view of God would have a serious effect on faith and
practice. Could you comment on this?
One could note many examples of how misguided
belief leads to misguided morality. False teachings about
God and His nature can be the root of all sorts of false
religious and social practices. In Islam, a distorted view of
God (Allah) has led to several problems.
For example, seeing Allah as Slave Master (and we as
His slaves) leads to a legalistic morality. The individual
Muslim can only strive to obey Allah’s arbitrary laws to be
saved, and he can never hope for a loving relationship with
a forgiving Father. This is not to say that Allah has no love
for the faithful Muslim believer (see Sura 2:195; 3:148; and
others), only that the believer is incapable of having any
true relationship with Him; Allah remains transcendent
Master. With such a view of God, it is not difficult to see
why the practice of slavery itself would be tolerated under
such a religious system.
- Do Muslims believe they worship the same God as
Jews and Christians?
No, Muslims believe they worship a different God, or at
least, that their understanding of God is different from that
of Jews and Christians. This is despite certain Koranic texts
which claim that the God of Judaism and Christianity is the
same as Allah of the Muslims: ‘‘Say: It is only inspired in
me that your Allah is One Allah. Will ye then surrender
[unto Him]?’’ (Sura 21:108). That he is addressing
Christians and Jews is made clear by another verse: ‘‘And