Hello,
I am new here, and not really sure if this topic was covered before here on Free-Minds, but I never witnessed this issue was discussed among the Quran alone followers. In the Quran, in many verses, God speaks of himself as 'We' instead of 'I'. There are other verses, where 'I' is used too, but I did not count the exact amounts of both variants. Therefore, what is your theory on 'plurality' of God? I am well aware of every traditional explanation, but it's just something I am not personally buying, for several reasons:
1. Such manner of speech, when high ranked officials may speak of themselves (or their actions) as 'We' is something, which I strongly believe was not available ubiquitously up until modern times. I heard the Romans were the first to introduce such manner of speech when a person would say 'You' compared to 'you' when talking to a higher ranked official, out of respect, where 'You' would indicate higher position of that person, and that particular person would, in turn, speak of himself as 'We'. Such official (such as Ceaser) would then say 'We' as opposite to 'I' or 'Me' when discussing decisions, for instance. But I highly doubt that such forms of expression were popular in the pre-Islamic Arabic. Even among Romans this manner of speech could only be 'popular' among the elite, and not ordinary people. I speak Russian natively, and in Russian we say "Вы" (Vy') when addressing to an unfamiliar person, or a person of a higher social rank or official position, out of social respect. When we talk to a friend, we use 'Ты' (Ty') instead, which means 'you' and refers to friends, or ordinary people, while 'Вы' is used in two contextes, either if we speak to the group (You as the group."Why don't you guys etc.), or we speak to an unfamiliar person, or a person of higher age, or a higher social rank, so we say You (plural of 'you') as in "Вы" instead. Such form of experssion became popular among ordinary Russian people centuries after the events of the 7th century. Even serfs in the ancient Russia would address the Tzar as Ты (Ty') instead of 'You' as a plural or a polite form of you.
Therefore, I highly doubt that 'We' in the Quran is a manner of speech, which refers to the greatness of God. Surely, God is allmighty (16:78), but it probably has nothing to do with the manner of speech, since the Quran is the book for people of reason (2:164).
2. First Chapter (?Thee do we serve and Thee do we beseech for help?) does not imply plural.
3. One of the perhaps greatest thing about God, is the fact that we cannot imagine Him or measure His Greatness (42:11). Therefore, if we use such narrative as 'We' and interpret it as a polite form, then we are comparing God to the king, or the top manager of some company.
4. There are similar 'pluralistic' forms of name of God introduced in other Scriptures. In the Torah, the term Elohim (Hebrew: אֱלֹהִים ?ĕlōh?m) is used, which is the plural of ?gods? but which is often used in combination with a singular form 'god'. This was later changed in the Greek New Testament and other versions, so most translations use onyl the singular form. But you check the Hebrew version of Genesis 1:26 and countless of other verses, where 'Elohim' is used.
So what are you thoughts on 'plurality' of God in the Quran and other Scriptures? I understand it's a huge topic, but aren't we all here to seek truth?
Peace.
