algaga

WAMY Series: On Islam No.9.Introduction
God's Attributes
The Oneness of God
The Believer's Attitude
Introduction
It is a known fact that every language has one or more terms that are
used in reference to God and sometimes to lesser deities. This is not
the case with Allah. Allah is the personal name of the One true God.
Nothing else can be called Allah. The term has no plural or gender.
This shows its uniqueness when compared with the word "god," which can
be made plural, as in "gods," or made feminine, as in "goddess." It is
interesting to notice that Allah is the personal name of God in
Aramaic, the language of Jesus and a sister language of Arabic.The One
true God is a reflection of the unique concept that Islam associates
with God. To a Muslim, Allah is the Almighty Creator and Sustainer of
the universe, Who is similar to nothing, and nothing is comparable to
Him. The Prophet Muhammad was asked by his contemporaries about Allah;
the answer came directly from God Himself in the form of a short
chapter of the Qur'an, which is considered to be the essence of the
unity or the motto of monotheism. This is chapter 112, which reads:"
In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Say (O
Muhammad), He is God, the One God, the Everlasting Refuge, who has not
begotten, nor has been begotten, and equal to Him is not anyone".Some
non-Muslims allege that God in Islam is a stern and cruel God who
demands to be obeyed fully and is not loving and kind. Nothing could
be farther from the truth than this allegation. It is enough to know
that, with the exception of one, each of the 114 chapters of the
Qur'an begins with the verse " In the name of God, the Merciful, the
Compassionate". In one of the sayings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), we
are told that " God is more loving and kind than a mother to her dear
child".On the other hand, God is also Just. Hence, evildoers and
sinners must have their share of punishment, and the virtuous must
have God's bounties and favors. Actually, God's attribute of Mercy has
full manifestation in His attribute of Justice. People suffering
throughout their lives for His sake should not receive similar
treatment from their Lord as people who oppress and exploit others
their whole lives. Expecting similar treatment for them would amount
to negating the very belief in the accountability of man in the
Hereafter and thereby negate all the incentives for a moral and
virtuous life in this world. The following Qur'anic verses are very
clear and straightforward in this respect.
Verily, for the Righteous are gardens of Delight, in the Presence of
their Lord. Shall We then treat the people of Faith like the people of
Sin? What is the matter with you? How judge you?
Islam rejects characterizing God in any human form or depicting Him as
favoring certain individuals or nations on the basis of wealth, power
or race. He created the human-beings as equals. They may distinguish
themselves and get His favor through virtue and piety only.
The concepts that God rested on the seventh day of creation, that God
wrestled with one of His soldiers, that God is an envious plotter
against mankind, and that God is incarnate in any human being are
considered blasphemy from the Islamic point of view.
The unique usage of Allah as a personal name of God is a reflection of
Islam's emphasis on the purity of the belief in God that is the
essence of the message of all God's messengers. Because of this, Islam
considers associating any deity or personality with God as a deadly
sin that God will never forgive, despite the fact that He may forgive
all other sins.
The Creator must be of a different nature from the things created
because if He is of the same nature as they are, He will be temporal
and will therefore need a maker. It follows that nothing is like Him.
If the maker is not temporal, then he must be eternal. But if he is
eternal, he cannot be caused, and if nothing caused Him to come into
existence, nothing outside Him causes Him to continue to exist, which
means that he must be self-sufficient. And if He does not depend on
anything for the continuance of His own existence, then this existence
can have no end. The Creator is therefore eternal and everlasting: "He
is the First and the Last".
He is Self-sufficient or Self-subsistent, or, to use a Qur'anic term,
Al-Qayyum The Creator does not create only in the sense of bringing
things into being, He. also preserves them and takes them out of
existence and is the ultimate cause of whatever happens to them.
" God is the Creator of everything. He is the guardian over
everything. Unto Him belong the keys of the heavens and the
earth" (39:62-63).
" No creature is there crawling on the earth, but its provision rests
on God. He knows its lodging place and its repository" (11:16).
God's Attributes
If the Creator is Eternal and Everlasting, then His attributes must
also be eternal and everlasting. He should not lose any of His
attributes nor acquire new ones. If this is so, then his attributes
are absolute. Can there be more than one Creator with such absolute
attributes? Can there be, for example, two absolutely powerful
Creators? A moment's thought shows that this is not feasible.
The Qur'an summarizes this argument in the following verses:" God has
not taken to Himself any son, nor is there any god with Him: for then
each god would have taken of that which he created and some of them
would have risen up over others" (23:91).
" And why, were there gods in earth and heaven other than God, they
(heaven and earth) would surely go to ruin" (21:22).
The Oneness of God
The Qur'an reminds us of the falsity of all alleged gods. To the
worshippers of man-made objects it asks:" Do you worship what you have
carved yourself" (37:95). " Or have you taken unto yourself others
beside Him to be your protectors, even such as have no power either
for good or for harm to themselves" (13:16).
To the worshippers of heavenly bodies it cites the story of Abraham:"
When night out------ over him, he saw a star and said: This is my
Lord. But when it set, he said: I love not the setters. When he saw
the moon rising, he said: This is my Lord. But when it set, he said:
If my Lord does not guide me, I shall surely be of the people gone
astray. When he saw the sun rising, he said: This is my Lord; this is
greater. But when it set, he said: O my people, surely I quit that
which you associate, I have turned my face to Him who originated the
heavens and the earth; a man of pure faith, I am not one of the
idolators" (6:76-79).
The Believer's Attitude
In order to be a Muslim, that is, to surrender oneself to God, it is
necessary to believe in the oneness of God, in the sense of His being
the only Creator, Preserver, Nourisher, etc. But this belief, later
called Tawhid Ar-Rububiyyah, is not enough. Many of the idolators knew
and believed that only the Supreme God could do all this. But this was
not enough to make them Muslims. To tawhid ar-rububiyyah, one must add
tawhid al-'uluhiyyah. That is, one acknowledges the fact that it is
God alone who deserves to be worshipped, and thus abstains from
worshipping any other thing or being.
Having achieved this knowledge of the one true God, man should
constantly have faith in Him, and should allow nothing to induce him
to deny truth.
When faith enters a person's heart, it causes certain mental states
that result in certain actions. Taken together, these mental states
and actions are the proof for the true faith. The Prophet said:" Faith
is that which resides firmly in the heart and which is proved by
deeds".
Foremost among those mental stated is the feeling of gratitude towards
God, which could be said to be the essence of ibada (worship).
The feeling of gratitude is so important that a non-believer is called
'kafir', which means 'one who denies a truth' and also 'one who is
ungrateful'.
A believer loves, and is grateful to God for the bounties He bestowed
upon him, but being aware of the fact that his good deeds, whether
mental or physical, are far from being commensurate with Divine
favors, he is always anxious lest God should punish him, here or in
the Hereafter. He, therefore, fears Him, surrenders himself to Him and
serves Him with great humility. One cannot be in such a mental state
without being almost all the time mindful of God. Remembering God is
thus the life force of faith, without which it fades and withers
away.
The Qur'an tries to promote this feeling of gratitude by repeating the
attributes of God very frequently. We find most of these attributes
mentioned together in the following verses of the Qur'an:" He is God;
there is no god but He. He is the Knower of the unseen and the
visible; He is the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate. He is God;
there is no god but He. He is the King, the All-Holy, the All-Peace,
the Guardian of the Faith, the All-Preserver, the All-Mighty, the All-
Compeller, the All-Sublime. Glory be to God, above that they
associate! He is God, the Creator, the Maker, the Shaper. To Him
belong the Names Most Beautiful. All that is in the heavens and the
earth magnifies Him; He is the Almighty, the All-Wise" (59:22-24).
" There is no god but He, the Living, the Everlasting. Slumber seizes
Him not, nor sleep. To Him belongs all that is in the heavens and the
earth. Who is there that shall intercede with Him save by His leave?
He knows what lies before them, and what is after them, and they
comprehend not anything of His knowledge save such as He wills. His
throne comprises the heavens and earth. The preserving of them
oppresses Him not; He is the All-High, the All-Glorious" (2:255).
People of the Book, go not beyond the bounds in your religion, and say
not as to God but the truth.
" The Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, was only the Messenger of God, and
His Word that He committed to Mary, and a Spirit from Him. So believe
in God and His Messengers, and say not "Three". Refrain; better it is
for you. God is only one God. Glory be to Him -- (He is) above having a
son" (4:171).

