Some Attributes of God

[YALASH]

May peace be on you.

God is One, has no associate and except He there is no one else is worthy of worship, according to Holy Quran [chapter 59, verses 24 and 25]

It is said so because if He were not without associate then there is possibility that He might be overcome by a rival. In such case, Godhead would always be in threat…………….No one is worthy of worship but Him: It means that He is such a Perfect God Whose attributes are so great that if we were to select a god based on perfection, or we were to think the best attributes which God should possess, then the most perfect is that God, with Whom making a lesser God will be incorrect.



The Knower of the unseen, The Knower of seen

He alone knows perfectly about His-Being.…..Nothing is hidden from His knowledge but it is not possible for human…….Only He knows when He will end the universe and bring the Day of Judgment.


He is Gracious

He makes available the provisions of sustenance before the existence of life and any action from animates. This is due to His Grace only. He made the sun and the earth etc before our being and our deeds. By virtue of this, God is called Al-Rahman in Holy Quran.


[u]He is One Who rewards deeds[/u]

God rewards more than good effort. He does not waste effort of person and by virtue of this action is called He is called Al-Raheem.


God is The Master

God is the Master of the Day of Judgment, He recompenses. He has appointed no representative for this at any time. He is Malik-e-Yomiddin.



He is The Sovereign, The Holy One

God is the Sovereign with no defect. Human sovereignty is with weakness; people living under an earthly sovereign may leave the country for any reason or they may stand against the ruler, etc. God’s sovereignty is not as this. He can end and start things. He rules with right and justice. God is Al Malekul Quddus.




God is Source of Peace

God is free of all defects and troubles; He provide safety. If He had suffered problems and failures, He could not have given have given satisfaction to hearts that He would surely liberate us from difficulties. God is As-Salam.


The Bestower of Peace

He grants proofs of his excellence and Unity and believers which give them peace and confidence and they are never down as compared to those who believe in artificial gods. God is Al Mo’min.



God Guards everyone, and Mighty over all, and Repair break-downs, and is very Self-Sufficient /
almohaimenul azizul jabbarul motakabbir


He is such God that He creates bodies, He creates souls too, He draws features (of baby) in womb. All conceivable holy attributes are His names / ho wallahul khalequl bareyul mosawwero lahul asmaul husnaa



yosabbeho lahu maa fissamawatey wal-arzey wa howal azizul hakeem / The dwellers of heavens glorify His name with purity and of earth too.

It shows that there are those who live in heavenly bodies and they follow guidance of God.



God is All Powerful to do what he wishes / alaa kulley sheyin qadeer. [chapter 2, verse 21]


Believers and worshipers are happy to know that their God is fully Capable and Powerful.


Reference: Friday sermon by Ahmadiyya Khalifah (a.t.) of Promised Messiah Mahdi (a.s.)

[MANICHAEAN]

There is a line of thought in religion, (mainly I believe in branches of the Jesuits) that hold that it is not so much what God commands, as to what God tolerates. Graham Greene, whom I'm sure you have read extensively, was a great proponent of this line of thinking, which is of the same relevance to the followers of Mohammad,(peace and blessings be upon him) as it is to alternate deities.

[Whosis]

Just curious, if you're speaking of the Holy Quran (or Koran as I know it), why do you not refer to God as Allah??

[MANICHAEAN]

Because of the many concepts of God that different religions hold dear.

[MorpheusSandman]

You missed the biggest one: He's imaginary

[Hwo Thumb]

You missed the biggest one: He's imaginary

Now, now, let's play nicely.

[MANICHAEAN]

Agreed. Let's get back to my original point that, (cateris parabus, one believes in a God) then he recognises human frailty in the mortal being and tolerates as well as commands.

[MorpheusSandman]

Now, now, let's play nicely.

Tongue was firmly in cheek.

[MANICHAEAN]

I guessed it was, but at least it got a bit of discussion going, instead of reading a realm of text.

[YesNo]

Agreed. Let's get back to my original point that, (cateris parabus, one believes in a God) then he recognises human frailty in the mortal being and tolerates as well as commands.

I hadn't really thought of God "tolerating" us as being one of his attributes, but that makes sense. It allows us to have some free will.

Recently, I've been separating Gods into those which are "personal" and those which are not. The personal Gods one can relate to and they relate back. In this class would go Allah, Yahweh, Jesus, Krishna and so on. The impersonal Gods are those we get hung up on. They couldn't care less about us if there is much anything to them at all.

[JanVanHogspeuw]

The impersonal Gods are those we get hung up on. They couldn't care less about us if there is much anything to them at all.

Well, I think more people get hung up on the problem of evil, which the impersonal Gods nicely skirt round.

[MANICHAEAN]

Some interesting concepts there:
1. "Some free will." God acknowledging perhaps that we are mortal with mortal weaknesses and thus a certain amount of latitude is permissible. But then it can be argued that the Son of Man ( although theologically without sin) had human failings e.g. temper, impatience, doubt.
2. Personal gods. Yes I agree with this. The whole concept of referring to the Father in Christianity cannot be anything but personal.
3. Impersonal gods. I presume you are referring to categories inclusive of the Greek Gods, gods of nature and inanimate objects.

[YesNo]

The impersonal gods are more like money, fame and other things one serves as well as metaphysical beliefs such as many worlds, determinism or chance that ground the metaphysics. These are impersonal. There is no point in worshiping them. They can't respond.

The Greek Gods or other nature Gods would be personal. They may not be friendly, but they would be agents one could worship. Perhaps, "conscious" would be a better term than "personal" if one wants to generalize the idea.

The impersonal Gods don't really avoid the issue of evil. They just are too unconscious to care one way or the other. One can replace theodicy with cosmodicy or anthropodicy.

[cacian]

ok let's see so much adoration it is almost procrastinating.
what has god ever done to you?

[YesNo]

what has god ever done to you?

That is the main question that theists need to answer mainly for themselves. That is, theists who believe in a conscious, personal God that anyone can relate to need to ask themselves if their religious practices are beneficial.

The most I can offer as an answer is that these Gods respond through our awareness. The specific religious practices (mantras, mediation, religious gathers, prayers, etc) would have to benefit the believers or they are not worth doing. Personally, I have found the ones I have tried (mantras and meditation) beneficial and so I have no reason to stop doing them.

Now, let's assume that the person doesn't believe in a conscious, personal God. Then one will have one of these other ethical Gods (fame, wealth, power) or one of the metaphysical Gods (many worlds, determinism, chance) to ground one's actions and views of the world. They provide support mainly for a position that one takes. What have these Gods done for anyone? Nothing, except perhaps distract one to follow fantasies, which is a sort of negative benefit.

Just to make sure I am staying on the topic of this thread, we are discussing the attributes of God. The two attributes that I find most interesting are that the God is "conscious" and "personal". This puts the God out there with an ability to relate to me.