Ever Present God in the Torah, Bible and Qur'an

HOLISTIC SPIRITUALITY



Q- Ra’d, 13: 39 “With God is [the mother of the Book] the source of all revelation.”
Q- Baqara, 2: 115 “And God’s is the east and the west: and wherever you turn, there is God’s countenance. Behold, God is infinite, all-knowing.”
T- Psalms, 24: 1 “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.”

T- Psalms, 103: 22 “Bless the Lord, all created things, everywhere in His dominion.”

Q- Hujurat, 49: 13 “O human beings! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other (not that you may despise (each other). Verily the most honored of you in the sight of God is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And God has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things).”
T- Malachi, 2: 10 “Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our ancestors by being unfaithful to one another?”
Q- Imran, 3: 64 “Say: “O people of the Book! Come unto that tenet which WE AND YOU HOLD IN COMMON: that we shall worship none but God, and that we shall not ascribe divinity to aught beside Him, and that we shall not take human beings for our lords beside God.” And if they turn away, then say: “Bear witness that it is we who have surrendered ourselves unto Him.”
T- Micah, 6: 8 “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
Q- Baqara, 2; 43 “Be constant in prayer, and spend in charity, and bow down in prayer with all who thus bow down.”
T- Isaiah, 44: 24 “Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the birth: I am the Lord who made all things, BY MYSELF I stretched out the heaven, alone I fashioned the earth.”

T- Job, 10: 8 “Your (God’s) hands shaped me and fashioned me; and will You at once turn and destroy me?”

Q- Ikhlas, 112: 1-4 “ Say: “He is the One God: “God the Eternal, the Uncaused Cause of All Being. “He begets not, and neither is He begotten; “and there is nothing that could be compared with Him.”

NT- Acts, 17: 24 “The God who created the world and everything in it, and who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands.”

NT- Acts, 17: 25 “It is not because he lacks anything that He accepts service at our hands, for He is Himself the universal giver of life and breath - indeed of everything.”

Q- Baqara, 2: 156 “Verily, unto God do we belong and, verily, unto Him we shall return.”

NT- Acts, 17: 28 “For in Him we live and move, in Him we exist.”

T- 2 Maccabees, 7: 21-23 “...her woman’s thoughts fired by a manly spirit , she (the mother) said to them: ‘You appeared in my womb, I know not how; it was not I who gave you life and breath, not I who set in order the elements of your being. THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE, WHO DESIGNED the beginning of mankind and devised the origin of all, will in His Mercy give you back again breath and life, since now you put His laws above every thought of self.”

T- 2 Maccabees, 7: 28 “I implore you, my child, to look at the heavens and the earth; consider all that is in them, and realize that GOD DID NOT CREATE THEM FROM WHAT ALREADY EXISTED AND THAT A HUMAN BEING COMES INTO EXISTENCE IN THE SAME WAY.”

Q- Al-Buruj, 85: 13-16 “Behold, it is He who creates [man] in the first instance, and He [it is who] will bring him forth ANEW. And He alone is truly-forgiving, all-embracing in His love, in sublime almightiness enthroned, A SOVEREIGN DOER OF WHATEVER HE WILLS.”
T- Wisdom of Solomon, 11: 24-26 “For all existing things are dear to You and You hate nothing that You have created - why else would You have made it? HOW COULD ANYTHING HAVE CONTINUED IN EXISTENCE, HAD IT NOT BEEN YOUR WILL? HOW COULD IT HAVE ENDURED UNLESS CALLED INTO BEING BY YOU? You spare all things because they are Yours.”

T- Psalms, 103: 5 “He (God) satisfies me with all good in the prime of life, and my youth is renewed like an eagle’s. He revealed His way to Moses, His mighty deeds to the Israelites. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, long-suffering and ever faithful.”

T- Psalms, 103, 19 “The Lord has established His throne in heaven, His kingly power over the whole world.”
Q- Baqara, 2: 255 “GOD - there is no deity save Him, the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsistent Fount of All Being. Neither slumber overtakes Him, nor sleep. His is all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth... His throne overspreads the heavens and the earth, and their upholding wearies Him not. And he alone is truly exalted, tremendous.”
T- Psalms, 121: 4 “Indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”

T- Psalms, 148: 1-13 “Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights above.
Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts.
Praise Him, sun and moon; praise Him, all you shining stars; praise Him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens.
Let them praise the Name of the Lord, for by His command they were created; He established them for ever and ever by his ordinance which will never pass away.
Praise the Lord from the earth, you sea monsters and ocean depths; fire and hail, snow and ice, gales of wind that obey His voice; all mountains and hills; all fruit trees and cedars; wild animals and all the cattle, creeping creatures and winged birds.
Let kings and all commoners, princes and rulers over the whole earth, youths and girls, old and young together, let them praise the Name of the Lord, for His Name is high above all others, and his majesty above earth and heaven.”
Q- 1: 1-6 “In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace: All praise is due to God alone, the Sustainer of all the worlds, The Most Gracious, the Dispenser of Grace, Lord of the Day of Judgment! Thee alone do we worship; and unto Thee alone do we turn for aid. Guide us the straight way.”
T- Psalms, 5: 8 “Lead me, LORD, in your righteousness...”
T- Psalms, 25; 5 “Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.”
Q- Hud, 11: 56 “Behold, I have placed my trust in God, [who is] my Sustainer as well as your Sustainer.”
T- Psalms, 25: 1 “In you, LORD my God, I put my trust.”
T- Exod. 34: 6 “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.”
Q- Ar-Rahman, 55: 29 “On Him depend all creatures [for their existence as well as sustaining of their existence] in the heavens and on earth; [and] every day He manifests Himself in yet another [wondrous] way.”
T- Genesis, 2: 19 “So, FROM THE EARTH HE FORMED all the wild animals and all the birds of the air, and brought them to the man...”
NT- Matthew, 4: 10 “Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.”
Q- Yasin, 36: 82-83 “His Being alone is such that when He wills a thing to be, He but says unto it, “Be” - and it is. Limitless, then, in His glory is He in whose hand rests the mighty dominion over all things; and unto Him you all will be brought back!”
NT- Luke, 4: 8 “Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’
Q- Yusuf, 12: 67 “Judgment rests with none but God. In Him have I placed my trust: for, all who have trust [in His existence] must place their trust in Him alone.”
NT- Deut, 1: 15 “… judgment belongs to God…”

