What kind of a god do Muslims consider Allah to be?

Question

Gramps,

What kind of a god do Muslims consider Allah to be?  A person like Heavenly Father?  Does he have a wife?  Is he considered the father of the spirits of people?

Bobbi

Answer

Dear Bobbi,

For a moment I considered telling you that it isn’t my place to explain the doctrines of other religions.  But I changed my mind, because interfaith dialogue is important. More about that in a moment. First the answer to your question:

It is my understanding that the Muslims believe in a God much like the Jewish God, an incorporeal being of perfection. They believe in ex nihilo creation, and that we are the created beings (and thus children) of God. They do not attribute to him things they consider to be purely human, such as having a wife. They would doubtless see such a belief as blasphemous.

Recently the Deseret News published an article called A Mormon, A Muslim and A Hindu sit down together on a plane.  In that article Tiffany Gee Lewis says:

“A Muslim, a Hindu and a Mormon sit down together on a plane.  It sounds like the beginning of a bad religious joke, but this is what happened to me recently on a flight from Minneapolis to Atlanta. The next three hours included some of the best discussion of my life.”

And while I have answered your initial question, I think that if you had the opportunity to sit down and talk to a Muslim, you would find that experience more beneficial as Lewis says:

“Thanks to a wonderful undergraduate religious education, I had a solid understanding of both Hinduism and Islam. This helped me in the context of our dialogue. However, my encounter with my fellow passengers broadened my understanding of their faith as practiced and applied on a day-to-day basis. It reminded me that textual understanding, while useful, is never as powerful as face-to-face understanding.”

So Bobbi, thanks for your question, and if you do make some new Muslim friends, send them my way.

Gramps