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Do the Jews, Christians and Muslims worship the same God....?
- Thread starter Spirit_Warrior
- Start date
Spirit_Warrior
Active Member
All of this also clearly shows that Muhammed knew what he was referring to (YHWH-Elohim) when he talked about Allah (and not a moon God).[/QUOTE]
So, it seems the Arabic word "Allah" meant 'God' and was used to to refer to YHWH by pre-Islamic Christians.
So now the question arises, is Mohammed using it to refer to YHWH or whether the word Allah was a pre-Islamic pagan god. The following suggests the latter:
The association with moon of Allah which is found pervading Islam, on Mosques, in Islamic flags and even the Islamic holy calendar being a lunar calendar strongly suggests the connection of Allah with the moon.
So, it seems the Arabic word "Allah" meant 'God' and was used to to refer to YHWH by pre-Islamic Christians.
So now the question arises, is Mohammed using it to refer to YHWH or whether the word Allah was a pre-Islamic pagan god. The following suggests the latter:
Allah was associated with companions, whom pre-Islamic Arabs considered as subordinate deities. Meccans held that a kind of kinship existed between Allah and the jinn.[34] Allah was thought to have had sons[35] and that the local deities of al-ʿUzzā, Manāt and al-Lāt were His daughters.[36]
Allah as Moon-god - Wikipedia
The record of Al-Uzza, Manaat and Al-Laat are also found in the so-called Satanic verses of the Quran. This suggests that Allah was a pre-Islamic pagan god, who had sons and daughters.Allah as Moon-god - Wikipedia
The association with moon of Allah which is found pervading Islam, on Mosques, in Islamic flags and even the Islamic holy calendar being a lunar calendar strongly suggests the connection of Allah with the moon.
Joint Catholic-Muslim declaration
Catholic-Muslim joint declaration | A Common Word Between Us and You
The discussion, conducted in a warm and convivial spirit, focused on two great themes: “Theological and Spiritual Foundations” and “Human Dignity and Mutual Respect”. Points of similarity and of diversity emerged, reflecting the distinctive specific genius of the two religions.
1. For Christians the source and example of love of God and neighbour is the love of Christ for his Father, for humanity and for each person. “God is Love” (1 Jn 4, 16) and “God so loved the world that He gave his only Son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3,16). God’s love is placed in the human heart through the Holy Spirit. It is God who first loves us thereby enabling us to love Him in return. Love does not harm one’s neighbour but rather seeks to do to the other what one would want done to oneself (Cf. 1 Cor 13, 4-7). Love is the foundation and sum of all the commandments (Cf. Gal 5, 14). Love of neighbour cannot be separated from love of God, because it is an expression of our love for God. This is the new commandment, “Love one another as I have loved you.” (Jn 15, 12) Grounded in Christ’s sacrificial love, Christian love is forgiving and excludes no one; it therefore also includes one’s enemies. It should be not just words but deeds (Cf. 1 Jn, 4, 18). This is the sign of its genuineness.
For Muslims, as set out in A Common Word, love is a timeless transcendent power which guides and transforms human mutual regard. This love, as indicated by the Holy and Beloved Prophet Muhammad, is prior to the human love for the One True God. A Hadith indicates that God’s loving compassion for humanity is even greater than that of a mother for her child (Muslim, Bab al-Tawba: 21); it therefore exists before and independently of the human response to the One who is ‘The Loving’. So immense is this love and compassion that God has intervened to guide and save humanity in a perfect way many times and in many places, by sending prophets and scriptures. The last of these books, the Qur’an, portrays a world of signs, a marvellous cosmos of Divine artistry, which calls forth our utter love and devotion, so that ‘those who have faith, have most love of God’ (2:165), and ‘those that believe, and do good works, the Merciful shall engender love among them.’ (19:96) In a Hadith we read that ‘Not one of you has faith until he loves for his neighbour what he loves for himself’ (Bukhari, Bab al-Iman: 13).
2. Human life is a most precious gift of God to each person. It should therefore be preserved and honoured in all its stages.
3. Human dignity is derived from the fact that every human person is created by a loving God out of love, and has been endowed with the gifts of reason and free will, and therefore enabled to love God and others. On the firm basis of these principles, the person requires the respect of his or her original dignity and his or her human vocation. Therefore, he or she is entitled to full recognition of his or her identity and freedom by individuals, communities and governments, supported by civil legislation that assures equal rights and full citizenship.
4. We affirm that God’s creation of humanity has two great aspects: the male and the female human person, and we commit ourselves jointly to ensuring that human dignity and respect are extended on an equal basis to both men and women.
5. Genuine love of neighbour implies respect of the person and her or his choices in matters of conscience and religion. It includes the right of individuals and communities to practice their religion in private and public.
6. Religious minorities are entitled to be respected in their own religious convictions and practices. They are also entitled to their own places of worship, and their founding figures and symbols they consider sacred should not be subject to any form of mockery or ridicule.
