"In fact, the English language does not have a word for 'Allah" |
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"Allah" - FAQ Questions atheists usually ask about Allah might vary but, they're predictable.
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1. "Is there evidence God exists?" Answer: Yes. Allah has sent down miracles, revelations and messengers to give clear proofs He exists and more important, what we should do once we come to this realization. Allah has sent prophets and messengers with many proofs throughout the ages for people to be able to clearly see with their own eyes and to be able to use their own senses the miracles and proofs pointing to the fact, Allah does in fact, exist. Miracles of prophets and messengers of Allah have come to people through the ages. Moses, peace be upon him, showed many miracles to pharoah and to the children of Israel. Plagues, locusts, water turning to blood, his stick becoming a snake, the voice in the burning bush and the parting of the Red Sea were are clear miracles for the people of Moses time. Again, Allah sent Jesus, the son of Mary, peace be upon him, with clear miracles for the people of his time. Speaking from the cradle while still a new born infant, creating birds from clay, curing the sick, giving sight to the blind and even bringing a dead man back to life, were all clear signs to the people to know Jesus, peace be upon him, was a messenger of Allah as was Moses before him. Muhammad, peace be upon him, was the last and final messenger of Allah, and he was sent to all of mankind. Allah sent him with a number of miracles, not the least of which was the Quran. The predictions and propheies of Muhammad, peace be upon him, have come true even in this century and the Quran has been used to convince even scientists of the existence of Allah. The Quran is the best of proofs for the existence of Allah and today over one and half billion people memorize and rectie from the exact text, in the exact same language it was revealed in; Arabic. More than 10 million Muslims have completely memorized the entire Quran from cover to cover, and can recite it from memory without looking at it. No one sees or hears Allah, not even the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. Nor are we able to use our senses to make some kind of contact with Him. However, we are encouraged in Islam to use our senses and our common sense to recognize all of this universe could not possibly come into existence on its own. Something had to design it all and then put it into motion. This is beyond our ability to do, yet it is something we can understand. We know from the teachings of Muhammad, peace be upon him, the proofs for the existence of God (Allah) are most obvious to us in our everyday surroundings. Anyone with understanding would quickly acknowledge His existence provided they are not so stubborn as to ignore the obvious evidencers in front right in front of us. We don't have to see an artist to recognize a painting, correct? So, if we see paintings without seeing artists painting them, in the same way, we can believe Allah created everything without having to see Him (or touch, or hear, etc.). | Back to Questions | Top of Page |
2. "How can we prove there is a God?" Answer:
We just begin with simple logic. When something is right in front of our eyes it is difficult to deny it, right? Asking rhetorical questions can be very helpful in presenting our case. Begin by asking the question; "Can you prove you exist?" Yes, of course you can. You merely use your senses to determine what you can see, hear, feel, smell, taste and you have emotions as well. All of this is a part of your existence. But this is not how we perceive God in Islam. We can look to the things He has created and the way He cares for things and sustains us, to know there is no doubt of His existence. One approach is to suggest simple yet convincing experiements anyone could comprehend. For instance, say to someone, "Consider this the next time you are looking up at the moon or the stars on a clear night; could you drop a drinking glass on the sidewalk and expect it would hit the ground and on impact it would not shatter, but it would divide up into little small drinking glasses, with iced tea in them? Of course not." Another example is have them consider what might happen if a tornado came through a junkyard and tore through the old cars; would it leave behind a nice new Mercedes with the engine running and no parts left around? Naturally not. Or ask someone to consider what it would be like if someone told us about a fast food restaurant operating itself without any people there? The food just cooks itself, flys from the kitchen to the table and then when we are done, the dishes jump back the kitchen to wash themselves. This is too crazy for anyone to even think about. After reflecting on all of the above, how could we look to the universe above us through a telescope or observe the molecules in a microscope and then think all of this came about as a result of a "big bang" or some "accident?" (see also "Quran") | Back to Questions | Top of Page |
Answer: Some other religions teach "God is everywhere." This is actually called "pantheism" and it is the opposite of our believe system in Islam. Allah tells us clearly there is nothing, anywhere in the universe like Him similar to his likeness, nor is He ever in His creation. He tells us in the Quran He created the universe in six "yawm" (periods of time) and then He "astawah 'ala al Arsh" (rose up, above His Throne). He is there (above His Throne) and will remain there until the End Times. Allah has such complete Knowledge as to be able to Know all things past, present and future in all places at exactly the same time. The same can be said for His absolute Hearing and Seeing. In this way, His Knowledge, His Hearing, His Sight are everywhere simultaneously. In this regard, the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, told us He is as close to us as our jugular vein. He also explained Allah "with us" when we are in sincere worship to Him and in times of need. Naturally, this would not compromise His existance outside of His creation. The Quran offers us a more detailed understanding of Where (and Who) Allah is.
