How can we relate to these pillars, how can we understand them from the point of view of the Orthodox Church and from the point of view of the Truth?

(1) The first pillar is the confession of faith, which, of course, is not limited to the confession "There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet", includes the so-called aqeedah, which contains: the first is that Allah is a being who cannot be called a person (this is very important to remember!). To say that Allah is a person is not permissible from the point of view of Islam.

When negotiations took place between the Roman Catholic Church and the Islamic Ummah, the question arose whether Allah can be called a person. And it turned out that there is no term in the Arabic language that could describe this word. Our word "personality" is translated into Arabic by a term that simultaneously means "boy, boy". They have the equivalent: personality, kid... Therefore, it is virtually impossible to translate it in this way, but we, of course, would not be able to translate it under such conditions.

We can't say that God is a boy, it's impossible. And there are no other terms that could describe the personal existence of Allah.

When I had to argue with Muslims, just talk to them about life... This summer, for example, I was talking to a Muslim in Turkey and asking, "Who is Allah to you?"

No Muslim knows who Allah is. It is, indeed, the force that created the world, gave the laws, the force that twists everything, but which is virtually impossible to know. In the Koran there are the following words: "Allah expands the provision for whom He wills from among His servants"[16]. And a curse is placed on Jews and Christians, who claim that they can be children of God, can be adopted by God.

And in this regard, of course, there is such an attitude towards God as a distant force that must be worshipped, but at the same time – who He is, we know almost nothing!

There is a concept of the attributes of Allah that eternally exist with him. What are attributes? Attributes are not just qualities, they are qualities that Allah reveals about himself. To what extent they objectively correspond to its nature is a debatable question. There were two schools in medieval Islam: some said that Allah really reveals some qualities about himself, his own, of his own nature, and the other said that it pleased Allah to say this about himself, and who he really was, he did not want to say.

This question is not solvable in Islam, but nevertheless it is believed that knowledge of these attributes is very important. These attributes are known as the 99 names of Allah.

Maybe you have seen that Muslims often have prayer beads hanging in their cars as amulets, or Muslims walk around with green prayer beads? They go around sorting out these rosaries, invoking each of the names of Allah. Moreover, this has a rather magical meaning, although in Sufism[17], the mystical branch of Islam, it is believed that in this way a person kindles love for Allah.

There are some elements here that were borrowed from Christianity, which are indeed true.

These attributes are opposite. Some of the attributes, for example, Loving, Merciful, Merciful, although it is not said that he is Love, it is said that he loves only those who love him. The other attribute is that he is the Speaker. There are, for example, attributes that he is a Tyrant, the Author of evil. That is, from the point of view of Islam, it is traditionally believed that Allah is above good and evil, that he is the cause of both good and evil. As it is said in the Koran, "but both of them (the two angels Harutu and Marutu – Ed.)

They did not teach anyone until they said, "We are a temptation, so do not be unfaithful." And they learned from them how to separate husband from wife, but they did not harm anyone except with the permission of Allah. And they were taught that which harmed them and did not benefit them, and they knew that he who acquired it had no share in the life to come. But he himself leads whomever he wants, and puts on the path whom he wants. That is, both good and evil are from him.

There is a hadith[19] attributed to Muhammad, where it is said: "Whoever is led by Allah follows the straight path; and those whom He knocks down, they are those who have suffered a loss"[20]. This is their fate.