Refuting the nonsense and desperate polemics of Dawagandists
Who seek to deny that Allah prays for his partner Muhammad
Muslim-turned apostate-turned Muslim-turned apostate again-turned Muslim again (1, 2, 3, 4) Ibn Anwar has taken a stab at trying to refute the fact that his god prays and worships much like his creatures do.
What makes this “rebuttal” rather amusing is that although he links to one of my replies which deals with this specific issue:
He doesn’t bother to link to my other articles which basically address all of his claims and assertions:
- Islam and the prayers of Allah: An examination of the worship and praise which Allah performs
- The "Mystery" of PBUH Revealed: Part 2
- If Jesus is God … was he praying to himself?
Ironically, this neophyte admits, and quotes references that also acknowledge, that the Arabic word salah does mean prayer and worship! Yet he tries to undermine the impact of these statements by claiming that the word can also mean bless:
“…Ordinarily the word Salah or صلا from which we get the word salah (صلاة) DOES MEAN PRAYER OR WORSHIP, however in the verse in question when the word is ascribed to God and angels it connotes the meaning of blessing and/or forgiveness. When the word is used by God it does not mean prayer or worship [sic], but rather blessing [sic]. This phenomenon is known as polysemy in language, that is, a word may carry multiple dimensions or meanings in different situations…” (Capital emphasis ours)
“The word Sala or Salah in Arabic has a number of meanings to it which includes prayer/supplication, worship, blessing or praise/magnification, but as we have already stated when it is used of God it means blessings [sic]. All of these will be proven in due course as we look at a number of major dictionaries and lexicons of the Arabic language.” (Bold and capital emphasis ours)
Had Ibn Anwar actually bothered reading my other articles he would have seen that Allah’s salah cannot mean his blessings, a fact which is even admitted by his own Muslim authorities:
“Allah makes the merit of His Prophet clear by first praying blessing on Himself, and then by the prayer of the angels, and then by commanding His slaves to pray blessing and peace on him as well. Abu Bakr ibn Furak related that one of the 'ulama interpreted the words of the Prophet, ‘The coolness of my eye is in the prayer,’ as meaning Allah's prayer, that of the angels and that of his community in response to Allah's command until the Day of Rising. The prayer of angels and men is supplication for him and that of Allah is mercy.
“It is said that ‘they pray’ means they invoke blessing (baraka). However, when the Prophet taught people the prayer on himself, he made a distinction between the word salat (prayer) and baraka (blessing). We will return to the meaning of the prayer on him later.” (Qadi 'Iyad Musa al-Yahsubi, Muhammad Messenger of Allah (Ash-Shifa of Qadi 'Iyad), translated by Aisha Abdarrahman Bewley [Madinah Press, Inverness, Scotland, U.K. 1991; third reprint, paperback], Part One. Allah’s great estimation of the worth of His Prophet expressed in both word and action, Chapter One: Allah’s Praise Of Him And His Great Esteem For Him, Section 8: Concerning Allah instructing His creation to say the prayer on the Prophet, His protecting him and removing the punishment because of him, p. 25; bold emphasis ours)
And:
“The Prophet made a distinction between salat (prayer) and baraka (blessing) in the hadith in which he taught about making the prayer on him. This indicates that they have two separate meanings.” (Ibid., Part Two. Concerning the rights which people owe the Prophet, Chapter Four: The Prayer On The Prophet And Asking Peace For Him, And The Obligation Of Doing It And Its Excellence, Section 1: The meaning of the prayer on the Prophet, p. 250; bold emphasis ours)
Again:
“Salama al-Kindi said: ‘Ali used to teach us the prayer on the Prophet as follows: ‘O Allah, the One who spread out the flat expanses and created the heavens! Bestow YOUR NOBLE PRAYERS, Your increasing blessing and the compassion of Your tenderness upon Muhammad…’”
"‘Ali also said about the prayer on the prophet in the ayat, ‘Allah and his angels pray on the Prophet’ (33:56) ‘At your service and obedience, my Lord. The PRAYERS OF Allah, the good and Merciful, the near angels, the true ones, the martyrs, the salihun, and anything that glorifies You, O Lord of the worlds, be upon Muhammad ibn 'Abdullah…’” (Ibid., Section 4: Concerning the manner of doing the prayer on the Prophet and asking for peace for him, p. 257; capital and underline emphasis ours)
This next one is particularly interesting:
“Ibn Mas'ud used to say, ‘When you bless the Prophet, then make the prayer on him excellent. You do not know; perhaps it will be shown to him. Say, “O Allah, bestow YOUR PRAYERS, Your MERCY and Your BLESSING on the Master of the Messengers, the Imam of the God-fearing, the Leader of the Good and the Messenger of Mercy.”’” (Ibid., p. 258; underline and capital emphasis ours)
Here we see the words prayers, mercy and blessing being used together in the same sentence, which therefore conclusively proves that they do not have the same meaning.
