Is God One or is God Three In One?

Some Christians insist on taking verses such as “Verily, We: it is We who have sent down the Dhikr (the Quran)” 15:9 as meaning a proof of divine plurality (trinity), Muslims should refute this claim by quoting clear and unambiguous verses as: “And your god is One God, there is none who has the right to be worshipped but He, (Quran 2:163) and “Say: He is Allah, the One” (Quran112:1) Perhaps אלהים comes from אלים, the plural of אל, (el), the common Canaanite word for a god.

Elohim is an ancient pre Abrahamic plural noun that is often used in the Hebrew Bible to refer to Israel’s one God: Yahweh (YHVH). Despite its plural form, it is most often used with singular verbs and adjectives when referring to the God of Israel, indicating a plural of majesty (like “We” for the One God in the Tawhid Qur’an) for intensity rather than number. Despite its plural form, it is often used with singular verbs and adjectives when referring to the God of Israel, indicating a plural of majesty rather than number. Perhaps אלהים comes from אלים, the plural of אל, (el), the common Canaanite word for a god.

Rabbi SETH ADELSON points out that the word “Elohim,” which is one of the most frequently used terms for God in the Torah and in modern Hebrew, is a strange word in that it functions mostly as a singular and occasionally as a plural word. It is not the Hebrew God’s name, which we know to be spelled with the four Hebrew letters represented in English by YHWH. When it appears in a singular context (e.g., the first three words of the Torah, Bereshit bara Elohim, “In the beginning God created’), it clearly refers to the one true God. But every now and then the exact same word appears in a plural context, in which case it does not refer to Israel’s God, but rather to other (false) gods or idols.

The sufi terms Ya Hu, Huwa, HuwaHu or Ya Huwa is strikingly similar to YHWH. Sufis claim this name is in the Quran in surat al-Ikhlas as “Qul Huwa AllaHu ahad…”, thus extracting the Huwa Hu from that sentence. The name HuwaHu basically means “He is He” in Arabic just as in Hebrew YHWH means “I am who I am”.

Jews have one very special name for God (YHVH) that is untranslatable; and has not even been pronounced verbally out loud by Jews for the last 2300 years.

In the days of Abraham, the religions of the Near East and India had hundreds of gods, and so they had hundreds of different names for their gods. But for the monotheistic religions that trace their prophets back to Prophet Abraham, and his two sons Prophets Ishmael and Isaac, the many names of God are not really names of God: they simply describe different aspects or attributes of the one God’s multifaceted personality.

For monotheists the many names of God are just appellations: titles and descriptions. Thus, to say that God is a King or a Judge describes one of many ways the one God acts. To say that God is the Compassionate One is to describe one of the many character or personality traits of the one God. So for monotheists each of the many ‘names’ of the one God is only one of the many appellations of the one universal creator of space and time; both Islam and Judaism also have one special Divine name that is always in the believer’s heart and soul.

Because the Qur’an is filled with beautiful Arabic poetry; it is not surprising that the Qur’an is also filled with so many (99) ‘names’ of the one God. Because the Jewish tradition reaches back more than thirty five centuries; it is not surprising that Jews have used many additional ‘names’ (70) for God over those many centuries.

The word God in English is not a name of the one God like Allah or YHVH. It is the generic term used for any and every deity, similar to the West Semitic root word EL as it is found in Sumerian and Akkadian Ellil-Enlil; Hittite and Hurrian Ellel, and Hebrew El-Elohim. The words El, Elah, Elohei and Elohim are all pre Abrahamic West Semitic generic terms for a God or for many Gods. In these various forms they appear almost 3,000 times in the Hebrew Bible.

But for Jews, the most important unique personal name of the one God is the name that God himself reveals to Moses at the burning bush: YHVH, which appears more than 6,800 times in the Hebrew Bible.

In Exodus 3:13-15, Moses said to God, “If I go to the Israelites and tell them, ‘The God of your fathers sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’—what should I say to them?” And God said to Moses, “Ehyeh asher Ehyeh”.

