CONCEPT OF GOD IN ISLAM
Islam is
Semitic religion, which has more than 1.2 billion adherents all over the world.
Islam means “submission to the will of Allah”. Muslims accept the Quran, as the
word of God revealed to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Islam states that
Allah sent messengers and prophets throughout the ages with the message of the
Unity of God, and accountability in the Hereafter. Islam thus makes it an
article of faith to believe in the earlier prophets, starting with Adam, and
including Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, John, Jesus and
many others (may peace be on them all).
The Most
Concise Definition of God:
The most
concise definition of God in Islam is given in four verses of Surah Ikhlas
which is Chapter 112 of the Holy Quran:
1. “Say: He is
Allah. The one and only”.
2. “Allah, the
Eternal, Absolute”.
3. “He begets
not, nor is He begotten”.
4. “And there is
none like unto Him”.
(Holy
Quran 112:1-4)
The word “Assamad”
is difficult to translate. It means ‘absolute existence’, which can be
attributed only to Allah, all other existence being temporal or conditional. It
also means that Allah is not dependent on any person o thing but all persons
and things dependent on Him.
Surah
Ikhlas – the touchstone of theology:
Surah Ikhlas
(chapter 112) of the Holy Quran is the touchstone of theology. ‘Theo’ in Greek
means God and logy means study. Thus Theology means study of God and to Muslims
this four lines definition of Almighty God serves as the touchstone of the
study of God. Any candidate to divinity must be subject to this ‘acid test’. Since
the attributes of Allah given in this chapter are unique, false gods and
pretenders to divinity can be easily dismissed using these verses.
What does
Islam say about ‘god-men’?
Indian is often
called the land of ‘god-men’. This is due to the abundance of so called spiritual
masters in India. Many of these ‘babas’ and ‘saints’ have a large following in
many countries. Islam abhors deification of any human being.
To understand
the Islamic stand towards such pretenders to divinity let us analyze one such ‘god-men’,
Osho Rajneesh.
Rajneesh was one among the multitude of ‘spiritual teacher’ produced by India. In May 1981 he went to U.S.A. and established a town called ‘Rajneeshpuram’.
He later fell foul of the West and was finally arrested and asked to leave the country. He came back to India and started a commune in Pune which is now known as the ‘Osho’ commune. He died in 1990. The followers of Osho Rajneesh believe that he is Almighty God. A visitor to the ‘Osho commune’ in Pune will find the following epitaph on his tombstone:
Rajneesh was one among the multitude of ‘spiritual teacher’ produced by India. In May 1981 he went to U.S.A. and established a town called ‘Rajneeshpuram’.
He later fell foul of the West and was finally arrested and asked to leave the country. He came back to India and started a commune in Pune which is now known as the ‘Osho’ commune. He died in 1990. The followers of Osho Rajneesh believe that he is Almighty God. A visitor to the ‘Osho commune’ in Pune will find the following epitaph on his tombstone:
‘Osho –
never, born never died; only visited the planet earth between 11th
December 1931 to 19th January 1990”.
They forget
to mention that he was not given visa for 21 different countries of the world. The
followers of Rajneesh see no problem in their ‘god’ visiting the earth and
requiring a visa to enter a country!
Let us put
this candidate to divinity, Bhagwan Rajneesh, to the test of Surah Ikhlas, the
touchstone of theology:
1. The first
criterion is “say, He is Allah, one and only”. Is Rajneesh one and only? No! There
are many people like Rajneesh who claim divinity. Some disciples of Rajneesh may
still hold that Rajneesh is one and only.
2. The second
criterion is, ‘Allah is absolute and eternal’. Rajneesh was surely not absolute
and eternal since he died in 1990. We now from his biography that he was
suffering from diabetes, Asthma, and chronic backache. He alleged that the
U.S.A. Government gave him slow poison in Jail. Imagine Almighty God being poisoned!
Rajneesh was neither absolute nor eternal.
3. The third
criterion is ‘He begets not, nor is He begotten’. We know that Rajneesh was
born in Jabalpur in India and had a mother as well as a father who later became
his disciples.
In May 1981
he went to U.S.A. and established a town called ‘Rajneeshpuram’. He later fell
foul of the West and was finally arrested and asked to leave the country. He came
back to India and started a commune in Pune which is now known as the ‘Osho
commune’. He died in 1990. The followers of Osho Rajneesh believe that he is
Almighty God. A visitor to the ‘Osho commune’ in Pune will find the following
epitaph on his tombstone: ‘Osho – never, born never died; only visited the planet earth
between 11th December 1931 to 19th January 1990”. They
forget to mention that he was not given visa for 21 different countries of the
world. The followers of Rajneesh see no problem in their ‘god’ visiting the
earth and requiring a visa to enter a country! The Archbishop of Greece said
that if Rajneesh had not been deported, they would have burnt his house and
those of his disciples.
The fourth
test, which is the most stringent, is “there is none like unto Him”. The moment
you can imagine ‘God’ or compare ‘God’ to anything then he (the candidate to
divinity) is not God. It is not possible to conjure up a mental picture of the
One True God. We know that Rajneesh was a human being with a white flowing beard.
He had 2 eyes 2 ears, 1 nose, 1 mouth Photographs and posters of Rajneesh are
available in plenty. The moment you can imagine what god is, he is not God.
Many are
tempted to make anthropomorphic comparisons who was given the title of Mr.
Universe, the strongest man in the world. What is the concluding remark to this
section of “acid test”? This said test cannot be passed by anyone except the
True God
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