We observe from these statements a very logical approach to understanding the nature of God without comparing Him to creation or putting Him in His creation. | Back to Questions | Top of Page |
4. "What is the origin of God - Where did God come from?" Answer: Both the Bible and the Quran tell us God has always existed and there never was a time He did not exit. As such, He is the Eternal, without beginning and without end. He is the only creator and sustainer of all that exists and nothing and no one exists alongside Him, nor does He have any partners. He tells us, He is not created, nor is He like His creation in anyway. He calls Himself by a number of names and three of them are:
He always has existed and He never was created, as He is not like His creation, nor similar to it, in any way. The prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, explained the devil would come to a person and ask them questions about creation; "Who created this or that?" to which the reply would be; "Allah" until he would ask; "Who created Allah?" At this stage the prophet advised us to drop this train of thought. Obviously, God - the real God, must be eternal and not have to be created. The Quran tells us:
This verse truly presents the comprehensive represenation of God in a way without trying to define Him by comparing Him to His creation, but rather as being the Absolute in all of His Attributes and Characteristics.
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5. "Can God do anything? - For example: "Can He make a rock so big - nothing can move it?" - If He did make a rock so big nothing could move it, would this mean He couldn't move it too? Or would it be impossible for Him to make something so big He couldn't move it?" Answer: Therefore, He can make a rock (or anything else for that matter) so large or heavy - nothing in the entire universe can move it. As regards Allah "moving" it, He is not in the universe and He does not resemble His creation. Therefore, Allah is never subject to the Laws of the Creation because He is both the Creator and the Law Giver. Whenever He wants anything done, He merely says "Qun! Faya Qun!" (Be! And so it will be!)
Creation as we see from these verses, is not a difficult thing for God at all. He merely gives a Command and everything comes about according to His Will. | Back to Questions | Top of Page |
6. "Why did God create everything?" Answer:
He created us for the purpose of worshiping Him, Alone and without any partners.
Allah has created all we call the universe as a test for us. This is not our final destination. What we might consider to be "bad" or "good" could actually be quite the opposite.
The Quran tells us about the nature of mankind and how quickly we forget the many wonderful blessings provided to us daily. Allah describes our attitude clearly in His Quran:
We forget, as we were created to forget. And this is a part of our test. Will we only use a selective memory and overlook what we owe to our Creator and Sustainer? Or will we be appreciative even when we are suffering some hardship or setback in this life?
Then Allah makes clear to us the real reasoning behind all that is taking place:
Allah has created us and given us so much, yet we are so careless concerning His Right to be worshipped exclusively and deny the Day of Judgment wherein we will all be asked concerning His Generosity.
And how will we view our condition and surroundings? And how will we treat others around us? Are we considerate of others and are we quick to blame or quick to forgive? All of these things are a part of our test, the things we will be asked about on the DAy of Judgment. | Back to Questions | Top of Page |
7. "Is God pure, good, loving and fair? - If so, then where does evil, hatred and injustice come from?" Answer: Consider people who do so much evil in the earth and then live to a ripe old age in the splender and wealth of their ill-gotten gains and die without ever being taken to task for their deeds. Where is the justice or fairness in this? Allah provides a clear answer for us in Quran as to what is in store for these most evil of people:
Reward and punishment are definitely a part of the Next Life on a very permanent basis. Those who suffer in this life and seemly have nothing to show for all their hard works, good deeds and sacrifices and maintaining the faith can look forward to a far greater reward in a place where these things will not be temporary but rather they will be for eternity. Those who corrupt, vilolate, injure and do evil and destruction seem to escape any justice here, yet in the Next Life they too will see the fruits of their labors, and certainly they will be paid according to what they have done as well. As regards oppression, this is something Allah forbids for Himself to do to anyone and He hates it when anyone oppresses someone else. He does have absolute power over everything. He allows sickness, disease, death and even oppression so we can all be tested in what we do. | Back to Questions | Top of Page |
8. "Does God know everything that is going to happen? - Does He have absolute control on the outcome of everything? - If so, how is that fair for us? Where is our free will then?" Answer: Allah Knows everything that will happen. The first thing that He created was the "pen" and He ordered the pen to write. The pen wrote until it had written everything that would happen. And then Allah began to create the universe. All of this was already known to Him before He created it. He does have absolute and total control at all times. There is nothing that happens except that He is in total control of it at all times.
