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Did God Become Man? (part 1 of 5): A Natural Belief in God
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Description: The Belief in One God and service to Him is one which is inherent in all humans.
By Dr. Bilal Philips
- Published on 28 May 2007 - Last modified on 02 Jul 2007
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> Beliefs of Islam
> About God
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_-_A_Natural_Belief_in_God_001.jpg) The vast majority of human beings have always believed in
God. From the most ancient civilizations to the most primitive of modern
societies, religions with God at their center have formed the foundation of
human culture. In fact, the denial of God’s existence (atheism) throughout
history was limited to a few individuals until the rise of communism in the
20th century. Even today, in the secular societies of the West, where modern
social scientists armed with Darwinian theories have argued that God is merely
a figment of the human collective imagination, the overwhelming majority of
citizens, laymen and even scientists, hold steadfast to their belief in God.
Consequently, the overwhelming body of archeological
data in support of God’s existence has led some anthropologists to conclude
that belief in God (deism) must be inborn and not learnt. Although the vast
majority of social scientists proposed otherwise, recent scientific discoveries
appear to support the minority view that deism is innate. In an article
entitled “God Spot is found in the Brain,” Dr. Vilayanur Ramachandran of the University of Ca lifornia at San Diego said that the phenomenon of religious belief in God is
hardwired into the brain.
‘God Spot’ is Found in Brain
by Steve Connor
Science Correspondent
SCIENTISTS
believe they have discovered a “God module” in the brain, which could be responsible
for man’s evolutionary instinct to believe in religion.
A
study of epileptics, who are known to have profoundly spiritual experiences,
has located a circuit of nerves in the front of the brain, which appears to
become electrically active when they think about God.
The
scientists said that although the research and its conclusions are
preliminary, initial results suggest that the phenomenon of religious belief is
“hardwired” into the brain.
Epileptic
patients who suffer from seizures of the brain’s frontal lobe said they
frequently experience intense mystical episodes and often become obsessed
with religious spirituality.
A
team of neuroscientists from the University of California at San Diego said the most intriguing explanation is that the seizure causes an over-stimulation
of the nerves in a part of the brain dubbed the “God module”.
“There
may be dedicated neural machinery in the temporal lobes concerned with
religion. This may have evolved to impose order and stability on society,”
the team reported at a conference last week.
The
results indicate that whether a person believes in a religion or even in GOD
may depend on how enhanced this part of the brain’s electrical circuitry is.
Dr.
Vilayanur Ramachandran, head of the research team, said the study involved
comparing epileptic patients with normal people and a group who said they
were intensely religious.
Electrical
monitors on their skin – a standard test for activity in the brains temporal
lobes – showed that the epileptics and the deeply religious displayed a
similar response when shown words invoking spiritual belief.
Evolutionary
scientists have suggested that belief in God, which is a common trait, found
in human societies around the world and throughout history, may be built into
the brain’s complex electrical circuitry as a Darwinian adaptation to
encourage cooperation between individuals.
If
the research is correct and a “God module” exists, then it might suggest that
individuals who are atheists could have a differently configured neural
circuit.
A
spokesman for Richard Harries, the Bishop of Oxford, said whether there is a
“God module” is a question for scientists, not theologians. “It would not be
surprising if God had created us with a physical facility for belief,” he
said.
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Despite growing evidence that man is hardwired with a
“physical facility for belief,” the fact that the concept of God has varied
greatly among human societies still leads some thinkers, even those who believe
in God, to conclude that religions must be manmade. However, thorough research
reveals a common theological thread linking the various religions. That link
is the belief in a Supreme Being among the various gods, a monotheistic
foundation that can be found in even the most externally pantheistic of religious
systems. For example, the concept of God in Hinduism exists as a single
example among many religions, which supports the view that human beings were
originally monotheistic and through various degenerative processes became
polytheistic. In spite of its many gods and idols, Hinduism has a single Supreme
God above all, Brahman.
Traditionally, most anthropologists have concluded that
religion devolved from various stages of polytheism to monotheism, beginning
with early man’s deification of the forces of nature, then, eventually,
devolving into ditheism to consolidate all of the supernatural powers into two
main gods (a god of good and a god of evil), and, finally, simplifying into a
belief in one god, monotheism.
Thus, religion, according to anthropologists and social
scientists, has no divine origin; it is merely a byproduct of the evolution of
early man’s superstitions, based on his lack of scientific knowledge. Hence,
these same theoreticians believe that science will eventually unlock all of the
secrets of nature, resulting in the disuse of religion to explain natural
phenomena, and, the consequential extinction of religion altogether.
