Creation and ordering of the universe is seen as an act of prime mercy for which all creatures sing God's glories and bear witness to God's unity and lordship. According to the Islamic teachings, God exists without a place. According to the Qur'an, "No vision can grasp Him, but His grasp is over all vision. God is above all comprehension, yet is acquainted with all things" (Qur'an 6:103)

God responds to those in need or distress whenever they call. Above all, God guides humanity to the right way, “the holy ways.”

According to Islamic tradition there are 99 Names of God (''al-asma al-husna'' lit. meaning: "The best names") each of which evoke a distinct attribute of God. All these names refer to Allah, the supreme and all-comprehensive divine name. Among the 99 names of God, the most famous and most frequent of these names are "the Compassionate" (''al-rahman'') and "the Merciful" (''al-rahim'').

Islam teaches that God, as referenced in the Qur'an, is the only God and the same God worshipped by members of other Abrahamic religions such as Christianity and Judaism. ().

Oneness of God

"Say: He is God, the One and Only; God, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him." (Sura , ''Yusuf Ali'')
Thy Lord is self-sufficient, full of Mercy: if it were God's will, God could destroy you, and in your place appoint whom God will as your successors, even as God raised you up from the posterity of other people." (Sura , ''Yusuf Ali'')

According to Vincent J. Cornell, the Qur'an also provides a monist image of God by describing the reality as a unified whole, with God being a single concept that would describe or ascribe all existing things:"God is the First and the Last, the Outward and the Inward; God is the Knower of everything (Sura )" Some Muslims have however vigorously criticized interpretations that would lead to a monist view of God for what they see as blurring the distinction between the creator and the creature, and its incompatibility with the monotheism of Islam.

The indivisibility of God implies the indivisibility of God's sovereignty which in turn leads to the conception of universe as a just and coherent moral universe rather than an existential and moral chaos (as in polytheism). Similarly the Qur'an rejects the binary modes of thinking such as the idea of duality of God by arguing that both good and evil generate from God's creative act and that the evil forces have no power to create anything. God in Islam is a universal god rather than a local, tribal or parochial one; an absolute who integrates all affirmative values and brooks no evil.

Tawhid constitutes the foremost article of the Muslim profession. To attribute divinity to a created entity is the only unpardonable sin mentioned in the Qur'an. Muslims believe that the entirety of the Islamic teaching rests on the principle of Tawhid.

God's attributes

Islamic theology makes a distinction between the attributes of God and the divine essence.

Furthermore, it is one of the fundamentals in Islam that God exists without a place and has no resemblance to his creations. For instance, God is not a body and there is nothing like him. In the Quran it says what mean "Nothing is like him in any way," [see Quran 42:11]. Allah is not limited to Dimensions.

Names of God

God's omniscience

Comparative theology

Islamic theology identifies God as described in the Qur'an as the same God of Israel who covenated with Abraham. Francis Edwards Peters states that the Qur'an portrays Allah as both more powerful and more remote than the God of the Hebrew Bible.

Islam and Judaism alike reject the Trinity of Nicene Christianity, instead teaching that God is a singular entity beside whom no one else should be worshiped. However, the identification of God both in Islam and in Christianity with the God of Abraham led to a limited amount of mutual recognition among the Abrahamic religions.

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Bibliography

Category:Allah Category:Conceptions of God Category:Islamic theology

Personal life

From 1962 to 1990, his career was in the music industry, entertainment, marketing, teaching music and music minister, he owned several musical instrument companies including the Estes Piano and Organ Company. He produced and directed live entertainment programs in the United States from the mid 1960s until his last endeavor for cable TV in Florida, entitled 'Estes Music Jamboree'.

Yusuf Estes left Christianity for Islam in the early 1990s after meeting an Egyptian named Muhammad. Following his conversion, Estes entered the field of spreading Dawah or knowledge about the true essence of understanding Islam.

Estes denies the theory of Darwinian evolution and instead professes creationism as described by Islamic scriptures.

Islamic Activities

From 2004, Estes regularly appeared on the Islam Channel, as well as Peace TV and on Huda TV which are 24/7 Islamic channels broadcasting in many countries around the globe, via satellite and via the website WatchIslam.com TV Channels.

He has also set up websites directed toward English speaking Muslim youth which include www.TubeIslam.com, a Muslim video sharing site, and www.ChatIslam.com, a Muslim Chatroom, and for young children www.WorldPreschool.com, Preschool Learning.

He also produced a television series aimed toward English speaking children of Muslim parents entitled, "''Qasas Ul Anbiya''" - Stories of the Prophets.

His Islamic activities have included:

See also

References

Further reading

External links

Category:1944 births Category:Converts to Islam from Protestantism Category:American Muslims Category:American Disciples of Christ Category:Living people Category:American chaplains Category:Muslim chaplains Category:American imams Category:Islamic creationists Category:21st-century imams Category:Muslim apologists Category:American Muslims Category:Converts to Islam

In Persia, the title "the Great" at first seems to be a colloquial version of the Old Persian title "Great King". This title was first used by the conqueror Cyrus II of Persia.

The Persian title was inherited by Alexander III of Macedon (336–323 BC) when he conquered the Persian Empire, and the epithet "Great" eventually became personally associated with him. The first reference (in a comedy by Plautus) assumes that everyone knew who "Alexander the Great" was; however, there is no earlier evidence that Alexander III of Macedon was called "''the Great''".

The early Seleucid kings, who succeeded Alexander in Persia, used "Great King" in local documents, but the title was most notably used for Antiochus the Great (223–187 BC).

Later rulers and commanders began to use the epithet "the Great" as a personal name, like the Roman general Pompey. Others received the surname retrospectively, like the Carthaginian Hanno and the Indian emperor Ashoka the Great. Once the surname gained currency, it was also used as an honorific surname for people without political careers, like the philosopher Albert the Great.

As there are no objective criteria for "greatness", the persistence of later generations in using the designation greatly varies. For example, Louis XIV of France was often referred to as "The Great" in his lifetime but is rarely called such nowadays, while Frederick II of Prussia is still called "The Great". A later Hohenzollern - Wilhelm I - was often called "The Great" in the time of his grandson Wilhelm II, but rarely later.

Rulers

Religious figures

Other

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Notes

Category:Monarchs Great, List of people known as The Category:Greatest Nationals Category:Epithets

Asghar began publishing columns about East-West relations and American foreign policy shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist strikes on American soil, offering a perspective shaped by his travels and his roots in Pakistan, a long-obscure country that emerged as a major front in the American war on terror.

Many of his essays are personal in nature, reflecting on the manner in which his Pakistani heritage and American culture converge and diverge. Asghar attended an American-operated school in Islamabad, Pakistan when the school and American embassy were attacked on November 21, 1979 during a brief flare-up of anti-Americanism. He would later write about the episode in a ''Chicago Tribune'' commentary that discussed the delicate balance of tact and force necessary to protect American interests. A vocal critic of American neoconservative foreign policy, he has staked out moderate-to-conservative positions on several other issues such as political correctness.

Asghar spent many years as a speechwriter and consultant for executives in business and academia, and also edited books on management and theology. Warren Bennis, author and leadership expert who once employed Asghar as an editor, has called Asghar "one of the exciting new voices within the American punditocracy." Asghar is a fellow at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy and a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy and the World Affairs Council of Los Angeles.

References

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