The hadiths which instruct Muslims to pray for their prophet actually distinguish between Allah’s prayer (salah) and his blessing (baraka):
The Command to say Salah upon the Prophet
Al-Bukhari said: "Abu Al-`Aliyah said: “Allah's Salah is His praising him before the angels, and the Salah of the angels is their supplication.” Ibn `Abbas said: “They send blessings.” Abu `Isa At-Tirmidhi said: “This was narrated from Sufyan Ath-Thawri and other scholars, who said: `The Salah of the Lord is mercy [sic], and the Salah of the angels is their seeking forgiveness.’” There are Mutawatir Hadiths narrated from the Messenger of Allah commanding us to send blessings on him and how we should say Salah upon him. We will mention as many of them as we can, if Allah wills, and Allah is the One Whose help we seek. In his Tafsir of this Ayah, Al-Bukhari recorded that Ka`b bin `Ujrah said, “It was said, `O Messenger of Allah, with regard to sending Salam upon you, we know about this, but how about Salah?’ He said…
<<Say: ‘O Allah, send YOUR SALAH upon Muhammad and upon the family of Muhammad, as You sent YOUR SALAH upon the family of Ibrahim, verily You are the Most Praiseworthy, Most Glorious. O Allah, send YOUR BLESSINGS upon Muhammad and upon the family of Muhammad, as You sent YOUR BLESSINGS upon the family of Ibrahim, verily You are Most Praiseworthy, Most Glorious.’>>” Imam Ahmad recorded that Ibn Abi Layla said that Ka`b bin `Ujrah met him and said, “Shall I not give you a gift? The Messenger of Allah came out to us and we said, `O Messenger of Allah! We know how to send Salam upon you, but how can we send Salah?’ He said…
<<Say: ‘O Allah, send YOUR SALAH upon Muhammad and upon the family of Muhammad, as You sent YOUR SALAH upon the family of Ibrahim, verily You are the Most Praiseworthy, Most Glorious. O Allah, send YOUR BLESSINGS upon Muhammad and upon the family of Muhammad, as You sent YOUR BLESSINGS upon the family of Ibrahim, verily You are Most Praiseworthy, Most Glorious.’'>>” This Hadith has been recorded by the Group in their books with different chains of narration. (Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Q. 33:56; capital and underline emphasis ours)
And:
Another Hadith
Al-Bukhari recorded that Abu Sa`id Al-Khudri said: “We said, `O Messenger of Allah, this is the Salam upon you, but how do we send Salah upon you?’ He said…
<<Say: ‘O Allah, send YOUR SALAH upon Muhammad, Your servant and Messenger, as You sent YOUR SALAH upon the family of Ibrahim, and send YOUR BLESSINGS upon Muhammad and upon the family of Muhammad, as You sent YOUR BLESSINGS upon the family of Ibrahim.’>>” Abu Salih narrated that Layth said…
<<Upon Muhammad and upon the family of Muhammad as You sent YOUR BLESSINGS upon the family of Ibrahim.>> Ibrahim bin Hamzah told that, Ibn Abi Hazim and Ad-Darawardi told, that Yazid, i.e., Ibn Al-Had said…
<<As You sent YOUR SALAH upon Ibrahim, and send YOUR BLESSINGS upon Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, as You sent Your blessings upon Ibrahim and the family of Ibrahim.>> This was also recorded by An-Nasa'i and Ibn Majah. (Ibid; capital and underline emphasis ours)
This conclusively proves that Allah’s salah DOES NOT MEAN his blessings. It clearly means that Allah actually prays and worships much like his creatures do.