7. As Catholic and Muslim believers, we are aware of the summons and imperative to bear witness to the transcendent dimension of life, through a spirituality nourished by prayer, in a world which is becoming more and more secularized and materialistic.
8. We affirm that no religion and its followers should be excluded from society. Each should be able to make its indispensable contribution to the good of society, especially in service to the most needy.
9. We recognize that God’s creation in its plurality of cultures, civilizations, languages and peoples is a source of richness and should therefore never become a cause of tension and conflict.
10. We are convinced that Catholics and Muslims have the duty to provide a sound education in human, civic, religious and moral values for their respective members and to promote accurate information about each other’s religions.
11. We profess that Catholics and Muslims are called to be instruments of love and harmony among believers, and for humanity as a whole, renouncing any oppression, aggressive violence and terrorism, especially that committed in the name of religion, and upholding the principle of justice for all.
12. We call upon believers to work for an ethical financial system in which the regulatory mechanisms consider the situation of the poor and disadvantaged, both as individuals, and as indebted nations. We call upon the privileged of the world to consider the plight of those afflicted most severely by the current crisis in food production and distribution, and ask religious believers of all denominations and all people of good will to work together to alleviate the suffering of the hungry, and to eliminate its causes.
13. Young people are the future of religious communities and of societies as a whole. Increasingly, they will be living in multicultural and multireligious societies. It is essential that they be well formed in their own religious traditions and well informed about other cultures and religions.
14. We have agreed to explore the possibility of establishing a permanent Catholic-Muslim committee to coordinate responses to conflicts and other emergency situations and of organizing a second seminar in a Muslim-majority country yet to be determined.
15. We look forward to the second Seminar of the Catholic-Muslim Forum to be convened in approximately two years in a Muslim-majority country yet to be determined.
All participants felt gratitude to God for the gift of their time together and for an enriching exchange.
At the end of the Seminar His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI received the participants and, following addresses by Professor Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr and H.E. Grand Mufti Dr. Mustafa Ceriƒ, spoke to the group. All present expressed satisfaction with the results of the Seminar and their expectation for further productive dialogue.
No. It is quite the challenge to find two people who worship the same God, as a matter of fact.
"God" is far too personal an idea for that to be easily achievable.
I would say that the Christians and Muslims worship the same god, it's qualitatively different than the Jewish one who doesn't condemn people to hell.
Beat me to it!
Someone correct me if I'm wrong and shoe me some actual proof, but I'm pretty sure that Judaism is older than Zoroastrianism. When double checking to verify if I was right or not everything I found on a search engine seems to tell me it's older with the most secular and objective sources telling me that Judaism is older by about 300-500 years.
I've also heard claims about Yahweh tracing back to El but I've also heard ones tracing back to Babylonian gods or even Baal. I'm no scholar but I would hazard a guess that most if not all of those views are deeply flawed in some historical way and that it's probably unknowable by this point.
the OT and the NT and Islam agree there is only ONE God. who is the creator/progenitor of all created things. those who teach otherwise are teaching that there is another god beside, or contrast, to God
islam is not a sect of judaism. it is a offspring of abraham through ishmael and hagar.
christianity is a sect of judaism.
Now I will highlight the protestant response to A Common Word
This is a book written by celebrated Theologian Volf called Allah:A Christian Response where he carefully defends the case that Christians and Muslims worship the same God without it being the same religion.
Here is his (excellent) lecture
And his interview in conservative website Christianity Today
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/april/muslimschristianssamegod.html
VioletVortex
Well-Known Member
Fundamentally, yes. All three worship Yahweh. Islam is a direct offshoot of Islam, while Christianity is a more marketable form of Judaism, appealing to a very broad group of people. They each have different interpretations of their god, but this varies on the individual level as well. For example, some Christians view Yawheh as a fascist moralist, whom everyone is obligated to serve, and others have a more liberal view, seeing him as a companion. Jews and Muslims tend to be the former, while Christians are more likely to be the the latter, but there are deviations from the general rule of course.
Yahweh was retrieved from Ra, the Egyptian solar deity, who was fairly authoritarian, so naturally, Yahweh was originally conceived and depicted as such. There are Christians who think that Jesus was a rebel from the Jewish status quo, who taught about love and such, however, even the New Testament incarnation of Yawheh is always smiting people for ****ing before marriage.
Yahweh was retrieved from Ra, the Egyptian solar deity, who was fairly authoritarian, so naturally, Yahweh was originally conceived and depicted as such. There are Christians who think that Jesus was a rebel from the Jewish status quo, who taught about love and such, however, even the New Testament incarnation of Yawheh is always smiting people for ****ing before marriage.
Garbage.
