My Sunday Thought for 031217: Islam 101 - Who is Allah?

"Let there be no doubt -
Muslims worship the God of Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus -
peace be upon them all."

I'm taking a break, this Sunday, from beating my head against the wall for anything new to say.

Islam was thrust upon me again, just last week, by an older Christian. He is a very 'by the Book' Christian, a believer that the Bible is the 'Word’ of God, and that Muslims do not believe in God. What? This came as unsettling news to me considering they're one of the three Abrahamic religions but, then, I actually pick up a book occasionally and try to think for myself instead of blindly strapping an explosive vest of inaccurate, hateful, rhetoric to my chest in order to attack the innocent.

It has been pointed out to me that this gentleman could just be ignorant and doesn’t know any better. My first thought to this point is - no shit. My second thought, is to the Holocaust. Did the Holocaust occur because people just didn’t know any better? Was it a case of mass ignorance?  Perhaps so, after all, the world turned its back on the Jews because they were Hitler’s problem, and the world has spent every day since the end of WWII trying to erase their culpability in mass genocide. Let’s try to not forget the history of that little unpleasantness as we march boldly forward, repeating the same mistakes of bad judgment.  Have we not been turning our backs on current acts of genocide in the Middle East while the innocent plead for arms and intervention? I’m not sure which is worse, ignorance, hate, or blatant stupidity when it comes to genocide, but then, who am I to judge?

There are fanatics in all religions.  It is a downside of the cult phenomena that the mentally unhinged and power hungry among us search for safe haven or easy pickings in midst of our desire for salvation.  The hierarchy of Judaism had Jesus tortured and put to death because he was a threat to their power and control.  Christian hierarchy waged war on Islam because the knights were broke and bored.  And which Inquisition should we mention, the Medieval, the Episcopal, the Papal, the Cathars, the Waldensians, the Roman, Spanish, or the Portuguese?  Oh yes, Christianity is certainly not immune to controlling fanatics.  Let us keep this in mind when we rush to heresy by violating the very 'Word' we say we have faith in as we judge the belief of others without giving them the benefit of Christ's sweet understanding.

I came across this short, very easy to understand, informative piece on Islam which I thought some of you might find enlightening.  You can find the original text at IslamReligion.com.  We can keep open and active minds or we can choose to believe the media and the hate mongers which whisper sweet, genocidal, nothings in our ear.  We can move with the lemmings and drink the cyanide laced fruit punch of fanatical Christianity or we can choose to believe in the sweet tolerance and understanding of Jesus Christ.  The choice of 'taking the high road' should always be our own.

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Who is Allah?

Some of the biggest misconceptions that many non-Muslims have about Islam have to do with the word “Allah.” For various reasons, many people have come to believe that Muslims worship a different God than Christians and Jews. This is totally false, since “Allah” is simply the Arabic word for “God” - and there is only One God. Let there be no doubt - Muslims worship the God of Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus - peace be upon them all. However, it is certainly true that Jews, Christians and Muslims all have different concepts of Almighty God. For example, Muslims - like Jews - reject the Christian beliefs of the Trinity and the Divine Incarnation. This, however, does not mean that each of these three religions worships a different God - because, as we have already said, there is only One True God. Judaism, Christianity and Islam all claim to be “Abrahamic Faiths” and all of them are also classified as “monotheistic.” However, Islam teaches that other religions have, in one way or another, distorted and nullified a pure and proper belief in Almighty God by neglecting His true teachings and mixing them with man-made ideas.

First of all, it is important to note that “Allah” is the same word that Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews use for God. If you pick up an Arabic Bible, you will see the word “Allah” being used where “God” is used in English. This is because “Allah” is a word in the Arabic language equivalent to the English word “God” with a capital “G”. Additionally, the word “Allah” cannot be made plural, a fact which goes hand-in-hand with the Islamic concept of God.

It is interesting to note that the Aramaic word “El”, which is the word for God in the language that Jesus spoke, is certainly more similar in sound to the word “Allah” than the English word “God.” This also holds true for the various Hebrew words for God, which are “El” and “Elah”, and the plural or glorified form “Elohim.” The reason for these similarities is that Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic are all Semitic languages with common origins. It should also be noted that in translating the Bible into English, the Hebrew word “El” is translated variously as “God”, “god” and “angel”! This imprecise language allows different translators, based on their preconceived notions, to translate the word to fit their own views. The Arabic word “Allah” presents no such difficulty or ambiguity, since it is only used for Almighty God alone. Additionally, in English, the only difference between “god”, meaning a false god, and “God”, meaning the One True God, is the capital “G”. Due to the above mentioned facts, a more accurate translation of the word “Allah” into English might be “The One -and-Only God” or “The One True God.”