Ehyeh is the verb “to be” future tense singular and means I will/could-might-may be-become who I may-could-will-might be-become i.e. Ehyeh is The God of Potentialities, The God of Possibilities, The Living God of Becoming and Transforming, the One who can and will liberate Israel from bondage in Egypt.

Unfortunately, the Greek and Latin translations of this verse were influenced by the Greek philosophical idea that God was similar to a permanent ideal form (like an equilateral triangle) or an unmoved mover; and is not similar to a living personality. Since the Greeks thought God must be a static unchanging being. they mistranslated “Ehyeh asher Ehyeh’ as ‘I am who I am’ rather than its plain Hebrew meaning of ‘I will be whatever I should be to redeem you” i.e. God Almighty

The Torah continues, “And God said, “You must say this to the Israelites, “I am” (the usual false translation for God’s self revealed name) has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “You must say this to the Israelites, Ehyeh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is my memorial from generation to generation.’ (Exodus 3:13-15) When Jews speak of God in the third person, God’s name is pronounced Yehyeh and written YHVH– “One who causes being and becoming; the One who brings potentials into existence.”

The name YHVH was spoken publicly for almost a thousand years, from the time of Moses, throughout the centuries of the 1st Temple of Solomon. But it was ultimately replaced by Adonai (Lord) before the 3rd century B.C.E., because God’s actual Holy name was eventually considered too holy to speak audibly.

In later centuries even the substitution Adonai was considered too holy to utter; and pious Jews till this day do not use any name for God at all (except in prayer); but say only HaShem–the name (of God) when speaking about the one and only God.

Islam takes a different view. The most well known of Allah’s 99 names is Ar- Rahman -‘the kindest and most forgiving one’; but Allah has kept to Himself knowledge of His greatest name, and He has not granted knowledge thereof to any of His creation.

Prophet Muhammad once stated:”Verily, there are 99 names of God, 100 minus 1. One who enumerates them will get into Paradise.” (Sahih Muslim, Vol. 4, no. 1410) Some Muslims believe it will only be revealed by Imam Mahdi. Or perhaps if we are all “Made in God’s Image” Mankind might be the 100th name for God.

Or Hagar, Abraham second wife and the mother of Ishmael’s feminist name for God may be the 100th beautiful name. One name of God that very few Christians, Jews or Muslims even know, much less use today, is a name that I believe will become more important in the future as Christians, Jews and Muslims learn more about each other’s religions. This name, El Ro’ee, only appears twice in the Hebrew Bible and, as far as I know, is not used at all in the Talmud or Midrash as a Divine appellation.

Prophet Abraham’s wife Hagar/Ha-jar uses El Ro’ee as her special name for God. El Ro’ee means A God Who Sees Me. It also became the name for a well (Zamzum?). “Then she (Hagar) called the name of YHVH, who spoke to her, El Ro’ee, ‘You are a God who sees me’; for she said, ‘Have I even remained alive here after seeing Him?’ Therefore the well (where this happened) was called Beer-laHai-roee; the well of the Living One (Al-Hayy) who sees me. Behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered. So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael…” (Genesis 16:13-15)

Neither Sarah nor Hagar/Ha-jar are mentioned by name in the Qur’an, but the story of Ha-jar’s exile from Abraham’s home is traditionally understood to be referred to in a line from Ibrāhīm’s prayer in the Qur’an (14:37): “I have settled some of my family in a barren valley near your Sacred House (Kaaba)”

Muslim tradition relates that when Hā-jar ran out of water, and Ismā’īl, an infant at that time, began to die; Hā-jar panicked and ran between two nearby hills, Al-Safa and Al-Marwah repeatedly searching for water. After her seventh run, Ismā’īl hit the ground with his heel and miraculously caused a well to spring out of the ground called Zamzum Well. It is located a few meters from the Kaaba in Mecca.

Perhaps these two Torah names of God, El Ro’ee and Hai (Hayy) Ro’ee; which are Hagar’s names for God, which mean A Self-reflecting God or A God Who Sees Me, and the name for the Zamzum well ‘Beer-laHai-roi’; the well of the Living One (Hayy) who sees (mirrors) me; can help bring Christians, Jews and Muslims, who all share respect for Prophet Abraham and his family, to see each other better and thus become closer together in the future.