thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me I've had a lot of questions about Islam
you know I've heard a lot of different things I was directed to come to speak
to you about you know some of the more critical core parts of the faith well look
you know as Muslims we greet each other by saying Assalamu Alaikum which just simply means
peace be to you and I'm happy that you've come and whatever questions you have don't
feel shy I'm you know very easy to to kinda deal with them if there's something I
don't know I'm just gonna tell you listen I don't know but if there's something I could
be of service in and be able to help you with I'll do my best so yeah let's get started sure
the first question I think maybe is the most important I want to know who is Allah, the person that
you guys always talk about? we're gonna jump right into it that's a good thing look the word Allah
isn't a unique word I know it sounds Arabic but its roots extend far back so for example if you
were to open the Bible the Coptic Bible an Arabic version of it in Genesis it would be the chapter
of Takween and it would begin: in the beginning
God Allah created the heavens and the earth and therefore the word Allah isn't something that's
foreign to people of diverse backgrounds and diverse religions in the Arabic region in the
same way it's taken from the same roots that come from other faith-based religions so if you were to
hear someone calling out to God and they would say Elohim it sounds very similar and Allah as
a word simply means 'Al-illah' the only one the only one who deserves worship the only one
who deserves adoration so he tells us about who he is and as Muslims we accept who God is by who
he has qualified himself to be. So he has sent us people throughout time from the very beginning
you know people of the scripture our Jews and Christians are cousins in faith they all have
that same kind of belief in the same prophets who came to acquaint us with Allah the God the real
God the one who others masqueraded in worshipping other than him and one of the things I think that
becomes really important is to identify some of his qualities and therefore as Muslims we have
these names and attributes and characteristics of God and you know there's many of them but 99 of
them are really you know some of the most special ones and the very first identifier of Allah
is ar-rahman the lord of mercy the compassionate ar-rahim the bestower and the divider of his
mercy and there's many other qualities and many other characteristics that he defines himself
as so if you want to know who is Allah the best place to read about him is what he said about
himself so to turn to the scripture and it would be for us as Muslims the Quran, selections from the
Bible from the gospel and the Torah all of those will have accurate descriptions of Allah the most
accurate being of course the Quran for us we believe it's unadulterated while there will be
depictions of it very close similarities that we accept as being still in existence in the gospel and
in the Torah. So it's not a different God according to the Muslims? So for for us as Muslims we believe
as God says to us in Surat Al-Ankabut, the spider: to say to
people of a variety of faiths our Lord and your Lord is the same our allah ilahuna our God
the one that we worship and your God is the same the thing of course about it is what you qualify
about God may be different to what we as Muslims qualify God to be so for us Allah is indivisible
unchanging he's the one that everyone relies on and he's the only one who is deserving of
love and fear and hoping in a capacity of service and worship so he describes himself best in the
Quran in the one hundred and twelfth chapter the third last chapter of the Quran by saying Qul Huwa
Allahu Ahad admit say that I am Allah the one and only I'm unique in my oneness I'm one that
there can't be a second like me so I'm the only one of Who I am Qul Huwa Allahu Ahad Allahu Alsamad
I'm the one who everyone is sustained by Lam Yalid Walam Yulad I haven't emerged from anything
and nothing has come from me I have no sons no daughters I am unique unto myself. Walam Yakun Lahu
Kufuwan Ahad. And there's nothing that is like unto me meaning anything you can envision or think of
or imagine or depict or conjure up in your mental mind or in physical reality I am different to it