Now let us see what happens when we apply the other definition of salah employed by Ibn Anwar to the passage in question:
Verily, Allah AND his angels FORGIVE the prophet. O you who believe! Forgive him and salute him with a salutation!
Thus, according to the definition given by Ibn Anwar, angels forgive Muhammad in the same way that Allah does, and believers are also expected to forgive him as well!
Ibn Anwar then cites the comments of the Quranic translator Palmer, thinking that they actually help his case!
Let us highlight that part of the quote which the neophyte failed to see or was unable to comprehend:
“The same word is used as is rendered ‘pray’ IN ALL THE OTHER PASSAGES IN THE QUR’AN, THOUGH THE COMMENTATORS INTERPRET it here as meaning ‘bless.’ So, too, in the formula which is always used after Mohammed’s name, zalla ’llâhu ‘alâihi wa sallam, ‘may God bless and preserve him!’ IS LITERALLY, ‘may God PRAY FOR HIM and salute him!’”
Ibn Anwar obviously didn’t grasp the implications of Palmer’s statements. Since the same word is always rendered as pray whenever it appears in the Quran, it is simply special pleading to then argue that it doesn’t have this meaning when it is used in reference to Allah. This is especially the case when we realize that the verb is used to describe the action of both Allah and his angels:
He it is who prays for you AND HIS ANGELS TOO (Huwa allathee yusallee alaykum WA-mala’ikatuhu), to bring you forth out of the darkness into the light, for He is merciful to the believers. S. 33:43
Verily, God AND HIS ANGELS pray (Inna Allaha WA-mala’ikatahu yusalloona) for the prophet. O ye who believe! pray for him and salute him with a salutation! S. 33:56
Note that the verb is not repeated in these two verses. It does not say “God prays and the angels pray”. In that hypothetical case one could perhaps, with some effort, argue that in the first instance the verb has a different connotation or meaning than in the second instance. Since, however, the verb is used only once in relation to the action performed by both of the subjects in question, namely Allah and his angels, it cannot but have the very same meaning for both of them. To say otherwise is to simply beg the question and to read into the Quran one’s own views and presuppositions.
The other problem with Ibn Anwar’s “response” is that the lexical sources he references which define salah as blessing are basing this off of what Muslims claim the expression means.
To repeat what I had written elsewhere: How are dictionaries and lexicons made? Lexicographers simply record the use of words. If sufficiently many people use a word incorrectly over a sufficiently long time, i.e. use it in a new meaning that it did not have before, it will become an established use and this new meaning will enter the dictionaries. The normal established meaning of salla, found in thousands of places, is to pray. That is the first and main meaning and is undisputed. For a considerable time now Muslims have claimed that there is one exception to the normal meaning of the word, i.e. if God is the subject, then this word means something else. Why? Because otherwise it would cause theological problems. If one claims the existence of another meaning long enough, and one simply uses and understands it differently long enough then this new understanding becomes established and the dictionaries will record it. However, this does not prove in any way that this is what it originally meant. That a word has a meaning today, doesn't imply that it had this meaning originally. It could well be a semantic anachronism, one of many etymological fallacies. Nevertheless, this dynamic explains what we observe in the dictionary entries on sallâ and salah.
Lexicons such as Hans Wehr do give “blessings” as one of the meanings of the noun, although they fail to provide any examples of such a usage. Similarly, Lane’s dictionary says whenever a human salla ala another human, it means to pray for him, but when God is the subject, it means to bless or magnify, although he gives no justification for this interpretation beyond the fact that this is what Muslims understand it to mean.
