Islam The Doctrine of God

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IslamThe Doctrine of God
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Oneness of God

• Islam emphasizes the oneness (tawhid) of God.
  There is no god but God (la ilaha illa-llah)
  (Shahada) essential part of the creed that is
  one of the five pillars of Islam.
• Two Aspects to the Tawhid of God
• God is one (wahid)
• God is unique (ahad)

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• God said, Do not take two gods - for He is
  the One God - I alone am the One that you should
  hold in awe. Sura 1653
• He is God there is no god other than Him. .
  .He is God there is no god other than Him. Sura
  5922

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Attributes of God

• The attributes or qualities of God are designated
  by different names (asma) given to God in the
  Quran. Traditionally 99 names are ascribed to
  God.
• The attributes of God in the Quran indicate that
  God is a personal being in Islam, but they are
  also utilized in a way that indicates that God is
  absolutely transcendent and therefore beyond
  personhood.

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Names of Majesty (Jalal)

• One class of names signifies attributes of
  majesty (jalal) e.g., all powerful
  (omnipotence), all knowing (omniscience), the
  Just, the giver of death, the victorious.
• These attributes, which indicate the great
  difference between God and created beings, induce
  awe and reverence for God.
• These terms are often masculine in gender and
  link one aspect of human nature to the personal
  nature of God.

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• God is not to be frustrated by anything in the
  heavens or on the earth He is all knowing and
  all powerful. Sura 3544
• Everything in the heavens and earth glorifies
  God - He is the almighty, the Wise, Control of
  the heavens and earth belongs to Him He gives
  life and death Has has power over all things. He
  is the first and the last. Sura 571-3
• God creates whatever He will God has power
  over everything. Sura 2445

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Names of Beauty (Jamal)

• A second class of names signifies attributes of
  beauty (jamal) the merciful, the forgiver, the
  lover, the gentle, the generous, the beautiful.
• These attributes, which indicate a similarity
  between God and created beings, induce a sense of
  closeness or intimacy between God and humans.
• The names of beauty are often in the feminine
  gender and link the other dimension to human
  nature to Gods personal nature.

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• Forgiver and Lover He is the most forgiving,
  the most loving. Sura 8514. My Lord is
  merciful and most loving. Sura 1190
• Provider It is God who has given you the earth
  for a dwelling place and the heavens a canopy. He
  shaped you, formed you well, and provided you
  with good things. Sura 4064 (cf. 5158)
• Protector He is the Protector, worthy of all
  praise. Sura 4228
• Benefactor Do they not see that God gives
  abundantly to whoever He will. . . Sura 3037

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• Sura 11 In the Name of God, the Lord of Mercy,
  the Giver of Mercy (Bismillah al-Rahman,
  al-Rahim)
• rahman, unconditional loving compassion or free
  mercy (derives from rahem, a womb, and is used to
  designate familial compassion).
• rahim, divine loving response to human actions,
  and hence specifically relevant to believers.
• Lord is a majestic term. Its use here
  suggests a union of majesty and beauty, or
  something majestic about the beauty itself.
• This statement is the beginning of every sura,
  except sura 9.

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Allah and Krishna Comparison

• I. The jalal (majestic) and jamal (beautiful)
  classification of terms designating Allah are
  structurally identical to the aishvarya
  (opulence) and madhurya (sweetness)
  classification of qualities designating Krishna
  in Vaishnaivism.
• II. Vaishnavism communicates this consciousness
  of God with two-fold qualities through an avatar
  narrative designed to reveal God to us in a way
  that will intensify devotion.
• III. Islam communicates this consciousness of God
  with two-fold qualities through the use of words
  designed to reveal God to us in a way that will
  intensify devotion.

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• The most excellent Names belong to God use them
  to call on Him.
• Sura 7180

The names of God are designed to mediate our
relationship with God, who is in Himself (Itself)
wholly transcendent.
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Names of Perfection

• A third and final class of names are names of
  perfection (kamal).
• These names include those that signify Gods
  oneness (Sura 2163), self-sufficiency (Sura
  2264), all-pervading and limitless nature (Sura
  2115, 268), eternality (Sura 1122), and all
  superlative designations, e.g., all knowing, all
  powerful, etc.
• He is God the creator, the originator, the
  shaper. The best names belong to Him. Sura
  5924, cf. 17110.
• Gods hidden essence is called al-dhat.

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Allah as the Personal Absolute

• Islam exhibits a consciousness of God as that
  which is revealed in the masculine and feminine,
  while simultaneously being that which is wholly
  beyond the duality of masculine and feminine.
• We can relate to God because aspects of the
  transcendent are present in the masculine and
  feminine, though in a finite mode.

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Majesty, Beauty, and Perfection

• He is God there is no god other than Him. .
  .He is the Lord or mercy, the giver of mercy. He
  is God there is no god other than Him, the
  controller, the Holy One, source of peace,
  granter of security, guardian over all, the
  almighty, the compeller, the truly great God is
  far above anything else they consider to be his
  partner. He is God the creator, originator, the
  shaper. The best names belong to Him. Everything
  in the heavens and earth glorifies him he is
  almighty, the wise. Sura 5922-24

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Grounds of Islamic Monotheism

• Quran presents its monotheistic teachings not as
  something new but as rooted in the Abrahamic
  tradition.
• Sura 21 provides an account of the revelations
  God gave to the prophets of the Jewish
  Scriptures. The account includes Abrahams
  opposition to the idolatry of his day.
• We wrote in the Psalms, as we did in earlier
  Scriptures My righteous servants will inherit
  the earth. Sura 21105

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Monotheism of Islam

• Quran presents its monotheistic teachings as
  evident from signs in the natural world.
• These signs typically concern Gods providential
  control of the world, which is linked with Gods
  mercy and goodness to the world.
• It is God who sends water down from the sky and
  with it revives the earth when it is dead. There
  truly is a sign in this for those people listen.
  Sura 1665

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• Your God is the one God there is no god except
  Him, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of mercy. In
  the creation of the heavens and the earth in the
  alternation of night and day in the ships that
  sail the seas with goods for people in the water
  which God sends down from the sky to give life to
  the earth when it is barren, scattering all kinds
  of creatures over it in the changing of the
  winds and clouds that run their appointed courses
  between the sky and earth there are signs in all
  these for those who use their minds. Sura
  2163-164

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Islam Doctrine of Creation
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• Like Judaism and Christianity, Islam teaches that
  God is the creator of the universe. Like their
  western counterparts, Islamic theologians have
  disagreed about the relationship between God and
  creation
• God freely created the universe and the universe
  has a beginning.
• The universe has eternally emanated from the very
  being of God.

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Why Must There be a Beginning to the
Universe? It provides a way of distinguishing
God from the universe. God is eternal. The
universe is not eternal. Also underscores Gods
power. Why Must the Universe Be Eternal? God is
essentially a creative being, and so God cannot
exist without the universe existing.
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Avicennas Neoplatonist Metaphysics
Avicenna (980-1037) made the following argument

• God is essentially goodness.
• Goodness is essentially diffusive of itself.
• (Neoplatonist Principle)
• So
• (3) God is necessarily creator.
• So
• (4) The universe is eternal.

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How did Avicenna distinguish God from the
universe?
Created things composition of wujud (existence)
and mahiat (essence). What they are is distinct
from their existence. Their whatness does not
guarantee thatness. Created things gt Necessary
Being A necessary being a being in whom wujud
(existence) and mahiat (essence) are one and the
same. God is distinguished from the universe
by virtue of being a wholly simple (wahid ahad),
intrinsically necessary being.
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