Who is the Holy Spirit?

THE HOLY SPIRIT

All praise and thanks to Allah for granting us the knowledge and wisdom and for sparing our lives till this day. We pray and Ask Allah to prolong our days and continue to guide us in Islam. We believe there is only one God and Muhammad pbuh is His messenger.

  The main topic to discuss today is "The holy Spirit"  the holy spirit has been misunderstood by many people in the world especially the non Muslims. To our christian brothers the holy spirit is part of God. For example, according to the trinitarians , the father is God ,the son is God and the Holy spirit is God .

  But when you ask our Christian brothers who the holy spirit is as in describing who the Holy spirit is , no christian , I repeat not even one could tell us exactly who the holy spirit is. The best they could say is, the holy spirit is God and Jesus said when he goes he will send down the holy spirit to guide them. Well due to these misunderstandings , I will take my time to deduce to you what is meant by the word Holy spirit and who the holy spirit is.

     The word Holy spirit is from the Greek word "pneuma" and the one who studies the holy spirit is called the pneumatologyist. It actually means two words which are wind, breathe or spirit or thing . For study sake we will deduce them one after the other.

         MEANING OF PNEUMA IN TERMS OF WIND.

•  If we are to take the meaning of wind for instance , we will have no option than to come to conclusion that the Holy spirit can not be God because the wind is also a creation of God . when we read Genesis 8:1 which says:  “And God kept Noah in mind, and all the living things and the cattle which were with him in the ark: and God sent a wind over the earth, and the waters went down.  So it's God Almighty who sends wind .Therefore the wind is also a creation of God and it cannot be God. As Jesus pbuh says in John 13:16 that   Truly I say to you, A servant is not greater than his lord; and he who is sent is not greater than the one who sent him. Now due to this reason the wind cannot be God and More so the Holy spirit. That is if pneuma means wind.”

•      similarly, the Quran confirms this by saying (Qur'an 30:48-51) Allah sends the winds that stir up clouds and then He spreads them in the sky as He wills and splits them into different fragments, where after you see drops of rain pouring down from them. He then causes the rain to fall on whomsoever of His servants He wills, and lo, they rejoice at it, although before that they were given to despair. See, then, the tokens of Allah's Mercy: how He revives the earth after it is dead. Verily He is the One Who will revive the dead. He has power over everything. But if We were to send a wind and then their tilth has become yellow, they would become ungrateful (unbelievers). Therefore if the term. "PNEUMA" means wind then its not part of God its a creation of God .

THE MEANING OF PNEUMA IN TERMS OF BREATHE



The breathe in other words means life . Life can not be God because life is also a creation . ones we read Deuteronomy 32:39 See now, I myself am he; there is no other god but me: giver of death and life, wounding and making well: and no one has power to make you free from my hand.
So life is a creation created by God and it can't be God . The Holy Quran tells us the same in Quran 67:2

خَلَقَ الْمَوْتَ وَالْحَيَاةَ لِيَبْلُوَكُمْ أَيُّكُمْ أَحْسَنُ عَمَلًا ۚ وَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْغَفُورُ 

Who has created death and life, that He may test you which of you is best in deed. And He is the All-Mighty, the Oft-Forgiving;  (Al-Mulk 67:2)

 So in fact life is a creation of God Almighty.

     THE MEANING OF PNEUMA IN TERMS OF SPIRIT.

The term spirit is defined as something which has no flesh and born. And this definition was given to us by Jesus pbuh himself in Luke 24:39 See; my hands and my feet: it is I myself; put your hands on me and make certain; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have. 

 So from the Christ Himself , anything that has no flesh and born is a spirit. One will have to know that God created everything in pair's for example, Good and Bad, Man and woman, evil and holy etc. Similarly the spirits are categorized into two types.

But before then we need to know that the word "holy" can also mean sacred or pure. So Holy spirits in other words means sacred spirits, or pure spirits. 

   TYPES OF SPIRITS .

1. Evil Spirits

2. Pure Spirit.

I will take them one after the other and elaborate on them.

1.EVIL SPIRITS: The word evil can also mean bad, wicked, ungodly, or satanic spirits. So the satanic spirits is also recorded in the bible as evil spirits. A perfect example is 1 kings 22:21-22 which says :
21  Then a spirit came forward and took his place before the Lord and said, I will get him to do it by a trick

 22  And the Lord said, How? And he said, I will go out and be a spirit of deceit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Your trick will have its effect on him: go out and do so
    So over here the spirit that had the conversation with God is the spirit of the devil which is the evil spirit. These spirits comprises of any spirit that doesn't act Godly and obey the laws of God . And Satan is their Master.
2. THE PURE OR SACRED SPIRIT .
 When we say something is Holy, the we mean to say something that is Godly, Pure and sacred. Something that obeys the laws of God and acts righteously. Therefore since we are dealing in context of spirits, then the holy spirit here Is an angel of God. It's angels that God Almighty act Godly and doesn't sin . so the word Holy spirit which has been misunderstood is nothing more than an angel of God.
 For example: God Almighty in the Qur'an referred to Angel Gabriel (a.s) as Run, which means spirits.
Qur'an 19:17 فَاتَّخَذَتْ مِنْ دُونِهِمْ حِجَابًا فَأَرْسَلْنَا إِلَيْهَا رُوحَنَا فَتَمَثَّلَ لَهَا بَشَرًا سَوِيًّا
She placed a screen (to screen herself) from them; then We sent to her Our Ruh [angel Jibrael (Gabriel)], and he appeared before her in the form of a man in all respects.  (Maryam 19:17)
 So  God Almighty referred to Arc Angel Gabriel (a.s) His Spirit. There for the Holy Spirit is an angel of God and Angel Gabriel precisely .
Luke 1:26-27. Which says : 26  Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town in Galilee, named Nazareth,
27  To a virgin who was to be married to a man named Joseph, of the family of David; and the name of the virgin was Mary.

You realize that Gabriel (a.s) was the one God sent to Mary. Even though He appeared in human form to her, we still know that He is not a human but a spirit , therefore the Holy spirit precisely was Angel Gabriel (a.s) which was been referred figuratively as Holy Spirit.

ONENESS OF GOD 

 since God is one and unique as said in Isaiah 45:5 which says :5  I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God but me: I will make you ready for war, though you had no knowledge of me: So its blasphemous to ever say the spirits created by God are God . Allah says in the Qur'an 21:22 which says

لَوْ كَانَ فِيهِمَا آلِهَةٌ إِلَّا اللَّهُ لَفَسَدَتَا ۚ فَسُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَرْشِ عَمَّا يَصِفُونَ 

Had there been therein (in the heavens and the earth) gods besides Allah, then verily both would have been ruined. Glorified be Allah, the Lord of the Throne, (High is He) above what they attribute to Him!  (Al-Anbiya 21:22)

 Allah has made it clear. Beside him there is no God, had there been any God beside The true God in heaven, then   there will be massacre. The heaven and earth would have been destroyed by now.

    Last but not least God Almighty does not change .Malachi 3:6. We recall in Matt 3:16-17 where the Holy spirit turned into a dove. For this reason the Holy spirit is not part of God.

CONCLUSION.

We have come to know that the Holy spirit is not God.  Neither is He part of God but rather they are creations of God who are Angels precisely. Wa akhir dawaana Anil hamdulilah.