It is Allah alone, Who has this "All-Knowing" attribute. As the Quran tells us:
And Allah only, has Free Will, He Wills whatever He likes and it will always happen as He wills. We have something called, "Free choice." The difference is that what Allah "Wills" always happens and what we choose may or may not happen. We are not being judged on the outcome of things, we are being judged on our choices. This means that at the core of everything will always be our intentions. Whatever we intended, is what we will have the reward for. Each person will be judged according to what Allah gave them to work with, how they used it and what they intended to do with it. As regards the actual "Judgment Day" - Allah tells us that everything we are doing is being recorded and not a single tiny thing escapes from this record. Even an atom's weight of good will be seen on the Day of Judgment and even a single atom's weight of evil will be seen too.
The one who will bring the evidences against us will be ourselves. Our ears, tongue, eyes and all of our bodies will begin to testify against us in front of Allah on the Day of Judgment. None will be oppressed on that Day, none will be falsely accused. He could have put everyone in their respective places from the very beginning, but the people would complain as to why they were thrown in Hell without being given a chance. This life is exactly that; a chance to prove to ourselves who we really are and what we would really do if we indeed had a free choice. Allah Knows everything that will happen, but we don't. That is why the test is fair. | Back to Questions | Top of Page |
9. "If there is only one God, then why are there so many religions? Answer:
Allah does not force anyone to submit to Him. He has layed out a clear path and then made it known to them the two ways (Heaven or Hell). The person is always free to make his or her own choice.
There is not complusion in the way of "Islam." Whoever choses to worship Allah without partners and is devoted to Him and is obeying His commands as much as possible, has grasped the firm handhold that will never break. Whoever denies God and choses some other way to worship or not to believe at all, for them there is an eternal punishment that is most horrible (Hell). People began to seperate into different groups due to their rejection of truth and denial of clear proofs becoming evident to them from their Lord.
Allah warns the Muslims not to fall into the same trap as the people before them, by disputing with each other and seperating into different religious groups:
People lied about the revelations, changed their scriptures and abused and even murdered the prophets whom Allah sent to them.
Prophets of Allah only ask people to worship Allah, as One God without partners. They would never ask people to worship them or anyone or anything else. Allah tells us in the Quran:
Man made religions are an abomination before the Lord and will never be accepted.
Allah will only accept true submission, obedience and in purity and peace to His commandments.
