Assalaamu alaikum Melinda,
(smile) I am glad to see you again.
Thank you for your question. (twinkle) It is one that many Muslims would like to clarify, I think. You see, there is a misconception among many non-Arabic speaking European-descent Christians that somehow Muslims believe in something vastly different from themselves. (smile) There are differences, to be sure, but fundamentally, God is God.
I have travelled quite widely, and met many people of many different linguistic backgrounds. And we don't all use the same word, but the concept of God is woven into the fabric of all cultures of which I am aware. (smile) The concept may be diluted to a greater or a lesser degree, but it is there.
Because God Loves all people, He has Sent messengers and prophets to all peoples. So it is understandable that the concept of Him is there. But we humans have our arrogance and weaknesses. We may completely reject God. We may use God to legitimize things we do, that we deep down know we should not. We diminish God to make ourselves feel greater than we are. We break God into pieces so that we can feel more comfortable with His Infinitude. We mix him into ourselves or our ancestors, so that we may feel more immortal and invulnerable. We confuse His Creation with Himself, because His Creation is perceptible to our mundane senses, but He is not. For these reasons, and many, many others, we humans dilute the concept of God.
If we have some of His Words through His prophets, we may twist them for our benefit. We may mis-spell or mis-copy or mis-translate them. We may lose them. Except if God Protects and Ensures their survival, we gradually lose His Words, in our imperfect world. (smile) And God Permits these processes to exist, for His Own Purposes.
The fragments of what we have left, either the writings or the oral traditions, can be found in every part of the world. In some places, some cultures, the concept is more intact than others. But the underlying unity of goodness in these belief systems, comes originally from God. And the idea of some underlying order and wholeness underpinning Creation is understood everywhere.
I know people who call God: Bog, Del, Khoda, Allah, Dieu, Dios... and they are all talking of the same thing: an infinite being: infinite in knowledge, power, love,goodness, creativity... vast beyond human imagining... and we are just the tiniest motes of dust before this infinite Ocean, Powerful and Wise, and oh so Kind to these foolish motes!
But we humans have problems with this. Our limited minds crumple when confronting the infinite. And just as we try to dissect complex creatures into their component parts in order to better understand and analyze them, so too do we do to God. It is arrogance, really, in my opinion. We really think we can encompass God... may He Forgive us!
All through human history, we have tried to divide and re-create and re-conceptualize the Divine, that we may better control it. But instead, our creations control us. Be it idols, or competing ideologies, or tools... all that we create comes to dominate us instead. We become enslaved to our creations. We created money,material goods, technologies, intellectual tools... and yes, statues and sacred grottoes, too. And because we feel we can grasp them with our minds and hands, we feel we are more free. Except we cannot let them go...
In all cultures, you will find the idea of surrender to God. It might not be hugely popular, but it is there. Falling into the mists of I-don't-know, -but-yet-I-trust... you will find it throughout history, everywhere. Letting go, knowing you don't know, harmony, peace, One-ness. If we can surrender utterly to God… then we are truly free.
God does not “belong” to any select group. We may worship and acknowledge Him. Or not. But to say that Christians have “their” God and Muslims “their” God and Hindus “their God” , etc... is incorrect, in my opinion. There is God. Our human tongues may label Him as we wish. We may try to divide His attributes among some or many sub-units. We may deny Him. But He Belongs to no one. He just Is.
(smile) But perhaps you are thinking: well, ok, God is God, but we do have different understandings of Him. Christianity and Islam and Hinduism are not the same (actually, Hinduism is a lot more diverse than you realize, maybe. It's not so... codifiable).
Yes, this is true. (smile) And you have probably seen hints of what I feel about this in my text so far. It is we humans that are the agents that muss and confuse some elegantly simple concepts.
(smile) Of course, simple things can generate complexity we find hard to grasp (like the iterations of a simple mathematical equation can generate intricate and beautiful patterns). God is Unique. Whole. Infinite. Good. Surrendering to God brings inner peace, harmony, alignment. Pretty simple ideas. But trying to understand God, trying to wrap our human minds around infinity... this is too complex for us. Trying to find peace and harmony without God...it is also too complex.Our minds become entangled in infinite spiralling iterations... and get lost.
