Allah=Love?
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Peace all. I have been pondering for a while and came to a realisation that the word allah used in the quran may simply mean love. One definition of love could be a desire to do good. Every creature posseses this nature.(fitrah.) The problem occurs when instead of serving for love(allah) to all creatures we serve for our own selfish or narrow motives(devil or iblis mentality) and put conditions on what should be universal love.So we think we are desiring to do good but we are looking in the narrow context of our race,religion,family,country etc.. This creates seperation and hate which is just an illusion,because every creature is unified by its common trait of desire.(awareness and will.)
Even dictators and tyrants think they are doing good,however their illusion of good is narrow and self-centred and makes for mischief and harm.(fasad and ithm.) The verses i can think of off-hand fit with allah being love. Would appreciate some feed-back.
Peace all. -
Peace moderators and administrators. I have double posted the Allah=love? thread,could you take one of the threads off please? Thank you.l
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Peace be upon you,
I disagree with comparing the God with an emotion. The God is that which is free of all compulsions/emotions.
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Peace idolfree,zenje and all.
Zenje every time you(not you personally,the general you. ) ) talk or discuss about god you ascribe to him,unless god talks to you personally when you talk about him. And can you make mistakes when talking about god? If so this is ascribing as well. So do you think its better not to talk about god? Im not being funny im just illustrating if we take that view to the logical extreme.
IdolfreeYou have stated before that we are parts of the whole(god) and we are energy.(motion or potential motion/energy) So if we are motion(energy) why cant the whole be as well? If god is different from anything we know how can we verify him or say we are part of the whole or that god is within?
I dont mean just romanticised,compulsive,conditional/emotional,illusionary love,im talking unconditional love too. Note bmbmms comment about the parents love...
Peace. -
I dont mean romanticised,compulsive,conditional/emotional,illusionary love,im talking unconditional love. Note bmbmms comment about the parents love...
Peace.Maybe what you are calling love is what is called rahman in the quran ?
The root of the word RAHMAAN and RAHEEM is Ray-Hay-Meem. RAHIM or RIHM, means the womb i.e. the receptacle of the young in the belly where it is provided with the means of subsistence with tenderness and security, without it doing any endeavour. RAHMAH or RAHMAT has the following meanings Mercy; Pity; Compassion; Tenderness; Beneficence; Pardon; Forgiveness; Favour; Sustenance; Means of subsistence; Plenty of herbage, or of goods, conveniences, or comforts of life.
http//www.quranicteachings.co.uk/sura-1.htm#_ftn1Peace
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Peace jm. Maybe thats right. I mean that is a good description you gave of rahman.Thanks.
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Peace be with you enquirer,
Zenje every time you(not you personally,the general you. ) talk or discuss about god you ascribe to him,unless god talks to you personally when you talk about him. And can you make mistakes when talking about god? If so this is ascribing as well. So do you think its better not to talk about god? Im not being funny im just illustrating if we take that view to the logical extreme.
We can talk/discuss about the God and His attributes. No problem. We can ascribe to Him. No problem. It's important, however, to realize that what we say of the God is limited to the knowledge we have.The God encompasses all.
Peace )
PS and yes, the God does speak to me personally... whether I listen or not is a whole diiferent matter.
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Peace be upon you Enquirer,
IdolfreeYou have stated before that we are parts of the whole(god) and we are energy.(motion or potential motion/energy) So if we are motion(energy) why cant the whole be as well?
Creation, created things are the manifestation of the God. Yes, the God is energy, but energy at rest, at peace. Energy and matter are the same, so when we speak of the realm of the God, which is the subjective realm, it is energy at rest and matter that is not differentiated into forms, objects.
God is the subject and we are the objects of the ONE STATEMENT(uni verse).
If god is different from anything we know how can we verify him or say we are part of the whole or that god is within?
We verify the God by the effects, same way we verify wind. If we go deep enough into meditation, we get to a point where we are just conscious of being consciousness.
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Peace idol-free. Interesting analysis,i agree with most of it. How would you define ar-rahman?
Peace zenjea very good,honest and informative reply,thanks. -
I'd like to add the following thought to this discussion Is God not greater than anything else that can be? If so, does it not automatically mean that all of creation must be part of God?
If God and creation were separate, then God can be greater than creation; however, God cannot be greater than (God+creation) because however small creation is, adding it to God would create something greater than God. This creates a contradition, and therefore God and creation cannot be separate, but all one - that is to say that God encompasses everything uncreated and created. The universe as we know it is just a small part of this whole unity of God, but nevertheless part of it. -
Peace claurianta. Excellent logic. I agree 100%. Great understanding.
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Peace idol-free and all. You wrote 'If we go deep enough into meditation,we get to a point where we are just concious of being conciousness'. I agree,this is also the understanding of some hindu mystics and yogis.(is this conciousness our real self,the permanent part of us,or the soul,or the lowest common denominator of a thing,or all these things?) They also say that conciousness(as a whole) is god and we are a part of that. Everything shares the common characteristic of conciousness,so as the u2 song goes 'we are one but we are not the same'. Do you know anything about the 'there is only one mind' theory of conciousness?(ie god is the one mind and we are thoughts or manifestations of god, or that all is one mind.)
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If God and creation were separate, then God can be greater than creation; however, God cannot be greater than (God+creation) because however small creation is, adding it to God would create something greater than God. This creates a contradition, and therefore God and creation cannot be separate, but all one - that is to say that God encompasses everything uncreated and created. The universe as we know it is just a small part of this whole unity of God, but nevertheless part of it.
In my understanding, the notion of GOD and Creation being either ONE or Seperate is inconceivable, simply because no one knows WHO or WHAT GOD IS, don't you think? One can only hypothesize to believe in unseen, incomprehensible and tentative grounds, but then, as you mentioned, it would create contradiction and conjecture. By the way, good analysis.
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Interesting topic. There are various ways of looking at it.
For example, some Aborigines in Australia long ago believed that God dreamed all of creation into being, effectively making us and the universe part and parcel of God's mind.
In this way, we are created beings in a created universe while, in reality, being "part" of God, and not outside of Him.
Also, this may be just my opinion but I don't conceptualize God as 'energy' or 'matter' or anything spatio-temporal like that. For those of you who have time, you should look into the Kalam Cosmological Argument for God's existence. It's quite interesting and shows that a universe created with matter, energy, and time must have at its root a Creator who is matter-less, energy-less, and time-less.
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Peace be upon you Enquirer,
Peace idol-free. Interesting analysis,i agree with most of it. How would you define ar-rahman?
I am not decided on many of the meanings of the attributes, for the reason that many who translated them so far give the God human "feelings".
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Hello enquirer,
I like to think that God can only be understood in terms of love because love goes beyond the world of the rational and enters the realm of the spiritual. Love is the true "essence" of all spirituality. But one needs to "exhaust" all rational thinking before one can have an "insight" into the power of love...
Regards,
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Peace be upon you Enquirer,
Yes, I have heard of the One Mind theory. As Elke stated, here is a good read for you or anyone interested. It is called "the Kybalion" and has some excellent points to consider.
http//www.gnostic.org/kybalionhtm/kybalion.htm
Let me know what you think.