What is "God/Allah"?

shamsul-arefin

peace to all,

I think most ppl on this earth are very much confused about the concept of God. We humans cant think beyond what we know of. Thats why everytime we try to talk about God, we imagine IT with our human attributes like compassion, love, anger and so on.

So no matter how many times we say..God is this and that or how powerful and all knowing IT is but we will always try to define It through human attributes to highest level. We humans love each other, love is something considered to be good as it seems to be a positive energy for our kind SO when we think of God we say IT loves everyone with the most compassion or most pure love or something.

It seems like we are the ones who are defining God and than again argueing about it.

From our gathered intelegence, we humans have understood that unity is a great power. So as a result we imagine God as something United as One. Obviously we do this because we need to portray God as the most powerful. So obviously God is United One. But do we actualy know what God is or How it menifests itself ?

We live in an ever changing relative world. Thats why our understanding is always changing. It depends on our acceptence level. More we gain knowledge/Information, more our imagination or relativity expands. What we say God now might not be God anymore in near future. May be we will be calling this unknown energy something else.

What is God? can we think about IT beyond our traditional theory ?

Lets have a discussion, not debate..)

peace

mmkhan

Salaamun Alaikum,
All in Islam,

Thats why everytime we try to talk about God, we imagine IT with our human attributes like compassion, love, anger and so on.

Who is Allah?

"Did you imagine of the person who debated with Abraham regarding his Lord, while Allah had given him a kingship? Abraham said My Lord is the One who gives life and death, he said I bring life and death. Abraham said Allah brings the sun from the east, so you bring it from the west. The one who disbelieved was confounded! And Allah does not guide the wicked people." 2258

What is God? can we think about IT beyond our traditional theory ?

"Say Praise be to Allah, and peace be upon His servants whom He has selected. Is Allah better, or that which you set up?" 2759 (you are not included in 'you set up' inshaAllah ))

"The One who created the heavens and the Earth, and He sent down water from the sky for you, so We cause gardens to grow with it that are full of beauty. It is not your ability to cause the growth of its trees. Is there a god with Allah? No. But they are a people who ascribe equals!" 2760

"The One who made the Earth a habitat, and He made in it rivers and He made for it stabilizers, and He made between the two seas a barrier. Is there a god with Allah? No. But most of them do not know." 2761

"The One who answers the distressed when he calls Him, and He removes the evil, and He makes you successors on Earth. Is there a god with Allah? Little do you remember!" 2762

"The One who guides you in the darkness of the land and the sea, and He sends the winds to spread between the hands of His mercy. Is there a god with Allah? God be exalted above what they set up!" 2763

"The One who initiates the creation then He returns it, and He provides for you from the sky and the land. Is there a god with Allah? Say Bring your proof if you are being truthful." 2764

"Say None in the heavens or the Earth know the unseen except Allah. And they do not perceive when they will be resurrected." 2765

This is Allah, our Lord, our Creator.

Is there anything more to discuss? )

Alhamdulillahi Rabbil 'Aalameen

Regards,

MMKhan

Someone

Peace upon you,

Defining "God" is surely a hard task when we start from a biased premise.

The word "god" has a definition in dictionnaries and is not a proper noun.

Pronunciation 'g?d also 'god
Function noun
Etymology Middle English, from Old English; akin to Old High German got god
1 capitalized the supreme or ultimate reality as a the Being perfect in power, wisdom, and goodness who is worshiped as creator and ruler of the universe b Christian Science the incorporeal divine Principle ruling over all as eternal Spirit infinite Mind
2 a being or object believed to have more than natural attributes and powers and to require human worship; specifically one controlling a particular aspect or part of reality
3 a person or thing of supreme value
4 a powerful ruler

It was accepted that this form "God" capitalized refers to the supreme and ultimate reality, making of this word a proper noun, taking out a great part of the meaning.

To illustrate my point, please compare these two sentences

Table is broken.
The table is broken.

Most would find the second one more correct languistically, and the first missing something in meaning.

Now, compare these 2

God is powerful.
The god is powerful.

--

I like to define the god as "the creator", because if one admits his own existance, he should also admit the existance of a creator. If one denies the existance of a creator or creators, then he denies by the same token his own existance.

--

shamsul-arefin

thanks both of u for ur reply.....can you pls break down the definition of the word "Allah"

I have heard so many talks abt how unique this word is and every time you pronounce this word you get reward...So one should not say God, Bhogoban or any other word other than "Allah"!!

The traditionalist say that..God has a feminine version like Goddess and so on..so we should use "Allah" only. Even "Khoda" can?t be used because this word can?t be found in Quran or hadith.

So I was curious if anyone with in-depth knowledge of Quranic arabic and grammar can describe this word "Allah" from different perspective and if it has other synonyms and other usage or not..

