Arabic original here.
You have Your God and We Have Our God
When God created man, male and female, He distinguished him from other creatures and gave him preference over them in two things: the manner of creation and breathing into him from His spirit.
In its first account of creation, the Book of Genesis informs us that God said, "Let us make man in Our image and likeness... so God created man in His image. In the image of God He created him. Male and female He created them" (Genesis 1:26-27). However, when He created the rest of the creatures and existent things, God did not say "let us make light (etc.)" but rather, "let there be light." The distinction between man's creation and other creatures' creation is clear, since God brought creation into existence by His decree, but man was made with His hands. As for what is meant by "God's hands", they are not bodily hands, but rather a symbol of God's honoring and dignifying man.
In its second account of creation, the Book of Genesis informs us that the Lord God "formed man from the clay of the earth and breathed into his nostrils a breath of life, and man became a living being" (Genesis 2:7). If man had merely been clay, then he would have been like the other living creatures, but God breathed into him from His spirit and made him greater than the other created things.
Saint Basil the Great (d. 379) says of this, "and He breathed into his nostrils. That means, He brought him a portion of His grace. He received a great dignity on account of his having been created in the image of his Creator, and so he attained an honor that surpasses every other being."
It is noteworthy that the Qur'an matches the Book of Genesis in the very account of Adam's creation. The Qur'anic verse that establishes that God created man from clay "Then He fashioned him and breathed into him of His spirit" (Surat al-Sajda 9). It remains that the God who honored the children of Adam and "preferred them above many of those whom We created with a marked preferment" (Surat al-Isra 70) gave man from His spirit something that He did not give to the other things He created. It is a breath by which God distinguished man and made him worthy of dignity and honor.
It goes without saying that Adam was not Jewish, Christian, or Muslim. He was without religion. He was without a book or a law. God simply loved him and settled him in His garden. When Adam fell, God did not retreat from His love or from His mercy toward all the children of Adam... With the rise of religions, this situation did not change, since the divine breath abides in man, no matter what religion he belongs to or even if he is an atheist, and it does not depart from him. God did not require man to adopt one of the religions in order for Him to place His breath within him. The breath is present in man from the time of his birth and it does not depart from him, even if that man departs from God.
Despite the natural distinction between the Christian and Islamic traditions with regard to this question, they agree in affirming man's uniqueness and that he moved by a divine breath that forever gives him life, even as he inevitably passes through bodily death. Human life, then, is not anyone's possession. No one has the right to put an end to it or to take it away. How much more so when the negation of human life occurs in God's name, in the name of the God who placed a priceless trust in man and asked him to preserve it by honoring and respecting it.
We can say that God the Creator, according to the three monotheistic religions, is the God of life, not a god of death. We do not recognize your murderous god. We do not worship him and we do not bow down to him. You have your god and we have our God.
You have Your God and We Have Our God
When God created man, male and female, He distinguished him from other creatures and gave him preference over them in two things: the manner of creation and breathing into him from His spirit.
In its first account of creation, the Book of Genesis informs us that God said, "Let us make man in Our image and likeness... so God created man in His image. In the image of God He created him. Male and female He created them" (Genesis 1:26-27). However, when He created the rest of the creatures and existent things, God did not say "let us make light (etc.)" but rather, "let there be light." The distinction between man's creation and other creatures' creation is clear, since God brought creation into existence by His decree, but man was made with His hands. As for what is meant by "God's hands", they are not bodily hands, but rather a symbol of God's honoring and dignifying man.
In its second account of creation, the Book of Genesis informs us that the Lord God "formed man from the clay of the earth and breathed into his nostrils a breath of life, and man became a living being" (Genesis 2:7). If man had merely been clay, then he would have been like the other living creatures, but God breathed into him from His spirit and made him greater than the other created things.
Saint Basil the Great (d. 379) says of this, "and He breathed into his nostrils. That means, He brought him a portion of His grace. He received a great dignity on account of his having been created in the image of his Creator, and so he attained an honor that surpasses every other being."
It is noteworthy that the Qur'an matches the Book of Genesis in the very account of Adam's creation. The Qur'anic verse that establishes that God created man from clay "Then He fashioned him and breathed into him of His spirit" (Surat al-Sajda 9). It remains that the God who honored the children of Adam and "preferred them above many of those whom We created with a marked preferment" (Surat al-Isra 70) gave man from His spirit something that He did not give to the other things He created. It is a breath by which God distinguished man and made him worthy of dignity and honor.
It goes without saying that Adam was not Jewish, Christian, or Muslim. He was without religion. He was without a book or a law. God simply loved him and settled him in His garden. When Adam fell, God did not retreat from His love or from His mercy toward all the children of Adam... With the rise of religions, this situation did not change, since the divine breath abides in man, no matter what religion he belongs to or even if he is an atheist, and it does not depart from him. God did not require man to adopt one of the religions in order for Him to place His breath within him. The breath is present in man from the time of his birth and it does not depart from him, even if that man departs from God.
Despite the natural distinction between the Christian and Islamic traditions with regard to this question, they agree in affirming man's uniqueness and that he moved by a divine breath that forever gives him life, even as he inevitably passes through bodily death. Human life, then, is not anyone's possession. No one has the right to put an end to it or to take it away. How much more so when the negation of human life occurs in God's name, in the name of the God who placed a priceless trust in man and asked him to preserve it by honoring and respecting it.
We can say that God the Creator, according to the three monotheistic religions, is the God of life, not a god of death. We do not recognize your murderous god. We do not worship him and we do not bow down to him. You have your god and we have our God.
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1 comment:
Loved this article. In particular this:
"It goes without saying that Adam was not Jewish, Christian, or Muslim. He was without religion. He was without a book or a law. God simply loved him and settled him in His garden."
It's something I have repeatedly said to many of my Muslim friends. In fact, this is why I love Orthodoxy. I feel that I can walk "through the doors" of Catholicism, Judaism and Islam without conflating any of them.
Orthodoxy's understanding of person is derived from its encounter with the divine person.
Which is why I feel comfortable in my Orthodox "skin".
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