Who Owns Allah, the God? The Malaysian Muslim Fitna

That is precisely what a handful of Malay Muslims want do to - they call their God, Allah, and they don't want Christians and Sikhs to call him by the same name, as if there are different Gods. Should Christians ban Muslims from using the word Allah because Jesus, and in turn Christians used it before Muslims did?

Should Christians, Sikhs and others rejoice this oppressive decision? The answer is an emphatic no. The responsibility for peace and harmony in a given society falls squarely on the majority. In this instance, as a part of the larger Ummah, we, the Muslims around the world have a responsibility to protect the rights of minorities in Malaysia or elsewhere. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said, when you see oppression, the least you can do is to speak up. Thank God, we are following his guidance.

The Word Allah did not spring up with Islam, nor have Muslims created it. The word Allah has been around, just like the Creator God has been around forever. Quran, 112: 2-3, "God the Eternal, the Uncaused Cause of All Being, He begets not, and neither is He begotten."

Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) made it clear that he did not bring a new religion to the world; Islam was continuation and completion of religions that came before.

If you like the idea, please click like at the link, and please feel free to share on facebook, twitter, tumbler, friends or your groups. Thank you.

Continued at Huffington Post - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/who-owns-allah-the-god-th_b_4143551.html 

The article has been published in many newspapers around the world including quotes from the above.

• http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/opinion/khoo-ying-hooi/article/malaysias-religion-unsolved-bunch-of-jigsaw-puzzle-pieces
•  http://www.irfi.org/articles2/articles_3601_3650/the%20word%20allah,%20who%20owns%20ithtml.htm 
• http://www.mecn.org/2013/10/who-owns-allah-the-god-the-malaysian-muslim-fitna-huffington-post/
• http://ridwanlaher.blogspot.com/2007/12/allah-only-for-muslims-in-malaysia.html

 Mike Ghouse is a Muslim speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, Islam and interfaith issues. He is committed to nurturing pluralistic values embedded in Islam and building cohesive Societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day, all his writings are at www.TheGhouseDiary.com

Allahu Akbar Abused

 Published at Huffington post- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/allahu-akbar-abused_b_860221.html

The phrase Allahu Akbar is used, abused and misused by Muslims, unfortunately it has come to symbolize death and destruction to Non-Muslims.

We the Muslims unequivocally condemn abuse of the phrase Allahu Akbar and call on the Imams and the scholars to coach appropriate use of the phrase.    

It is the responsibility of Muslims to reign in on such abuse; the Yemeni passenger abused it while pounding on the cockpit door. It has happened many times including Major Nidal Malik in Killeen, Texas.

Damn you if you are a criminal, do it in your own name and not use God’s name for your criminal acts. It puts me the good user and you the abuser on par, and it is not acceptable.

Allahu Akbar is meant to bring humility by acknowledging that God is great and we are not. However, the Phrase has become boundless and used in just about any situation rendering meaningless.   The Muslim fans of Greenbay Packers most likely screamed Allahu Akbar with joy when their team won, if your kid kicks in the goal on soccer field the response would be Allahu Akbar. When some one steps up and does some good it goes with the phrase Allahu Akbar. It has been a beautiful expression of appreciation and praising the lord for our achievements.

It is time for the Imams to start preaching to use the phrase appropriately.  During tense times, what if your Jewish Neighbors daughter kicks the goal and a Muslim friend shouts in joy, Allahu Akbar, it will frighten the crap out of every one, and it is almost like shouting Fire, Fire.

What if a few Muslims choose to pray in the lobby of an airport or an office and say Allahu Akbar, the praise is uttered at least twelve times and a maximum 50 times in one single sitting.  What if the Imam is quietly praying while sitting in the plane and the next passenger hears the whispering Allahu Akbar while the man leans forward as a part of the prayer called ruku?   

 It is our duty to keep law and order and faithfully guard the safety of every citizen. Language is one of many sources of disrupting the peace in a society and it is our duty to track down the source of such phrases and work on mitigating it. We have an obligation to maintain a balance in the society.

I call on Muslims to limit the use of the phrase Allahu Akbar for Prayers alone and avoid using in public to prevent disruptions. It will take a few years to undo it, but it would be the right thing to do. This is a clarion call for us to guard the name of God from being abused.  Let’s do it voluntarily on our own. *** ( I am pleased to add three comments from my friends that I value).