Q- An’am 6: 102-103 “Such is God, your Sustainer: there is no deity save Him, the Creator of everything: worship, then, Him alone -for it is He who has everything in His care. No human vision can encompass Him, whereas He encompasses all human vision: for He alone is unfathomable, all-aware.”
T- Deut., 6: 4-5 “Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God, the Lord is One, the Lord alone. Love the Lord with your all heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
Q- Ghafir, 40: 7 “O our Sustainer! You embrace all things within [Your] grace and knowledge: forgive, then, their sins unto those who repent and follow Your path,”
T- Deut., 6: 13 “Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.”
Q- Baqara, 2: 124 “And [remember this:] when his Lord tried Abraham by [His] commandments and the latter fulfilled them, He said: “Behold, I shall make you a leader of men.” Abraham asked: “And [will You make leaders] of my offspring as well?”
T- Genesis, 18: 19 “For I have chosen him [Abraham], so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”
Q- An’am, 6: 161-162 “Say: As for me, my Lord has guided me unto a straight path, a right religion, the community of Abraham, the upright, who was not one of the politheists. Say: Truly, my worship and my sacrifice and my living and my dying are for God, Lord of all the worlds.”
NT- Luke, 1: 34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
Q- Mary, 19: 20 “Said she [Mary]: “How can I have a son when no man has ever touched me? - for, never have I been a loose woman!”
Q- Taha, 20: 41 “And I have prepared you for Myself.”
T- Genesis, 1: 26 “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.”
T- Numbers, 24: 6-7 “Like valleys they spread out, like gardens beside a river, like aloes planted by the LORD, like cedars beside the waters. Water will flow from their buckets; their seed will have abundant water.”
Q- Baqara, 2: 25 “But give glad tidings to those who believe and work righteousness, that their portion is Gardens, beneath which rivers flow. Every time they are fed with fruits therefrom, they say: “Why, this is what we were fed with before, “for they are given things in similitude; and they have therein companions pure (and holy); and they abide therein (for ever).”

Selections from the Qur’an

Q- Ma’idah, 5: 69 “For, verily, those who have attained to faith [in this divine writ], as well as those who follow the Jewish faith, and the Sabians, and the Christians - all who believe in God and the Last Day and do righteous deeds - no fear need they have, and neither shall they grieve.
Q- Baqara, 2: 136 “Say: “We believe in God, and in that which has been bestowed from on high upon us, and that which has been bestowed upon Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and ,their descendants, and that which has been vouchsafed to Moses and Jesus; and that which has been vouchsafed to all the [other] prophets by their Sustainer: we make no distinction between any of them. And it is unto Him that we surrender ourselves.”
Q- Nisa, 4: 152 “But as for those who believe in God and His apostles and make no distinction between any of them- unto them, in time, will He grant their re¬wards [in full]. And God is indeed much-forgiving, Merciful.”
Q- Ankabut, 29: 46 “And do not argue with the followers of earlier revelation otherwise than in a most kindly manner - unless it be such of them as are bent on evildoing and say: “We believe in that which has been be¬stowed from on high upon us, as well as that which has been bestowed upon you: or our God and your God is one and the same, and it is unto Him that We [all] surrender ourselves.”

Jesus in the Qur’an

Q- Imran, 3: 45 “Behold! the angels said: “O Mary! God gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him: his name will be Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, held in honor in this world and the Hereafter and of (the company of) those nearest to God.”
Q- Nisa, 4: 158 “But God took him up unto Himself. God is ever Mighty, Wise.”
Q- Imran, 3: 55 “When God said: O Jesus! I am gathering you and causing you to ascend unto Me, and am cleansing you of those who disbelieve and am setting those who follow you above those who disbelieve until the Day of Resurrection. Then unto Me you will (all) return, and I shall judge between you as to that wherein you used to differ.”

Conclusion: Similarities between the Qur’an and the Hebrew Bible:
• Both claim to be inspired by God.
• Both began as oral recitation in Semitic languages.
• Both claim that God is “One” and “the Only”. “Ekhad” in Hebrew, “Ahad’ in Arabic.
• Both of them over the years were written down by Scholars, and codified and translated into myriad languages.
• Both emphasizes that God is loving and compassionate and will reward human beings with Gardens in which streams flow.