Allah Mighty God
By Mohammad Yacoob
Los Angeles, CA
The first verse of the opening chapter of the Holy Qur’an takes a Muslim into the outer space of the Universe when he recites “Praise is due to God, Lord of the worlds”. By reciting the first verse and continuing on, a Muslim immediately acknowledges the existence of Almighty God and proclaims that HE is the creator and owner of the whole Universe. A Muslim believes that HE, the God, is one and there is none like HIM and a Muslim truly believes that HE has no partners.
Since the arrival of Prophet Adam on this earth, and later, the establishment of factions and proliferation of other religions gave birth to multiple gods. Any object or thing that seemed stronger, strange, mysterious, people started worshipping it as god. Those at the top of this creating-gods game turned into the benefactors. We are all familiar with the religions in Asia and the Middle East. In many countries and societies, the faith in one God was replaced with the worship and belief in multiple gods or deities; monotheism was replaced with polytheism. Many cultures in Europe and Asia commenced worshiping gods and goddesses, built religious centers for these deities, reflecting not only the society’s created values but also its sense of itself.
In some societies it became the norm to worship anything that is powerful or frightening. Worshiping the sun and the moon, thunderbolts, fire, pictures or statues of frightening and terrifying gods and goddesses is still continuing in this day and age. The ancient Aztecs and Maya civilizations of the new world, the Americas, also believed in gods. These ancient civilizations were pioneers in the development of the calendar and also made severe commitment to gods who demanded the blood of human sacrifice. Their patron gods were deity of war and sun god. Aztecs’ patron god was deity of war and sun god, who came from his mother’s womb fully armed; mother was the earth goddess and sister moon goddess; and their ancient god was both male and a female.
In this world of gods and goddesses, where statues, stones and natural phenomenon have been declared as gods, the original voices of Islam are being echoed by Muslims who declared the command of God from the Qur’an, “There is nothing like unto HIM.” Muslims believe in One and only God who has no partners and He is Allah. Keeping this in mind, I upgraded using Almighty God to Allah Mighty God in conversation with non-Muslims and in mixed company of Muslims and non-Muslims.
Muhammad Asad has expressed very powerfully and movingly what Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala has called Himself in the Qur’an. Muhammad Asad says, “Arabic is the Semitic tongue which has remained uninterruptedly alive for thousands of years. The Qur’an frequently makes references to God – often in one and the same phrase – as “He”, “God”, “We”, or “I” with the corresponding changes of the pronoun from “his” to “Our” or “My” or from “Him” to “Us” or “Me”. These changes are not accidental and not even what one might describe as “poetic license”, but are obviously deliberate; a linguistic device meant to stress the idea that God is not a “person” and cannot, therefore, but really circumscribed by the pronouns applicable to finite human beings.” (The Message of the Qur’an by Leopold Muhammad Asad).
The beauty and uniqueness of the Qur’an and the commands of Allah Mighty God keep us moving forward because our life on this planet is not the end of the journey. Our journey started with the coming of Adam alayhis salaam and Hawa alayhis salaam on this earth. Later, human beings spread themselves over the earth becoming more nations, speaking diverse languages, observing diverse customs and laws, and started praying to many gods. All the attributes and traits human beings have assigned to their gods have been fully explained in the Qur’an by saying that all those traits belong to Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala.
We, the Muslims, continue to worship One and Only God – Allah Mighty God. The source of goodness; the everlasting; light of the heavens and earth; who never sleeps. Allah is the one who guides human beings to the right path; the compassionate, gracious and merciful; and the one who accepts repentance from sincere believers, a kind and loving God. All Surahs of the Qur’an, except one, start with the attributes of Allah – the Most Compassionate and the Most Merciful.
While talking to non-Muslims, I strongly feel that I should remember all attributes of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, and my heart tells me that I should say Allah Mighty God.
[Mohammad Yacoob is a retired Industrial Engineer and Engineering Proposals Analyst who lives in Los Angeles, California.]
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