Thanks

unknownuser

What is God? can we think about IT beyond our traditional theory ?
Lets have a discussion, not debate..
peace

Interesting post Shamsul,

It is true that human beings have always "anthropomorphised" God throughout history. But if you look at history itself you will see that our idea of God indeed has been evolved by humans over a long period of time, from it's Pagan Origins to a figure of Transcendence. It is the human experience of "Transcendence" that has been given various names. Some have called it "God", "Nirvana", "Tao", "Brahman-Atman" etc.

So what is God? I would say "God" is human experience of "transcendence".

Regards,

jonny_k

Salaamun Alaikum,
All in Islam,

Thats why everytime we try to talk about God, we imagine IT with our human attributes like compassion, love, anger and so on.

Who is Allah?

"Did you imagine of the person who debated with Abraham regarding his Lord, while Allah had given him a kingship? Abraham said My Lord is the One who gives life and death, he said I bring life and death. Abraham said Allah brings the sun from the east, so you bring it from the west. The one who disbelieved was confounded! And Allah does not guide the wicked people." 2258

What is God? can we think about IT beyond our traditional theory ?

"Say Praise be to Allah, and peace be upon His servants whom He has selected. Is Allah better, or that which you set up?" 2759 (you are not included in 'you set up' inshaAllah )

"The One who created the heavens and the Earth, and He sent down water from the sky for you, so We cause gardens to grow with it that are full of beauty. It is not your ability to cause the growth of its trees. Is there a god with Allah? No. But they are a people who ascribe equals!" 2760

"The One who made the Earth a habitat, and He made in it rivers and He made for it stabilizers, and He made between the two seas a barrier. Is there a god with Allah? No. But most of them do not know." 2761

"The One who answers the distressed when he calls Him, and He removes the evil, and He makes you successors on Earth. Is there a god with Allah? Little do you remember!" 2762

"The One who guides you in the darkness of the land and the sea, and He sends the winds to spread between the hands of His mercy. Is there a god with Allah? God be exalted above what they set up!" 2763

"The One who initiates the creation then He returns it, and He provides for you from the sky and the land. Is there a god with Allah? Say Bring your proof if you are being truthful." 2764

"Say None in the heavens or the Earth know the unseen except Allah. And they do not perceive when they will be resurrected." 2765

This is Allah, our Lord, our Creator.

Is there anything more to discuss?

Alhamdulillahi Rabbil 'Aalameen

Regards,

MMKhan

Khi- Salam. All these verses prove that we live in a matrix simulated by GOD and all is but an illusion. There is no reality but GOD. Alhamdulillah! GOD Bless!

shamsul-arefin

thanks everyone for the replies..they are really enlightening..) but I am looking for the meaning of "Allah"

Can anyone disect this word from gramatical point of veiw and how can it be used to mean something else also other than the one creator..

peace

Andya_Primanda

Khi- Salam. All these verses prove that we live in a matrix simulated by GOD and all is but an illusion. There is no reality but GOD. Alhamdulillah! GOD Bless!

Oh no, not the illusionism view again... Where on those verses did it say everything is an illusion? Why do you like the trickster-God conclusion so much?

yfn123

Peace idmkhizar,

Khi- Salam. All these verses prove that we live in a matrix simulated by GOD and all is but an illusion. There is no reality but GOD. Alhamdulillah! GOD Bless!

Hmm... How do you know that "There is no reality but GOD" itself is not an illusion? How about your own writings? Are they illusions? What about your own existence? Is that an illusion? If so, then who is writing? God or some devil? So, again is that an illusion? What about me asking you all this? Is this an illusion?

Anwar Azim

unknownuser

Peace be upon you,

I look on the word "god" as the word "governor", there is none that governs except the Governor. Something like that.

Wakas

peace shamsul, all,

If my memory serves me correctly, Allah can be used as a proper noun but it could also be translated, as The God/Divine/Deity

I also recall this has been discussed before (perhaps by brother Ayman).

I once read an interesting article about how humans find it difficult to conceptualise The God, and one of the main reasons given in the article was that humans do not come across infinite concepts/paradigms in our life/experience. For example, it is impossible to imagine the trait Almighty, even if we imagine the initiation of the whole universe ("big bang"), this event is negligible compared to Almighty. It just cant be pictured.

This perhaps leads to an interesting question, if it cant be pictured/imagined, can it be experienced/felt? If one approaches 'al quran' with this in mind, it can bear fruit.

Wakas

yfn123

Peace Wakas.

This perhaps leads to an interesting question, if it cant be pictured/imagined, can it be experienced/felt? If one approaches 'al quran' with this in mind, it can bear fruit.
Wakas

How so? What is the certainty that you can experience/feel it? How can you feel it? With what?

