RE: Seriously, what's it take to be a god?
November 15, 2012 at 3:15 pm
(This post was last modified: November 15, 2012 at 3:16 pm by Rayaan.)
I don't really have a good way to explain this, but here's what I think.
In Islam, God is called many things such as the All-Aware, the Most High, the Alive, the Eternal, the Preserver, the Wise, the Hidden, the Perceiver, the Resurrector, and the Watcher, for example, among a bunch of other names in Arabic mentioned in the Quran. Since we do not know God's primary attribute, all of his secondary attributes are considered to be "mutashabih" (implicit or unclear) which means that they cannot be literally understood from the words themselves.
For example, God describes Himself with the attribute of "knowledge." The meaning of the word "knowledge" is well-known and understood by all of us. When this attribute is applied to God, we know and understand the meaning of this attribute, but the actuality and the how-ness of this "knowledge" can never be understood.
Similarly, when God describes Himself as "All-Hearing" and "All-Watchful," we understand the meaning of the words themselves, but we do not understand the hown-ess of those attributes when applied to God because He does not possess any eyes or ears as we humans possess.
In Islam, God is called many things such as the All-Aware, the Most High, the Alive, the Eternal, the Preserver, the Wise, the Hidden, the Perceiver, the Resurrector, and the Watcher, for example, among a bunch of other names in Arabic mentioned in the Quran. Since we do not know God's primary attribute, all of his secondary attributes are considered to be "mutashabih" (implicit or unclear) which means that they cannot be literally understood from the words themselves.
For example, God describes Himself with the attribute of "knowledge." The meaning of the word "knowledge" is well-known and understood by all of us. When this attribute is applied to God, we know and understand the meaning of this attribute, but the actuality and the how-ness of this "knowledge" can never be understood.
Similarly, when God describes Himself as "All-Hearing" and "All-Watchful," we understand the meaning of the words themselves, but we do not understand the hown-ess of those attributes when applied to God because He does not possess any eyes or ears as we humans possess.