Man’s innate belief in a Supreme Being, however, seems
to support the opposite view, proposing instead that man began as a monotheist,
but in time, strayed into various forms of polytheism. This view is further
supported by fact that all of the so-called primitive tribes, which have been
“discovered,” have been found to hold a belief in a Supreme Being. No matter
what their evolutionary stage of religious development is found to have been at
the time of “discovery,” most were found to believe in a Supreme God over all
other gods and spirits. As such, the concept of a single Supreme Being remains
in most of the religion’s as evidence that the masses strayed away from
monotheism by giving some of God’s attributes to other aspects of creation,
which eventually came to be regarded as lesser gods in some cases and as
intercessors in others. Nevertheless, a Supreme God, in whatever form He
takes, is at the core of most religions.
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Did God Become Man? (part 2 of 5): The Gods, Man is God, and God Becomes His Creatures
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Description: A look at the concept of God and pantheism in polytheistic faiths, specifically Hinduism.
By Dr. Bilal Philips
- Published on 04 Jun 2007 - Last modified on 13 Jun 2007
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> Beliefs of Islam
> About God
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The Gods
However, there does remain an aspect of belief
in God which defies all logic and reason, but which has become a corner stone
of faith. It is the belief that God became man. Where the original
monotheistic belief in God degenerated into a belief that there must be
intermediaries between human beings and the Supreme Being to either convey
human quests or to act on behalf of God in the world, the intermediaries became
objects of worship. The intermediaries were often conceived as spirits found
in all manifestations of nature. Consequently, humans from primitive times
have worshiped spirits of the forest, rivers, skies and the earth etc., until
the present time. Occasionally nature itself was worshiped, and at other
times, symbols representing nature were worshiped. The religious systems,
which evolved from these types of beliefs tended to be localized and remain
scattered among primitive people around the world till today. Such beliefs did
not converge in the form of a single belief system of international impact, as
far as is known in the current records of human history.
On the other hand, where the monotheistic belief
degenerated into the personification of God’s power as separate intermediary
entities represented by images, idols became a focal point for worshipping God.
The powers of God became gods. Such beliefs have culminated in ancient and
modern times as natural religions of international impact. Ancient Egyptian,
Greek and Roman religions have died out due to the complete subversion of these
empires by Christianity. However, the Indian expression of Hinduism survived
both Muslim and Christian colonization and remains the national religion of
approximately one billion people in India. Christianity and Islam, with
exception of Bali in Indonesia, have supplanted their direct international
impact in the majority of the Far East. However, the different forms of
Buddhism, its offshoot, have become the main religion of hundreds of millions
in the Far East. Different forms of this Hindu reform movement continue to
spread in the West today.
Man is God
According to Hinduism, the basic concept is that
everything is God. There is, fundamentally, no distinction between God and His
creation. In Hindu philosophy, every living being has a self or a soul that is
called Atman. It is generally believed that the soul is actually God, called
Brahman. Consequently, the essence of Hindu belief is the idea that Atman and
Brahman are one and the same; in other words, the human soul is divine. Furthermore,
human society is divided into castes or classes, where each caste represents
human beings who came into existence from different parts of the divine being,
Brahman. The upper caste, the Brahmins, came from the head of God; whereas,
the lowest caste, the Sudras, came from God’s feet. Though there are
officially only four main castes, there are, in reality, many sub-castes. Each
one of the main castes is subdivided into thousands of lesser castes. Hindus
believe that when a person dies, he or she is reincarnated. The soul, Atman,
of the dead person never dies but is continually reborn. If people are good in
this life, then they will be reborn into a higher level of the caste system in
their next life. Conversely, if they are bad in this life, they will be reborn
into a lower level, which is one of the main reasons why so many Hindus commit
suicide annually. Daily, newspapers regularly record incidents of individuals
and families hanging themselves from fans in their homes. In a recent edition
of one of the local papers, a Hindu man killed himself when India lost a cricket match to Sri Lanka. When one’s belief system espouses reincarnation, suicide
becomes an easy route to evade difficulties in this life.
When a person reaches the top caste, the
Brahmins, after various re-incarnations, the cycle of rebirth ends, and he
reunites with Brahman. This process of reunification is called Moksha, and in
Buddhism it is called Nirvana. The Atman
becomes once again reunited with Brahman. Thus, man becomes God.
