Peace OPF,
Is this what Allah said, or is this YOUR INTERPRETATION of what the scripture says? What makes you so sure that your idea is correct while mine is wrong?
The reality is that neither you or I know what is going on behind our heads let alone anything about the bigger picture. So of course it is my interpretation. I cannot ever be 100% sure (or can I!) that either of us is correct. However my interpretation makes more logical sense to me.
And again, assuming that Allah has no physical body, your explanation doesn't explain how or why the mountain crumbled. You're saying that Allah said, 'If the mountain remains, then you'll see me,' and then He just destroyed the mountain? What point would that prove to Moses? 'I have no physical body because I can destroy a mountain'?
Allah does not have a physical body but he can crumble the mountain. However the concept of "Allah" having a physical body is fundamentally unfalsifiable since the dude cannot be seen! Hence such a question is pointless. Physical body or not, it doesn't matter! So if it works for you to think in that way, then fair enough. However don't let it mislead you. It automatically places limits on your interpretation of scripture and those limits have the power to majorly misguide.
I think that "Allah", physical body or not, can compute things very well. And thing he happens to be very very good at computing is waveforms. You send the right waveform at something, it will crumble by itself (human example: bomb). So do you think Allah who created this whole damn thing lacks this power when we already have a very crude version of it by his grace?
So what makes me so sure? The manner in which Allah "creates" and "speaks", you could translate the "words" to a human equivalent but they are probably vibrations of some incredible complexity which we cannot comprehend (in contrast, our speech is simply a case of air moving back and forth in a certain shape). Also, if Allah is a single anthropomorphic God then why would he use "We" so often in the quran?
Allah says to look in the previous scriptures, which include the Bible, if we don't understand something in the Qur'aan. And it just so happens that EVERY scripture in all ancient civilizations describe Allah as being anthropomorphic. All-encompassing, invisible, formless spiritual deities didn't exist until the Grecian period in the development of modern Judaism and Christianity... Enough said.
Allah also says to listen to his book first and use them as a criterion. If previous scriptures disagree with the quran then they clearly are not very quranic. And how do you know for sure that every scripture so describes Allah as anthropomorphic? Are you sure it isn't just translation and human preconception of Allah as an anthropomorphic entity?
Either Muhammad was teaching contrary to what the ancient prophets taught, or you have a misunderstanding of the Qur'aan. If both the Qur'aan AND the previous scriptures are correct in their description of God, then those are the only two ways this idea can be understood.
Peace!
You say "If both the quran and the previous scriptures are correct in their description of God", keyword = IF. I would assume that the previous scriptures WERE correct in their description and the quran, having been preserved is always correct, but the ancient scriptures have been distorted via translations. In 6:91 it is said that the book of Moses has been split apart and some parts have been concealed. The quran in essence states that prior scriptures are correct (word of God, word of man) EXCEPT where they contradict the quran.
Tell me this: How can Allah be omnipresent (present within everything) if the Qur'aan says that He caused the Universe to explode and divide/separate itself? Does this mean that Allah exploded/imploded Himself? What was present before the heavens and the Earth were joined into one mass? Where exactly was Allah back then?
I would indeed say so! But consider this, in that initial singularity (which I interpret as "Allah", the divine I) there is the potential for an infinite number of configurations of energy. This would make "Allah" all-knowing. This universe we live in is a single set of configurations of that boundless energy, that is to say that for all intents and purposes that singularity has never "split" but rather we exist inside of that singularity and in that particular configuration so we see the splitting. In the quran Allah switches between "I" and "We" but there is not a single instance where the "We" should be an "I" or a "He". When the "I" is invoked then I interpret it to mean the Whole and when the "We" is invoked, this is the individual parts of the greater I doing their thing.
Allah is ALWAYS "everywhere" where "where" and "every" are definable, and Allah is ALWAYS all-knowing where "all" and "knowing" are definable. Consider looking at these "all-X" terms in a logical manner, the paradoxes are very easy to iron out when you realise that each time you have a "paradox" you have made an error in logic/definition somewhere.
With the I/We interpretation, it is only logical that there can be one divine I and no more, no less.
