Page 31 - Demo
P. 31
27so forth; for love is the action of the lover and not the lover himself, just as knowledge or word is the action of the knowing person and not himself.I particularly insist on this point because of the error into which have fallen those who maintain the eternity and distinct personality of certain attributes of God. The Verb or the Word of God has been held to be a distinct person of the Deity; whereas the word of God can have no other signification than an expression of His Knowledge and Will. The Qur-án, too, is called “the word of God,” and some early Muslim doctors of law asserted that it was eternal and uncreated. The same appellation is also given to Jesus (pbuh) Christin the Qurán - Kalimatun minho, i.e. [1] “the Word from Him (3:45)”. However, it would be very unreligious to assert that the Word or Logos of God is a distinct person, and that it assumed flesh and became incarnate in the shape of a man of Nazareth or in the form of a book, the former called “the Christ” and the latter “the Quran”!To sum up this subject, I insistently declare that the Word or any other imaginable attribute of God, not only is it not a distinct divine entity or individuality, but also it could have no actual (in actu) existence prior to the beginning of time and creation.The first verse with which St. Johns Gospel commenced was often refuted by the early Unitarian writers, who rendered its true reading as follows: “In the beginning wasthe Word; and the Word was with God; and the Word was God’s.”[1] Quran, 4:171. “O People of the Book! Commit no excesses in your religion: Nor say of Allah aught but the truth. Christ Jesus the son of Mary was (no more than) an apostle of Allah, and His Word, which He bestowed on Mary, and a spirit proceeding from Him: so believe in Allah and His apostles. Say not «Trinity»! Desist, it will be better for you, for Allah is one God Glory be to Him (far exalted is He) above having a son. To Him belong all things in the heavens and on earth; and enough is Allah as a Disposer of affairs.” (Editors)