Anwar Azim

Wakas

peace Anwar,

As far as I can recall 'al quran' rarely asks us to imagine what The God is like in a direct manner, but what it does do often is it cites examples in our experience/world and through this indirect reflection asks us to come to a realisation.
These do not need to be pictured/imagined (on the whole), but can be experienced/felt through the senses since they are in our experience/world.

There is nothing wrong with trying to picture/imagine what The God is like, I have done this many a time, but the limitations of this should be understood. What is more fruitful perhaps is resonating what's in 'al quran' with what we experience. If we find it to be true, then through this we can experience/feel The God.

Wakas

unknownuser

These do not need to be pictured/imagined (on the whole), but can be experienced/felt through the senses since they are in our experience/world.

The "experience" of "God" goes beyond the mere sense-perception.

There is nothing wrong with trying to picture/imagine what The God is like, I have done this many a time, but the limitations of this should be understood.

No there is nothing wrong to imagine. Imaginations it is said, is a chief religious faculty. It is through imagination that we can address a reality that lies beyond all rational thought processes. Imagination allows us to conceive something that is not there. And it is a arresting thought that human beings can conceive of things that do not exist.

If we find it to be true, then through this we can experience/feel The God.

The Truth of God has always been a "subjective" experience.

Regards,

Ali_Omar

Hi all,

The word ?Allah? may well be of interest, but it does not say much about Allah.

We must have something to compare other things with; otherwise we can not fathom what we are researching.

In the case of God we can find the following from the Qur?an

The Qur?an is repeatedly mentioning the unseen and Allah is part of the unseen. (nobody can see Allah)

Ex. 7.143
?...............It (Allah) said You will never see me???.?

Anything physical can be seen by us, either directly or through using sophisticated instruments.

Therefore

Allah can not be something material or physical in our sense of the words.

Many verses are also mentioning that Allah is unlike anything else and has power over all things

Ex. 2.106
??..Know you not that Allah have power over all things?

Ex. 2.163
?And your God is One.............................?We can make up a ?picture? of anything we have knowledge about; either it is a physical thing, power, energy, radio signals, wind, vacuum, or anything else we can ?think of?, anything that follows the laws of physics etc. But there is nothing else like God.
Allah can therefore not be any power, or force, that we know how to describe, but something that is totally different from anything we can imagine, and overpowering any force we have ever heard of.

Allah can, therefore, not be bound by any of the powers, or laws of physics that we know of.

Therefore

Allah is unlimited in power, of an unknown type, and can not be described.

Allah is bigger than anything else

Ex. 4.126
?And to Allah belong all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth. And Allah is Ever Encompassing all things.?

Therefore

Allah is larger than the whole of the Universe or Cosmos.

Allah knows what happens, everywhere in the Universe, at all times

Ex. 6.59
?And with him are the keys of all that is hidden, none knows them but Allah. And Allah knows whatever there is in the land and in the sea; not a leaf falls, but he knows it. There is not a grain in the darkness of the earth, nor anything fresh or dry, but is written in a clear record.?

This means that Allah is everywhere, from inside the smallest particle of a substance to the infinity of the Universe. Allah does not necessarily have to be a part of the substance, but can co-exist with it.

Allah knows everything about any magnetic field, any electronic signal, any movement of wind or rain or any other matter.

Allah is observing what is going on in any microscopic object, like a cell of the human body, or any other object we can imagine.
If a tree loses a leave, anywhere in the World, Allah knows all about it.
If a seed is growing in the soil, Allah knows all about that too.

All this has will/is/has been happening forever.
(Forever means there is no beginning and no ending, therefore time is irrelevant)
Allah is bigger than the infinite Universe and has always been there and will continue to be there for ever.

Therefore

Allah is absolutely everywhere, unlimited by space and time.

Allah is omniscient

Ex. 49.16
Say, "Will you inform GOD about your system? GOD knows everything in the heavens and the earth. GOD is Omniscient."

As God knows everything, in fact, is omniscient, God must have an unlimited, what we call intelligence, if not, God could not have full knowledge of everything.

Therefore

Allah has unlimited intelligence.

So, to reiterate

God can not be something material or physical in our sense of the words.
God is unlimited in power, of an unknown nature, and can not be described.
God is larger than everything, and God?s qualities are unlimited.
God is absolutely everywhere, always, unlimited by space and time.
God has unlimited intelligence.

When words like ?never?, ?all?, ?everything?, ?everywhere? and so on are used, there are no two ways about it. No half-measures of any kind. ?All? means absolutely all, without any compromise.

If we look at it from a scientific point of view, we will find that there seems to be ?something? of a nature similar to what the Qur?an describes.

