Chapter 7: From Whence Comes God’s Greatness?
We continue looking into Abdu Murray's book Grand Central Question with chapter 7. This chapter begins Part Three entitled Islam
or the Gospel: Which Tells Us About
God’s Greatness? How is God great? This is Islam’s Grand Central Question;
for Islam is centered on the Takbir - the phrase “Allahu Akbar” which means God
is greater. The Muslim, like the Christian, believes God is the Greatest
Possible Being. Yet the Islamic version of monotheism diverts from other forms
of monotheism in Tawhid or God’s oneness. Murray writes:
He is absolute unity, utterly
without any differentiation within himself. To have any differentiation within
God would be to diminish his greatness.1
In
Islam, ascribing differentiation to God is called shirk; the greatest possible
blasphemy.
The
importance of Takbir can be understood in light of the historical context out
of which Islam originated. Islam came out of a seventh-century pagan culture.
Judaism and Christianity were also well established. In this, what Murray
calls, “state of competition”, Islam was offering a God who was better than all
the others. Murray quotes Winfried Corduan to describe what the result of this
was:
Islam did not so much define
itself internally as externally against the other existing options.2
This wholly
other nature of God leaves him unknowable to the Muslim. He is a personal being
yet personal interaction with him is impossible. Thus God is to be obeyed and
served as a master. In light of this overwhelming conception of God, Murray
recalls his struggle to answer the question, “How is God great?” while a
Muslim:
I wanted to express adoration to the personal
Supreme Being, yet I could not help but believe that such a thing was beyond
me. I so desired to tell of God’s infinite mercy, yet also wanted to proclaim
his uncompromising justice. The dilemmas
that emerged from that struggle seemed inescapable from the Islamic
perspective. So I was forced to retreat to escapist answers that really were no
answers at all. To avoid the dilemma, I had to believe that attributes like
justice, love and compassion are not remotely the same for God as they are for
humanity. I hoped that this retreat would solve the issue for me. But it did
not.
Chalking the dilemma up to a
mystery was not enough for me, and from the writings I have read and the looks
in the eyes of Muslims I have talked with, I know that it is not enough for
them either. Like all who sincerely want to believe in one God, Muslims yearn
to acknowledge God’s greatness. They do not pretend to fully understand it, nor
should they expect to. But there is something about us, in our experience of
personal relationships, that senses a tug for divine relationship. Something within us knows that although we
cannot fully comprehend God’s ways and how his mercy interacts with his
justice, there must be a way to reconcile them if God is truly great. We must be able to do so without sacrificing
reason on the altar of mysterious reverence. Though God’s greatness might
transcend our reason, it must not defy it.
On this Muslims and Christians can agree.3
Perhaps
the answer to Islam’s Grand Central Question is found in the very worldview
Islam rejected as lesser during its origin; the gospel? This question Murray
will examine in the remaining chapters of Part Three.
Stand firm in Christ,
Chase
Footnotes:
1.
Page 1662. Page 167
3. Pages 169 - 170
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