THE CONCEPT, STATUS AND SIGNIFICANCE OF GOD: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ISLAM AND WESTERN DIVERTING THERE OF

Abstract

This research article dealt with the concept and status of God in Islam and Western philosophical and intellectual tradition; it also endeavoured to investigate Western philosophical diverting fromthis once popular concept of an omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent Existence and consequences thereof.

Islam highly emphasizes the presence of a ubiquitous God who is the Creator, the Owner, the Planner and the Mover of this entire universe; its Divine book – the Holy Quran –variously proves the existence of a single God with no partner at all. This concept is considered to be the foundation stone of the edifice of Islam without which this edifice will be demolished in too. It is also evident from the study of the Western philosophical tradition that there has been the concept of God in one form or the other till a time reached when a large stratum of Western philosophers relinquished this creed and they replaced God by Reason---the new God of the West. So, in this backdrop, this paper also made an effort to trace those causes which paved the way for this diverting from the concept, status and significance of God.