Islam # Taoism

Some thoughts;

This to me is all about the wisdom of the ancients...

ancient chinese wisdom

ancient Egyptian and hebrew wisdom

16 Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. (Jeremiah 6)

I always understood Tao to mean Truth...

Truth, Word... God

"In the beginning was the Word"... the Word, the Truth, the thing that created and brought into being all matter...

Yes, God is not human. God is not anything we with our human minds can describe. God is what... force, energy, Word, Truth, Light... He is all these things is He not?

Which is the most ancient of civilizations from which all wisdom flows?

Edited by Caringheart - 05 January 2013 at 12:07pm

A most interesting thread, thank you. Until now I had completely missed the parallels with Taoism and therefore the significance of Muhammad's many trips to China early in his career.

Edited by Taiji_Tao - 24 November 2015 at 5:59pm

Thanks to both Taiji_Tao and ping_an for the explanations. 

Ping_an, I agree with much of what you have written.  However, concerning God and whether He is "formless", in Islamic thought, God does have a "form" and He does sit on a throne.  That does not mean He is confined to one space or that He has physical limitations.  One of the things Muslims look forward to in Paradise is actually being given the honor of "seeing" God.  However, here in this earthly life, God has not revealed Himself because His glory would consume us.  For example, in the Quran, the story is mentioned of when Moses (pbuh) requested that he be will look upon God:

"And when Moses came [to Mount Sinai] at the time set by Us, and his Sustainer spoke unto him, he said: "O my Sustainer! Show [Thyself] unto me, so that I might behold Thee!"

Said [God]: "Never canst thou see Me. However, behold this mountain: if it remains firm in its place, then - only then - wilt thou see Me."

And as soon as his Sustainer revealed His glory to the mountain, He caused it to crumble to dust; and Moses fell down in a swoon. And when he came to himself, he said: "Limitless art Thou in Thy glory! Unto Thee do I turn in repentance; and I shall [always] be the first to believe in Thee!" (7:143)         

So, in our current earthly existence, we cannot possibly look upon our Lord, but in Paradise, it will be a different story:

"Some faces will on that Day be bright with happiness, (23) looking up to their Sustainer; (24) and some faces will on that Day be overcast with despair, (25) knowing that a crushing calamity is about to befall them." (75:22-25)

Of course, what you said about trying to form an "image" of God is certainly true.  We should not do that simply because we don't know what He "looks" like nor has He given us permission to do that.  The idolaters are more concerned with "images".  A true believer shuns such ideas.