Bertie the Bunyip

algaga <jipksaman@gmail.com> wrote in news:d8e5636a-4fa4-45af-8578-
85bbb08dbda3@p69g2000hsa.googlegroups.com:

>
> WAMY Series: On Islam No.9.Introduction
> God's Attributes
> The Oneness of God
> The Believer's Attitude
> Introduction
> It is a known fact that every language has one or more terms that are
> used in reference to God and sometimes to lesser deities. This is not
> the case with Allah. Allah is the personal name of the One true God.



No it isn't. I've met him and his name is Fred.


He also told me you evolved from a warthog.



Bertie
>

Bertie the Bunyip

algaga <jipksaman@gmail.com> wrote in news:d8e5636a-4fa4-45af-8578-
85bbb08dbda3@p69g2000hsa.googlegroups.com:

>
> WAMY Series: On Islam No.9.Introduction
> God's Attributes
> The Oneness of God
> The Believer's Attitude
> Introduction
> It is a known fact that every language has one or more terms that are
> used in reference to God and sometimes to lesser deities. This is not
> the case with Allah. Allah is the personal name of the One true God.



No it isn't. I've met him and his name is Fred.


He also told me you evolved from a warthog.



Bertie
>

DougW

algaga wrote:

..... <SNIP>

What Would Allah Drive?

.....

DougW

algaga wrote:

..... <SNIP>

What Would Allah Drive?

.....

Jeff DeWitt

So Islamospammer, unless Mohmad drove a Jeep you are just another pig of
a spammer.

