Chapter 9: Reflections on The Voice of Allah

The Quran's understanding of Allah is, in many ways, quite similar to the Christian and Jewish God. First of all, they only refer to on god, not multiple gods. One of the things that I find interesting is all of the commotion over all of these different religions when essentially, they are all kind of saying the same things. Allah is infinitely compassionate and merciful, similar to the Christian and Jewish god. Allah is the one who was never born.. very similar to the Christian god. There are, of course, differences in the three Gods, however none so distinct that it makes them seem as if they are worlds apart. What I am trying to say is that more similarities exist between us and other cultures in regards to religion than our differences.

The Quran seems to have a very kind view of society. A good society is one that treats others with kindness. Even in terms of slaves, the Quran suggests that if they ask to be freed that they should be freed if the owner sees some kind of good in them so that they, too, can experience God's wealth! That's a really nice and open minded thing to say, I thought, especially for the time period. The Quran's view on a good society seems to be one that is quite inclusive and also just very nice. 

Attitudes toward non-Muslims are extremely accepting and open minded! I am not sure why I am so surprised by that, maybe because there is just so much war that has to do with religion. But the Quran states that all believers are brethren. And if someone feels differently than Muslims, then it is okay and there is nothing to freak out about. It stated that God could have created us all the same but he didn't, because he is testing our tolerance. And I kind of love that idea and I wish that everyone sort of followed that rule of thumb. That's fantastic. Perhaps once we all become tolerant then we can move on to the next step, which is to be accepting of other ways of life. 

Of course, there are always problems that can arise from different perceptions of God and stuff. That is just always going to be a problem and there will always be misunderstandings. For example, some people might even think, No! We can't be tolerant of others because my way is the right way! Stuff like that is difficult to combat and we can only hope that people can be as tolerant as their religions suggest that they should be.