God Becomes His Creatures
In Hindu belief, the attributes of Brahman
are manifest as different gods. The attribute of creation becomes the creator
god, Brahma, the attribute of preservation becomes the preserver god, Vishnu,
and the attribute of destruction becomes the destroyer god, Siva. The
most popular one amongst them, Vishnu, becomes incarnate among human
beings at different points in time. This incarnation is called in Sanskrit avatar,
which means “descent.” It represents the descent of God into the human world
by becoming a human being or one of the other creatures of this world. Primarily,
the term avatar refers to the ten main appearances of the god Vishnu.
Among them is Matsya, the incarnation of God as a fish; Kurma as
a tortoise; Varaha as a boar (a wild pig); Narasimha as a
half-man, half-lion; Vamana as a dwarf; and probably the most common one
is Rama, the human incarnation. Rama is the hero of the epic, Ramayana,
about which movies are made and shown regularly in India. The other popular
god is Krishna, the other incarnation of Vishnu as a human being.
His epic is the Mahabharata, which describes the descent of the gods in
human forms to save the Goddess Earth, oppressed by demons, burdened by
overpopulation and in danger of dissolution.
There are different variations of this belief regarding how many incarnations
there are and what other animal forms they adopt, but all generally follow
these manifestations. Consequently, in Hinduism, the belief of one-fifth of
humankind, man is God or part of God. The difference between the Creator and His
creation is only superficial.
Popular Buddhism shares the Hindu incarnation
concept with its own modifications. It teaches that every conscious being
possesses the “Buddha nature” and is, therefore, capable of becoming a Buddha.
Buddha, in earlier teachings, was truly a
human teacher who lived and taught. However, in Mayahana Buddhism, the
idea of the “eternal” Buddha, embodying the absolute truth, developed, and
Buddha was elevated to Godhood. In order to reveal his message to humankind,
this eternal Buddha manifests himself from time to time as an earthly Buddha to
live and work among humans. Thus, Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism,
became just one of the earthly appearances, a phantom apparition created by the
eternal Buddha. Buddhism
incorporated the elements of the Indian system of the gods and heavens and
responded to the popularity of Bhakti Hinduism, personal devotion to
savior deities. The Absolute or Buddha nature was seen by some as having
attributes manifest as eternal Buddhas and bodhisattvas
who existed in spiritual realms and offered their merits, protection and help
toward enlightenment to all their followers who were devoted to them.
The chief ones among the eternal bodhisattvas
were Avalokitesvara, a personification of compassion, and Manjusri, a
personification of wisdom. And among the eternal Buddhas were Aksobhya (the
Imperturbable), Amitabha (Eternal Light) and Amitayus (Eternal life).
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Did God Become Man? (part 3 of 5): God Becomes One Man, Men Become God, Why?
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Description: Examples of the religions which believe that God became one man, that all humans are a part of God, and a look into the reasoning of all these beliefs previously mentioned.
By Dr. Bilal Philips
- Published on 11 Jun 2007 - Last modified on 18 Jun 2007
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> Beliefs of Islam
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God
Becomes One Man
Christian
belief in God’s incarnation has its origins in the beliefs of the ancient
Greeks. The very terms used to describe God becoming Man exist in the Gospel
of John 1:1 & 14, “In the beginning there was the Word (logos) and the
Word was with God and the Word was God.” Then the author of John goes on
to say, “...And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and
truth...” Although the Greek term logos is translated as “word,”
there is no single English term equivalent to it. Its importance lies in its
use as a technical term in Greek metaphysical thought from the sixth century
B.C., until the third century C.E., and in its appropriation by both Jewish and
Christian thinkers. It first appeared in the expressions of Heraclites
(540-480 B.C.) as the motivating principle of the universe, but was, by
Aristotle’s time, supplanted by the immaterial power nous and made the
material power. Logos reappeared in the system of the Stoics who termed
their principle of teleology both logos and God. Philo (d. 50 C.E.), a Jewish
Alexandrian philosopher, identified the creative word of the Old Testament with
the logos of the Stoics. The logos thus became a transcendent
principle, as the means by which God expresses Himself in the world. But logos
also had a redemptive function; it was the means to a higher spiritual nature.
In the Gospel of John, the logos are both creative and redemptive; the latter
aspect is given greater emphasis than the former.