They are cults of Judaism not sects. Like modern science is a cult of religion not a sect!!!! Although there are a lot in that cult whom "believe" that they sprang into existence ex-nihilo with the truth!!! Not unlike islam and christianity!!! They also "believe" they have a rather supreme point of view in context from where they came from, kinda like Christianity and islam!!!! They also " belIeve they have the reasoned rational truth. Interestingly a lot like. Christianity and islam!!! Science as religion weirdly true for some. Like the battle of which comic con is superior. I am an extremely harsh evolutionist on human thinking most are not!!!
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
Are you sayjng Christians can worship Allah of islam and Muslims can worship god of scripture without contricting the nature of the creator in christianity (god defined by his son) and Islam (god Described by Muhamad)?
And that their atttributes such as love and mercy they share makez them the same creator regardless of how mainstream christians defined him as opposed to non mainstream?
Maybe jews worship the same creator as islam much more than the christian god. One because in the OT was talking directly to people. Both jew and muslim believe that.
In the NT god is defined by his son. Jew and Muslim does not believe that.
How can they be the same if they said and mean different things tonall three parties regardless if they share attributes?
If my brother and I have different fathers but the same mother and raised by our mother-and we are both human, both have skin, hair, and cam laugh cry, experience love, how do theze thingz make us the same even though we are sistse and brother?
Repox
Truth Seeker
If they worship the same God, why do they have different religions. Not only that, but why do they fight one another, Islam nations and Christian nations have fought several wars related to religious differences. Does God take sides in religious wars? Probable not. Because there is one God, there should be one religion. At one time, there was one religion, it was Judaism. Now, there are numerous competing religions. I got it, God changed His personality and divided into many gods to make people happy. I knew there was a simple answer.
As I said above: They are worshiping the Father, rejecting or not recognizing the Son.
A Catholic cannot worship like a protestant and believe like a protestant and remain a catholic. The same God is approached and envisioned in different ways based on different traditions and revelations, however the underlying sameness of the referrent is not denied by this. Look at what I have posted.
When Catholics, Episcopelians and many other Protestant denominations agree that the same God is being worshipped by both, they form the majority and mainstream, not the minority voices in fundamentalist evangelical groups.
Catholics
Nostra aetate
The Church regards with esteem also the Moslems. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all- powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth,(5) who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit wholeheartedly to even His inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom the faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God. Though they do not acknowledge Jesus as God, they revere Him as a prophet. They also honor Mary, His virgin Mother; at times they even call on her with devotion. In addition, they await the day of judgment when God will render their deserts to all those who have been raised up from the dead. Finally, they value the moral life and worship God especially through prayer, almsgiving and fasting.
Anglicans:-
St John's Roslyn - A Beginner's Guide to the Anglican Church
1: What do Christians Believe?
There are two important parts to Christian belief. Firstly, Christians believe in a God who is an all-powerful intelligent being, existing independently of the physical Universe, and responsible for its creation. We also believe that God cares deeply about the Universe and all of its inhabitants.
This belief is common to many major religions. Jews, Muslims and Christians all worship the same God, in different ways.
Secondly, Christians believe that Jesus of Nazareth (c. 6 BC to AD 27) was a manifestation of God on Earth as a human, and that His teaching as recorded in the Bible is therefore a direct insight into God's wishes for humanity.
Listen to the lecture and decide for yourself.
buddhist
Well-Known Member
Because Allah is a name that is not found in the Christian or Jewish scriptures?
"Ilah" is the Arabic term for "God", whereas "Allah" is a proper name specific to Islam.
It's not exclusive to Islam.
Tumah
Veteran Member
In a broader sense, yes, I think we all intend to worship the same G-d although we differ on the specifics of what that G-d said and perhaps the nature of G-d. From the perspective of Jewish Law, Christians aren't complete idolaters but practice ****uf (lit. partnership), which basically means they believe in G-d plus another deity. Muslims are considered to believe in G-d completely. Baha'i would probably fall in with Muslims along with JW's. I'm not entirely sure where Mormons would fit.
I'm not sure what the standard is exactly, so its possible that Zoroastrians might be considered believers in G-d as well. I guess since the only time we were under Zoroastrian rule and recording it, they were Zurvanists, it wasn't relevant. I haven't seen any discussion about them, probably since its not had any immediate practical ramifications since.
With regards to the second question, I don't think I'd consider Christianity and Islam sects of Judaism any more than I'd consider Buddhism a sect of Hinduism. Although initially Christianity was, its since split and beyond some superficial similarities, there's not much there to connect us. Similarly, I see Islam as branching off of Christianity but again with only some superficial similarities.
Tumah
Veteran Member
No its not. I've heard Jews use it. Ilah means "god". All-h is a compound of al-Ilah - "the G-d". If its anything like Hebrew, the prefix "al" indicates a specific known subject as opposed to "ilah" which can refer to any god of any religion. Compare:
Can you hand me an apple.
Can you hand me the apple.
In this case the specific, known G-d is the G-d of Abraham. Because that is recognized by Arabic speakers of all Abrahamic religions, they all use that word.