Some adverse doctrinal implications of Tauhid -
the
poisonous result of neo-Platonic and Aristotelian influence
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Tauhid
1. Panentheistic
tendencies
- The Creator and creation intermingled and confused
Unity of Existence (wahdat
al-wujud)
Taken
from
Wikipedia
The first detailed formulation of "Unity of Existence" (wahdat
al-wujud) is closely associated with Ibn Arabi. Widely different interpretations of the
meaning of the "Unity of Existence" have been proposed throughout the
centuries by critics, defenders, and Western scholars. Ibn Arabi himself
didn't use the term "Unity of Existence" and similar statements had been
made by those before him. For example, according to al-Ghazali "There is nothing in wujud [existence]
except God...Wujud [Existence] only belongs to the Real One". Ghazali
explains that the fruit of spiritual ascent of the Sufi is to "witness
that there is no existence in the world save God and that 'All things are
perishing except his face' (Qur'an 28:88)" [35][36]
Another text which strongly suggests a confusion of Creator with His
creation is:
Surat Al Baqarah 2:115
وَلِلَّهِ الْمَشْرِقُ وَالْمَغْرِبُ ۚ فَأَيْنَمَا تُوَلُّوا فَثَمَّ
وَجْهُ اللَّهِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ
PICKTHAL: Unto Allah belong the East and the West, and
whithersoever ye turn, there is Allah's Countenance. Lo! Allah is
All-Embracing, All-Knowing.
Many authors consider being or existence to be the proper
designation for the reality of God. While all Muslims believe the
reality of God to be one, critics hold that the term "existence" (wujud)
is also used for the existence of things in this world and that the
doctrine blurs the distinction between the existence of the creator and
that of the creation. Defenders argued that Ibn Arabi and his followers
are offering a "subtle metaphysics following the line of the Asharite
formula: “The attributes are neither God nor other than God.” God’s
“signs” (ayat) and “traces” (athar)—the creatures—are neither the same
as God nor
different from him, because God must be understood as both
absent and present, both transcendent and immanent.
Biblical revelation however consistently maintains a razor sharp
distinction:
'Who changed the truth of God into a
lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who
is blessed for ever. Amen.' Rom.1.25
2. An
inadequate view of key Divine Attributes
'If I say that God is knowing, I merely confirm the
divine essence and deny in it all ignorance. If I say that God is powerful,
living and so forth, I am only confirming the divine essence and denying in
it all powerlessness, mortality and so forth' Al Nazzam al-Ash'ari , 484
Maqalat al-islamiyyin (Islamic Dogmas) cited here
in
ed. H. Ritter, Wiesbaden, 2nd edn, 1963.
Surat Al Hadid 57:3,4
هُوَ الْأَوَّلُ وَالْآخِرُ وَالظَّاهِرُ وَالْبَاطِنُ ۖ وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ
شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ
هُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ فِي سِتَّةِ أَيَّامٍ ثُمَّ
اسْتَوَىٰ عَلَى الْعَرْشِ ۚ يَعْلَمُ مَا يَلِجُ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَمَا
يَخْرُجُ مِنْهَا وَمَا يَنزِلُ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ وَمَا يَعْرُجُ فِيهَا ۖ
وَهُوَ مَعَكُمْ أَيْنَ مَا كُنتُمْ ۚ وَاللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌ
PICKTHAL: He is the First and the Last, and the Outward and
the Inward; and He is Knower of all things.
He it is Who created the heavens and the earth in six Days; then He mounted
the Throne. He knoweth all that entereth the earth and all that emergeth
therefrom and all that cometh down from the sky and all that ascendeth
therein; and He is with you wheresoever ye may be. And Allah is Seer of what
ye do.
Abu Sa'id Al-Khudri (May Allah be pleased with him) narrated that Allah's
Messenger (May the
peace and blessing of Allah be upon him) said:
"Musa (Moses) (May the peace and blessing of Allah be upon him) said: 'O my
Rabb, teach
me something through which I can remember You and supplicate to You.' Allah
answered: 'Say,
O Musa, La ilaha ilIa-Allah'. Musa said: 'O my Rabb, all your slaves say
these words'. Allah said:
'O Musa, if the seven heavens and all they contain other than Me1 (Ghairy)
and the seven earths
as well, were all put in one side of a scale and La ilaha ilIa-Allah put in
the other the latter would
overweigh them.'"
Contrast with Biblical concepts of Omniscience, Divine perception,
Omnipresence, Omnipotence diluted.
3.
Injuring Divine personality
4. Undermining Divine relationality
5. The moral abyss
between God and man misperceived as metaphysical
Muslim reports that Khawlah bint Hakim ((May Allah be pleased with him))
said, I heard
Allah's (May the peace and blessing of Allah be upon him)
say:
"Whoever goes into a dwelling and says (while entering it): 'I seek refuge
in Allah's perfect
words from the evil (of those creatures) which He created', no harm shall
befall him until he
departs from that place." (Muslim)
Ibn Mas'ud ((May Allah be pleased with him)) said:
"To swear by Allah while lying is more loved by me than to swear by other
than Him while
speaking truth."
(2:22)
With reference to the above quoted verse, Ibn Abbas (May Allah be pleased
with him) said:
"Al-Andad means Shirk. It is as inconspicuous as a black ant moving
(crawling) on a black
stone in the darkness of night. It is to swear: 'by Allah and by your
life' and 'by my life'. It is also
to say: 'Had there not been this little dog or the duck in the house, the
thief would have entered.'
Or, like the statement of a man to his companion: 'By Allah's and yours
will,..' or 'Had it not been
Allah and so-and-so', etc. Do not mention anybody with Allah because all
of it is Shirk." [It has
been reported by Ibn Abi Hatim]
6. Grounds
of a dangerously ill founded presumption of His favour
"Indeed Allah has forbidden for Hell the person who
testifies: 'There is nothing worthy of
worship in truth (no true God) but Allah', seeking thereby nothing but
Allah's Face (pleasure)." (Bukhari 8.76.431).
"Whoever testifies that there is nothing worthy of worship in truth (no
God) except Allah
Alone, Who is without (peer or) partner, and that Muhammad is His slave
and Messenger, and
that 'Iesa (Jesus) is the slave of Allah, His Messenger, and His Word
which He bestowed in
Maryam (Mary) and a spirit (created) from Him, and that Paradise &
Hell-fire are realities, Allah
will admit him into Paradise, whatever his deeds might be." (Sahih
Al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 3252)
Thou believest that there is one
God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
(James.2.19)
For as the body without the spirit is
dead, so faith without works is dead also. (James 2.26)
7. Undermining causality - as examined in
Reilly's excellent work, 'The
closing of the Muslim mind'
By asserting that God's activity in the world is
unmediated and always direct - so that the appearance of natural law and
even independent existence are illusory - rendering any exploration of
causality futile.

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Some
useful
comments on Bible teaching about the Godhead of Father, Son and Holy
Spirit for Muslims