Jesus: Man, Messenger, Messiah · 2. God in Islam

Tawheed: the Islamic conception of God

In short

1.Rububiyyah — God alone creates, sustains and governs.
2.Uluhiyyah — God alone is worshipped; nothing and no one else may be.
3.Asma wa sifat — God is known by the names and attributes He revealed, without likening Him to creation.
4.Nothing whatsoever resembles Him [42:11], so no image, or analogy can capture Him.
5.Every human being has direct access to God without an intermediary [2:186].

The claim being examined

Interfaith conversation often assumes both faiths mean roughly the same thing by 'God' and differ only about Jesus (PBUH).

The Islamic position

Islam's doctrine of God is deliberately simple, unqualified and unmediated: one Lord, worshipped directly, with no partner, no and no priesthood.

Analysis

is not merely numerical monotheism; it is a claim about worship and access. A God who becomes flesh in order to be reached is, on this view, a God whose accessibility has been made conditional. The Qur'anic God hears the individual directly and forgives directly. This is why the Islamic objection to the is not a quibble about arithmetic but a concern for the purity of worship itself.

From the Qur'an

وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِى عَنِّى فَإِنِّى قَرِيبٌ ۖ أُجِيبُ دَعْوَةَ ٱلدَّاعِ إِذَا دَعَانِ ۖ

wa-idhā sa-alaka ʿibādī ʿannī fa-innī qarībun ujību daʿwata l-dāʿi idhā daʿāni

When My servants ask you about Me, I am near. I respond to the call of the caller when he calls upon Me.

قُلْ هُوَ ٱللَّهُ أَحَدٌ

qul huwa l-lahu aḥadun

Say: He is God, the One…

From the Bible

שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָד

Hear O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one.

Read it in their Bible

From the Sunnah

God says: I am as My servant thinks of Me, and I am with him when he remembers Me.

Sources

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