Islamic theology teaches that Allah has names and attributes (sifatah). Muslims, based on one of the hadiths, speak of 99 names of Allah, through the reverent enumeration of which a person is vouchsafed paradise. These are names such as "Omniscient," "Knowing," and so on.3 Many of the attributes recognized by Muslims coincide with the Christian concept of God, but there are also differences. For example, the Quran is considered an attribute of Allah.

In Islam, it is believed that Allah himself and his angels speak only Arabic, Arabic is the language of the inhabitants of paradise, the language of the Arabs is the original language of God.

Sins against monotheism are recognized as unbelief, polytheism and hypocrisy. Each of them is divided into two degrees: large and small. Disbelief, polytheism and hypocrisy of a small degree (for example, an oath not by Allah, a Muslim fighting against a Muslim, deceit, betrayal, etc.) does not mean that a person affected by them ceases to be a Muslim or loses the fate of paradise, since "Allah can forgive if it pleases Him, even without repentance." Unbelief, polytheism and hypocrisy of a large degree (mockery of Islam, denial of the divine origin of the Koran, etc.) leads a person out of Islam and he is considered an infidel.

Asserting the radical inaccessibility of God to man, the Islamic doctrine denies the possibility of the incarnation, the manifestation of God, and even the communication of divine grace through the sacraments. Allah is thought of as an absolutely otherworldly, impenetrable, incomprehensible being. Here is how the great theologian of the ninth century, Al-Ashari, described Allah: "Nothing that can be imagined by reason or imagined by calling on fantasy has a resemblance to Him. It is impossible to see Him with the eyes, it is impossible to experience pleasure or joy in comprehending Him. He doesn't care about anything."4

The Qur'an never speaks of Allah's love for humanity. A couple of times it is said only about His love for those who fear Him and for those who follow Muhammad: "Verily, Allah loves those who fear Allah!" (3.76) and also: "Say (Muhammad): 'If you love Allah, then follow me, then Allah will love you and forgive you your sins' (3:31). Believers are called to fear Allah: "Fear Me" (5:44), "... and fear Me" (3.40), etc.

Orthodox theologians even condemned the idea of direct love for God, pointing out that "love is an act of will, and the ultimate will of man cannot have the infinite as its object. For example, the thirteenth-century theologian Ibn Tamiyya asserted that love presupposes correlation and proportionality, which do not and cannot exist between the Creator and His creation. Therefore, perfect faith must be expressed in love for the law of Allah and not for Allah Himself."5 The Sufi mystics taught about love for Allah and Allah's love for man, but they also explained this in terms of slavery and submission: "the highest honor bestowed by God is the title of Abdallah" (slave of God),6 "to love God is to love obedience to God"; "True love is obedience to the Beloved."7 And speaking about the love of Allah, one of the greatest Sufis, Al-Ghazali, asserted that "His love should be defined solely as the goal, affirming and showing his favor towards the one who seeks it. It is higher than the empathy associated with simple human sympathy. His love and mercy are motivated only by his own benefit, and not by empathy."8

The basis of the worship of Allah in Islam is the belief that human beings are the slaves of their Creator and Master. In the Qur'an it is said in the name of Allah: "I created jinn and men only to worship Me" (Qur'an 51:56). It is not surprising that in the Arabic language the word "piety" (ta'abboud) is rooted to the word "slavery" (ubudiyya).

At the same time, in the Koran, unlike the Bible, there is no idea of the creation of man in the image and likeness of God. Rather, it says that Allah created man in his own image, or in the image in which He willed (see Qur'an 64:3, 82:6-8).

In addition, Islam has the idea that God is the source of not only good, but also evil. It is related to the doctrine of predestination and will be discussed in detail in the next chapter.

What are the differences from Christian teaching?

Naturally, the Muslim idea that God Himself creates all the actions of living beings (angels, people, animals, insects, etc.), including physiological and even sinful ones, contradicts the Christian teaching that God once created the world and the laws by which it is governed and, supporting it by His providence, after six days of creation He does not create anything new; that God has given true freedom to His creation, so that each person is the true creator of his own works, and therefore deservedly bears responsibility for them.

Naturally, the teaching about the Arabic text of the Qur'an as an eternal and unchanging attribute of God contradicts the revelation received by Christians. It is very perplexing to believe that the Arabic language has always existed, and that, for example, the surahs "The Cow" or "The Spider" are attributes of God and existed before the creation of the world, as well as the abuse contained in the Koran against Abu Lahab and his wife, Muhammad's personal enemies, and so on.

It is not surprising that this teaching met with criticism even among Muslims themselves. Thus, in the eighth and tenth centuries, the theological movement of the Mu'tazilites rebelled against the dogma of the uncreated Qur'an, rightly pointing out that the assumption of the eternity of the Qur'an is tantamount to endowing it with a divine property, or, in other words, recognizing a second god along with Allah. Obviously, this violates the principle of monotheism. The Mu'tazilites disappeared under the yoke of persecution, but their arguments are still reasonable today. After all, the Qur'an is not identical with God (no one would call a copy of the book God), and at the same time it is inseparably merged with Him and has divine properties. What kind of monotheism can we talk about here?