Bookmark this one for your weekend entertainment plans!
“Sure. Lets call God Allah. Lets then call a church a mosque and pray five times a day. Ramadan sounds like fun,”
Reading for fans of “unhinged Norwegian Marxists”.
The latest installment by Michael Totten – Balance of terror.
Add yours in the comments.
Belisarius
‘Rejected son’ comes from history and the Bible Old and New Testaments. Look it up and you might grasp the concept. I am simply using the analogy to describe observed behaviors.
You translated “al” as “the”. I translated it as “only” which is what my Arabic speaking friend translated it as. It seems that the definite also expresses exclusive.
By the way according to that same friend there are 99 names of allah which describe the attributes of allah. I also checked some Muslim web sites and they all spoke of the 99 names of allah. You can look that one up too if you want.
Joe,
In Islam, the “99 names” of God are more properly described as the “attributes” of God (the merciful, the compassionate, the all seeing, etc.). They modify the noun “Allah” (God). As I mentioned, because “Allah” means “God” (definite – not “a god”), it is also used by Christian Arabs when referring to “God”. They used the word for centuries before the arrival of Islam and continue to do so today.
Rejected son – are you referring to the story of Ishmael (in tradition, the ancestor of the Arabs)? There’s nothing in the Bible about him creating a new religion out of jealousy.
There is no creator.Religion is a load of crap. All of it.
Belisarius
Sorry to confuse you. Ishmael did not start any religion. However the religion started by Mohammed is the religion of the rejected son. A close reading of St Paul’s letter to the Galatians seems to predict the advent of Islam. The nature of Islam is that of a rejected son. The practitioner of Islam is never certain of the approval of Allah. He is always seeking to be more perfect so as to be sure that finally Allah must notice and approve of him. At the same time he is constantly at emnity with those about him. Those who are born sons and those who are adopted as sons are especially despised because they don’t believe that what he is doing will obtain the approval of Allah. In fact he feels he must defend the name of Allah much like a child of an abusive parent seeks to protect the honor of the abusing parent. All the while those who are born sons and those who are adopted sons know that the son of the slave woman shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.
Sorry but semantics doesn’t cut it. The Allah that the Muslims follow is a god not The God. The God reveals His name to His children who don’t refer to Him as God but rather Abba (Father) or Jesus or Holy Spirit or Holy Trinity and expecially the most holy name Yahweh.
Sorry but semantics doesn’t cut it.
We were talking about the meaning of the Arabic word “Allah”. If that isn’t semantics, then Oxford needs to rewrite the dictionary.
Last time I was in church I certainly heard the word “God” used a great deal, and it does seem to make frequent appearances in the Bible. I never once heard “Yahweh” (a controversial name anyway, since the exact pronunciation of the ancient Hebrew symbols is represents is unknown).
How do you know that the God of the Muslims is not the God of Christians and Jews? The Catholic church doesn’t agree with you, nor do most religious scholars. Islam is a faith in the Abrahamic tradition, and considers both Jewish and Christian religious texts to be sacred. If you consider Mohammed to be a false prophet, that is your opinion only. It might be true, but it doesn’t change the fact that Muslims worship the God of Abraham and Moses and Joseph Smith.
Belisarius
If you want to call Allah, God you have my permission even though you don’t need it. If you want to go to mosque, you have my permission even though you don’t need it. If you want to bow toward Mecca five times a day you have my permission even though you don’t need it.
If you want to enter the Kingdom of Heaven then you need to seek the Lord of Life Jesus Christ and abandon this semantic foolishness that you think is wisdom.
The Christian which I, by the Grace of Yahweh am called and kept, follow a faith that is not based on feeble words expressing the “wisdom of man”.
If you have been to Church or read a Bible you might recognize, “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.”
Peace
If you want to enter the Kingdom of Heaven then you need to seek the Lord of Life Jesus Christ and abandon this semantic foolishness that you think is wisdom.
The first part of your statement might be true, but the second most assuredly is not. Semantics are important, particularly when individuals spread misinformation based on faulty interpretation of language.
