WHO OWNS GOD?
To the People of Malaysia
Mike Ghouse
The Malaysian Government may consider setting up a commission to figure out who owns Allah. From what I know, no one owns the word “Allah” nor does any one own “Allah”. I can have one of the seven billionth (# of people) piece of God without asking permission from any one. And each part would be fulsome seven billion. You are welcome to steal my piece, I still would have it; owning one piece is like owning whole of the God.
Same formula applies to the other names of God be it Yahweh, Krishna, Allah, Ahura Mazda, Wahe Guru, God or any other name one can imagine to call on the creator. God probably would be embarrassed if he figures out that we believe him to have limited linguistic comprehension, and that he only understands Hebrew, Sanskrit, Pali, Avesta, Aramaic, Latin or Arabic. Quite! Let him know not.
Perhaps, one single event led to the other and the whole cosmos came into being. Whether it is evolution, creation or big bang, the fact of the matter is we exist. Thus the concept of oneness of creation, oneness of the humanity and oneness of the people translates into Oneness of God, One all loving God. Our Atheist friends don’t have to call that thing God, just call it the causer of evolution, creation or the big bang; or don’t call any thing, he has no problems with it and I know I don’t.
I hope you find the answer in various ways of praising your version of the lord; your lord, my version and every one’s lord; the same causer and sustainer of the creation. Whatever way works for you is good, why should it matter how you worship? Your devotion to the creator is your own, it won’t interfere with my life and it should not worry us a bit.
God has not signed a secret deal with you to tell me that your way is the right way, you quote the Qur’aan, I will quote the Vedas, Bible, Torah, Avesta and other books or my native friend may quote his/her traditions. None of us is wrong, each one has his or her own version and all versions produce the same result; acknowledging something higher, immortal than us and that we have be humble, and humility eats up arrogance and brings conflictlessness among the people. That is what the kingdom of heaven is all about or may be more per you, and that is fine with me.
The phrases like No God, One God, Many Gods, One family or Vasudeva Kutumbukum is all about peaceful co-existence of diverse people as one family. If we can learn to accept and respect the God given uniqueness of each one of the 7 billion of us, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge.
Since I am a human like you and happen to believe in one of the 250 versions of God, let me share my version of that creator with you and I invite you to share your version right here in the comments section. Remember we create God in our own image, so there are at least 7 billion versions of the same God, and he (she or it) loves every which way we bow to him, acknowledge it and respect her.
My version is Islamic, still the same God.
The symbols in this article are the name of God, “Allah” in Arabic, as a Muslim I won’t lock the unlockable God in words or in picture; it is not a being and is certainly not containable. No one’s version is complete to the other, but given our limitations we create him in our own image, a deeper image en-carved in our imagination that is inexplicable and invisible like the pain in the neck.
The Qur’aan starts with this verse:
Translation by Mohammad Asad
1:2 All praise is due to God alone, the Sustainer of all the worlds,
Alhamdu lillahi rabbi alAAalameena
الْحَمْدُ للّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ (1:2)
In this instance, the term “worlds” denotes all categories of existence both in the physical and the spiritual sense. The Arabic expression rabb – rendered by me as ‘,`Sustainer” – embraces a wide complex of meanings not easily expressed by a single term in another language. It comprises the ideas of having a just claim to the possession of anything and, consequently, authority over it, as well as of rearing, sustaining and fostering anything from its inception to its final completion. Thus, the head of a family is called rabb ad-dar (“master of the house”) because he has authority over it and is responsible for its maintenance; similarly, his wife is called rabbat ad-dar (“mistress of the house”). Preceded by the definite article al, the designation rabb is applied, in the Qur’an, exclusively to God as the sole fosterer and sustainer of all creation – objective as well as conceptual – and therefore the ultimate source of all authority.(By Mohammad Asad, Quran Ref: 1:2 )
Here is how the last chapter begins :
114:1 SAY: “I seek refuge with the Sustainer of men,
:[Allah:seek refuge with Him] [Allah’s attributes:Cherisher and Sustainer] [Mankind]
Qul aAAoothu birabbi alnnasi
قُلْ أَعُوذُ بِرَبِّ النَّاسِ (114:1)
The most important aspect of quoting both the first and last chapters of Qur’aan has a purpose in it. Both verses do not address Muslims exclusively, in turn they address the whole cosmos and the human beings.
Allah is addressing all of us in the book; he made sure that he did not address one people to exclude the other. He may have been motivated by the fear that some other God may take away the unclaimed people, so he was smart enough to include every one from the beginning to the end. I am sure he used the same strategy in all his books, be it the Vedas, Bible, Torah or any book or just through the oral traditions that our brothers and sisters in native and earth based traditions follow.
God belongs to all, we don’t need to own him (her or it), let him remain the creator and owner of our lives and let us call him whichever way we can.
The Neocons Muslims (Equal and opposite counterparts of Neocons in all faiths) need to be happy that the Christians and Sikhs want to keep “Allah” as one of the names of God. Indeed, the Arab Christians also call the creator Allah. Perhaps it is the same word Ilahi Jesus used to use in Aramaic.
Solution
The solution is in our hands, we the public and the one’s reading this piece. If we can start referrring to the creator with different names, as though they are synonyms like Yahweh, Ahura Mazda, Buddha, God, Ishwar, Mahavir, Wahe Guru or Allah, then we will be endorsing and ackowedging that it is the same creator we are all referrring to. Let’s not limir God to a language and a religion, he won’t mind if we address him in the language we know. He is the creator and sustainer of all worlds.
As a Muslim I welcome every one to call God with his name in Arabic – “Allah” with equal devotion and honor. Quietly and peacefully this would be the response of over 99% of Muslims in the world. It is time for us to appeal the majority of Muslims in Malaysia to help those few lost brothers.
Mike Ghouse is a thinker, writer speaker and an activist of pluralism, interfaith, co-existence, peace, Islam and India. He is a frequent guest at the TV, radio and print media offering pluralistic solutions to issues of the day. His websites and Blogs are listed on http://www.mikeghouse.net/
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