According To Bilhartz: The Existence Of God

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The second part of the readings discussed Islamic belief of God, the problem of good and evil, the sacred stories, and the divine law. What caught my attention was the section about God and the creation account. According to Bilhartz, "like Judaism and Christianity, Islam accepts the creation accounts found in the Hebrew Bible" (p. 120). This is evident in Surah 57 when it said, "He it is Who created the heavens and the earth in six Days and is moreover firmly established on the Throne (of authority)" (Bilhartz, p. 120).Furthermore, Allah is described as more than just being a god of creation but as "a god of judgment, compassion, mercy, and generosity" (Bilhartz, p. 121). These divine attributes are not that different from the characteristics …show more content…

According to the Islamic scriptures, all of Allah's creation, including the material world and humanity, was perfect because Allah is perfect. Evil came into the world in the form of Iblis or Satan, who was able to persuade mankind to deviate from Allah (Bilhartz, p. 122). According to the Qur'an, Adam was created to be the earthly representative of Allah and was regarded by Allah to be higher than the angels. However, Satan refused to regard Adam to be higher than the angelic beings. This is evident in Surah 7 when it said, "It is We Who created you and gave you shape; then We bade the angels bow down to Adam, and they bowed down; not so Iblis; He refused to be of those who bow down" (Bilhartz, p. 122). I found this interesting because it described why Satan deviated from Allah in the first place. Furthermore, although the Islamic scriptures portray man as being highly esteemed above the angels, the Qur'an described human nature as " very impatient, fretful when evil touches him; and niggardly when good reaches him" (Bilhartz, p.123). However, this is only so for those who are not devoted to Allah. These scriptures gave me some insight on how Muslims perceive Allah and human nature and how it is not that much different from Christianity and

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