According to Islam, God is known by 99 different names. ar-Raḥmān to ar-Raḥiym to ar-Rashiyd, are all different names of one God. I took the liberty of lockdown and the thirty days of Ramdan to look into God in different cultures. No matter which the tradition was, all mentioned about the one and same God. Then how do we have so many religions, which says different concepts of God? Misconception! Even a person belonging to his own religion may not know about basic details of his God.

2000 years ago, a time with no concept of religion, each traditions across the world had their own beliefs, everyone believed in one true creator. Here is the thing, across the globe, people speak different languages and have their own cultures. And when an enlightened person introduces God to others, he can only explain it to them based on the knowledge of their culture. Then how come we have hundreds of religions, with different teachings across the world? Perception!

The enlightened one who started preaching had a perception of his own and the other people who listened to his perception may have understood a different perception. Some considered the person as a messenger of God, some considered himself to be God, while some other considered him as a Guru, a teacher. So is the person to be blamed or his followers? None, as each person has his own understanding of God based on his knowledge. If I say God looks like an Elf, it may be because in my visions, he has the form of an Elf. In your vision, he may be an old man sitting up in the sky!

God doesn’t have just 99 names, he is known by uncountable names. May be his true name is something which we cannot even comprehend. God is not a name, god is an understanding, a feeling. A feeling which makes you to beg for mercy and tears flow down unconsciously. Then you think of all of those people whom you made fun of when they were crying during prayer, and then you cry some more out of pity for your past self. Knowing that God doesn’t judge, and loves you unconditionally. May be he sent you down here, a training ground, where you can learn a life which you want to live!