How is God Great? That is Islam’s Grand Central Question.
When I was a devout Muslim, two words seemed almost to take shape in the air whenever spoken—especially during the call to prayer. The muezzin’s voice, neither quite musical nor fully atonal, would echo out: “Allahu Akbar.” As his voice climbed and abruptly cut off, the words seemed to hang in the atmosphere like smoke trailing in elegant Arabic script.
“Allaaaaaah Akbar… Allaaaaaahu Akbar.”
This phrase—so familiar to Muslims—literally means “God is Greater.” It opens the call to prayer and summons worshippers to stop, wash, and prepare themselves for the ritual to come. For the devout, these words stir reverence, awe, and humility. The phrase itself even has a name: the Takbir.
Though I now follow Jesus, I remember how often I heard “Allahu Akbar” spoken in everyday life. A friend walking into a home might say it to bless the space. Others would cry it out in joyful surprise—or quietly murmur it upon hearing tragic news, as if to whisper, “God is greater than this pain.” It is both an expression of praise and a short prayer.
Since 9/11, many in the West associate the phrase with violence. Images of extremists shouting “Allahu Akbar” have clouded its meaning. And while it’s true some have twisted those words into a war cry, that is not their origin nor their truest use. For countless Muslims, the Takbir is not a shout of conquest—it is a prayer of surrender.
For this article, I’ll use “God” and “Allah” interchangeably. “Allah” is simply the Arabic word for God, used by Muslims and Arabic-speaking Christians alike. While the Christian and Muslim views of God differ profoundly, both faiths wrestle with the same question: What does it mean that God is greater?
That is the heart of Islam’s answer to life’s biggest question. And it’s where our comparison between Islam and Christianity must begin.
Greatness as the Root of Islam
Like Christianity and Judaism, Islam is monotheistic. But Islam claims a purer monotheism, rooted in Tawhid—the belief that God is an undivided, absolute unity. He has no partners, no associates, no divisions in His will, mind, or actions. As the Qur’an says in Sura 112: “Say: He is Allah, the One, the Only. The Eternal, the Absolute. He begets not, nor is He begotten. And there is none like unto Him.” This brief sura is so central that, according to Islamic tradition, the Prophet Muhammad is said to have called it one-third of the Qur’an in value.
Tawhid, however, is built on something even deeper: Takbir—God’s greatness. In Islam, God is not merely one; He is the Greatest Possible Being. Anything that seems to limit or associate something with Him—shirk—is the gravest sin.
That greatness is echoed in the Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God, each expressing His supreme attributes: the Creator, the Merciful, the Irresistible. To recite them is a sacred act; the Hadith promises Paradise to those who do.
Yet in Islam, God’s greatness means He cannot truly be known. He is personal in that He has will and consciousness, but He is not personal in any relational sense. Islamic theologian Al-Ghazali put it this way: the more you know of God, the more you realize you cannot know Him at all.
This absolute transcendence shapes Muslim prayer—ritualized, timed, and always preceded by physical cleansing. Reverence, yes. But personal encounter? No.
Looking back, I see the paradox: in Islam, we cleanse ourselves to come humbly before God. In Christianity, we come as we are—and He makes us clean. One path emphasizes God’s distance; the other, His desire to draw near. One begins with greatness; the other begins with grace.
The Context of Greatness
The Takbir—“Allahu Akbar”—didn’t emerge in a vacuum. It arose within a particular historical and religious context. Islam took shape in the seventh century amidst a swirl of religious rivals: pagan polytheists, Jews, and Christians. Islam wasn’t shy about its ambition—it claimed to offer a superior vision of God, one more worthy of worship than the alternatives. So it’s not offensive to Muslims to compare conceptions of God; Islam itself insists on the comparison. As Winfried Corduan rightly observes, the Qur’an is filled with claims that Islam is superior to all other faiths, and that Allah is greater than any other deity ever conceived.
That helps us understand Takbir not as a generic “God is greater,” but more specifically as “God is greater than all others”—a contrast at the heart of Islamic theology. And, by Islam’s account, the Trinitarian God of the Bible falls into that category of “others.”
Now, Christians and Muslims do share common ground. Both affirm one God, uncreated and supreme, who is omnipotent, omniscient, and transcendent. Both believe in divine revelation, even attributing inspiration to some of the same texts. Both venerate Jesus as born of a virgin, sinless, and miracle-working. But the agreement ends where it matters most.
Islam asserts that God’s greatness is found in His indivisible unity—Tawhid. To suggest otherwise is shirk, the highest blasphemy. The Trinity is rejected. The Incarnation is condemned. For Islam, the idea that God would enter creation is not humbling—it’s humiliating.
So where the Bible says creation would cry out in praise of Jesus if humanity stayed silent (Luke 19:40), the Qur’an says creation nearly tears itself apart at the thought of God having a Son (Sura 19:88–92).
Both faiths agree: God is great. But they radically disagree on what makes Him so.
The Struggle to Understand
In Islam, God is utterly transcendent—so far above creation that He is ultimately unknowable. Yet some Muslim scholars and commentators say He is also personally near to those who revere Him, responding to prayers and offering forgiveness. But how can a God who is wholly beyond us also be near? Islam affirms both, but offers no explanation for how they coexist.
This tension creates a dilemma for Muslims who long to worship a great God meaningfully. Islam says Allah is the Greatest—Allahu Akbar—and that none can match Him in His perfection. He is maximally loving, maximally merciful, and maximally just. But how can He be fully merciful and fully just without one diminishing the other? The struggle to reconcile these attributes is real. As a former Muslim, I remember it well. I longed to proclaim God’s love but couldn’t ignore His uncompromising justice. I was forced into mystery—not the kind that deepens worship, but the kind that discourages understanding.
This leads to a deeper question: Can God be both great and relational? Christianity answers with a bold yes. While Islam insists that God is too exalted to be known personally, Christianity teaches that God’s greatness is shown precisely in His willingness to condescend—to make Himself known. Paul, in Acts 17, told the Athenians about the “unknown god” they feared offending. But Paul said this God is not far from us. He’s made Himself known through creation, through history, and most fully through Jesus.
Though Muslims do not worship idols like the Athenians Paul conversed with, the God they worship remains largely unknown—not in name, but in relationship. The Gospel proclaims a God who is not only great in majesty but great in intimacy. Could it be that the greatness Muslims seek is most clearly revealed in the Gospel they’ve been taught to reject?
Interested in more information on this topic? Check our video podcast episode, “Who is Allah? Understanding the Islamic View of God.”
Note: This article has been adapted from chapter 7 from Abdu’s book, Grand Central Question: Answering the Critical Concerns of the Major Worldviews (IVP, 2014).
