amishrockstar
Puritan Board Freshman
I started a thread a little while ago on "the one and the many."
There were many great answers on there, but I thought I'd
start another one which is somewhat similar.
Since many seem to agree that the Christian teaching of
the Trinity is the answer to the philosophical problem
of the "one & the many," and since it seems that just
about every culture attempts to reconcile the issues
of the particulars and the universals, I've been thinking
about how Muslims have attempted to solve those issues.
Since Muslims have a strict Monotheism that allows no
"partners" with Allah --which is their "universal" or their
"one" --I've been wondering how they attempt to solve
the "many" problem --how is that we can have particulars
when Allah himself is only one. It seems to me that the
counterpart to Allah --the "one" --is the Ummah (the
Muslim community).
Anyone who has done any study in the area of Islamic
apologetics knows that for a Muslim to embrace
Christianity it means so much more than simply changing
one's religion, for them, it means that they turn their backs
on their community --this is viewed (from what
I can gather) in almost a similar light as turning
one's back on Allah --it's a horrible sin; it's pretty much
unpardonable and results in death (theoretically).
It seems to me that the "one" in Islamic thought is
Allah; while the "many" is the Ummah, and the two
cannot be separated --otherwise their world would
make no sense.
Any thoughts on this?
Thanks.
There were many great answers on there, but I thought I'd
start another one which is somewhat similar.
Since many seem to agree that the Christian teaching of
the Trinity is the answer to the philosophical problem
of the "one & the many," and since it seems that just
about every culture attempts to reconcile the issues
of the particulars and the universals, I've been thinking
about how Muslims have attempted to solve those issues.
Since Muslims have a strict Monotheism that allows no
"partners" with Allah --which is their "universal" or their
"one" --I've been wondering how they attempt to solve
the "many" problem --how is that we can have particulars
when Allah himself is only one. It seems to me that the
counterpart to Allah --the "one" --is the Ummah (the
Muslim community).
Anyone who has done any study in the area of Islamic
apologetics knows that for a Muslim to embrace
Christianity it means so much more than simply changing
one's religion, for them, it means that they turn their backs
on their community --this is viewed (from what
I can gather) in almost a similar light as turning
one's back on Allah --it's a horrible sin; it's pretty much
unpardonable and results in death (theoretically).
It seems to me that the "one" in Islamic thought is
Allah; while the "many" is the Ummah, and the two
cannot be separated --otherwise their world would
make no sense.
Any thoughts on this?
Thanks.