Most of us raised in the West were taught that man was created in the image of God? Where did that come from?Well,here it is Genesis 27: God created man in His own image,in the image of God He created him.

I always scratched my head in confusion when I heard that.It didn’t make any sense.And it led to nonsense like that famous painting of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel with an image of God as an older bearded man and a man(i’m not sure whom ) trying to touch him. Anthropomorphism at its worst.And some current sadly misled Muslims of the Salafi type also think God has a hand or sits on a chair! Estagfirullah. God has no form and nobody as we know it.He is beyond time and space and limits.

So what is that statement about in the Bible? An inspiration came.This is another error of translation or at least a very poor wording of the original phrase.It should read:God created man as a reflection of Himself (a pale reflection,no doubt).So man has certain characteristics ,like will and choice and speech, that are similar to the Divine Will,Choice and Speech although much less perfect and precise.In that way,he resembles God.The analogy that might best fit  here is the sun and the moon.The moon also has light but it is reflected light.And the moon also occupies space but it is much more limited than  the sun.

Now there is another likeness here that is even more mysterious.The Quran tells us in Surat 32 .9 that Allah breathed into man of His Spirit (or Soul). So there is an inner connection between our deepest being and the Essence of God.The Sufis call that the secret(sir) and it represents the deepest level of spiritual realization.Hope that clarifies for you what has long been a puzzling issue for me.