Mike Ghouse is committed to build cohesive societies and believes the role of a Muslim is to mitigate conflicts and nurture goodwill.  He is available to speak at your place and his work is indexed at www.Mikeghouse.net

Special Note:

**** Jai Vishnuvarman N Rachana  …. Mike what happened to your stand on freedom of speech? You now want to limit the religious expression of people? Even though your aim is righteous to prevent abuse of religious terms, I think the only way to achieve that is by educating people and making them God-conscious, so they are in awe of God and naturally, do not take God's name in vain. But to try and suggest banning or limiting its usage, is really ridiculous. Why not start a blog about limiting the use of expletives all around us that are disgusting and harmful to people's minds? Perhaps that might better serve peace.

Adena Levine  My friend... How sad it is if people wouldn't be able to say "OH MY GOD"! anymore...Please dont stop saying "Allahu Akbar" for the fear of scaring people...

Sheila Hansen The swastika was commonly used as a religious reference by the Hindus and Buddhists, but they don't use it so much anymore because of the negative connotations Adolf Hitler brought to it. I think the Akbar phrase has taken the same path an...d should no longer be used as a celebratory term, another phrase should be used. No one looking at the swastika, other than Nazis, Hindus and Buddhists, look at it with endearment today. It's not the fault of the average person, it's the fault of Adolf Hitler and Co. Likewise, the average person cannot look at this phrase today because of another evil man and his followers, Osama bin Laden. Unfortunate.

Khalid Khan Mike, why did you write "Allah Akbar" as the main heading when you know very well the real phrase is "Allah hu akbar"?

Who Owns God?

WHO OWNS GOD?

To the People of Malaysia

Mike Ghouse

The Malaysian Government may consider setting up a commission to figure out who owns Allah. From what I know, no one owns the word "Allah" nor does any one own "Allah". I can have one of the seven billionth (# of people) piece of God without asking permission from any one. And each part would be fulsome seven billion. You are welcome to steal my piece, I still would have it; owning one piece is like owning whole of the God.

Same formula applies to the other names of God be it Yahweh, Krishna, Allah, Ahura Mazda, Wahe Guru, God or any other name one can imagine to call on the creator. God probably would be embarrassed if he figures out that we believe him to have limited linguistic comprehension, and that he only understands Hebrew, Sanskrit, Pali, Avesta, Aramaic, Latin or Arabic. Quite! Let him know not.

Perhaps, one single event led to the other and the whole cosmos came into being. Whether it is evolution, creation or big bang, the fact of the matter is we exist. Thus the concept of oneness of creation, oneness of the humanity and oneness of the people translates into Oneness of God, One all loving God. Our Atheist friends don't have to call that thing God, just call it the causer of evolution, creation or the big bang; or don't call any thing, he has no problems with it and I know I don't.

I hope you find the answer in various ways of praising your version of the lord; your lord, my version and every one's lord; the same causer and sustainer of the creation. Whatever way works for you is good, why should it matter how you worship? Your devotion to the creator is your own, it won't interfere with my life and it should not worry us a bit.

God has not signed a secret deal with you to tell me that your way is the right way, you quote the Qur'aan, I will quote the Vedas, Bible, Torah, Avesta and other books or my native friend may quote his/her traditions. None of us is wrong, each one has his or her own version and all versions produce the same result; acknowledging something higher, immortal than us and that we have be humble, and humility eats up arrogance and brings conflictlessness among the people. That is what the kingdom of heaven is all about or may be more per you, and that is fine with me.

The phrases like No God, One God, Many Gods, One family or Vasudeva Kutumbukum is all about peaceful co-existence of diverse people as one family. If we can learn to accept and respect the God given uniqueness of each one of the 7 billion of us, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge.

Since I am a human like you and happen to believe in one of the 250 versions of God, let me share my version of that creator with you and I invite you to share your version right here in the comments section. Remember we create God in our own image, so there are at least 7 billion versions of the same God, and he (she or it) loves every which way we bow to him, acknowledge it and respect her.

My version is Islamic, still the same God.