The fact is that blessing is not the literal meaning of salah, but more of a paraphrase (if not a blatant distortion) based on the assertions made by some later Muslims since they obviously had a difficulty with Allah praying for anyone.
Yet even this definition doesn’t help matters any. For instance, let us assume that salah/salla does mean blessing. We still end up with Allah praying and worshiping! Here, again, is Q. 33:56 to help illustrate this point:
God and His angels send blessings on the Prophet: O ye that believe! Send ye blessings on him, and salute him with all respect. Y. Ali
Muslims such as Ibn Anwar will have no problem admitting that the way angels and believers send their blessings on Muhammad is by praying to Allah and invoking him for blessings on their “prophet”.
In other words, it is obvious from the Quran that the way in which angels and Muslims bless Muhammad is by praying to or invoking Allah to send his peace and blessings upon his “messenger”.
In fact, even some of the very sources which Ibn Anwar appeals to affirm that salah refers to invocations and supplications for blessing.
For instance, he quotes from Lisan al-Arab which defines Salah as:
“Al-Salah IS SUPPLICATION and seeking forgiveness…and the Salah of Allah upon his messenger is His blessing/mercy for him AND MAGNIFICATION/PRAISES UPON HIM. In the narration of Ibn Abi Awfa verily he said: “My father gave charity from his own wealth. Thereafter I went to the messenger of Allah with it whereby the Prophet said, “Oh Allah send Salah on the family of Abi Awfa.” Azhari said that this Salah in his sight means al-Rahmah (the blessing/mercy). And Allah says, “Verily, Allah and His angels send Salah (blessings) upon the Prophet. O you who believe, DO PRAY ALLAH TO BLESS HIM, and send your Salam to him in abundance.” Thus the Salah of the angels ARE SUPPLICATION (DU’A) and seeking forgiveness (for the messenger) and from Allah it is His blessing (rahmah). And it is called Salah WITHIN WHICH IS SUPPLICATION and seeking for forgiveness. And in the narration on the greetings and salawat (plural of salah), Abu Bakr said, “Al-salawat means conferring blessing” and Allah said, “Verily, Allah and His angels send Salah (blessings) upon the Prophet” which means they bless him.” (Bold and capital emphasis ours)
And here is another one of his citations:
El-Said Badawi of the American University in Cairo and Martin Hinds of Cambridge University in their A Dictionary of Egyptian Arabic: Arabic-English defines it as follows:
“salla ‘ala 1 [Isl] TO INVOKE a blessing on. salli ‘an-nabi [Isl] (bless the Prophet!) (1) expclamation [sic] of wonder or delight, as in aadi l-’aruusa salli ‘an-nabi aaxir gamaal there’s the bride! my! isn’t she beautiful.” [10] (Bold and capital emphasis ours)
His other reference goes so far as to admit that salah in Q. 33:56 must have the same exact meaning when it is used for both Allah and his angels:
Last, but most definitely not least is Edward William Lane’s definition in his excellent magnum opus Lane’s Arabic-English Lexicon:
[And, said of a man, He blessed him, MEANING HE INVOKED GOD’S blessing upon him; namely the Prophet; or he said, اللهم صل عليه ( expl. by what here follows ) accord. To the rendering of صلوا عليه , i.e. على النبى , by Bd and others in the Kur xxxiii. 56.] One says, صليت على النبى [ I blessed the Prophet ; &c.]. (S.) __ And, said of God, He blessed him, meaning He conferred blessing upon him: and He had mercy on him: and He magnified him, or conferred honour upon him: hence the saying اللهم صل على ال أبى أوفى , meaning O God, bless the family of Aboo-Owfa : or have mercy on &c. : but in the saying [ in the Kur xxxiii.56 ], إن الله وملائكته يصلون على النبى , THE VERB DOES NOT IMPORT TWO MEANINGS; FOR IT HAS THERE ONLY ONE MEANING, which is “magnification” [ i.e. these words mean Verily God and his angels MAGNIFY the Prophet ; or rather I would render them, bless the Prophet, AS THIS RENDERING IMPLIES MAGNIFICATION and also a meaning of the quasi-inf. n. given in the M and K, which is “eulogy,” or “commendation,” bestowed by God upon his apostle, while it imports God’s “conferring of blessing” and the angels’ “INVOKING thereof”] : (Msb,TA:) [ it is said that] اللهم صل على محمد means O God, magnify Mohammad in the present world by exalting his renown and manifesting his invitation [ to El-Islam] and rendering permanent his law, and in the world to come byaccepting [sic] his intercessionfor [sic] his people and multiplying his reward: and it is disputed whether or not this form of prayer may be used for any but the Prophet [ Mohammad ]: El-Khattabee says that it may not, though he himself used it for others. (TA.) [ صل الله عليه وسلم is a phrase commonly used by the Muslims after the mention of their prophet. [12] (emphasis added) (Capital emphasis ours)
But this is where the problem lies for this greenhorn. Since the same word is used in the very same context to describe what Allah, his angels and believers do, this means that it must carry the same meaning.