Jeff DeWitt

algaga wrote:
> WAMY Series: On Islam No.9.Introduction
> God's Attributes
> The Oneness of God
> The Believer's Attitude
> Introduction
> It is a known fact that every language has one or more terms that are
> used in reference to God and sometimes to lesser deities. This is not
> the case with Allah. Allah is the personal name of the One true God.
> Nothing else can be called Allah. The term has no plural or gender.
> This shows its uniqueness when compared with the word "god," which can
> be made plural, as in "gods," or made feminine, as in "goddess." It is
> interesting to notice that Allah is the personal name of God in
> Aramaic, the language of Jesus and a sister language of Arabic.The One
> true God is a reflection of the unique concept that Islam associates
> with God. To a Muslim, Allah is the Almighty Creator and Sustainer of
> the universe, Who is similar to nothing, and nothing is comparable to
> Him. The Prophet Muhammad was asked by his contemporaries about Allah;
> the answer came directly from God Himself in the form of a short
> chapter of the Qur'an, which is considered to be the essence of the
> unity or the motto of monotheism. This is chapter 112, which reads:"
> In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Say (O
> Muhammad), He is God, the One God, the Everlasting Refuge, who has not
> begotten, nor has been begotten, and equal to Him is not anyone".Some
> non-Muslims allege that God in Islam is a stern and cruel God who
> demands to be obeyed fully and is not loving and kind. Nothing could
> be farther from the truth than this allegation. It is enough to know
> that, with the exception of one, each of the 114 chapters of the
> Qur'an begins with the verse " In the name of God, the Merciful, the
> Compassionate". In one of the sayings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), we
> are told that " God is more loving and kind than a mother to her dear
> child".On the other hand, God is also Just. Hence, evildoers and
> sinners must have their share of punishment, and the virtuous must
> have God's bounties and favors. Actually, God's attribute of Mercy has
> full manifestation in His attribute of Justice. People suffering
> throughout their lives for His sake should not receive similar
> treatment from their Lord as people who oppress and exploit others
> their whole lives. Expecting similar treatment for them would amount
> to negating the very belief in the accountability of man in the
> Hereafter and thereby negate all the incentives for a moral and
> virtuous life in this world. The following Qur'anic verses are very
> clear and straightforward in this respect.
> Verily, for the Righteous are gardens of Delight, in the Presence of
> their Lord. Shall We then treat the people of Faith like the people of
> Sin? What is the matter with you? How judge you?
> Islam rejects characterizing God in any human form or depicting Him as
> favoring certain individuals or nations on the basis of wealth, power
> or race. He created the human-beings as equals. They may distinguish
> themselves and get His favor through virtue and piety only.
> The concepts that God rested on the seventh day of creation, that God
> wrestled with one of His soldiers, that God is an envious plotter
> against mankind, and that God is incarnate in any human being are
> considered blasphemy from the Islamic point of view.
> The unique usage of Allah as a personal name of God is a reflection of
> Islam's emphasis on the purity of the belief in God that is the
> essence of the message of all God's messengers. Because of this, Islam
> considers associating any deity or personality with God as a deadly
> sin that God will never forgive, despite the fact that He may forgive
> all other sins.
> The Creator must be of a different nature from the things created
> because if He is of the same nature as they are, He will be temporal
> and will therefore need a maker. It follows that nothing is like Him.
> If the maker is not temporal, then he must be eternal. But if he is
> eternal, he cannot be caused, and if nothing caused Him to come into
> existence, nothing outside Him causes Him to continue to exist, which
> means that he must be self-sufficient. And if He does not depend on
> anything for the continuance of His own existence, then this existence
> can have no end. The Creator is therefore eternal and everlasting: "He
> is the First and the Last".
> He is Self-sufficient or Self-subsistent, or, to use a Qur'anic term,
> Al-Qayyum The Creator does not create only in the sense of bringing
> things into being, He. also preserves them and takes them out of
> existence and is the ultimate cause of whatever happens to them.
> " God is the Creator of everything. He is the guardian over
> everything. Unto Him belong the keys of the heavens and the
> earth" (39:62-63).
> " No creature is there crawling on the earth, but its provision rests
> on God. He knows its lodging place and its repository" (11:16).
> God's Attributes
> If the Creator is Eternal and Everlasting, then His attributes must
> also be eternal and everlasting. He should not lose any of His
> attributes nor acquire new ones. If this is so, then his attributes
> are absolute. Can there be more than one Creator with such absolute
> attributes? Can there be, for example, two absolutely powerful
> Creators? A moment's thought shows that this is not feasible.
> The Qur'an summarizes this argument in the following verses:" God has
> not taken to Himself any son, nor is there any god with Him: for then
> each god would have taken of that which he created and some of them
> would have risen up over others" (23:91).
> " And why, were there gods in earth and heaven other than God, they
> (heaven and earth) would surely go to ruin" (21:22).
> The Oneness of God
> The Qur'an reminds us of the falsity of all alleged gods. To the
> worshippers of man-made objects it asks:" Do you worship what you have
> carved yourself" (37:95). " Or have you taken unto yourself others
> beside Him to be your protectors, even such as have no power either
> for good or for harm to themselves" (13:16).
> To the worshippers of heavenly bodies it cites the story of Abraham:"
> When night out------ over him, he saw a star and said: This is my
> Lord. But when it set, he said: I love not the setters. When he saw
> the moon rising, he said: This is my Lord. But when it set, he said:
> If my Lord does not guide me, I shall surely be of the people gone
> astray. When he saw the sun rising, he said: This is my Lord; this is
> greater. But when it set, he said: O my people, surely I quit that
> which you associate, I have turned my face to Him who originated the
> heavens and the earth; a man of pure faith, I am not one of the
> idolators" (6:76-79).
> The Believer's Attitude
> In order to be a Muslim, that is, to surrender oneself to God, it is
> necessary to believe in the oneness of God, in the sense of His being
> the only Creator, Preserver, Nourisher, etc. But this belief, later
> called Tawhid Ar-Rububiyyah, is not enough. Many of the idolators knew
> and believed that only the Supreme God could do all this. But this was
> not enough to make them Muslims. To tawhid ar-rububiyyah, one must add
> tawhid al-'uluhiyyah. That is, one acknowledges the fact that it is
> God alone who deserves to be worshipped, and thus abstains from
> worshipping any other thing or being.
> Having achieved this knowledge of the one true God, man should
> constantly have faith in Him, and should allow nothing to induce him
> to deny truth.
> When faith enters a person's heart, it causes certain mental states
> that result in certain actions. Taken together, these mental states
> and actions are the proof for the true faith. The Prophet said:" Faith
> is that which resides firmly in the heart and which is proved by
> deeds".
> Foremost among those mental stated is the feeling of gratitude towards
> God, which could be said to be the essence of ibada (worship).
> The feeling of gratitude is so important that a non-believer is called
> 'kafir', which means 'one who denies a truth' and also 'one who is
> ungrateful'.
> A believer loves, and is grateful to God for the bounties He bestowed
> upon him, but being aware of the fact that his good deeds, whether
> mental or physical, are far from being commensurate with Divine
> favors, he is always anxious lest God should punish him, here or in
> the Hereafter. He, therefore, fears Him, surrenders himself to Him and
> serves Him with great humility. One cannot be in such a mental state
> without being almost all the time mindful of God. Remembering God is
> thus the life force of faith, without which it fades and withers
> away.
> The Qur'an tries to promote this feeling of gratitude by repeating the
> attributes of God very frequently. We find most of these attributes
> mentioned together in the following verses of the Qur'an:" He is God;
> there is no god but He. He is the Knower of the unseen and the
> visible; He is the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate. He is God;
> there is no god but He. He is the King, the All-Holy, the All-Peace,
> the Guardian of the Faith, the All-Preserver, the All-Mighty, the All-
> Compeller, the All-Sublime. Glory be to God, above that they
> associate! He is God, the Creator, the Maker, the Shaper. To Him
> belong the Names Most Beautiful. All that is in the heavens and the
> earth magnifies Him; He is the Almighty, the All-Wise" (59:22-24).
> " There is no god but He, the Living, the Everlasting. Slumber seizes
> Him not, nor sleep. To Him belongs all that is in the heavens and the
> earth. Who is there that shall intercede with Him save by His leave?
> He knows what lies before them, and what is after them, and they
> comprehend not anything of His knowledge save such as He wills. His
> throne comprises the heavens and earth. The preserving of them
> oppresses Him not; He is the All-High, the All-Glorious" (2:255).
> People of the Book, go not beyond the bounds in your religion, and say
> not as to God but the truth.
> " The Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, was only the Messenger of God, and
> His Word that He committed to Mary, and a Spirit from Him. So believe
> in God and His Messengers, and say not "Three". Refrain; better it is
> for you. God is only one God. Glory be to Him -- (He is) above having a
> son" (4:171).
>

