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  1. Home
  2. Critical Examination of Islam
  3. What is the nature of God?
  4. Is god life itself?

Is god life itself?

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved What is the nature of God?
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    agentxxx
    wrote on last edited by
    #32

    How beautifully put bravo

    Thank you sis angel sun

    peace

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      unknownuser
      wrote on last edited by
      #33

      PEace Be Upon You

      Brother Enquirer, in my opinion, you are on the right track in a sense. There is a very famous verse in the bible that says, "Know thyself to know God." What does this verse mean? How do I know God by knowing myself? When we become in touch with our true essence, when we go within and calm the mind from its chatter and subconscious programs, only then can we open our channel and return to the Unmanifested One. It is at that moment that you can only experience God. Explaining Him or defining Him will always limit Him. Thus, there is the very beautiful verse in the quran which states, (18109) "Say, 'If the ocean were ink for the words of my Lord, the ocean would run out, before the words of my Lord run out, even if we double the ink supply.'"
      Therefore, do not try to explain Him for we will become lost in the process. Experience Him thru connecting with your essence which is of God. When you reach that state 2 things (of many things) will happen. You will be His instrument and all the attributes of God found in the holy quran will be your task to deliver to the world. As the Lord's Prayer states, "Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven". There are also many examples of people who killed their ego so that "His Will be done" found in the quran. The person was no longer the doer of anything. It was God who channeled His Will thru His instrument, His servent who sacrificed his/her false ego at the alter in order to receive True Abundance.
      The second thing that will happen is you will see God in everyone and in everything. 2115 "To Allah belongs the East and the West, and wheresoever you turn, your face is toward Him. Surely He is All-Embracing, All-Knowing ." This will bring you an overwhelming peace in your heart and an awareness of unity. That unity is the truth of our existence. That will be the end of hatred, jealousy, anger, greed etc. How can you hate that which is connected to you? How can you reject God when God is everywhere you turn and even inside of you (closer to you than your jugular vein)? Life at that point will be limitless, abundant in Love and Compassion to mankind and earth.

      So in essence, I believe you are onto something. By being very still and knowing your true self, you will come the closest in this lifetime to really knowing God. And life is the journey thru which we realize this.

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        phoenix1
        wrote on last edited by
        #34

        peace

        Brother Enquirer, in my opinion, you are on the right track in a sense. There is a very famous verse in the bible that says, "Know thyself to know God."

        That's what I'm trying to do right now. I'm trying to connect with myself.
        Our self is our consciousness. God is consciousness. Not life.

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          unknownuser
          wrote on last edited by
          #35

          Peace Be Upon You Bro Lobster eat

          I think you're onto something too. It is my opinion that God is much more than our own unit consciousness. He encompasses all that is Manifested and all that is Unmanifested. He is in all His creation yet larger than that. By stating that He is consciousness we have limited Him. Our goal I believe is to reach Pure Consciousness. Pure Consciousness is when we have eliminated the programs and chatter of the subconscious mind and have ultimately become His instrument on earth. In this state we are at One with God. Experiencing what it is like to have a completely cleared and purified channel with God is what Pure Consciousness will give us. You will tap into the proverbial "unknown" or "unseen" and understand others by His Grace Alone. You can heal others and yourself, eliminating suffering in the world, by His Grace Alone. These are all byproducts but the goal as you stated is to know yourself to know God. And you are on the right path. It takes alot of time and energy but it is well worth it because I do believe that is the only goal of Life - to evolve into awareness so that we naturally fully surrender to The Subduer (Al Qahhar) and His Will effortlessly.

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            Jafar
            wrote on last edited by
            #36

            peace

            can i replace x with merciful?
            we can say "God is merciful", right?

            Ok my mistakes due to my bad choice of words,
            We cannot say that God EQUALS X.
            We can say God Is Merciful, God Is All Wise, God Is All Knowing, God Is All Hearing, God Is All Seeing etc...

            Salam / Peace

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              Jafar
              wrote on last edited by
              #37

              peaceThat's what I'm trying to do right now. I'm trying to connect with myself.
              Our self is our consciousness. God is consciousness. Not life.

