictionaries carefully anyway, the Big Problem between English language
interpretations of the relationship between The One God and The Lord
Jesus Christ is this passage depicting Jesus as the "only begotten Son of
God."
Nowhere in Christian scriptures will it ever be found where this reference
uses "son" with the small "s" and always this reference will be found using
"Son" with the capital "S." No Christian would argue that God is a human
being who fathered Jesus in the ordinary sense. Thus logically there is a
deeper symbolic meaning to this term "Son of God" that is actually contrary
to the literal meaning when the capital "S" in "Son" is used. But English
speaking Christians seem to entirely overlook this very important
distinction and talk and act as though this is a literal truism where God
"fathered" Jesus in the "carnal way" rather than considering what the
deeper meaning is, of this fundamental teaching of Christianity that
"Jesus is The Son of God."
These are the two fundamental problems, between Christianity, and Islam which recognizes Jesus
equivalently to Mohammed as a "Prophet/Messenger" ("Rasuhl" in Arabic)
of The One God, but, per the Koran, "God does not beget and is not begotten"
in the literal carnal sense. Arabic language has no capital and small
letters so this "fine distinction" is exacerbated by Christians who do not
stop
to think and understand what it really means "Jesus is The Son of God"
when they/we clearly all know that it does not mean that God is a human
being who fathered Jesus, as are fathered "regular human beings".
The belief in the immaculate conception of Jesus is the reason for this
terminology.
This is not a principle belief unique to Christianity since it is also
found in the oral history of the person born about a thousand years ago
who founded what is now known as the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy,
whom they call The Peacemaker and believe was also born of an
immaculate conception and born to a virgin woman.
Similarly in our times,
the now widely known description of the conception in early 1926 in India
of Sri Sathya Sai Baba, witnessed by some and testified by many as told by
the Baba on his birthday 23Nov03, where a "light from the sky" entering his
mother's womb conceived his human body-form as one uniquely conceived by the same mother of other children/siblings conceived
and born "by normal means".
My mother, who believes in Sai Baba, interrupted me in the middle of
composing this article to tell me that a rainbow was forming outside as
she had been "asking Baba for a long time" and again interrupted me
after this last paragraph to say she had been outside and it formed into
a full rainbow and then ended, so here I end this article.
David Crockett Williams, Jr., December 7, 2003 11:00amPST
Golden Hills, Tehachapi, California, United States of America, Earth
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