Jeff DeWitt

So Islamospammer, unless Mohmad drove a Jeep you are just another pig of
a spammer.

Jeff DeWitt

algaga wrote:
> WAMY Series: On Islam No.9.Introduction
> God's Attributes
> The Oneness of God
> The Believer's Attitude
> Introduction
> It is a known fact that every language has one or more terms that are
> used in reference to God and sometimes to lesser deities. This is not
> the case with Allah. Allah is the personal name of the One true God.
> Nothing else can be called Allah. The term has no plural or gender.
> This shows its uniqueness when compared with the word "god," which can
> be made plural, as in "gods," or made feminine, as in "goddess." It is
> interesting to notice that Allah is the personal name of God in
> Aramaic, the language of Jesus and a sister language of Arabic.The One
> true God is a reflection of the unique concept that Islam associates
> with God. To a Muslim, Allah is the Almighty Creator and Sustainer of
> the universe, Who is similar to nothing, and nothing is comparable to
> Him. The Prophet Muhammad was asked by his contemporaries about Allah;
> the answer came directly from God Himself in the form of a short
> chapter of the Qur'an, which is considered to be the essence of the
> unity or the motto of monotheism. This is chapter 112, which reads:"
> In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Say (O
> Muhammad), He is God, the One God, the Everlasting Refuge, who has not
> begotten, nor has been begotten, and equal to Him is not anyone".Some
> non-Muslims allege that God in Islam is a stern and cruel God who
> demands to be obeyed fully and is not loving and kind. Nothing could
> be farther from the truth than this allegation. It is enough to know
> that, with the exception of one, each of the 114 chapters of the
> Qur'an begins with the verse " In the name of God, the Merciful, the
> Compassionate". In one of the sayings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), we
> are told that " God is more loving and kind than a mother to her dear
> child".On the other hand, God is also Just. Hence, evildoers and
> sinners must have their share of punishment, and the virtuous must
> have God's bounties and favors. Actually, God's attribute of Mercy has
> full manifestation in His attribute of Justice. People suffering
> throughout their lives for His sake should not receive similar
> treatment from their Lord as people who oppress and exploit others
> their whole lives. Expecting similar treatment for them would amount
> to negating the very belief in the accountability of man in the
> Hereafter and thereby negate all the incentives for a moral and
> virtuous life in this world. The following Qur'anic verses are very
> clear and straightforward in this respect.
> Verily, for the Righteous are gardens of Delight, in the Presence of
> their Lord. Shall We then treat the people of Faith like the people of
> Sin? What is the matter with you? How judge you?
> Islam rejects characterizing God in any human form or depicting Him as
> favoring certain individuals or nations on the basis of wealth, power
> or race. He created the human-beings as equals. They may distinguish
> themselves and get His favor through virtue and piety only.
> The concepts that God rested on the seventh day of creation, that God
> wrestled with one of His soldiers, that God is an envious plotter
> against mankind, and that God is incarnate in any human being are
> considered blasphemy from the Islamic point of view.
> The unique usage of Allah as a personal name of God is a reflection of
> Islam's emphasis on the purity of the belief in God that is the
> essence of the message of all God's messengers. Because of this, Islam
> considers associating any deity or personality with God as a deadly
> sin that God will never forgive, despite the fact that He may forgive
> all other sins.
> The Creator must be of a different nature from the things created
> because if He is of the same nature as they are, He will be temporal
> and will therefore need a maker. It follows that nothing is like Him.
> If the maker is not temporal, then he must be eternal. But if he is
> eternal, he cannot be caused, and if nothing caused Him to come into
> existence, nothing outside Him causes Him to continue to exist, which
> means that he must be self-sufficient. And if He does not depend on
> anything for the continuance of His own existence, then this existence
> can have no end. The Creator is therefore eternal and everlasting: "He
> is the First and the Last".
> He is Self-sufficient or Self-subsistent, or, to use a Qur'anic term,
> Al-Qayyum The Creator does not create only in the sense of bringing
> things into being, He. also preserves them and takes them out of
> existence and is the ultimate cause of whatever happens to them.
> " God is the Creator of everything. He is the guardian over
> everything. Unto Him belong the keys of the heavens and the
> earth" (39:62-63).
> " No creature is there crawling on the earth, but its provision rests
> on God. He knows its lodging place and its repository" (11:16).
> God's Attributes
> If the Creator is Eternal and Everlasting, then His attributes must
> also be eternal and everlasting. He should not lose any of His
> attributes nor acquire new ones. If this is so, then his attributes
> are absolute. Can there be more than one Creator with such absolute
> attributes? Can there be, for example, two absolutely powerful
> Creators? A moment's thought shows that this is not feasible.
> The Qur'an summarizes this argument in the following verses:" God has
> not taken to Himself any son, nor is there any god with Him: for then
> each god would have taken of that which he created and some of them
> would have risen up over others" (23:91).
> " And why, were there gods in earth and heaven other than God, they
> (heaven and earth) would surely go to ruin" (21:22).
> The Oneness of God
> The Qur'an reminds us of the falsity of all alleged gods. To the
> worshippers of man-made objects it asks:" Do you worship what you have
> carved yourself" (37:95). " Or have you taken unto yourself others
> beside Him to be your protectors, even such as have no power either
> for good or for harm to themselves" (13:16).
> To the worshippers of heavenly bodies it cites the story of Abraham:"
> When night out------ over him, he saw a star and said: This is my
> Lord. But when it set, he said: I love not the setters. When he saw
> the moon rising, he said: This is my Lord. But when it set, he said:
> If my Lord does not guide me, I shall surely be of the people gone
> astray. When he saw the sun rising, he said: This is my Lord; this is
> greater. But when it set, he said: O my people, surely I quit that
> which you associate, I have turned my face to Him who originated the
> heavens and the earth; a man of pure faith, I am not one of the
> idolators" (6:76-79).
> The Believer's Attitude
> In order to be a Muslim, that is, to surrender oneself to God, it is
> necessary to believe in the oneness of God, in the sense of His being
> the only Creator, Preserver, Nourisher, etc. But this belief, later
> called Tawhid Ar-Rububiyyah, is not enough. Many of the idolators knew
> and believed that only the Supreme God could do all this. But this was
> not enough to make them Muslims. To tawhid ar-rububiyyah, one must add
> tawhid al-'uluhiyyah. That is, one acknowledges the fact that it is
> God alone who deserves to be worshipped, and thus abstains from
> worshipping any other thing or being.
> Having achieved this knowledge of the one true God, man should
> constantly have faith in Him, and should allow nothing to induce him
> to deny truth.
> When faith enters a person's heart, it causes certain mental states
> that result in certain actions. Taken together, these mental states
> and actions are the proof for the true faith. The Prophet said:" Faith
> is that which resides firmly in the heart and which is proved by
> deeds".
> Foremost among those mental stated is the feeling of gratitude towards
> God, which could be said to be the essence of ibada (worship).
> The feeling of gratitude is so important that a non-believer is called
> 'kafir', which means 'one who denies a truth' and also 'one who is
> ungrateful'.
> A believer loves, and is grateful to God for the bounties He bestowed
> upon him, but being aware of the fact that his good deeds, whether
> mental or physical, are far from being commensurate with Divine
> favors, he is always anxious lest God should punish him, here or in
> the Hereafter. He, therefore, fears Him, surrenders himself to Him and
> serves Him with great humility. One cannot be in such a mental state
> without being almost all the time mindful of God. Remembering God is
> thus the life force of faith, without which it fades and withers
> away.
> The Qur'an tries to promote this feeling of gratitude by repeating the
> attributes of God very frequently. We find most of these attributes
> mentioned together in the following verses of the Qur'an:" He is God;
> there is no god but He. He is the Knower of the unseen and the
> visible; He is the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate. He is God;
> there is no god but He. He is the King, the All-Holy, the All-Peace,
> the Guardian of the Faith, the All-Preserver, the All-Mighty, the All-
> Compeller, the All-Sublime. Glory be to God, above that they
> associate! He is God, the Creator, the Maker, the Shaper. To Him
> belong the Names Most Beautiful. All that is in the heavens and the
> earth magnifies Him; He is the Almighty, the All-Wise" (59:22-24).
> " There is no god but He, the Living, the Everlasting. Slumber seizes
> Him not, nor sleep. To Him belongs all that is in the heavens and the
> earth. Who is there that shall intercede with Him save by His leave?
> He knows what lies before them, and what is after them, and they
> comprehend not anything of His knowledge save such as He wills. His
> throne comprises the heavens and earth. The preserving of them
> oppresses Him not; He is the All-High, the All-Glorious" (2:255).
> People of the Book, go not beyond the bounds in your religion, and say
> not as to God but the truth.
> " The Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, was only the Messenger of God, and
> His Word that He committed to Mary, and a Spirit from Him. So believe
> in God and His Messengers, and say not "Three". Refrain; better it is
> for you. God is only one God. Glory be to Him -- (He is) above having a
> son" (4:171).
>

