RE: Ten Lies About Islam
July 12, 2011 at 3:37 am
(This post was last modified: July 12, 2011 at 3:58 am by fr0d0.)
(July 11, 2011 at 6:54 pm)Spider Wrote:What is stated there is what I understand of Islam... that Allah is unknowable. That God could never become a man; that we could never have a personal relationship with God. Yet these are integral to Christian faith.(July 11, 2011 at 6:41 pm)fr0d0 Wrote: One example:
How come Allah is unknowable yet Muslims know his will exactly from the Quran... his exact word? Surely if you know his will that exactly you know his nature from that?
Similar to Christianity, we are only familiar with the attributes of Allah which are mentioned in the Quran, and it is not necessary to know him FULLY to know Allah's will.
Quote:in Islam, it is considered blasphemous to "presume" that one can know Allah intimately or claim any sort of close, personal fellowship with him. This theological view developed early in Islam, and became an important feature of Islamic theology, being espoused by Muslim thinkers such as al-Ghazali. Shehadi summarizes the teachings of this Sufi theologian on this point,
"The end result of the knowledge of the `arifin [ed. note - a term denoting "the knowers"] is their inability to know Him, and their knowledge is, in truth, that they do not know Him and that it is absolutely impossible for them to know Him."
F. Shehadi, Ghazali's Unique Unknowable God, p. 37
This view is also understood among modern Islamic scholarship, where the statement of al-Faruqi is representative,
"He [God] does not reveal Himself to anyone in any way. God reveals only His will. Remember one of the prophets asked God to reveal Himself and God told him, 'No, it is not possible for Me to reveal Myself to anyone'....This is God's will and that is all we have, and we have it in perfection in the Qur'an. But Islam does not equate the Qur'an with the nature or essence of God. It is the Word of God, the Commandment of God, the Will of God. But God does not reveal Himself to anyone. Christians talk about the revelation of God Himself - by God of God - but that is the great difference between Christianity and Islam. God is transcendent, and once you talk about self-revelation you have hierophancy and immanence, and then the transcendence of God is compromised. You may not have complete transcendence and self-revelation at the same time."
I. al-Faruqi, Christian Mission and Islamic Da`wah: Proceedings of the Chambèsy Dialogue Consultation, pp. 47-48
The similarities aren't lost on me. AFAIK Islam is a direct derivitive of Christianity. What I understand Islam to be is a misunderstanding of the Judaic God with additional material compounding that.
Yes, Christians believe that God isn't completely knowable.
PS name changes kinda breaks the forum dont they?
@ Rhythm:
The guy is being quite thorough it would seem. He states his bias in the preface. Nothing wrong there. The historical debunks are amusing. He's doing a Min (another book comparer). And I've just watched a Muslim on UK TV giving firm historical backing for Muhammed. Depends who you want to believe I guess. Someone just said it was fact on TV though, so it must be true.