This
belief required a reason, for which the concept of original sin and divine
sacrifice were invented. It was claimed that due to the sin of Adam, which
accumulated down the generations until it became so great that no human
sacrifice could remove it, a divine sacrifice was needed. Consequently, God
had a human son, who was God, Himself, incarnate. God’s son later died on a
cross as a sacrifice for all humankind to God, Himself. The son, who is God,
Himself, was later resurrected and currently sits on the right side of God’s
throne waiting to judge humankind at the end of this world. So for Christians,
also one-fifth of humankind, God became a man at one and only one point in the
history of this world, and belief in His incarnation is essential for salvation.
Men
Become God
From
the perspective of Jesus’ humanity, the Christian belief that he is God could
be perceived as elevating a single human being to the status of Godhood. There
is, however, another body of beliefs among many of the followers of Islam,
which, like Hinduism and Buddhism, offer human beings the opportunity to become
God.
The
origin of their beliefs can be found in mysticism whose roots are in ancient
Greek mystery religions. Mysticism is defined as an experience of union
with God and the belief that man’s main goal in life lies in seeking that union.
The Greek philosopher Plato proposed this concept in his writings, particularly
in his Symposium. In it he describes how the human soul can climb the
spiritual ladder until it finally becomes one again with God.
The basis of this belief is the teaching that human beings are, in fact, parts
of God that have become trapped in this material world. The physical body
cloaks the human soul. Consequently, the soul in their view is divine. The
trapped part of God in this world must free itself from the material world and
reunite with God.
There
arose among Muslim people, a sect, which promoted this very same idea. Its
followers are traditionally called “Sufis” and their system of beliefs
is called “Sufism”. This term is usually translated into English as “mysticism”
or “Islamic mysticism.” It is based on the same concept as that of the Greek
mystics – that the human soul is divine and that the way that it becomes reunited
with God is through certain spiritual exercises. Various groups of Sufis
evolved into cults called “Tareeqahs” (ways or paths). Each cult was
named after its actual or supposed founder, and each had its own set of special
spiritual exercises which members had to strictly adhere to. Most taught that
after the followers performed the prescribed spiritual, emotional and physical
exercises, they would become one with God. This oneness was given the Arabic
title fanaa, meaning “dissolution”
or wusool, meaning “arrival.” The concept of “unity with God” was
rejected by mainstream Muslim scholars but was embraced by the masses. In the
tenth century, a Sufi devotee, al-Hallaaj (858-922), publicly announced
that he was God and wrote poems and a book called Kitaab at-Tawaseen to
that effect. In it he wrote, “If you do not recognize God, at least recognize
his sign; I am the ultimate absolute truth because through the truth I am
eternal truth. My friends and teachers are Iblees,
and Pharaoh. Iblees was threatened by the Hellfire, yet he did not acknowledge
anything between himself and God, and although I am killed and crucified,
though my hands and feet are cut off, I do not recant.”
Ibn
‘Arabee (d. 1240) took the unity with God belief a step further by claiming
that only God exists. He wrote the following in one of his works, “Glory be to
He, who made all things appear while being their essence.”
And in another he wrote, “He is the essence of whatever appears, and He is the
essence of what is hidden while He appears. The one who sees Him is none other
than Him and no one is hidden from Him because He appears to Himself while
being hidden.” His concept
is called Wahdatul-wujood (unity of existence) and became popular in the
Sufi circles throughout the Muslim world.
Why?
What
led ancient people to have the belief that the God became man or that God and
man were one and the same? The fundamental reason was their inability to
understand or accept the concept of God creating this world from nothingness. They
perceived God to be like themselves, creating from what already exists. Humans
create things by manipulating existing things into other states, shapes and
forms having different functions. For example, a wooden table was once a tree
in a forest, and its nails and screws were once iron ore in rocks underneath
the earth. Humans cut down the tree and shaped its wood into a tabletop and
legs; they dug up the iron ore, melted it and poured in into moulds to produce
nails and screws. Then they assembled the pieces to create a table for a
variety of uses. Similarly, the plastic chairs people now sit on were once
liquid oil, stored deep in the bowels of the earth. One cannot imagine sitting
on oil the way people sit on chairs. However, through the human ability to
manipulate the chemical components of oil, plastic is produced and chairs are
made for humans to sit on. This is the essence of human activity; humans
already merely modify and transform what already exists. They do not create
the trees or produce the oil. When they discuss oil production, they really
mean oil extraction. The oil was created millions of years before by
geological processes; then humans extracted it from the earth and refined it. They
also did not create the trees. Even if they planted them, they did not create
the seeds that they planted.
Consequently,
human, in their ignorance of God, often conceive of God as being just like them.