Use No Hooks~®

On Tue, 20 Nov 2007 20:29:33 -0500, Jeff DeWitt <JeffDeWitt@nc.rr.com>
wrote:

If he would take the rag off his head, and allow his brain to breath,
he may change his mind, but he may be another two cell.

>So Islamospammer, unless Mohmad drove a Jeep you are just another pig of
>a spammer.
>
>Jeff DeWitt
>
>algaga wrote:
>> WAMY Series: On Islam No.9.Introduction
>> God's Attributes
>> The Oneness of God
>> The Believer's Attitude
>> Introduction
>> It is a known fact that every language has one or more terms that are
>> used in reference to God and sometimes to lesser deities. This is not
>> the case with Allah. Allah is the personal name of the One true God.
>> Nothing else can be called Allah. The term has no plural or gender.
>> This shows its uniqueness when compared with the word "god," which can
>> be made plural, as in "gods," or made feminine, as in "goddess." It is
>> interesting to notice that Allah is the personal name of God in
>> Aramaic, the language of Jesus and a sister language of Arabic.The One
>> true God is a reflection of the unique concept that Islam associates
>> with God. To a Muslim, Allah is the Almighty Creator and Sustainer of
>> the universe, Who is similar to nothing, and nothing is comparable to
>> Him. The Prophet Muhammad was asked by his contemporaries about Allah;
>> the answer came directly from God Himself in the form of a short
>> chapter of the Qur'an, which is considered to be the essence of the
>> unity or the motto of monotheism. This is chapter 112, which reads:"
>> In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Say (O
>> Muhammad), He is God, the One God, the Everlasting Refuge, who has not
>> begotten, nor has been begotten, and equal to Him is not anyone".Some
>> non-Muslims allege that God in Islam is a stern and cruel God who
>> demands to be obeyed fully and is not loving and kind. Nothing could
>> be farther from the truth than this allegation. It is enough to know
>> that, with the exception of one, each of the 114 chapters of the
>> Qur'an begins with the verse " In the name of God, the Merciful, the
>> Compassionate". In one of the sayings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), we
>> are told that " God is more loving and kind than a mother to her dear
>> child".On the other hand, God is also Just. Hence, evildoers and
>> sinners must have their share of punishment, and the virtuous must
>> have God's bounties and favors. Actually, God's attribute of Mercy has
>> full manifestation in His attribute of Justice. People suffering
>> throughout their lives for His sake should not receive similar
>> treatment from their Lord as people who oppress and exploit others
>> their whole lives. Expecting similar treatment for them would amount
>> to negating the very belief in the accountability of man in the
>> Hereafter and thereby negate all the incentives for a moral and
>> virtuous life in this world. The following Qur'anic verses are very
>> clear and straightforward in this respect.
>> Verily, for the Righteous are gardens of Delight, in the Presence of
>> their Lord. Shall We then treat the people of Faith like the people of
>> Sin? What is the matter with you? How judge you?
>> Islam rejects characterizing God in any human form or depicting Him as
>> favoring certain individuals or nations on the basis of wealth, power
>> or race. He created the human-beings as equals. They may distinguish
>> themselves and get His favor through virtue and piety only.
>> The concepts that God rested on the seventh day of creation, that God
>> wrestled with one of His soldiers, that God is an envious plotter
>> against mankind, and that God is incarnate in any human being are
>> considered blasphemy from the Islamic point of view.
>> The unique usage of Allah as a personal name of God is a reflection of
>> Islam's emphasis on the purity of the belief in God that is the
>> essence of the message of all God's messengers. Because of this, Islam
>> considers associating any deity or personality with God as a deadly
>> sin that God will never forgive, despite the fact that He may forgive
>> all other sins.
>> The Creator must be of a different nature from the things created
>> because if He is of the same nature as they are, He will be temporal
>> and will therefore need a maker. It follows that nothing is like Him.
>> If the maker is not temporal, then he must be eternal. But if he is
>> eternal, he cannot be caused, and if nothing caused Him to come into
>> existence, nothing outside Him causes Him to continue to exist, which
>> means that he must be self-sufficient. And if He does not depend on
>> anything for the continuance of His own existence, then this existence
>> can have no end. The Creator is therefore eternal and everlasting: "He
>> is the First and the Last".
>> He is Self-sufficient or Self-subsistent, or, to use a Qur'anic term,
>> Al-Qayyum The Creator does not create only in the sense of bringing
>> things into being, He. also preserves them and takes them out of
>> existence and is the ultimate cause of whatever happens to them.
>> " God is the Creator of everything. He is the guardian over
>> everything. Unto Him belong the keys of the heavens and the
>> earth" (39:62-63).
>> " No creature is there crawling on the earth, but its provision rests
>> on God. He knows its lodging place and its repository" (11:16).
>> God's Attributes
>> If the Creator is Eternal and Everlasting, then His attributes must