To believe in Allah and follow His Commandments has been the message of all prophets of montheism. | Back to Questions | Top of Page |
10. "How do you know that the Quran is really from God?" Answer: Muslims have something that offers the most clear proof of all - The Holy Quran. There is no other book like it anywhere on earth. It is absolutely perfect in the Arabic language. It has no mistakes in grammar, meanings or context. The scientific evidences are well known around the entire world, even amongst non-Muslim scholars. Predictions in the Quran have come true; and its teachings are clearly for all people, all places and all times. Surprisingly enough, the Quran itself provides us with the test of authenticity and offers challanges against itself to prove its veracity. Allah tells us in the Quran: Haven't the unbelievers considered if this was from other than Allah, they would find within it many contradictions? Another amazing challange from Allah's Book: If you are in doubt about it, bring a book like it. And Allah challanges us with: Bring ten chapters like it. And finally: Bring one chapter like it. No one has been able to produce a book like it, nor ten chapters like it, nor even one chapter like it. It was memorized by thousands of people during the lifetime of Muhammad, peace be upon him, and then this memorization was passed down from teacher to student for generation after generation, from mouth to ear and from one nation to another. Today every single Muslim has memorized some part of the Quran in the original Arabic language that it was revealed in over 1,400 years ago, even though most of them are not Arabs. There are over nine million (9,000,000) Muslims living on the earth today who have totally memorized the entire Quran, word for word, and can recite the entire Quran, in Arabic just as Muhammad, peace be upon him, did 14 centuries ago. | Back to Questions | Top of Page |
11. "Why does the Quran use "WE" and "HE" in Quran when referring to God (Allah)?" Answer: This is a good question and one that Bible readers have also asked about. The term "We" in the Bible and in the Quran is the royal "We" - as an example when the king says, "We decree the following declaration, etc." or, "We are not amused." It does not indicate plural; rather it displays the highest position in the language. English, Persian, Hebrew, Arabic and many languages provide for the usage of "We" for the royal figure. It is helpful to note the same dignity is given to the person being spoken to in English. We say to someone, "You ARE my friend." Yet the person is only one person standing there. Why did we say "ARE" instead of "IS"? The noun "you" is singular and should therefore be associated with a singular verb for the state of being, yet we say, "are." The same is true for the speaker when referring to himself or herself. We say, "I am" and this is also in the royal plural, instead of saying, "I is." When Allah uses the term "HE" in Quran it is similar to the above answer. The word "He" is used when referring to Allah out of respect, dignity and high status. It would be totally inappropriate to use the word "it" and would not convey the proper understanding of Allah being who Allah is; Alive, Compassionate, Forgiving, Patient, Loving, etc. It is not correct to associate the word "He" with gender, as this would be comparing Allah to the creation, something totally against the teaching of Quran. | Back to Questions | Top of Page | 12. "Is 'Allah' the same god of the Jews and Christians?" Yes. The word in Hebrew came from "El" and in Arabic from "Elh". The word for "god" (note the small 'g' in English) is "Elah". Compare this to "Eloi" and "Eli" in the New Testament. The word "Allah" is the perfect word to describe the God of Jews and Christians as it does not permit gender nor plural. Therefore, when the word is used as in "Eloihim" or "Allahumma" (these would appear at first to be plural and/or female genders) it becomes clear it is the royal usage such as a king would use in referring to his royal station while make a decree of some type. The king would state, "We decree the following..." and he is actually talking about his royal position rather than plural status. There is no word in English for the "God" of Israel, the "God" of Jesus. This explains why the spelling remains the same whether speaking of a false "god" or page idol and the "God" of Abraham or Moses or Jesus (peace be upon them). Note the use of the capitol "g" (G). This is the only way English can present a difference between the two. In the semitic languages it is easy to distinguish the difference between a "god" and "The God" due to the structure of the word itself. Evidence for this is quite simple. Visit any motel or hotel and remove the Bible located in the drawer next to the bed (placed they courtesy of the Giddeon Society). Note inside the first few pages a reference to the translations of the Bible they have made into 27 languages. The second example they give is to the Arabic language of the passage in the New Testament from the Gospel of John 3:16. The verse begins in English; "For God so loved the world.." and in the Arabic translation the word used for "God" is "Allah." The Arabic Bible beginning with the Book of Genesis uses the word "Allah" to represent "The God" of Creation; Adam and Eve; Noah; Abraham; Ishmael and Issac and Israel. Page one of Genesis has the word "Allah" 17 times. | Back to Questions | Top of Page | 13. "Is Allah going to treat Jews and Christians the same as Muslims?" Answer: Yes. Actually, the Jews and Christians who believed in Allah as One God and obey the commandments sent with their particular messenger (such as Abraham, Moses, Jesus, etc.) are mentioned many times in Quran:
Whoever believes in Allah, as One God and is trying their best to follow the most recent of the prophets, peace be upon them all, could well be a Muslim (submitter to the Will of Allah) and as such, it is up to Allah to be their Judge, just as He is the Judge in all matters.
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Why Do These Little Guys Say, "ALLAH?" Also - for more about "Allah" - visit our
pages at: What Do Muslims Think about "ALLAH?" Can We Prove "ALLAH" Exists? - Scentists Already Have!
Muslims - NEVER take the Lord's Name(s) in vain And Have you have heard what some have said about a "moon-god?": Want More For Friends - Fellow Workers - Employees? |