The Holy Spirit, for
Muslims, is a name for the angel Gabriel (PBUH), and a name for Allah’s (S.W)
inspiration and His support for his prophets.
The Holy Quran calls
the angel Gabriel (PBUH) as the Holy Spirit. Allah (S.W) Says, “Say, the Holy
Spirit has brought the revelation from thy Lord in Truth” (Holy Quran 16:102),
also, Allah (S.W) says, “Then will Allah say: "O Jesus the son of Mary!
Recount My favour to thee and to thy mother.
Behold! I
strengthened thee with the holy spirit.” (Holy Quran 5:110) In addition, the
Holy Quran calls Allah’s (S.W) inspiration to his prophets as Spirit. Allah
(S.W) says, “And thus
have We, by Our Command, sent inspiration to thee.” (Holy Quran 42:52), He also
says, “Raised high above ranks (or degrees), (He is) the Lord of the Throne (of
Authority): by His Command doth He send the Spirit (of inspiration) to any of
His servants he pleases.” (Holy Quran 40:15)
It is important to
mention, that what the Holy Quran says about the Holy Spirit is not far from
what the Bible says, but it does not agree with the Constantinople Council
meaning.
The Holy Bible
mentions that various creatures hold the name ‘Holy Spirit’:
1. The human spirit,
which Allah (S.W) creates in his creations, is Allah’s (S.W) Spirit, which He
creates in them. “And to the spirits of the righteous made perfect.”
(Heb. 12/23), “when you take away their breath, they die and return to
their dust.
When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew
the face of the ground.”
(Psalms 104/29-30)
Allah (S.W) gave life to Adam by the same spirit. “and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” (Gen. 2/7).
This spirit is called ‘the spirit of Allah (S.W)’ because it came from Allah
(S.W), and to Him it will return. “And the spirit returns to God who gave it.”
(Ecc. 12/7).
2. The inspiration
that the angels carry to prophets, “David himself, in the Holy Spirit,
declared” (Mark 12/36), also “And
his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit” (Luke 1/67), Peter said,
"Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand
by the mouth of David.” (Acts 1/16).
Allah (S.W) called
the prophets and what they bring of this inspiration as the Holy Spirit, as He
said scolding the people of Israel, "You stiff-necked people,
uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your
fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute?”
(Acts 7/51-52)
3. The Holy Spirit is
also a name for the aid and wisdom, which Allah (S.W) gives to His prophets and
others, and the angels or others can deliver it. Jesus said, “But if it is by
the Spirit of God that I cast out demons.” (Matt. 12:28) and what Pharaoh said
to his servants, when he was looking for a wise man.
"Can we find a man
like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?” (Gen. 41/38) “Now there was a
man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout,
waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.” (Luke
2/25), also, the Holy Spirit supported the disciples on the fiftieth day “And
they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues
as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2/4).
This is the same as
what the prophet Haggai said, “My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear
not.” (Haggai 2/5)
4. The strong wind
also called the Holy Spirit. Describing the destroying wind, the Torah says, “The
grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it.”
(Isaiah 40/7), the same is in Genesis, “And the Spirit of God was
hovering over the face of the waters.”
(Gen. 1/2), there is a mistranslation in
this passage that leads to this confusion. The passage, as the great critic
Espinoza said, ‘means a strong wind came from God, and ceased darkness.’
Moreover, relating
the spirit to Allah (S.W) in the last two passages is glorification and esteem,
not deifying, as it says, “The mountains of God” (Psalms 36/6)
Those who worship the
Holy Spirit do not accept all the meanings that I have mentioned. They do not
accept the idea that the Holy Spirit is just a power or angel from Allah (S.W).
The Holy Spirit, according
to the Christian concept is God, is the third hypostasis of the Trinity. What
is the Holy Spirit according to their concept? What evidence do they have for
considering him as a God? When did that happen? In 381 C.E, by the order of the
Emperor Tedious, the Council of Constantinople formed, to discuss Bishop
Macedonius’ belief.
He denied the
divinity of the Holy Spirit; and he believed what the Holy Books mentioned
about him. He believed that, “The Holy Spirit is a divine work spread in the
world, not a divine person who is different from the Father and the Son”, and,
“He is like all the creations”, and he saw him as a servant of the Son just
like one of the angels.
One hundred and fifty
priests attended this council. These priests decided to deprive Macedonius of
his office, and they made one important decision never made by the church
councils before, which was deifying the Holy Spirit.
They considered him as a
complement to the Trinity. They said, “We have no other meaning for the Holy Spirit
except the Spirit of God, God is nothing except his life, and saying that the
Holy Spirit is a creation, is the same as saying that
God is a creation.”
Priest Yasin Mansor
said, “The Holy Spirit is the eternal God, he existed before the creation, and
he is the creator of everything, able to do anything. He is present everywhere,
and he is the everlasting and the unlimited”.
He also said, “The
Holy Spirit is the third hypostasis of the Trinity. He is not just a power or
characteristic, but a real self, a living person, and a distinct divine being.
He is not separate; he is a divine unit different from the Father and the Son,
but equal to them in power and position, sharing with them the basic and the
same divinity.
Christians refer to
John’s Gospel when talking about the divinity of the Holy Spirit: “God is
spirit” (John 4/24). They also believe that he is the spirit that existed from
the beginning of creation, “In the beginning, God created the heavens
and the earth.
The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (Genesis
1/1-2). Many other passages also mention spirit, God spirit,
or the Holy Spirit.
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