>> also be eternal and everlasting. He should not lose any of His
>> attributes nor acquire new ones. If this is so, then his attributes
>> are absolute. Can there be more than one Creator with such absolute
>> attributes? Can there be, for example, two absolutely powerful
>> Creators? A moment's thought shows that this is not feasible.
>> The Qur'an summarizes this argument in the following verses:" God has
>> not taken to Himself any son, nor is there any god with Him: for then
>> each god would have taken of that which he created and some of them
>> would have risen up over others" (23:91).
>> " And why, were there gods in earth and heaven other than God, they
>> (heaven and earth) would surely go to ruin" (21:22).
>> The Oneness of God
>> The Qur'an reminds us of the falsity of all alleged gods. To the
>> worshippers of man-made objects it asks:" Do you worship what you have
>> carved yourself" (37:95). " Or have you taken unto yourself others
>> beside Him to be your protectors, even such as have no power either
>> for good or for harm to themselves" (13:16).
>> To the worshippers of heavenly bodies it cites the story of Abraham:"
>> When night out------ over him, he saw a star and said: This is my
>> Lord. But when it set, he said: I love not the setters. When he saw
>> the moon rising, he said: This is my Lord. But when it set, he said:
>> If my Lord does not guide me, I shall surely be of the people gone
>> astray. When he saw the sun rising, he said: This is my Lord; this is
>> greater. But when it set, he said: O my people, surely I quit that
>> which you associate, I have turned my face to Him who originated the
>> heavens and the earth; a man of pure faith, I am not one of the
>> idolators" (6:76-79).
>> The Believer's Attitude
>> In order to be a Muslim, that is, to surrender oneself to God, it is
>> necessary to believe in the oneness of God, in the sense of His being
>> the only Creator, Preserver, Nourisher, etc. But this belief, later
>> called Tawhid Ar-Rububiyyah, is not enough. Many of the idolators knew
>> and believed that only the Supreme God could do all this. But this was
>> not enough to make them Muslims. To tawhid ar-rububiyyah, one must add
>> tawhid al-'uluhiyyah. That is, one acknowledges the fact that it is
>> God alone who deserves to be worshipped, and thus abstains from
>> worshipping any other thing or being.
>> Having achieved this knowledge of the one true God, man should
>> constantly have faith in Him, and should allow nothing to induce him
>> to deny truth.
>> When faith enters a person's heart, it causes certain mental states
>> that result in certain actions. Taken together, these mental states
>> and actions are the proof for the true faith. The Prophet said:" Faith
>> is that which resides firmly in the heart and which is proved by
>> deeds".
>> Foremost among those mental stated is the feeling of gratitude towards
>> God, which could be said to be the essence of ibada (worship).
>> The feeling of gratitude is so important that a non-believer is called
>> 'kafir', which means 'one who denies a truth' and also 'one who is
>> ungrateful'.
>> A believer loves, and is grateful to God for the bounties He bestowed
>> upon him, but being aware of the fact that his good deeds, whether
>> mental or physical, are far from being commensurate with Divine
>> favors, he is always anxious lest God should punish him, here or in
>> the Hereafter. He, therefore, fears Him, surrenders himself to Him and
>> serves Him with great humility. One cannot be in such a mental state
>> without being almost all the time mindful of God. Remembering God is
>> thus the life force of faith, without which it fades and withers
>> away.
>> The Qur'an tries to promote this feeling of gratitude by repeating the
>> attributes of God very frequently. We find most of these attributes
>> mentioned together in the following verses of the Qur'an:" He is God;
>> there is no god but He. He is the Knower of the unseen and the
>> visible; He is the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate. He is God;
>> there is no god but He. He is the King, the All-Holy, the All-Peace,
>> the Guardian of the Faith, the All-Preserver, the All-Mighty, the All-
>> Compeller, the All-Sublime. Glory be to God, above that they
>> associate! He is God, the Creator, the Maker, the Shaper. To Him
>> belong the Names Most Beautiful. All that is in the heavens and the
>> earth magnifies Him; He is the Almighty, the All-Wise" (59:22-24).
>> " There is no god but He, the Living, the Everlasting. Slumber seizes
>> Him not, nor sleep. To Him belongs all that is in the heavens and the
>> earth. Who is there that shall intercede with Him save by His leave?
>> He knows what lies before them, and what is after them, and they
>> comprehend not anything of His knowledge save such as He wills. His
>> throne comprises the heavens and earth. The preserving of them
>> oppresses Him not; He is the All-High, the All-Glorious" (2:255).
>> People of the Book, go not beyond the bounds in your religion, and say
>> not as to God but the truth.
>> " The Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, was only the Messenger of God, and
>> His Word that He committed to Mary, and a Spirit from Him. So believe
>> in God and His Messengers, and say not "Three". Refrain; better it is
>> for you. God is only one God. Glory be to Him -- (He is) above having a
>> son" (4:171).
>>