No Belisarius Foolish semantics are deadly. Especially when you assert that because Arabic speaking Christians use the word Allah that the Muslim god Allah is the same as the Christian/Jewish God Yahweh.
In old Testament times a commonly used word for lord was baal. When I worship the Lord Jesus Christ I am not worshipping Baal. Even the ancient prophets of Yahweh condemned the worship of Baal because Baal was not Yahweh. Elijah proved the priests of Baal wrong on Mount Carmel.
In our culture Allah is the Muslim deity and the word with a capital G, God, refers to Yahweh. To say other wise is foolish semantics pure and simple. Your attempt to make them the same being is disingenuous in the extreme.
Don’t take my word, then. Ask the Pope. Or any other religious scholar. Islam is a religion in the Abrahamic tradition of Judaism and Christianity. “God” means “God”. Muslims testify daily that there is “No God but God”. Do you disagree?
I don’t need to ask the Pope or any other religious leader. Follow the logic. Christians believe that Jesus is God (God the Son). Muslims believe Jesus is only a prophet and not God therefore the Muslims do not worship the same God. Therefore the Muslim Allah is not the same as the Arabic speaking Christian’s Allah.
Since Jews also do not acknowledge Jesus as God (or even a prophet, for that matter) by your logic they also do not worship the same God.
The system of differing beliefs associated with each religion does not change the fact that at the core of each is the same God and Abrahamic traditions.
Actually many Jews do believe in Jesus as God the Son. Their number is increasing daily. Many “Christians” do not believe Jesus is God the Son. Do they worship the same God because of some Abrahamic tradition? Don’t be silly. If that were the case any crackpot could dream up a vision of a god, claim Abrahamic tradition and presto his religion is just as valid as any other. Joseph Smith tried to do that with the native North Americans and came up with Mormonism. Rutherford tried to sanctify Masonic practices claiming Abrahamic tradition and came up the JWs. Mohammed tried to reinstitute the Mosaic law except he didn’t understand it and when his failings were pointed out he slaughtered the Jews. He then turned around and 2000 years after the recorded events tried to re-write the history of Abraham and the two sons to make the elder son the chosen not the younger. Jesus said that He and the Father are one. How can you deny one and accept the other. You can’t. Its too bad you don’t have a firm grasp of the understanding of the Trinity. If you did you would immediately know that the Muslims do not worship the same God as Christians. Please don’t cite the Catholic Church they too are human and have short comings in their theology. Hence the split with the Orthodox and the Protestant. I am convinced that the only reason that you would even post that Christians and Muslims worship the same God is becsuse you seek to legitimize their error thinking that by doing so you shall bring peace. Your desire has one big failure in store because if you ask any Muslim if Christians and Muslims worship the same God they will say no.
Hey Joe,
I state that Christians and Muslims (and Mormons, for that matter) worship the same God because I believe it to be true. Frankly, I was very surprised when I first came across Christian evangelicals who felt otherwise.
Actually, I think you will find that most Muslims also think this because it forms a fundamental part of their belief system. As you already noted, they venerate Jesus as a prophet.
A few examples: author and religious scholar Reza Aslan, Muslim reformer Irshad Manji.
Belisarius
I deal with a lot of Muslims and ex Muslims and I have yet to have one of them say that they believe that Muslims and Christians worship the same God. The ex Muslims are the most strident in their assertion that Muslims and Christians do not worship the same God. The Christian Trinity is a major stumbling block to the Muslim who believe that Allah is one and definitely three in one. As one ex Muslim recounted while he was still a Muslim he began having nightmares. Almost nightly he would have a dream in which he was being chased. He would run and run until he came upon a massive wall that he can not go around over or under. The thing chasing him was closing in and he would hear a voice saying, “I am the Way the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except by me.” He would then wake up in a cold sweat. After several weeks he went to a church in Calgary and demanded to speak to their dream interpreter. The church staff were a bit confused but finally one of the Pastors took him aside and he recounted his dream. He left the church a Christian and has never had that dream again. Do you honestly believe that he thinks that Allah and Yahweh are one and the same?