We humans take the concept of God, and try to understand what we cannot. So then, like Cinderella's sisters, we try to cut the concepts into ones we can grasp more easily. Ones that are more comfortable to the human mind that seeks to master everything. And so our understandings of God slide into the various belief-systems we see in the world. (smile) We still fail in our efforts to master everything. But we feel more in control, nonetheless.
For example, an atheist may insist that the origin of the Universe is known. But if you ask the hows and whys and what-befores, the atheist cannot answer. But having a set of ideas about the Big Bang, and black holes and gravitational forces (which actually do not exist, but are an effect of the “geometry”of Creation... according to relativistic physics, to the best of myunderstanding)... all these nice, slightly mysterious, but somehow familiar-sounding ideas are comforting.
(smile) So you see, I don't believe in the concept of a distinct Christian God. I just believe in God.
But I think perhaps what you wanted to know was whether I know about what Christians believe? (smile) Well, all Christians don't believe the same things. There's quite a range, you know. But I do have some knowledge of Christian beliefs.
My parents, I'm afraid, were rather hedonistic atheists with a penchant for trying out new cultish belief systems as their whims dictated. They were also rather neglectful parents. But my father's mother was a very kind woman. She'd grown up in a free-thinking, vaguely Jewish family, but had discovered God during her adult years. She converted to Catholicism. And she was a very passionate believer. She taught me about God, about being good to others regardless of external appearances, about living simply (you would never have known she was a wealthy woman; she preferred to give to others, rather than live luxuriously), about praying...
(smile) My parents thought her a very bad influence.
So she taught me about God. And when my parents limited her from talking with me, she slipped God in, in the form of gifts of books like the Narnia Chronicles. And when I was old enough to go to a boarding school, I suspect she hadsomething to do with the fact that I ended up at a Catholic boarding school, and later at a Catholic Day School.
My grandmother's Catholicism was very genuine and sincere. But her worship of God was a little unusual compared to the norm. For instance, she didn't just nod at the appropriate times during mass. She would bend at the waist indeep obeisance. She taught me about God. And Jesus. I can't tell you exactly what she said, because I was very little. But she loved me, and she instilled her love of God in me.
However, the nuns... were less genuine. And they also couldn't answer my questions. Because I was very curious about God. (smile. Actually I'm very curious about everything!)
How do you take something as infinitely vast as God and divide Him? (How can you divide something infinite ?) Why? How could you kill God? And what would happen to everything while He was dead? How could God be Jesus (how can something infinite be finite?) ? If Jesus had to be killed before we could go to heaven, how did Elijah get there? And why did God set it up so Jesus (who was actually God?!) had to be killed?
These were a child's questions. I really wanted to know and understand, but the answers were vague (it's a mystery...) or didn't make much sense to me (ok, Elijah did go to heaven...but only the lowest of 7 levels. Jesus still had to die for us to get to the highest levels). And because I didn't understand, I continued to seek answers. I even rebelled against God in my teen years. But I still longed to know.
So you see, Melinda, I had a thorough grounding in Western European Christian beliefs. I read the New and Old Testaments. I was given a lot of religious instruction. I went to mass frequently (not just on Sundays!). We prayed before and after everything (bed, meals, classes...). Even in our play, Christian beliefs were incorporated into what we did. I also mixed with Protestant girls, as they also were in our school. And I had a great interest and thirst to know about God. And later on in life, I have studied many different faiths and talked with people who adhere to these belief systems, including different kinds of Christians. (smile) I love to do this. People are so interesting! And there is always something to learn from others. Some of my most beautiful insights have been after being challenged to look at something in more depth by someone who disagrees with me, or who asks a fascinating question, or who claims Muslims believe “x”.
So yes, I have a pretty good idea about what Christians believe. And there is a lot that is good in those beliefs. (smile) God says (Qur'an 5:82):
and you will find the nearest of them in affection to the believers those who say, "We are Christians."
God says... and I have found this to be true.
(smile) Thank you for your patience with this long, and perhaps rather difficult, reply.
(hugs) May God be with you, Melinda.