Use No Hooks~®

On Tue, 20 Nov 2007 20:29:33 -0500, Jeff DeWitt <JeffDeWitt@nc.rr.com>
wrote:

If he would take the rag off his head, and allow his brain to breath,
he may change his mind, but he may be another two cell.

>So Islamospammer, unless Mohmad drove a Jeep you are just another pig of
>a spammer.
>
>Jeff DeWitt
>
>algaga wrote:
>> WAMY Series: On Islam No.9.Introduction
>> God's Attributes
>> The Oneness of God
>> The Believer's Attitude
>> Introduction
>> It is a known fact that every language has one or more terms that are
>> used in reference to God and sometimes to lesser deities. This is not
>> the case with Allah. Allah is the personal name of the One true God.
>> Nothing else can be called Allah. The term has no plural or gender.
>> This shows its uniqueness when compared with the word "god," which can
>> be made plural, as in "gods," or made feminine, as in "goddess." It is
>> interesting to notice that Allah is the personal name of God in
>> Aramaic, the language of Jesus and a sister language of Arabic.The One
>> true God is a reflection of the unique concept that Islam associates
>> with God. To a Muslim, Allah is the Almighty Creator and Sustainer of
>> the universe, Who is similar to nothing, and nothing is comparable to
>> Him. The Prophet Muhammad was asked by his contemporaries about Allah;
>> the answer came directly from God Himself in the form of a short
>> chapter of the Qur'an, which is considered to be the essence of the
>> unity or the motto of monotheism. This is chapter 112, which reads:"
>> In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Say (O
>> Muhammad), He is God, the One God, the Everlasting Refuge, who has not
>> begotten, nor has been begotten, and equal to Him is not anyone".Some
>> non-Muslims allege that God in Islam is a stern and cruel God who
>> demands to be obeyed fully and is not loving and kind. Nothing could
>> be farther from the truth than this allegation. It is enough to know
>> that, with the exception of one, each of the 114 chapters of the
>> Qur'an begins with the verse " In the name of God, the Merciful, the
>> Compassionate". In one of the sayings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), we
>> are told that " God is more loving and kind than a mother to her dear
>> child".On the other hand, God is also Just. Hence, evildoers and
>> sinners must have their share of punishment, and the virtuous must
>> have God's bounties and favors. Actually, God's attribute of Mercy has
>> full manifestation in His attribute of Justice. People suffering
>> throughout their lives for His sake should not receive similar
>> treatment from their Lord as people who oppress and exploit others
>> their whole lives. Expecting similar treatment for them would amount
>> to negating the very belief in the accountability of man in the
>> Hereafter and thereby negate all the incentives for a moral and
>> virtuous life in this world. The following Qur'anic verses are very
>> clear and straightforward in this respect.
>> Verily, for the Righteous are gardens of Delight, in the Presence of
>> their Lord. Shall We then treat the people of Faith like the people of
>> Sin? What is the matter with you? How judge you?
>> Islam rejects characterizing God in any human form or depicting Him as
>> favoring certain individuals or nations on the basis of wealth, power
>> or race. He created the human-beings as equals. They may distinguish
>> themselves and get His favor through virtue and piety only.
>> The concepts that God rested on the seventh day of creation, that God
>> wrestled with one of His soldiers, that God is an envious plotter
>> against mankind, and that God is incarnate in any human being are
>> considered blasphemy from the Islamic point of view.
>> The unique usage of Allah as a personal name of God is a reflection of
>> Islam's emphasis on the purity of the belief in God that is the
>> essence of the message of all God's messengers. Because of this, Islam
>> considers associating any deity or personality with God as a deadly
>> sin that God will never forgive, despite the fact that He may forgive
>> all other sins.
>> The Creator must be of a different nature from the things created
>> because if He is of the same nature as they are, He will be temporal
>> and will therefore need a maker. It follows that nothing is like Him.
>> If the maker is not temporal, then he must be eternal. But if he is
>> eternal, he cannot be caused, and if nothing caused Him to come into
>> existence, nothing outside Him causes Him to continue to exist, which
>> means that he must be self-sufficient. And if He does not depend on
>> anything for the continuance of His own existence, then this existence
>> can have no end. The Creator is therefore eternal and everlasting: "He
>> is the First and the Last".
>> He is Self-sufficient or Self-subsistent, or, to use a Qur'anic term,
>> Al-Qayyum The Creator does not create only in the sense of bringing
>> things into being, He. also preserves them and takes them out of
>> existence and is the ultimate cause of whatever happens to them.
>> " God is the Creator of everything. He is the guardian over
>> everything. Unto Him belong the keys of the heavens and the
>> earth" (39:62-63).
>> " No creature is there crawling on the earth, but its provision rests
>> on God. He knows its lodging place and its repository" (11:16).
>> God's Attributes
>> If the Creator is Eternal and Everlasting, then His attributes must
>> also be eternal and everlasting. He should not lose any of His
>> attributes nor acquire new ones. If this is so, then his attributes
