In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
I was recently asked by a new Muslim revert, “Do Muslims believe that ALLAH lives in our hearts?”
My response was as follows:
Asalaam Alaikum
No -- Allah is not in us. Allah is unique in and of Himself. A spirit being does not enter another spirit being. If so, those two would become co-equals and that is a Christian concept. Nothing and no one is like Allah. Allah is not like us or any of His creation in any way. Allah gives us the freedom of choice to do write or wrong. If Allah was in us -- Allah would be doing wrong when we do wrong. Additionally, we would be capable of calling ourselves “God” if Allah was indeed in us. That can't be.
We can’t grasp or come close to comprehending what Allah looks like. Allah has no gender. We say, “He”, as a figure of speech because it is a relatable term to humans. Allah refers to Himself as, “He”, only to make it easy for us to understand what is being revealed to us in common terms. Allah has no anatomy or biological makeup. Allah is above His creation in every way and it is the workings of Shaitan that causes mankind to attempt to reduce Allah to the state of man, while elevating man to the state of God. Those are Christian constructs that are deeply rooted in Paganism/Polytheism. Hence the passage in the Bible(s) which says;
Genesis 1:26-27
“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.” 27So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
Notice how quickly the writer attempts to suggest that man somehow resembles his Creator, which was common in the Pagan beliefs that heavily influenced this concept. Zeus mated with a human woman and produced the so-called God-Man, Hercules who was half god and half mortal. There are numerous other instances of that Pagan influence in the Bible(s).
Now take note of how the Qur’an, the criterion between truth and falsehood, corrects those claims. Naturally humans know that we have no clue what Allah looks like and so the Qur’an calls us back to what our natural inclinations tell us is correct.
Allah says in the Qur’an:
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
Surah al-Shura 42:11
"There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the All-Hearer, All-Seer." [al-Shura 42:11] (Interpretation)
Surah Al-Ikhlas (Chapter 112)
“Say: He is Allah the One and Only; Allah, the Eternal, Absolute; He begets not, nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him.”
Surah Ta-Ha 20:110
"… and they will never encompass anything of His knowledge”
Surah al-An'aam 6:103
"No vision can grasp Him"
So, one may ask, “If Allah is not in us as the Christians proclaim, then where is he?” The answer is. Above His creation in every way. Allah is omnipresent, yet not of His creation and His creation is not of Him or His essence.
Allah says:
Al-Baqarah 2:186
“Very near to you... And when My servants ask you concerning Me, then surely I am very near; I answer the prayer of the suppliant when he calls on Me”
Surah Qaf 50:16
“We are nearer to him than his jugular vein”
In conclusion, Allah is forever present, but not in you. You and you alone are responsible for the choices that you make. If there was a so-called god residing in your heart then that god would be evil, because people of all walks of life are prone to do evil and no human is free from it. I pray this helps explain this in a manner pleasing and acceptable to Allah, and I ask Allah to have mercy on me on the Day of Judgment.
I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship other than Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His final Servant and Messenger.
Kenny Bomer
Author of Consider Islam: Disproving the Patriots of Propaganda