The Definition of God

The concept of God is hard to fathom. What is God? How does one define God? The notion that God is indescribable is a common thread throughout world religions. Muslims believe God is indescribable. As Iman Ali stresses in the beginning of his book "Peak of Eloquence:" to give God definition is to limit God. It is beyond our comprehension what God is. This is why there are no images of God in mosques, only words. It is a pure and honest way of addressing God. However other cultures share the same belief, simply expressed differently. Hindus for example also believe that describing God is inconceivable. They believe that God is beyond an individual being. God has created all, lives in all, and can destroy everything, continuously. Like in Christianity, Hinduism has a trinity. In both religions this trinity consists of three divisions of God all belonging to one source. These three forces work as one to keep the world revolving. Christians follow Jesus, believing Jesus was God in the form of a human. Hindus call this an avatar and Jesus is their Ista devata (their most favored avatar). An avatar is a form God takes to communicate with us. In Hinduism God has came many times to earth in many forms. Some recorded in history, some not. These Avatars of God emphasize God's ambiguous nature. Within these various forms exists the same entity behind different masks. God's true form according to Hinduism is immense and hard to witness as mentioned in the Gita. The Bible also references God's true identity as difficult to observe with human eyes only.

The Muslim gives God little identity, the Hindu multiple and yet none, and the Christian is somewhere in between. Yet all these outlooks lead to and emphasize God's obscurity. These most popular world religions; Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism share the same principle, God is indescribable and God is One.

Other faiths share similar views as well. Wiccans and Pagans for instance strongly believe in nature's power and its main elements: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. However there is a 5th element, Akasha/Aether/Spirit. The essence of all things. They believe these elements are combined in every creature and come from this indescribable element. Native Americans also highly regard nature and many tribes people believe in a Great Spirit that has created all things. Like the previously mentioned faiths, these beliefs agree that these main elements created us because they came from the source of all things, God.

Even Atheists believe God is indescribable. If you cannot define something, does it exist? If a tree falls in a forest but no one hears it, does it make a sound? Many Atheists feel that if something is beyond comprehension then it is unreal.

So what is the Definition of God? There is none. Will there ever be? I don't know. However I will leave you with this:

"Rumi, who is one of the greatest Persian poets, said that the truth was a mirror in the hands of God. It fell, and broke into pieces. Everybody took a piece of it, and they looked at it and thought they had the truth. "

- Mohsen Makhmalbaf