Tuesday, November 13, 2012

The Quran on Allah and His Expectations of Humankind

          Compare the Quran's teachings on the relationship between Allah and human beings with the views of Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians discussed in earlier chapters.

          Zoroastrian teachings in the Gathas recognize both Ahura Mazda as a supreme deity who is the creator of all good things and six lesser beings who represented the forces of evil. Ahura Mazda's teachings allowed human beings to enjoy the world in moderation. The Jews' Hebrew scriptures recognized Yahweh as the single supreme deity. The Christians' Old and New Testaments recognize the trinity as their single deity. The Muslim's Quran recognize Allah as the single supreme deity who created the world. Human beings who obeyed Allah would receive mercy and blessing, but those who rejected Allah would suffer eternal punishment.
          All four beliefs have the concept of an after life in which there is either blessing and rewards or eternal suffering. The Jews, Christians and the Muslims believe that their god is the one deciding who gets what. This is different in Zoroastrianism where the amount of good and bad in a person determine their fate and the gods are only rooting for good or evil. Also they share the general idea that there is one good god. Once again, Zoroastrianism is the outlier where there are also six lesser gods who are evil. The Christians can also be considered different because of their belief in the trinity which is made up of three beings, rather than only one god.

No comments:

Post a Comment