In light of this, this is how we would have to translate Q. 33:56 according to Ibn Anwar’s own references:
Allah and His angels invoke blessings on the Prophet: O ye that believe! Invoke blessings on him, and salute him with all respect.
Or:
Allah and His angels make invocations for blessings on the Prophet: O ye that believe! Make invocations of blessings on him, and salute him with all respect.
Therefore, since we know that the angels and Muslims invoke Allah when they pray for Muhammad’s peace and safety according to the Quran, this now opens up the question of whom does Allah invoke when he prays for Muhammad? He either makes invocation to himself or to someone else. This is something which dawagandists such as Ibn Anwar have yet to satisfactorily address.
But it gets even worse for this neophyte. Some of these sources state that salah in Q. 33:56 means that Allah and his angels magnify or praise Muhammad!
That magnification or glorification as an act of worship is part of the definition of salah is admitted by the following Muslim reference work:
Ibn Al-Atheer in his highly acknowledged dictionary of the Arabic language, 'Al-Nihaayah fi Ghareeb al-Athar' has explained "Sala'h" as follows…
'Al-Sala'h' and 'Al-Salawaat': used for a particular kind of worship. Its literal origin is supplication (prayer). Sometimes, 'Sala'h' is referred to by mentioning any one or more of its parts. It is also said that the literal origin of the word is 'to glorify' and the particular worship is called 'Sala'h', because it entails the glorification of the Lord.
I hope this would help.
May 19, 2001 (Understanding Islam, The Meaning of the Word “Sal’ah”; bold emphasis ours)
In light of the foregoing, this basically implies that Allah and his angels are busy praising and glorifying an imperfect, fallible human being!
Yet the problem with this view is that it is a violation of tauhid al-uluhiyyah/ibaadah, which is the doctrine that states that only Allah is to be worshiped, praised, magnified, glorified etc.
The Quran clearly affirms that believers are to magnify and glorify Allah:
And say: "All the praises and thanks be to Allah, Who has not begotten a son (nor an offspring), and Who has no partner in (His) Dominion, nor He is low to have a Wali (helper, protector or supporter). And magnify Him with all the magnificence, [Allahu-Akbar (Allah is the Most Great)]." S. 17:111 Hilali-Khan
Therefore (O Muhammad), bear with what they say, and celebrate the praise of thy Lord ere the rising of the sun and ere the going down thereof. And glorify Him some hours of the night and at the two ends of the day, that thou mayst find acceptance. S. 20:130 Pickthall
Then glorify with praises the Name of your Lord, the Most Great. S. 56:74 Hilali-Khan
O you (Muhammad) enveloped (in garments)! Arise and warn! And your Lord (Allah) magnify! S. 74:1-3 Hilali-Khan
And during night, prostrate yourself to Him (i.e. the offering of Maghrib and 'Isha' prayers), and glorify Him a long night through (i.e. Tahajjud prayer). S. 76:26
And yet, according to the explanation of Q. 33:56 proposed by some of Ibn Anwar’s references, Allah and the entire heavenly host have come together to praise/glorify/magnify Muhammad!