For example, in the Old Testament, it is written, “God created man after his
own image; in the image of God he created Man.” For Hindus, Purusa is
the creator God, Brahma, in human form, and just as humans create by
manipulating the existing world around them, then the creator god must do
likewise.
According
to Hindu philosophy, Purusa is a giant offspring of Brahma, having a
thousand heads and a thousand eyes. From him arose Viraaj, his feminine
counterpart and mate in the creation process. The divine Purusa is also
the sacrificial offering (vv. 6-10) and from his dismembered body arose the
four traditional social castes (varnas).
Perusa Hymn states that Brahmins were Purusa’s mouth; Ksatriyas
(noblemen), his arms; Vaishyas, his thighs; and Shoodras, his
feet.
The Hindus’ inability to conceive of God creating this world from nothing, led
them to the concept of God creating the world from himself and its people from
His body parts.
Human
ability to understand ideas and concepts is limited and finite. Human beings
cannot grasp and understand the infinite. The belief, which God taught Adam,
was that God created this world from nothing. When He wanted something to
exist, He merely said, “Be!” and His command brought into existence those
things that did not previously exist. This world and its contents were not
created from Himself. In fact, the concept of God creating the world from
Himself reduces God to the level of His creatures, who merely create something
from something else. Those who held and continue to hold this belief are
unable to grasp the uniqueness of God. He is Uniquely One and there is nothing
like Him. If He had created the world from Himself, he would be like His
creatures.
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Did God Become Man? (part 4 of 5): Did God Become Man, Can God Become Man?
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Description: Why logically the concept of God becoming a part of His creation contradicts the basic meaning of the term “God”, and vice versa.
By Dr. Bilal Philips
- Published on 18 Jun 2007 - Last modified on 11 Jul 2007
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The
question which remains is Did God become Man? Logically speaking, the answer
is no, because the concept of God becoming man contradicts the basic meaning of
the term “God.” People commonly say that God is able to do all things;
whatever He wants to do, He can do. In the Bible of Christians it is said, “...
through God all things are possible (Matthew, 19: 26; Mark 10: 27, 14: 36).”
The
Quran of Muslims states:
“…Indeed,
Allah (God) is able to do all things.” (Quran 2:20)
…and
the Hindu scriptures carry texts of similar meanings.
All
the major religious texts contain general expressions regarding the basic
concept of God’s omnipotence. He is Greater than all things, and through Him
all things are possible. If this general concept is to be translated into
practical terms, one has to first identify and understand the basic attributes
of God. Most societies perceive God as an eternal being without beginning or
end. If, on the basis that God is able to do all things, and it was asked
whether God could die, what would be the answer? Since dying is part of “all
things,” can it be said, “If He wants to?” Of course this cannot be said.
So,
there is a problem here. God is defined as being ever-living, without end, and
dying means “coming to an end.” Consequently, to ask if He can die is actually
a nonsensical question. It is self-contradictory. Similarly, to ask whether
God can be born, is also absurd because God has already been defined as
eternal, having no beginning. Being born means having a beginning, coming into
existence after not existing. In this same vein, atheist philosophers enjoy asking
theists: “Can God create a stone too heavy for Him to lift?” If the theist
says yes, it means that God can create something greater than Himself. And if
he says no, it means that God is unable to do all things.
Therefore,
the term “all things” in the phrase “God is able to do all things” excludes the
absurdities. It cannot include things that contradict His divine attributes;
things that would make Him less than God, like, forgetting, sleeping,
repenting, growing, eating, etc. Instead, it includes only “all things” that
are consistent with Him being God. This is what the statement “God is able to
do all things” means. It cannot be understood in the absolute sense; it must
be qualified.
The
claim that God became man is also an absurdity. It is not befitting of God to
take on human characteristics because it means that the Creator has become His
creation. However, the creation is a product of the creative act of the
Creator. If the Creator became His creation, it would mean that the Creator
created Himself, which is an obvious absurdity. To be created, He would first
have to not exist, and, if He did not exist, how could He then create? Furthermore,
if He were created, it would mean that He had a beginning, which also
contradicts His being eternal. By definition creation is in need of a creator.
For created beings to exist they must have a creator to bring them into
existence. God cannot need a creator because God is the Creator. Thus, there
is an obvious contradiction in terms. The claim that God became His creation
implies that He would need a creator, which is a ludicrous concept. It contradicts
the fundamental concept of God being uncreated, needing no creator and being
the Creator.
Can
Man Become God?