              That's good Bro, although I rather say that God communicate to us through our conscious, it is that soft-voice felt by your heart, when you do good (such as helping other people etc..) you will felt a sudden peace in your heart yet when you do bad (such as lying or other bad things) you will felt anxiety / guilt feelings in your heart.

              It is also written in the Quran, that whomever do good he is doing good for his own soul and whomever do evil he is doing evil for his own soul.

              It is also interesting to note that Ibrahim did not have any Quran or Bible or holy book or any written materials for "his guidance" yet he had his conscious to guide him to the straight path. So he listens to "God's call".

              Another thing is about the "nafs" (breath), in the Quran and also the Bible it is written that our soul came from God's breath (nafs). And that explains why one of God's name is "Our Heavenly Father" or "Abwon d' Bish Maiya" (Aramaic) Jesus/Christians called God with that name.
              And that's also why murder or doing harm to other people is strictly forbidden (huge sin). In the Quran commiting murder is "violating the thing that I have declared to be sacred". (human life is sacred)

              And that's also explains the two of the most important commandment in the Bible and/or Tanakh

              1. To Love God with all your strengh, might and souls
              2. To Love OTHERS as you love yourself.

              Because people's soul "came" from God's breath (nafs).

              Salam / Peace

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                unknownuser
                wrote on last edited by
                #38

                PEace Be Upon You Bro Jafar

                I enjoyed your last post immensely. Thank you! sun you made alot of connections in there that are excellent. I'll have to read it again.

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                  phoenix1
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #39

                  peace Jafar

                  hat's good Bro, although I rather say that God communicate to us through our conscious, it is that soft-voice felt by your heart, when you do good (such as helping other people etc..) you will felt a sudden peace in your heart yet when you do bad (such as lying or other bad things) you will felt anxiety / guilt feelings in your heart.

                  You mean our conscience?
                  the problem with that is that we feel good after doing what we believe is right, not what actually is.
                  If I'm an Iraqi, I might feel bad if I help out an American soldier, even if that is good thing, I don't believe it is.
                  If I think that stoning people to death for committing adultery is the right thing, then I won't feel guilty for having done it.
                  so I don't know if our conscience is really that reliable.
                  We have to be at peace and make sure that our beliefs are true, then we're all set.

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                    unknownuser
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #40

                    Easy folks.
                    Samia;when i say god is life,i mean life as a whole in its totality is another name/concept for god.Ie,the grand total of all life past,present,future,undiscovered and unseen is the concept we know as god...The traditional concept of god doesnt make sense to me...
                    Agentxxxi agree a lot with your post,however i dont think god/life is only that which is good,i also think god encompasses that which is bad (relatively speaking.) as otherwise there becomes a duality or god is missing from parts of life/the universe....however,you are correct in that everyone has their own idea of god,and this can be continually updated with new knowledge...The god you describe is a potentially very good role model... bravo
                    Boost; i agree somewhat with your post,we know our true purpose and the unity of god/life by knowing ourself and by experiencing life,then we can arrive at OUR purpose and even make our own purposes within our own limitations...

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                      nerspi
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #41

                      peace

                      lets not say things about God that we don't know for sure, ok.
                      we know about Him what is says in the quran, that's all.
                      later, on judgement day, you can ask Him what He is and what He is not.

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                        unknownuser
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #42

                        Easy nerspi. So god wont let me know about himself till judgement day?

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                          nerspi
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #43

                          peace

                          He did. in the quran. all you need to know about Him. i just meant, lets not say anything about God that isn't in the quran, that we shouldn't just make stuff up and call God those things.

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                            unknownuser
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #44

                            In the quran allah addresses himself in 2;255 as al-hayy....One could construe this as THE LIFE,or life with a capital L......

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                              unknownuser
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #45

                              Wow, a bunch of people arguing about an entity that the Quran says of which nobody knows the true form. moves on

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                                IronSky
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #46

                                Peace all,

                                I agree nerspi, we shouldnt say that which we do not know or need to know.

                                Kurt

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                                  Jack
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #47

                                  the quran also says

                                  2558 And put your trust in the Eternal Who does not die, and glorify His praise. It is enough for Him that He is expert in the sins of His servants.

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                                    agentxxx
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #48

                                    Peace enquirer,

                                    Agentxxxi agree a lot with your post,

                                    Thanks )

                                    however i dont think god/life is only that which is good,i also think god encompasses that which is bad (relatively speaking.) as otherwise there becomes a duality or god is missing from parts of life/the universe....

