Thursday, December 27, 2007

The Image of God

In drawing or making a picture of God or His prophets who would we fashion them to look like? Where would we start?


He is one; this means that there is no other like him. And we have never seen Him. He would not therefore plaster His image everywhere like on toast or a tree because it would become mundane and part of his creations. He is a Creator not a creation. He created Himself.


The Noble Qur'an - Al-Anbiyâ 21:51-54
51. And indeed We bestowed aforetime on Ibrâhim (Abraham) his (portion of) guidance, and We were Well-Acquainted with him (as to his Belief in the Oneness of Allâh, etc.).
52. When he said to his father and his people: "What are these images, to which you are devoted?"
53. They said:"We found our fathers worshipping them."
54. He said: "Indeed you and your fathers have been in manifest error."


· His image is then not like the mortal man or any other thing. And as such cannot be imagined by any mortal artist. His image is much more than we can imagine. That is because His powers cannot be imagine by our limited mind. His image cannot be rendered by our limited skills.


· His image is too great for our average eye to see when we cannot even see beyond our horizon. The eye of the human is not powerful even as some animals that have more sight than us. Our limitations as mere humans prevent us from seeing God’s great image.

· If God is pictured as something as low as men then we are to assumed that He will have powers only as a man. But His sight is not like us, only much more powerful, His hearing is not like us, only much more powerful, everything about Him is much more powerful any man would ever have.

· People have claimed to be spoken to by God or to have had a vision of Him. Satan can come to a person claiming to be such or such. He is the ultimate con artist and this is precisely why we don’t have an image of God. Because Satan would come to people using what they want to see as God and tell them to follow him; a false god. He can come to us using what we desperately wants to see and experience and for the vulnerable it can become a trap taking us away from the One True God. Jesus himself was tried in this way when Satan came to him in the desert to try leading him away from his beliefs.

· As we have seen in Christianity the “image” of Jesus is worshipped and his mother too. God has sent prophets to all people and when these prophets die, in their grief people make images of them and worship them. Also they might have seen them and wanted to have something to remember them by so they make images of them or there may be a thousand other reasons why people made images of their holy people. However these trends tend to lead people away from the One True God. What good is an intercessor when a person can pray straight to God? People do not need idols or images to pray to God. All that is required to have a sincere intention and to pray from the heart. God understands all language and with His most great and powerful hearing He can hear all zillions of us anytime, anywhere, anyhow.

· And to be politically correct what would He actually look like if his image was rendered as a man? A white man or a black man? A Chinese man or a Hispanic man? Who would be offended? Even women would begin to object; thinking why God has to be a man. Because He is not a man nor a woman nor any of His creations. He is one, unique, original and not represent able. And it is therefore not possible to make images of God.

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