Man
is a finite being (i.e., creation). Man is born, and he dies. These are
characteristics which cannot be attributed to God because they equate Him with
His creation. Therefore, God did not and will not ever become man. On the
other hand, man also cannot become God. The created cannot become its own creator.
The created at one time did not exist. It came into being by the creative act
of a Creator who always existed. What is nonexistent cannot make itself exist.
As
for the parallel concept that the human soul or spirit is divine, it is a way
of claiming that man can become God. This philosophy forms the foundation of
Greek, Christian and Muslim mysticism, as well as Hindu theology, and extends
divinity to all humans and possibly all living creatures. It starts from the
premise that, at some time in the history of the universe, bits and pieces of
God became surrounded by material bodies and were confined to the earth. In
other words, the infinite became contained in the finite. This belief
attributes pure evil to God and ultimately eliminates the meaning of good and
evil all together. When the human soul intends evil and does it by God’s
permission, such an act is purely evil and worthy of punishment. Hence, the
concept of karma was invented. Whatever goes around comes around. Karma
explains inexplicable suffering by claiming that it is the consequence of evil
in a previous life. God ultimately punishes any evil done by the parts of Himself
within man. However, if human souls have independent wills from God, they cannot
be at the same time God. Thus, each human becomes himself a god.
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Did God Become Man? (part 5 of 5): Did God have a Son?
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Description: A look into the notion that God had a son, and a conclusion to this articles series.
By Dr. Bilal Philips
- Published on 25 Jun 2007 - Last modified on 25 Jun 2007
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Category: Articles
> Beliefs of Islam
> About God
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If
God did not become Man, did He have a son? Since He is able to do all things,
He should be able to have a son. However, this claim reduces God to the lowly
status of His creation. Creatures procreate by giving birth to mini versions
of themselves that later grow up and reproduce copies of themselves, and so on
and so forth. Dogs have puppies, cats have kittens, cows have calves, and men
have children. So, what does God have – a baby God? Gods must give birth to
Gods. But, for God to have a son, there has to exist another God besides Him.
It is not befitting for God to have a son as such an act equates Him with His
creation.
Everything
other than God comes into existence by the commandment of God, not that God
becomes His creation or a part of God becomes creation. God does not become
His creation nor does God give birth to creation. God is God, the Creator, and
man and the contents of the universe are His creation. Although humans cannot
grasp the concept of creation from nothing, that is exactly what God did and
does. He alone creates from nothing, which is among the attributes that make Him
unique and distinct from His creation. His act of creation is entirely different
from that of human beings.
This
was the essence of the message of all the true messengers and prophets of God
sent to humanity – Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad – as well as those sent
throughout the world whose names are now unknown to humanity - may God’s peace
and blessings be on them all. Today, this precise message can only be found in
the Quran; the last scripture revealed by God to humankind. The message
remains loud and clear only in the Quran because it has remained unchanged
since the time of its revelation, one thousand four hundred years ago, until
today.
God
states in the Quran for those who make Him like His creation or vice versa:
“…There
is nothing similar to Him...” (Quran 42:11)
He
also states for those who attributed to Him a son:
“But
it is not suitable for Ar-Rahman (the Most Beneficent – God) that He should
beget a child.” (Quran 19:92)
He
further states for those who believe that He created the world from Himself:
“If
He wishes anything to exist, He merely commands it: ‘Be’, and it is.” (Quran 36:82)
For
the polytheists He states:
“…There
was no other god along with Him, for if there were each would have taken away
what he created and tried to overcome the other…” (Quran 23:91)
He
asks the atheists:
“Did
nothing create them or did they create themselves?” (Quran 52:35)
And
in reference to Jesus and his mother, Mary, He confirmed their humanity by
saying simply:
“…They
both used to eat food…” (Quran 5:75)
The
concept of God not becoming man is very important for every human being to
grasp because it lies at the foundation of the difference between Islam and all
other existing religions. All other religions have a distorted concept of God,
to one degree or another. The most important idea which needs to be
understood, is that God did not become man. God is unique; He alone deserves
to be worshipped by His creation. To believe that a man is God or that a man
became God and to worship that man is the greatest sin and the greatest evil
that humans can do on this earth. This understanding is most important because
it forms the foundation for salvation. There can be no salvation without it. However,
this belief alone is not the key salvation. True, correct belief must be
translated into practice, and not merely remain in the realm of knowledge, for
it to become pure faith. A person has to live a righteous life based on the
correct belief to attain salvation. Nevertheless, the starting point is, knowing
who God is, knowing that God never became and will never become a human
being.
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