The idea of understanding God, whether it be trinitarian monotheism or unitarian montheism is no different. Either way God is beyond our comprehension.
I am regularly surprised at the Islamic attempts to deride the true teaching of God when the best that they usually offer in return is, "Say He is Allah, there is none like Him...."
Ironically, it is the Islamic teaching of the incomprehensability of God that makes the tri-unity of God all the more reasonable...
In other words, if God is as big and otherly as Islam claims (which Christianity agrees with) then he is also not beyond the limitations that Islam then tries to place on Him. (ie. the incarnation is impossible, because it is beyond God's ability to do such a thing......or God cannot be everywhere at once---he's not in your toilet too is he???!!..and other such nonsense...)
Interestingly enough, it is the Islamic scholars that make comments about God that are actually far more unreasonable than anything that Christians have ever suggested.
Check out what Abu Hanifah had to say about God:
The most high has a hand and a face and soul Q. 5:116) without asking (or knowing ) how (bela kayf)
Imam Abi Hanifah, Al-Fiqh al-Akbar, Dar al-Kutub al-'Elmeyah, Beirut, 1979, p. 33.
This is not an uncommon teaching in Islam.
Dr. Yousel Al-Qaradawi insisted that Allah has hands when commenting on the verse `Said He [Allah], `Iblis [the devil], what prevented thee to bow thyself before that which I created with My own hands?' (Q. 38:75) :
Since the hands in the above verse can not be interpreted as Allah's power, because all things were created by Allah's power, even Iblis himself being created by Allah's power, then nothing remains to distinguish the creation of Adam from the rest of Allah's creation. And in the Hadith `Allah created three things by His hand; He created Adam by his hand; He wrote the Torah by His hand; and He planted Paradise by His hand.' The distinguishing of those three by mentioning that they were created by Allah's hand, (although they share with the rest of creation that they all exist by the power of Allah), proves that there is something extra that distinguishes them (Adam, the Torah, and Paradise).
Besides, the expression, `pair of hands' is not known except when the hands are real, and was never used to indicate power or grace ... and how can the hand be interpreted as power when the palm of Allah, and the fingers of Allah, and Allah's left and right, the folding and the unfolding of Allah's hand [Q. 5:64], has been established. All of which can only be ascribed to a real hand.
Yousef Al-Qaradawi, 'Elewah Mostafa and 'Ali Gammar, Al-Twahid, Qatar, 1968, p. 118, 119.
Ahmad Ibn Taymiya the famous exponent of the school of Ibn Hanbal said:
"Allah will step down from His throne in the same manner as I am stepping down from this pulpit."
23 Years, Ali Dashti, George Allen & Unwin, London, 1985, p. 157
Notice the contrast; While Muslims continualy accuse Christians of absurdity by believing in the incarnation (God's Word became a man in Jesus), it is Islam (at least some the most Orthodox Ulema) that support what we as Christians would never support. Namely that God literally has a body?! Some of the greatest experts in Islamic law claim that God has a face and hands etc, and then we as Christians are ridiculed for teaching doctrines that are not reasonable. These Islamic scholars are claiming things about God that Christinas would never claim. So which doctrine is more unreasonable, that the One and only true God has a literal body, or that the One and only true God who cannot be seen nor ever will because he is so far beyond our ability to know or see etc, sent His Word to become a man to reveal Himself to His creation? Personally I think that the latter is far more reasonable and understandable.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to oversimplify the incarnation - the mystery of mysteries. It is surely a wild thought with many mind-blowing aspects to it, but personally after dwelling on this awesome truth, I am personally always inspired to worship the One true God with all of my being!
I am regularly surprised at the Islamic attempts to deride the true teaching of God when the best that they usually offer in return is, "Say He is Allah, there is none like Him...."
Ironically, it is the Islamic teaching of the incomprehensability of God that makes the tri-unity of God all the more reasonable...
In other words, if God is as big and otherly as Islam claims (which Christianity agrees with) then he is also not beyond the limitations that Islam then tries to place on Him. (ie. the incarnation is impossible, because it is beyond God's ability to do such a thing......or God cannot be everywhere at once---he's not in your toilet too is he???!!..and other such nonsense...)
Interestingly enough, it is the Islamic scholars that make comments about God that are actually far more unreasonable than anything that Christians have ever suggested.
Check out what Abu Hanifah had to say about God:
The most high has a hand and a face and soul Q. 5:116) without asking (or knowing ) how (bela kayf)
Imam Abi Hanifah, Al-Fiqh al-Akbar, Dar al-Kutub al-'Elmeyah, Beirut, 1979, p. 33.
This is not an uncommon teaching in Islam.
Dr. Yousel Al-Qaradawi insisted that Allah has hands when commenting on the verse `Said He [Allah], `Iblis [the devil], what prevented thee to bow thyself before that which I created with My own hands?' (Q. 38:75) :
Since the hands in the above verse can not be interpreted as Allah's power, because all things were created by Allah's power, even Iblis himself being created by Allah's power, then nothing remains to distinguish the creation of Adam from the rest of Allah's creation. And in the Hadith `Allah created three things by His hand; He created Adam by his hand; He wrote the Torah by His hand; and He planted Paradise by His hand.' The distinguishing of those three by mentioning that they were created by Allah's hand, (although they share with the rest of creation that they all exist by the power of Allah), proves that there is something extra that distinguishes them (Adam, the Torah, and Paradise).
Besides, the expression, `pair of hands' is not known except when the hands are real, and was never used to indicate power or grace ... and how can the hand be interpreted as power when the palm of Allah, and the fingers of Allah, and Allah's left and right, the folding and the unfolding of Allah's hand [Q. 5:64], has been established. All of which can only be ascribed to a real hand.
Yousef Al-Qaradawi, 'Elewah Mostafa and 'Ali Gammar, Al-Twahid, Qatar, 1968, p. 118, 119.
Ahmad Ibn Taymiya the famous exponent of the school of Ibn Hanbal said:
"Allah will step down from His throne in the same manner as I am stepping down from this pulpit."
23 Years, Ali Dashti, George Allen & Unwin, London, 1985, p. 157
Notice the contrast; While Muslims continualy accuse Christians of absurdity by believing in the incarnation (God's Word became a man in Jesus), it is Islam (at least some the most Orthodox Ulema) that support what we as Christians would never support. Namely that God literally has a body?! Some of the greatest experts in Islamic law claim that God has a face and hands etc, and then we as Christians are ridiculed for teaching doctrines that are not reasonable. These Islamic scholars are claiming things about God that Christinas would never claim. So which doctrine is more unreasonable, that the One and only true God has a literal body, or that the One and only true God who cannot be seen nor ever will because he is so far beyond our ability to know or see etc, sent His Word to become a man to reveal Himself to His creation? Personally I think that the latter is far more reasonable and understandable.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to oversimplify the incarnation - the mystery of mysteries. It is surely a wild thought with many mind-blowing aspects to it, but personally after dwelling on this awesome truth, I am personally always inspired to worship the One true God with all of my being!