The symbols in this article are the name of God, "Allah" in Arabic, as a Muslim I won't lock the unlockable God in words or in picture; it is not a being and is certainly not containable. No one's version is complete to the other, but given our limitations we create him in our own image, a deeper image en-carved in our imagination that is inexplicable and invisible like the pain in the neck.

The Qur'aan starts with this verse:
Translation by Mohammad Asad

1:2 All praise is due to God alone, the Sustainer of all the worlds,
Alhamdu lillahi rabbi alAAalameena

الْحَمْدُ للّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ (1:2)

In this instance, the term "worlds" denotes all categories of existence both in the physical and the spiritual sense. The Arabic expression rabb - rendered by me as ',`Sustainer" - embraces a wide complex of meanings not easily expressed by a single term in another language. It comprises the ideas of having a just claim to the possession of anything and, consequently, authority over it, as well as of rearing, sustaining and fostering anything from its inception to its final completion. Thus, the head of a family is called rabb ad-dar ("master of the house") because he has authority over it and is responsible for its maintenance; similarly, his wife is called rabbat ad-dar ("mistress of the house"). Preceded by the definite article al, the designation rabb is applied, in the Qur'an, exclusively to God as the sole fosterer and sustainer of all creation - objective as well as conceptual - and therefore the ultimate source of all authority.(By Mohammad Asad, Quran Ref: 1:2 )

Here is how the last chapter begins :

114:1 SAY: "I seek refuge with the Sustainer of men,

:[Allah:seek refuge with Him] [Allah's attributes:Cherisher and Sustainer] [Mankind]
Qul aAAoothu birabbi alnnasi

قُلْ أَعُوذُ بِرَبِّ النَّاسِ (114:1)

The most important aspect of quoting both the first and last chapters of Qur'aan has a purpose in it. Both verses do not address Muslims exclusively, in turn they address the whole cosmos and the human beings.

Allah is addressing all of us in the book; he made sure that he did not address one people to exclude the other. He may have been motivated by the fear that some other God may take away the unclaimed people, so he was smart enough to include every one from the beginning to the end. I am sure he used the same strategy in all his books, be it the Vedas, Bible, Torah or any book or just through the oral traditions that our brothers and sisters in native and earth based traditions follow.

God belongs to all, we don't need to own him (her or it), let him remain the creator and owner of our lives and let us call him whichever way we can.

The Neocons Muslims (Equal and opposite counterparts of Neocons in all faiths) need to be happy that the Christians and Sikhs want to keep "Allah" as one of the names of God. Indeed, the Arab Christians also call the creator Allah. Perhaps it is the same word Ilahi Jesus used to use in Aramaic.

Allah is God's name in Arabic. Allah, the creator and sustainer has no problems if we call him Yahweh, Ahura Mazda, Buddha, God, Ishwar, Mahavir, Wahe Guru or Allah. Let's not limit the capabilities of God to a language and a religion. He is the creator and sustainer of all worlds.

As a Muslim I welcome every one to call God with his name in Arabic – "Allah" with equal devotion and honor. Quietly and peacefully this would be the response of over 99% of Muslims in the world. It is time for us to appeal the majority of Muslims in Malaysia to help those few lost brothers.

Mike Ghouse is a thinker, writer speaker and an activist of pluralism, interfaith, co-existence, peace, Islam and India. He is a frequent guest at the TV, radio and print media offering pluralistic solutions to issues of the day. His websites and Blogs are listed on http://www.mikeghouse.net/

Fort Hood – Allahu Akbar

Fort Hood – Allahu Akbar

Major Nidal Hasan uttered the phrase “Allahu Akbar” before opening the fire.
http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2009/11/fort-hood-allahu-akbar.html

Those who have the desire to find the truth will understand that this phrase is simply a cue for readiness to start a good thing and acknowledging the greatness of God, inversely it is an expression of humility. Although, in religious conflicts, Christian, Hindus, Muslims and others have made God’s name a battle cry, it should not be used to shoot some one or slit someone's throat. It is uttered when some one sees something great happening like the man landing on the moon, or seeing pictures of the planet earth or when some one is doing well. Allahu Akbar is meant to be used to show one’s humility by admiring the creator, apparently Nidal Hasan, the psycho did not know the difference.
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