Hence, not only does Allah pray and make invocations, he is also busy worshiping his prophet!
As one last act of desperation, Ibn Anwar cites Q. 22:40 to prove that the word salawat doesn’t always refer to prayers:
Permission is given to those who fight because they have been wronged,–and, verily, God to help them has the might,–who have been driven forth from their homes undeservedly, only for that they said, ‘Our Lord is God;’ and were it not for God’s repelling some men with others, cloisters and churches and synagogues (wa-salawatun) and mosques (wa-masjidu), WHEREIN GOD’S NAME IS MENTIONED MUCH, would be destroyed. But God will surely help him who helps Him; verily, God is powerful, mighty.
It is patently obvious that Ibn Anwar doesn’t understand the issues at hand and is dealing with subjects that are beyond his level of knowledge and understanding. Does he not see that the reason why synagogues are called salawatun is because they are meant to be places of worship where people come to pray and worship God, i.e. places where God’s name is mentioned much? In fact, isn’t this the very reason why mosques in Arabic are called masajid (the plural form of masjid), which comes from the Arabic root sin-jim-dal (sjd) meaning prostration, the very term the Quran uses for the worship of Allah? Doesn’t this, therefore, explain why synagogues and mosques would be called houses of prayers and prostration?
Ibn Anwar concludes by quoting a hadith from Muhammad who claimed that there was a time when Allah existed alone:
The narration in al-Bukhari, Bayhaqi and others shows clearly that standard Islamic belief repels the idea of another in existence together with Allah:
روى البخارىُّ والبيهقىُّ وابنُ الجارود أن رسولَ الله صلى الله عليه وسلم قال:”كان الله ولم يَكُنْ شَىءٌ غَيْرُهُ
“It is narrated by Bukhari, al-Baihaqi and Al-Jarud that the Prophet said: When Allah existed nothing else existed other than Him”
This greenhorn really thinks that this somehow undermines the fact of Allah praying and worshiping like his creation does, when in reality it only confirms that Ibn Anwar is dealing with subject matters that are way over his head.
To begin with, the most that this narration proves is that before creation came into being Allah was praying to and worshiping himself. This is confirmed by the hadiths which say that 1,000 years before he even had created anything Allah was busying himself with reciting the Quran!
Narrated AbuHurayrah
Allah's Messenger said, "A thousand years before creating the heavens and the Earth, Allah RECITED Ta-Ha and Ya-Sin, and when the angels HEARD the recitation they said, 'Happy are the people to whom this comes down, happy are the minds which carry this, and happy are the tongues which utter this.” Darimi transmitted it (At-Tirmidhi, Hadith Number 2148 – Number 660 in the ALIM CD-ROM Version; bold and capital emphasis ours)
And:
“The prophet is reported to have said: There is no intercessor (Shafi‘) that enjoys such excellent esteem with Allah as the Qur’an, neither a prophet nor an angel nor anything else… He also said: The most excellent worship for my (religious) community (Umma) is recitation of the Qur'an. Further: Allah recited Surahs Ta Ha and Ya Seen a thousand years before He began the creation. And when the angels heard the recitation (Qur'an) they exclaimed: Blessed be a community to which this will be sent down, and blessed be the hearts which will preserve it, and blessed be the tongues which will pronounce it!...” (The Qur'an, translated by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, transliteration Roman script by M.A.H. Eliyasee, Arabic script by Osman Taha [Tahrike Tarsile Qur'an, 2007], p. 37; bold emphasis ours)
This indicates that Allah not only prays like Muslims do, since they also recite the Quran during their daily prayers, but that he was also worshiping himself before creation since one of the surahs of the Quran contains the following prayer:
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful. All the praises and thanks be to Allah, the Lord of the 'Alamin (mankind, jinns and all that exists). The Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful. The Only Owner (and the Only Ruling Judge) of the Day of Recompense (i.e. the Day of Resurrection) You (Alone) we worship, and You (Alone) we ask for help (for each and everything). Guide us to the Straight Way The Way of those on whom You have bestowed Your Grace, not (the way) of those who earned Your Anger (such as the Jews), nor of those who went astray (such as the Christians). S. 1:1-7 Hilali-Khan
Here is a prayer which Allah would have also recited where he is pretty much praising and worshiping himself, as well as invoking himself not to allow himself to be misguided but asking himself to guide himself on the straight path!
