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wayseer

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Allah actually means 'The God' or 'One God'.

Muslims would argue that Christians worship three Gods because of the doctrine of the Trinity.

Christians also think in terms of God as a 'father' rather than someone, according to Islam, who is totally removed from Creation.
 
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ebia

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Allah is basically the Arabic word for God. Arabic and Malay speaking Christians refer to God as Allah.

Muslims, Jews and Christians all worship the same God - the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Ishmael. There are significant differences between the pictures each of those have about that God - but then there are very different pictures of God painted by some in Christianity.
 
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juvenissun

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So the Islamic god does not have a name, but simply, god (allah)?
That is also very strange. Human tends to give everything a name. Our God gives us a name to call Him, Jehovah. Hey, what does Jehovah mean? Does it also mean "God"?
 
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drjean

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From what I read about the Muslim god, it has no identification of the God of Abraham and of Christians.

One of the names Allah calls himself is the "Deceiver", and followers admit that Allah enjoys "throwing his power around" even in doing malicious things and playing tricks on people just because he can. That hardly describes the great I AM who is Love and "changes not".

The topic is good for study, imo. The philosophies of the different "gods" compared to God Almighty are easily accessible I think.

Be well.
 
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steve_bakr

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It might be good for you to study Islam because you are mischaracterizing Allah. He is also called the Responder to Prayers, the Forgiver of Sins, the All Compassionate and the All Merciful,not to mention that He is believed to be the God of Abraham. It is also said that His mercy precedes His wrath and that, if you approach Him one cubit he approaches you ten, and if you approach Him walking He will approach you at speed.
 
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GrowingSmaller

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The word has meaning according to usage, basically as characterised in the Koran, but at a cross cultural intersection (where "God" is defined and understood differently) there can be subjective accociations which spring up causing for instance Christians to "retranslate" the term according to their cultural beliefs.

This is a bit like "righteousnes" or "virtue" which can be understood or rather conceptulaised differently according to one's philosophical perspective.

I do not recommend the Western Christians appropriate the term for their own usage as that would dissociate the term from it's current (Islamic) usage, which I beliefe the Muslims have some form of appropriatory right over, as it were - if not written in Earthly law then perhaps 'bad karma' or foul play phylogenetic-evolutionarily. It would be like muddying the semantic waters, or hitching a free ride.
 
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drjean

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Have I not studied? Have I not read the q'oran twice myself? Have I not listened to converted muslims, now Christian?

Yeah. I have done all that.

This is not the forum for me to discuss the problems with the Islamic beliefs. It's a philosophy forum and I merely pointed out one of the names the god of Islam calls himself, and one negative aspect of himself that is contrary to the true God of Love. shalom
 
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The Nihilist

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Whether you agree with Islam or not, Muslims believe that theirs is the god of Abraham. It's unlikely that someone with the background you claim to have would be unaware of this.
 
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Wiccan_Child

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'Allah' is the Arabic word for 'God'. Arabic Christians worship Allah, insofar as that's the word for 'God' in their language - what did you think they called him?
 
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Wiccan_Child

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Can you cite the chapter and verse in the Qu'ran where Allah calles himself the 'deceiver', and can you cite a source where Muslims say that Allah "enjoys throwing his power around"?

And, let's face it, the God of the Old Testament is just as bad - ever read the story of Job? To quote you, the plight God directly inflicts upon Job "hardly describes the great I AM who is love and "changes not"".

And, if God "changes not", how do you reconcile that with Genesis 6:6, Jonah 3:10, Exodus 32:14, etc, where God repents, changes his mind, etc?
 
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drjean

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One can easily find such info about the god of Islam even wikiIslam has it!
Here is one:
واذ يمكر بك الذين كفروا ليثبتوك او يقتلوك او يخرجوك ويمكرون ويمكر الله والله خير الماكرين
Qur'an 8:30

Qur'an 10:21

Qur'an 13:42

etc



God Almighty did not inflict Job, but allowed the devil to try Job. A study of the attributes of God would enlighten any about how our use of "changing one's mind" is different than that used to denote God "repenting" or "changing His mind"...English is not a perfect language.


Alas, I will not be returning to the thread, if you wish to debate Islamism or Christianity you would need to begin that thread in another forum I think. shalom
 
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E

Edwards1984

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"Allah" does refer to the monotheistic God within Islam and many Arabic cultures in general. Many Muslims I've spoken to say that, even when speaking English, they still use "Allah" just to clarify under what context they're speaking. I know you've probably heard some rubbish, such as "Allah" is the god of war or something similar, but most of them aren't true. Some have said that "Allah" was a moon god, hence the use of moon in Islamic symbolism, however the moon didn't become a symbol within Islam until hundreds of years after the time of Mohammad.

In regards to the context between Islam and Christianity, they are two separate gods entirely. Christians worship a Trinitarian God, Muslims worship a unitarian god. Furthermore, the god of Islam taught his followers things that completely contradict with what the Christian God taught:

  • The Trinity is a damnable heresy (S. 5:73)
  • The Trinity is a lie (S. 5:74)
  • Christ is not divine, and any one who says so, according to the own words of the Quran's "Jesus", is lying (S. 5:116-117)
  • Christ was merely a prophet (S. 5:75)
  • Christ did not die on the cross (S. 4:157)

There are other differences between the Muslim and Christian gods, even speaking of the Old Testament. For example, the concepts of "covenant" are different, and there are some contradictions between the Quranic account of Old Testament stories and what the Bible (for Jews and Christians) say. For example, the Bible says that all of Noah's family survived the flood (Gen 7:1, 7, 23), yet the Quran says one of Noah's sons died in the flood (S. 11:42-43). So to make a long story short: no, the "Allah" of Islam and the "Allah" of Christianity are two different gods.
 
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Regardless of any distinctions between the Christian God and the Islamic God, Arabic Christians use Allah as the the word for God using it only in its full Christian context.

I also don't understand the notion that Islam has and ought to have ownership over the word. Arabic Christianity predates Islam.
 
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Wiccan_Child

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wait God repented?
Yep.

"And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart." - Genesis 6:6

"And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not." - Jonah 3:10

"Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened." - Exodus 32:14

According to the OT, God is quite capable of changing his mind, relenting and repenting, etc. How this fits into a God who "doesn't change" I don't know.
 
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steve_bakr

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Because changing one's mind does not equate to changing one's qualities or essence.
 
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Wiccan_Child

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Because changing one's mind does not equate to changing one's qualities or essence.
On the contrary, God's listed qualities specifically include not repenting and not lying (qv. Numbers 23:19, 1 Samuel 15:29, 2 Samuel 7:28, Hebrews 6:18), and God is claimed to "change not" - in other words, he should never ever lie or repent. Yet he does exactly that (qv. Genesis 6:6, Jonah 3:10, 2 Thessalonians 2:11).
 
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steve_bakr

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I haven't looked up the verses you mentioned, but the OT is man's best INSPIRED attempt at understanding God's relationship with and revelation to man. If inconsistencies do occur, that would be on account of man's understanding of God, which do not reflect God's actual qualities and essence.

BTW, Does Wicca posit One Supreme Being like the American Indian's Wankan Tanka--ie., Great Spirit--or does its beliefs only involve elemental powers in nature? :curious:
 
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