More importantly, it should also be noted that the Arabic word “Allah” contains a deep religious message due to its root meaning and origin. This is because it stems from the Arabic verb ta’allaha (or alaha), which means “to be worshipped.” Thus in Arabic, the word “Allah” means “The One who deserves all worship.” This, in a nutshell, is the Pure Monotheistic message of Islam. 

Suffice it to say that just because someone claims to be a “monotheistic” Jew, Christian or Muslim, that does not keep them from falling into corrupt beliefs and idolatrous practices. Many people, including some Muslims, claim belief in “One God” even though they’ve fallen into acts of idolatry. Certainly, many Protestants accuse Roman Catholics of idolatrous practices in regards to the saints and the Virgin Mary. Likewise, the Greek Orthodox Church is considered “idolatrous” by many other Christians because in much of their worship they use icons. However, if you ask a Roman Catholic or a Greek Orthodox person if God is “One”, they will invariably answer: “Yes!.” This claim, however, does not stop them from being “creature worshipping” idolaters. The same goes for Hindus, who just consider their gods to be “manifestations” or “incarnations” of the One Supreme God. 

Before concluding… there are some people out there, who are obviously not on the side of truth, that want to get people to believe that “Allah” is just some Arabian “god," and that Islam is completely “other” - meaning that it has no common roots with the other Abrahamic religions (i.e. Christianity and Judaism). To say that Muslims worship a different “God” because they say “Allah” is just as illogical as saying that French people worship another God because they use the word “Dieu”, that Spanish-speaking people worship a different God because they say “Dios” or that the Jews worship a different God because they sometimes call Him “Yahweh.” Certainly, reasoning like this is quite ridiculous! It should also be mentioned, that claiming that any one language uses the only the correct word for God is tantamount to denying the universality of God’s message to mankind, which was to all nations, tribes and people through various prophets who spoke different languages. 

We would like to ask our readers about the motives of these people? The reason is that the Ultimate Truth of Islam stands on solid ground and its unshakeable belief in the Unity of God is above reproach. Due to this, Christians can’t criticize its doctrines directly, but instead fabricate things about Islam that aren’t true so that people lose the desire to learn more. If Islam were presented in the proper way to the world, it surely might make many people reconsider and reevaluate their own beliefs. It is quite likely that when they find out that there is a universal religion in the world that teaches people to worship and love God, while also practicing Pure Monotheism, would at least feel that they should re-examine the basis for their own beliefs and doctrines. 

Editor's Note 

(re: disclaimer cum "get out of jail free" card) 

Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, it is essential to understand that this is just an opinion site and, as such, can be subjected to scrutiny by anyone with a differing opinion. It doesn't make either opinion any more right or wrong than the other. An opinion, presented in this context, is a way of inciting others to think and, hopefully, to form opinions of their own, if they haven't already done so. This is also why, occasionally, I will present an "opinion" just to stir an emotional pot. Where it may sound like I agree with the statements made, I'm more interested in getting others to consider another viewpoint. 

It is my fervent hope that we keep open and active minds when reading opinions and then engaging in peaceful, constructive, discussion in an arena of mutual respect concerning the opinions put forth. After over twenty years with military intelligence, I have come to believe engaging each other in this manner and in this arena is the way we will learn tolerance and respect for differing beliefs, cultures, and viewpoints.

We all fall from grace, some more often than others; it is part of being human. God's test for us is what we learn from the experience, and what we do afterward.

Pastor Tony spent 23 years with United States Air Force Intelligence as a planner, analyst, briefer, instructor, and senior manager. He spent 17 years, following his service career, working with an Institutional Review Board helping to protect the rights of human subjects in pharmaceutical research.  Ordained 1n 2013 as an "interfaith" minister, he founded the Congregation for Religious Tolerance in response to intolerance shown by Christians toward peaceful Islam. As the weapon for his war on intolerance he chose the pen, to wage battle in the guise of the Congregation's official, online, blog, "The Path," of which he is both author and editor. "The Path" offers a vehicle for commentary and guidance concerning one's own personal, spiritual, path toward peace and the final destination for us all. He currently resides in Pass Christian, Mississippi, where he volunteers as lead chaplain, and Chaplain Liaison, at a regional medical center.