>> are absolute. Can there be more than one Creator with such absolute
>> attributes? Can there be, for example, two absolutely powerful
>> Creators? A moment's thought shows that this is not feasible.
>> The Qur'an summarizes this argument in the following verses:" God has
>> not taken to Himself any son, nor is there any god with Him: for then
>> each god would have taken of that which he created and some of them
>> would have risen up over others" (23:91).
>> " And why, were there gods in earth and heaven other than God, they
>> (heaven and earth) would surely go to ruin" (21:22).
>> The Oneness of God
>> The Qur'an reminds us of the falsity of all alleged gods. To the
>> worshippers of man-made objects it asks:" Do you worship what you have
>> carved yourself" (37:95). " Or have you taken unto yourself others
>> beside Him to be your protectors, even such as have no power either
>> for good or for harm to themselves" (13:16).
>> To the worshippers of heavenly bodies it cites the story of Abraham:"
>> When night out------ over him, he saw a star and said: This is my
>> Lord. But when it set, he said: I love not the setters. When he saw
>> the moon rising, he said: This is my Lord. But when it set, he said:
>> If my Lord does not guide me, I shall surely be of the people gone
>> astray. When he saw the sun rising, he said: This is my Lord; this is
>> greater. But when it set, he said: O my people, surely I quit that
>> which you associate, I have turned my face to Him who originated the
>> heavens and the earth; a man of pure faith, I am not one of the
>> idolators" (6:76-79).
>> The Believer's Attitude
>> In order to be a Muslim, that is, to surrender oneself to God, it is
>> necessary to believe in the oneness of God, in the sense of His being
>> the only Creator, Preserver, Nourisher, etc. But this belief, later
>> called Tawhid Ar-Rububiyyah, is not enough. Many of the idolators knew
>> and believed that only the Supreme God could do all this. But this was
>> not enough to make them Muslims. To tawhid ar-rububiyyah, one must add
>> tawhid al-'uluhiyyah. That is, one acknowledges the fact that it is
>> God alone who deserves to be worshipped, and thus abstains from
>> worshipping any other thing or being.
>> Having achieved this knowledge of the one true God, man should
>> constantly have faith in Him, and should allow nothing to induce him
>> to deny truth.
>> When faith enters a person's heart, it causes certain mental states
>> that result in certain actions. Taken together, these mental states
>> and actions are the proof for the true faith. The Prophet said:" Faith
>> is that which resides firmly in the heart and which is proved by
>> deeds".
>> Foremost among those mental stated is the feeling of gratitude towards
>> God, which could be said to be the essence of ibada (worship).
>> The feeling of gratitude is so important that a non-believer is called
>> 'kafir', which means 'one who denies a truth' and also 'one who is
>> ungrateful'.
>> A believer loves, and is grateful to God for the bounties He bestowed
>> upon him, but being aware of the fact that his good deeds, whether
>> mental or physical, are far from being commensurate with Divine
>> favors, he is always anxious lest God should punish him, here or in
>> the Hereafter. He, therefore, fears Him, surrenders himself to Him and
>> serves Him with great humility. One cannot be in such a mental state
>> without being almost all the time mindful of God. Remembering God is
>> thus the life force of faith, without which it fades and withers
>> away.
>> The Qur'an tries to promote this feeling of gratitude by repeating the
>> attributes of God very frequently. We find most of these attributes
>> mentioned together in the following verses of the Qur'an:" He is God;
>> there is no god but He. He is the Knower of the unseen and the
>> visible; He is the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate. He is God;
>> there is no god but He. He is the King, the All-Holy, the All-Peace,
>> the Guardian of the Faith, the All-Preserver, the All-Mighty, the All-
>> Compeller, the All-Sublime. Glory be to God, above that they
>> associate! He is God, the Creator, the Maker, the Shaper. To Him
>> belong the Names Most Beautiful. All that is in the heavens and the
>> earth magnifies Him; He is the Almighty, the All-Wise" (59:22-24).
>> " There is no god but He, the Living, the Everlasting. Slumber seizes
>> Him not, nor sleep. To Him belongs all that is in the heavens and the
>> earth. Who is there that shall intercede with Him save by His leave?
>> He knows what lies before them, and what is after them, and they
>> comprehend not anything of His knowledge save such as He wills. His
>> throne comprises the heavens and earth. The preserving of them
>> oppresses Him not; He is the All-High, the All-Glorious" (2:255).
>> People of the Book, go not beyond the bounds in your religion, and say
>> not as to God but the truth.
>> " The Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, was only the Messenger of God, and
>> His Word that He committed to Mary, and a Spirit from Him. So believe
>> in God and His Messengers, and say not "Three". Refrain; better it is
>> for you. God is only one God. Glory be to Him -- (He is) above having a
>> son" (4:171).
>>

DougW

Use No Hooks~® wrote:
> On Tue, 20 Nov 2007 20:29:33 -0500, Jeff DeWitt wrote:
>
> If he would take the rag off his head, and allow his brain to breath,
> he may change his mind, but he may be another two cell.

Too late, "He already drank the Koolaid." (or is that kookaid?)

--
DougW