On Muhammad

(*Can't believe I forgot to post this week. Aaargh.)

I have gone back and forth on a certain debate with friends. I have an understanding, as do they. The issue is not to be right or correct, just to more clearly understand each others and our own belief systems. It really is a win-win scenario, although it does get rather heated. The contention lies in the creation myth, and more specifically, how it relates to spiritual matters.

I am of the opinion that, if there is a creator God, a sentient being at the center of all creation, then he/she/it does not create "new" matter. It merely pulls material from itself and reforms that material into a manifestation that pleases it (I use the word it as it is non-gender biased). My friends seem to lean the other way, that God has the ultimate power to bring new material into existance, at will.

Unfortunately, Muhammad supports neither argument.

"Do not despise the world, for the world too is God."

"Wherever you turn is God's face."

Damn you, prophet. You were supposed to take my side! Hah! Regardless of the argument over minutiae, the principle is the important matter. Whether or not God creates anew, or reforms matter from himself, the outcome is the same: that which exists is of the world, and that world is of God. Every man, woman, and child; every tree, stone, and droplet of water; every mountain, ocean, and breath of wind; all is glorified and holy in the eyes of the creator for, "He is the first and the last, the manifest and the hidden, and has knowledge of all things."

Oh well, I suppose I will have to find a different prophet to quote when among my peers...