The Islamic God (Allah) is related to both Jewish and Christian conceptions of an all powerful, all knowing eternal being who is responsible for the creation of all things and by whom ultimately we must be judged. However, Muslims consider that the previous two religions distorted the facts. Judaism, because it preached a message which involved a God for only one chosen race. The Christians on the other hand mistook their messenger, Jesus, for the message and worse, assumed that he was related to God. In Islam, Mohammed is seen simply as being God's messenger.
In the earlier, pre-Meccan, sections of the Qur'an, there are mentions of other gods such as the Meccan deities al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat (53.19-20) and 'Allah' is simply a name used for an older Meccan deity. These references became rapidly watered down, until the bare statement of the uniqueness of God was the abiding and ever repeated theme of the Islamic creed as used in the Shahada:
"There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his
prophet"
For a Muslim the conception of a 'pluralistic' god such as that seen in the Christian Trinity is unacceptable. Because the Trinity suggests three rather than one supreme God it means, in effect, idolatry and blasphemy.
Later Muslim scholars made lists of at least 99 names of God. Among his virtues include the following:
Unmade, Unique, Resembling nothing else, Eternal.
His essential character is life, power, knowledge, speech, hearing, sight and will.
His essential forms of action are sustaining, creating, producing, renewing and making.
Allah is an all-powerful, all-knowing, eternal being who is responsible for the creation of all things and by whom ultimately, we must be judged.