However, most scientists make a fatal mistake when looking into this question. They take ?now? and ?here? as a point of reference, and go back in time to try to find the time of beginning, and also where it was.
They may arrive at a time some billions, or whatever, years ago as an initial beginning of it all, because we humans can not comprehend eternity. There simply can not be any beginning. ?Something? just is.

For instance, there exist many theories about the shape of Cosmos, lately there is a theory of the Universe being flat. I.e. it expands and will continue to do so forever. Then what is it expanding in? It can not be ?nothing?, it must at least be empty space?

Well, anyway, with this kind of ?understanding? of the God, or the ?something?, we may also begin to have some notion of the real greatness of this God, or at least, forget about our futile experiments with religious rituals and begin to look at everything in a more realistic way.

The question raised by shamsul-arefin is of extreme importance even though we will never have full knowledge, just some indications that may move us from magic and superstition into the WORLD OF REALITY.

Best regds

Ali Omar

yfn123

Peace Omar,

Allah is bigger than the infinite Universe and has always been there and will continue to be there for ever.

If you say "inifinite Universe", you can never say how big it is, for the simple reason that it is inifinite. Thus, you cannot even say that "Allah is bigger than the infinite Universe". How can you compare two infinites, assuming that you assume that Allah is infinite?

Anwar Azim

Ali_Omar

Dear yfn123.

Is anything impossible for Allah?

Best regds

Ali Omar

unknownuser

Is anything impossible for Allah?

Yes there is one thing that is impossible for God and that is Hate. Because God is Love

shamsul-arefin

There is another thing I am not sure if Allah can do or not..which is to destroy Itself or choose not to exist at all....P quite tuff question right ?

anyway....actually I wanted to know the grammatical implication of the word "Allah". Cause there are articles by the traditionalist which says that you cant mention God or Vogoban or in some other language to refer to this supreme power. So I was wondering how did they drag that conclusion ? based on such interpretation, they force ppl to use Allah rather than God and somehow also say that "Allah" is the only name which believers should use.

thats why I created this thread to discuss the details and usage of this arabic word "Allah".

I hope its clear what I want to know actualy..P

Peace

Ali_Omar

Hi,

We can not help but to put limits on God. ?

Hate and love are human perceptions and, when analyzed, are just variations on our scale of emotions. Hate and love are therefore illusions, just as is existence.
The ultimate ?something? is the source of all emotions.

When we say something exists it just means that we have a perception of it. To us, God must, what we call ?exist?, because we have a notion of ourselves and everything else we can perceive, to exist.
For God, existence and non-existence is irrelevant.
For instance, do you exist when you are totally unconscious? At that moment, how do you know? roll

The same is true for all utterances that we call words, names and so on. These are all limited to our own perception. God knows what is in our minds and doesn?t need words.
Words are, when uttered, just various types of sounds; when written, various types of images. They don?t mean anything at all unless we put meanings into them.
The meanings we put into words depends on our language, culture (time and place etc.), so that one word in one language, in one culture, at one time and place, may mean a different thing compared to another instance.

God does not need words to communicate with us, neither do we need words to communicate with God.
Maybe humans, at one time, also had this capability to communicate between each other, but we seem to have lost most of it, although we see instances where humans still show some of this ability.
However, in order for us to communicate with each other, we have invented, and developed languages, and given certain meanings to words, both written and spoken.

When God ?sent? information to us through messengers, the messengers, consciously or unconsciously, formed this communication (revelations) into words of their own language, culture, time and place.
Therefore, when God communicated with Muhammad, the message delivered in the communication, was formed into words of his language, Arabic, as these were understood at that time and place.

We have put negative and positive meanings into words, which vary depending on our language, culture, time and place.
What is told us in the Qur?an is that we should not use any word which we perceive as negative to mean the ?most positive?, or ?the ultimate all?.

I believe the reason that the word ?Allah? is used in the Qur?an to signify the ?ultimate all?, or God or whatever we prefer to call it, is because the people at that time had a positive perception of this word. Maybe something they perceived as the best, the greatest etc. As love is a very great power, this could be one of the meanings, but I believe there are more to it.

When the overall, underlying meaning of a message becomes clear, the meaning of each single word in a certain context can be better understood.
One very important thing is to reach an understanding of, as to what end a message was delivered in the first place.
Without this understanding it is totally futile to try to comprehend the message.
Very often we see that single words, or sentences, are picked out and analyzed in order to reach a conclusion as to what the meaning is, and the result can become utterly ridiculous, or meaningless.

I would, like others here, love to hear from someone who has studied the Qur?anic message in a way as mentioned, and has been able to reach conclusions as to what the various words mean in various contexts.
In the case of Allah, or God or Vogoban it does not matter what word we use as long as the word, for us, signifies something of the greatest an/or best we can think of.
Shaytan is probably at the opposite end of a scale from good to bad, and means just that.

Best regards

Ali Omar