Synopsis "Islam In Brief (in English)"
The name Allah (God) in Islam is the personalname of God. The most concise definition of God inIslam is given in four verses of Surah Al-Ikhlaas in theHoly Qur'an: {{Say, "He is Allah, [Who is] One, Allah, the Eternal Refuge, He neither begets nor is born, Nor is there to Him any equivalent."}}(Holy Qur'an 112: 1-4)To Muslims, this four-line definition ofAlmighty God serves as the touchstone of the study ofGod. Any candidate to divinity must be subjected tothis 'acid test' and since the attributes of The Creatorgiven in this chapter are unique, false gods andpretenders to divinity can be easily dismissed usingthese verses.4i) The first criterion is "Say, He is Allah, one andonly".Can there be more than one god? This verse tells usthat The Creator is the only one who has total andabsolute power, unique in His names and attributes.ii) The second criterion is, 'Allah is absolute andeternal'.The word that is translated as "The Eternal, Absolute"from Arabic is something that can be attributed only toThe Creator as all the other existent beings temporal orconditional? It also means that Allah is not dependanton any person or thing, but all persons and things aredependant on Him.iii) The third criterion is 'He begets not, nor is Hebegotten'.This means God was not born, nor does He give birthand share his divinity with others. Nor does He have afamily or relationship with another being.iv) The fourth test - which is the most stringent - is, "There is none like unto Him".The moment you can imagine or compare 'God' toanything, then he (the candidate to divinity) is notGod. It is not possible to conjure up a mental picture ofthe One True God because of the simple fact, ascreation, we only know creation
