6 Islamic articles on: God in Islam

Table of contents for the topic God in Islam
  1. Are humans just snippets of a book written by God?
  2. Is Allah a moon god?
  3. Does referring to God as “He” sexualize Him as a male?
  4. Is it blasphemous to imagine God not being male or female?
  5. Will God’s forgiveness allow someone to get away with their crimes?
  6. On God’s judgement regarding primitive humans (Amala and Kamala)

IslamQA: Are humans just snippets of a book written by God?

Are we just snippets of paragraphs and chapters, written from the best of writers in a book so vast and deep beyond comprehension of the characters the author created?

That is one way of looking at it, except that we are not just characters being written by the author. We are also co-authors. So it is as if the author is writing a book where the characters are free in what they do. The author can always set things up the way he wants and make things happen to the characters, but he lets the characters have the freedom to do their own thinking, and he lets them make decisions that affect the story. So we are both characters and co-authors in the story.

IslamQA: Is Allah a moon god?

Salaam Aleyckum, do you ever heard about Allah is a moon god ( استغفر الله) ? I read articles and watch on YouTube some videos who talk about that .

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

That is just a theory promoted by some Christians and rejected by better scholars. From Wikipedia:

On the basis that the Kaaba was Allah’s house, but the most important idol within it was that of Hubal, Julius Wellhausen considered Hubal to be an ancient name for Allah.

The claim that Hubal is a moon god derives from the early twentieth century German scholar Hugo Winckler. David Leeming describes him as a warrior and rain god, as does Mircea Eliade.

More recent authors emphasise the Nabataean origins of Hubal as a figure imported into the shrine, which may have already been associated with Allah. Patricia Crone argues that “If Hubal and Allah had been one and the same deity, Hubal ought to have survived as an epithet of Allah, which he did not. And moreover there would not have been traditions in which people are asked to renounce the one for the other.”

Allah was never represented by an idol.

The theory is promoted by Christians who like to suggest that Muslims are really pagans who worship a false God different from the God of Judaism/Christianity. There is really nothing to say to such people. They are not respectable scholars trying to find the truth. They start with the conclusion that Muslims must be pagans, then try to find evidence to support that claim and ignore that vast literature of Islamic theology that defends God’s oneness and transcendence.

IslamQA: Does referring to God as “He” sexualize Him as a male?

Salaam,please don't get me wrong,I can't speak English goodly but I want to tell you something,I just saw some of your posts and I saw your posts sexualizing Allah,like this "By the amount that you honor God, glory to Him, He will honor you" Allah has no gender,Allah is a miracle not a men or women,posts like this always makes me uncomfortable and y'all think if Allah has a gender God would be a man? That's sexist and uncomfortable,please don't get me wrong just a friendly reminder.

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

The Quran itself uses the male pronoun to refer to God. In gendered languages “he” can either be male or non-gendered while “she” always has a connotation of femininity. People intuitively understand that “He” in the case of God does not refer to gender. The vast majority of people have no problem with it, including the vast majority of women.

IslamQA: Is it blasphemous to imagine God not being male or female?

assalamu aleikum, is it blasphemous or am i wrong for imagining God as neither male or female?

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

That is actually the correct view. The Quran says:

There is nothing like Him. (The Quran, verse 42:11)

Things like gender do not apply to God since God is above such categories.

IslamQA: Will God’s forgiveness allow someone to get away with their crimes?

(1/2) Narcissist they harm ppl and are ignorant how can they just go to heaven ? I know it’s a disorder so Allah forgives them. But bc I’m a victim of verbal abuse It led me to have severe depression & psychosis, almost killed myself twice despite months being broken up this year. He was a boyfriend & we had sex so is it been all my fault for how I let him come into my life and asked for it at 16 when he was 19.

(2/2) I’m 18 now and I hope Allah forgives me for being naive being so young but for him is it fine for what he was?

God judges each person according to what He has given them and according to their natural abilities and weaknesses. In the story of Moses, Pharaoh was a narcissist and he was punished terribly by God.

What you should keep in mind is that God is far wiser, more intelligent and more fair and just than you, so you should never worry about Him allowing someone to get away with their crimes.

42. Do not ever think that God is unaware of what the wrongdoers do. He only defers them until a Day when the sights stare.

43. Their necks outstretched, their heads upraised, their gaze unblinking, their hearts void.

44. And warn mankind of the Day when the punishment will come upon them, and the wicked will say, “Our Lord, defer us for a little while, and we will answer Your call and follow the messengers.” Did you not swear before that there will be no passing away for you? (The Quran, verses 14:42-44)

While God is merciful and forgiving, He is also just. He deals with each human exactly as they deserve, giving them a thousand chances to come back to Him, to repent and to become better people. But if they constantly reject God’s promptings, every day until the day they die, then they will be outside God’s mercy by their own choice that they repeatedly made on a daily basis for decades on end.

It is never good for your heart and soul to hope for bad things and punishments to happen to others, even if they deserve it. Ignore them for your own good, you deserve to have a calm and pure heart that does not dwell on negative things. And the way to achieve such a heart is to do sufficient worship daily to remain close to God at all times (as I explain in this essay).

Best wishes.

IslamQA: On God’s judgement regarding primitive humans (Amala and Kamala)

Salam! That might be a hard question to answer... But in philosophy class earlier we learned about Amala and Kamala, two girls who were abandoned in the forest when they were babies and therefore were raised by wolves and acted like wolves. They didn't know they were humans. I wanted to know, in that case, how do you think Allah judges them? As humans, or as animals? Because they're like primitive.

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

There are various answers on that. One theory is that humans have the intrinsic ability to know God and believe in Him, meaning that God can judge them.

Another opinion is that God’s guidance (through one of His religions) is necessary for someone to become responsible in God’s sight. The Quran does not provide us with a conclusive answer. There are verses like the following which seem to suggest that one should receive the message from one of God’s messengers before they are held responsible for their actions:

Whoever is guided—is guided for his own good. And whoever goes astray—goes astray to his detriment. No burdened soul carries the burdens of another, nor do We ever punish until We have sent a messenger.1

But there are also verses like the following which seem to suggest that merely by being human we acquire responsibility:

And do not occupy yourself with what you have no knowledge of. The hearing, and the sight, and the conscience—all these one will be held responsible for.2

The one thing we know for certain is that God is just and that He does not place a burden on someone except according to their knowledge and ability, as expressed in the following verse:

The wealthy shall spend according to his means; and he whose resources are restricted shall spend according to what God has given him. God never burdens a soul beyond what He has given it. God will bring ease after hardship.3

Therefore even though we not know how God judges most humans, we can say that God will judge them according to what is fair. Only those who have the power and knowledge (intrinsic or otherwise) to believe in God will be held responsible.

There are some preachers who give definite statements about who goes to Hell and who doesn’t. But the Quran leaves wide room for interpretation, therefore if anyone says something about God’s judgment that sounds unfair and unjust, this merely means that the person has misunderstood God and is saying things about God that God Himself has not said.