If 'Yeshua is God who is he praying to when he prays?
Another misunderstanding based on Islam's monistic beliefs. This leads to inability to understand both the Trinity (yes, a word not in the Bible, but neither is the Muslim word 'Tawhid' or 'tawheed' or the one-ness of allah in the Quran!).
But put that aside; how can God pray to God?
The incarnation of Yeshua as the 'God-man' was the incarnate creator entered into his creation. Yet he maintained the communing intimacy of the God-head (the Trinity) by continuing to speak to the Father.
Part of the confusion may be that for Muslims prayer is a formulaic ritual of 'worship'. Not the means of our communion with the Father. Yeshua was also reflecting the life of the un-fallen sinless man: to be in constant communion with the Father.
The foundation of un-fallen communion is given in Genesis 2:8a, where God walked in the garden with Adam and Eve: in perfect communion until they rejected life with God. Yeshua demonstrates the united-with-God life which we can have through him and in him.
The irony of this challenge is that Muslims are encouraged to pray to the not-allah Muhammad. See this article by Shamoun.
But it gets worse.
Allah also prays; to whom we are not told; a 'greater' god perhaps? This idea is perhaps a remnant of the paganism that underlies Islam (also suggested in the so-called Satanic Verses). Shamoun also deals with this absurdity.
See
They are those on whom are the prayers (salawatun) from their Lord and mercy (rahmatun), and it is they who are the guided-ones. S. 2:157
He it is who prays (yusallee) for you and His angels too, to bring you forth out of the darkness into the light, for He is merciful to the believers. S. 33:43 Palmer
Verily, God and His angels pray (yusalloona) for the prophet. O ye who believe! pray for him (salloo) and salute him with a salutation! S. 33:56 Palmer
Surah 33:56
God and His Angels Send blessings on the Prophet : O ye that believe ! Send ye blessings on him, And salute him With all respect. -- Yusuf Ali
surely Allah and his angels pray over the prophet O ye who believed pray over
him and submit submissively ﴾56) -- Murad's Literal Translation
This chapter examines the problem of the God and the angels' ṣallāt for Muhammad described in Sūrah 33:56 of the Qurān. Specifically, it addresses the question of whether God, whose transcendence Islam describes as inconceivable, and who cannot be limited, really “prays for” the Prophet, one of his own creatures. It argues that two elements support and ratify, rather than undermine, a literal interpretation of Sūrah 33:56—“God prays for the Prophet”— which is the phrase's most obvious and at the same time its deepest meaning. The first is one of the most essential metaphysical qualities of God (ṣifāt Allāh) as defined by Islam—his self-sufficiency, embodied in the names of al-qayyūm (the self-subsisting) and al-ghanī (the self-sufficing). Second is his reciprocal relationship to the cultic life of Islam, both directly and as mediated by the Prophet.
From
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