By all accounts Allah is merciful and just, but total commitment is required as he is considered to be the only true God, all others being false and fake. And definitely no pictures, please.

He has his own Holy Book of rules and regulations known as the Koran, or more correctly the Qur’an, which was dictated to his prophet Muhammad via an angel to the sound of bells somewhen in the 7th Century.

Now we have to confess we have a slight problem. In a Hadith Muhammad advises: ‘Reflect upon Allah’s creation, but do not reflect upon his own nature’. This seems to indicate a deep need for privacy which we are reluctant to transgress. On the other hand, we are also told that the first thing Allah created was the intellect — and that ‘a scholar is worth a thousand ignorant worshipers’ and ‘the ink of scholars is holier than the blood of martyrs’. It’s a tricky dilemma for us humble Godcheckers to grapple with, so we’ll just stick to the facts.

The name ‘Allah’ is simply the Arabic word for God. But he does have lots of other titles — in fact there are three thousand of them (a thousand of which are only known to angels). Only the ninety-nine most beautiful ones appear in the Qur’an. You might find another 300 in the Torah, 300 in the Psalms of David, 300 in the New Testament and another thousand we know not where. We think the Arabic world believed in the safety-in-numbers principle, being so involved in mathematics at the time.

Muslims believe that Allah is the deity known as Yahweh and/or Jehovah who is worshiped by Jews and Christians. However, Jews and Christians claim that their own scripture is inviolate and cannot lead to a sequel, no matter how much of a best-seller it might turn out to be. (However, that’s precisely what Christianity did to the Old Testament, so...)

The main bone of Christian contention appears to be that Muslims deny the divinity of Jesus. (Naturally Judaism heartily agrees with that, despite their other theological differences with Islam.) But in fact Jesus does get a very good press in the Muslim world, being regarded as a Top Prophet along with Moses, and of course Muhammad himself.

With these three religions it seems to us a case of ‘so near and yet so far’. We throw our pens down in despair. If you have any queries, speak to the God of your choice, not us. We do not take sides in theological squabbles where monotheism is concerned.

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Article last revised on May 14, 2019 by Rowan Allen.
Editors: Peter J. Allen, Chas Saunders

References: Coming soon.

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