And here, also, are some verses from Surah Ya-Sin which Allah would have been reciting to himself:
Glory be to Him, Who has created all the pairs of that which the earth produces, as well as of their own (human) kind (male and female), and of that which they know not. S. 36:36 Hilali-Khan
Is not He, Who created the heavens and the earth Able to create the like of them? Yes, indeed! He is the All-Knowing Supreme Creator. Verily, His Command, when He intends a thing, is only that He says to it, "Be!" and it is! So Glorified is He and Exalted above all that they associate with Him, and in Whose Hands is the dominion of all things, and to Him you shall be returned. S. 36:81-83 Hilali-Khan
This specific tradition further indicates that Allah was even praising and magnifying Muhammad before his creation since the verse of Q. 33:56 is also a part of the Islamic revelation, a revelation which Muslims are told happens to be uncreated:
33. The Qur'an is the word of Allah. It came from Him as speech without it being possible to say how. He sent it down on His Messenger as revelation. The believers accept it, as absolute truth. They are certain that it is, in truth, the word of Allah. It is not created as is the speech of human beings, and anyone who hears it and claims that it is human speech has become an unbeliever. Allah warns him and censures him and threatens him with Fire when He says, Exalted is He: "I will burn him in the Fire." (al-Muddaththir 74:26) When Allah threatens with the Fire those who say "This is just human speech" (74:25) we know for certain that it is the speech of the Creator of mankind and that it is totally unlike the speech of mankind. (G. F. Haddad, Tahawi’s Statement of Islamic Doctrine (Al-`Aqida Al-Tahawiyya))
Hence, this means that Allah was also busy glorifying Muhammad along with himself even before creation existed!
The problems are not yet over for Ibn Anwar. If Allah existed alone and yet the Quran is supposedly eternal then this means that the Quran is also Allah in some sense; otherwise Muslims are faced with the contradiction of having two distinct entities that are not identical eternally existing with each other.
In fact, the hadith from Y. Ali where Muhammad is reported to have said that the Quran’s intercession is esteemed more highly by Allah than that of the prophets and angels presupposes that he actually believed that it was a living conscious agent much like humans and angels are. In that case, to say that the Quran is other than Allah means that there is another living conscious being that is also eternal!
We will break this down step by step so that the greenhorn can see the problems that he has created for himself.
Before creation came into being Allah existed alone.
The Quran is uncreated and therefore has always existed.
If Allah existed alone, and yet the Quran is uncreated, then the Quran must be Allah.
However, no Muslim would ever dare say that the Quran is identical to Allah.
This means that Allah did not exist alone since something other than him also existed alongside him even before creation came into being.
If this is the case then this means that Islam is not the monotheistic religion that Muslims make it out to be since it ends up affirming that there are two separate eternal conscious beings, thereby violating monotheism.
Or what this actually implies is that the god of Islam is multi-personal as opposed to being uni-personal.
If so then this refutes the assertion that is often made by dawagandists such as Ibn Anwar that Islam actually affirms unitarianism, or the belief that God is a singular consciousness or person, and not just a singular being.
This also implies that to say that Allah existed alone really doesn’t prove anything since Allah is a multi-personal being, which therefore means that he really wasn’t alone after all. Both Allah and the Quran exist as a single being that have always been in fellowship with each other.
In conclusion, the dawagandist has failed to refute the fact that his monad prays and worships just like his creatures do. In fact, this neophyte only made my case stronger by quoting sources which ended up inadvertently providing further evidence that his deity not only prays and worships himself, but also worships Muhammad along with his angels!
So much for the greenhorn’s “rebuttal.”