Qur'an 112 · Deuteronomy 6:4
Four lines.
Fifteen words.
Asked to describe God, the Qur'an answered in four short lines. Jews have said something very close every morning and evening for over two thousand years.
The Word · One God
Surah al-Ikhlas, line by line
Muslims say this surah every day. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) called it equal to a third of the Qur'an (Bukhari and Muslim).
Arabic has two words for one. Wāḥid can be followed by two. Aḥad, used here, is the one that cannot be counted at all.
Aṣ-Ṣamad appears only once in the whole Qur'an. Early scholars gave it two pictures: the One everyone turns to in need, and the One with no hollowness and no lack.
The great commentator al-Tabari read it as a line about time: whatever is born began, and whatever begets will pass. God does neither.
Hear, O Israel
Jews say the Shema morning and evening. Jews say eḥad; Muslims say aḥad. It is the same old Semitic word for one.
One God, as Christians say it
Asked which commandment comes first, Jesus (peace be upon him) quoted the Shema. Christians confess one God, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit: “not three Gods, but one God”, in the words of the Athanasian Creed. In 2007, Muslim scholars wrote to Christian leaders setting this verse beside al-Ikhlas, in a letter called A Common Word.
Same and different
What is shared
One God, Creator of all, not part of the world and not like anything in it. The same root word for one.
What is really different
Christians understand the one God as Trinity, and call Jesus the Son. Muslims read “He has not fathered, and was not born” as ruling that out, and Jews understand oneness in the same undivided way. We say this plainly, and let each faith speak for itself.
Three humilities
“If you understood him, it would not be God.”Augustine of Hippo, Christian, 5th century
“No imagination can conceive of Him.”al-Tahawi, Muslim, 10th century
“The negative attributes… are the true attributes.”Maimonides, Jewish, 12th century
Keep going
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Documentaries and short films on the word and its story.
