Jewel in the heart of the lotus

Discussing God on openDemocracy. Abdulksaida explains that god is not a good name, because it can be male female, plural &c. Allah cannot be so divided.

I see.

So Christians and Jews - not to mention all the others - have kind of got the Name wrong.

But despite being called by the wrong name by some, I expect Allah hears the true prayers and compassionate thoughts of all people, because every Surah is in the Name of Allah, the compassionate, the merciful?

To Jews, the One is so Holy that they cannot even say the Name, so they write YHVH instead.

But that is still a name.

Theology is a funny business. I picked up a big fat book of theology once. It began with a "definition of God". I put it down again. How can we define the Infinite?

I remember a headline years ago, when Lebanon was in flames. It read "Christian Gunman Kills Nine". I thought, he may have killed nine, but he was not a Christian.

True religion is not about what we say but what we do. If we are kind to strangers we are quite likely being kind to Allah. If we are unkind to people, we may very well be being unkind to Allah.

The best and the hardest thing for us to do is to be kind to people who are being unkind to us. If we can all learn to do that, we can bring Paradise to Earth. If we can only do harm to those who do harm to us, we will bring Hell to Earth.

Om Mane Padme Hum...............

Shanti

Shalom

Salaam