By Hafidh Saif Al-Rawahy

The differences that have marked the course of religion have mostly been about the attributes of God and not in respect to His existence. The intellect of man is bound by his senses, and man’s perception ordinarily does not cross the frontiers of his senses. Therefore, man cannot comprehend the Absolute. Whenever he tries to visualize a thing unseen, he invariably conjures up for it qualities of which he is aware in his own person. Prior to the advent of the Qur’an, two approaches had been followed to catch a glimpse of divine reality.

One approach was to endow the Absolute with attributes, and this led to anthropomorphism (in this instance, the representation of God as having human form or traits). Christianity and Judaism both suffer from this. For example, Jesus Christ is supposed to have used the anthropomorphic similitude of the father-son relationship in the Gospels when he desired to speak of the universal mercy of God. Unfortunately, through an inept approach to the meaning and illustrative purpose of Christ, these concepts eventually prompted the urge to elevate Christ into the position of a begotten Son of God and indeed of God Himself among his followers. The Qur’an categorically denies that Jesus is a Son of God or God Himself, as well as the concept of the divine Trinity of God. “People of the Book, do not go to excess in your religion, and do not say anything about God except the truth: The Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, was nothing more than a messenger of God, His word directed to Mary, and a spirit from Him. So believe in God and His messengers, and do not speak of a ‘Trinity'—stop [this], that is better for you—God is only one God, He is far above having a son; everything in heaven and earth belongs to Him; and He is the best one to trust” [Qur’an 4:171].

The other approach was to consider God as something supernatural and beyond human experience, and that leaned towards transcendentalism. The current practice of Hinduism and Buddhism in using images to represent God in worshipping is a good example, but eventually followers ended up worshipping images, though they do recognize the existence of the One Almighty God.

The peculiarity of the Qur’an is that it pursues a path along which we are allowed to get a transcendental concept of God but also feel competent to dispel any anthropomorphic atmosphere that may attempt to close around it. The Qur’an says, “No vision can take Him in, but He takes in all vision. He is the All Subtle, the All Aware” [Qur’an 6:103]. It also says, “No one is comparable to Him” [Qur’an 112:4]. It affirms individual attributes of God, one by one, but it prevents each attribute from developing any anthropomorphic touch. He is the living, the almighty, the creator, the merciful, the all-seeing, the all-hearing, the all-knowing, and so forth. However, the Qur’an makes it clear that nothing can be compared to God. His living is not like our living; His seeing, hearing, or knowing is not like ours. The metaphor of the eye is used to denote His knowledge and protection; light denotes His justice; the face of God means God Himself; the soul ascribed to God means His knowledge; and the coming or descending of God and His angels means the coming of His orders. God’s hand denotes His power and forgiveness; His throne denotes His Majesty and His all-embracing control of the universe; and sitting on the throne signifies His rule over the universe. While other religions personified God Himself, throwing the door open to image worship, the Qur’an personifies only the attributes of God, allowing no chance for image representation or human divination.

The Qur’anic concept of the unity of God has both affirmation and negation. The affirmation is that God is One and Only (this is referred to as uniqueness in His essence). The negation is that there is none like Him, and when there is none like Him, it follows that whatever attributes are assigned to God cannot be assigned at the same time to any other being (this is referred to as uniqueness in His attributes). Prior to the advent of the Qur’an, stress was laid more on the uniqueness of God in His essence than on the uniqueness of God in His attributes. That is why, as a part of the deviation from the original message of monotheism, in every earlier version of religion, the belief in the unity of God expressed itself side by side with images of worship. The Qur’an asserts that God alone is worthy of worship. If you turn to any other devotion, you cease to be a believer in the unity of God. The Qur’an says that it is only He who answers the cry of man and fulfills his prayers. Therefore, if you associate any other object or being with Him in your prayers, you simply associate that other object or being with the divinity or attributes of God. Indeed, your belief in the unity of God becomes diluted.

Islam considers that Christians diluted the concept of monotheism (the unity of God) by taking Jesus as the Son of God and by associating Jesus and the Holy Spirit with the Divinity of God, forming a union they termed “Trinity.” According to the Qur’an, the Jews also diluted the unity of God by taking Uzair (Ezra) as a Son of God. The Hindus also diluted the unity of God by allowing representation of God using images. Buddhists have diluted the unity of God by completely removing the concept of God from their spiritual journey.