                                    Logically you are right ??But in the matters of belief, there are times when we are faced with questions we can't answer logically, hence we ignore logic and weave an explanation that is best suited for own souls/mind/self to be at peace.

                                    We have to remember that other may or may not agree with us, because they have to satisfy their own understanding to be at peace with themselves. This is the reason why WE MUST RESPECT all views/beliefs; if we are at peace with ourselves, THEN ONLY can we be at peace with each other and where Peace is the ultimate reward, difference in thoughts/beliefs/concepts shouldn?t matter if we can achieve it through THIS mutual respect for each other.

                                    I am basically a peace loving/weak hearted person and honestly it hurts me like hell to see people in pain no matter who they are .

                                    So my concept of God = MERCY+LOVE+FORGIVENESS+JUSTICE+ ALL THE POSITIVE FORCES IN THE UNIVERSE.

                                    THE GOD OF THE CANNIBALS WILL BE A CANNIBAL.

                                    However, you are correct in that everyone has their own idea of god, and this can be continually updated with new knowledge

                                    There are times when I am really skeptical about God i.e. how he operates, about his human like characteristics/attributes. The events like the earthquake in Pakistan that killed thousands of people including children/the tsunami/the drought in Ethiopia / daily killing in Iraq?s etc forces me to reevaluate my concept of God.

                                    Buddhism Instead of extolling an anthropomorphic creator God, employed negative theology TO AVOID SPECULATION and KEEP THE UNDEFINED as INEFFABLE.

                                    Buddha believed the MORE IMPORTANT ISSUE was to bring BEINGS OUT OF SUFFERING TO LIBERATION and that is also what the divine code in Quran is all about.

                                    I think that the essence of every religion/belief is the same TO BRING HUMAN BEINGS OUT OF SUFFERING?.according to my understanding all existing religions/beliefs are symbolic expressions of the same universal religion, the foundation of which is bases on the fundamental 10 commandments.

                                    The god you describe is a potentially very good role model... bravo

                                    That is the only God I want to believe in.

                                    peace

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                                      nimnimak_11
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #49

                                      Peace all

                                      In one of the verses of the Quran, it is said that "God is closer to you than your jugular vein" (QXP)

                                      In another another verse it says something like (I reccomend you all find the verse and chek it your selves as i am relying on my memory here hence the follwing may not be accurate) "no 2 people in a room without God being there third."

                                      I believe the Angels are laws such as reflection. In one verse (i think) it is said that "God has assigned the function of angels"

                                      And if i'm not mistaken somewhere in the bible Jesus says something like "I am in the Father and he is in me"

                                      I though the above may be useful for the discussion.

                                      as for me, i believe that God is Unfathomable.

                                      Hope you all enjoy summer

                                      Peace,
                                      Nyma

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                                        Arnold
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #50

                                        Try substituting the word life in place of allah/god in the quran or any other religious book.....See what you make of it....
                                        Serve life,respect life,connect to life....
                                        Life is instantly and universally recognised.....The proofs for lifes' existence are overwhelming and inumerous....
                                        Whether you serve life respectfully or not,you cant deny its existence and power....life has always existed and always will in some form or another,life is eternal,life is the judge.....Can you see what im getting at?
                                        ps; we are all life as well... yay elektro & eat muscle peace sun bravo yay

                                        Life is not a thing persay. Life is a concept and categorization that we invented that includes existing things and their actions. But life itself is not a diety nor a thing in any way as there really is no such thing as "life", there are only existing things and their actions, and our conceptualizing mind puts those together to create an idea called "life".

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                                          Arnold
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #51

                                          "How does one seek union with God?"

                                          "The harder you seek, the more distance you create
                                          between Him and you."

                                          "So what does one do about the distance?"

                                          "Understand that it isn't there."

                                          "Does that mean that God and I are one?"

                                          "Not one.
                                          Not two."

                                          "How is that possible?"

                                          "
                                          The dancer and the dance,
                                          the sun and its light,
                                          the ocean and the wave,
                                          the singer and his song.

                                          not one.
                                          Not two."

                                          --Anthony DeMello

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