Is there one god in Islam?

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- moi
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Is there one god in Islam?
OP - November 27, 2014, 09:03 PM

Every so often on this board the koran gets quoted with the following expression "we".

Why precisely is Islam monotheistic when it sounds like more than one god is saying stuff...

When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.

A.A. Milne,

"We cannot slaughter each other out of the human impasse"
- xtremestr
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Is there one god in Islam?
Reply #1 - November 27, 2014, 09:13 PM

To my knowledge, Allah speaks as we/I/he because they are the greatest authoritarian pronouns. It's like how the royalty used to address their own accords as we/us. There are a few times where(I think) it's being told that Allah+the angels/prophet(s) did (some)thing(s), but for the most part it's mostly just Allah stroking his own penis.

أشهد أن لا إله
- dr_sloth
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Is there one god in Islam?
Reply #2 - November 27, 2014, 10:41 PM

the quran is copying the bible, and the bible is copying earlier polytheistic ideas, which really meant 'we'. The meaning has evolved over time, and a backstory has been invented about it being a majestic plural, signifying great respect or whatever.
- Rob
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Is there one god in Islam?
Reply #3 - November 27, 2014, 10:57 PM

I'm pretty well convinced that the idea of a single deity started with Pharoah Akhenaton.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akhenaten
- moi
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Is there one god in Islam?
Reply #4 - November 28, 2014, 10:35 AM

I think the idea of one god has been invented more than once in various contexts. I agree with the Pharoah's.

The Greeks probably had a geometric extrapolation of ideas - parallel lines did meet in the first cause, cheat solutions to xeno's paradoxes, Plato.

But it is Darius (See Tom Holland Persian Fire) who makes it an imperial god. Interestingly, I wonder what the relationship with evil is, so that actually you always have two polls - good and evil. When was the ellipse worked out?

When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.

A.A. Milne,

"We cannot slaughter each other out of the human impasse"
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