I wasn't expecting that, but he wouldn't even give a little ground on anything.
Even when I showed him why a Bible verse could not support his position, he'd stick to his guns.
I asked why he stuck so hard to his position when he believed the Bible was corrupt, anyway.
He never really gave an answer.
This happened several times.
Cognitive dissonance.
I heard that an amazingly high percentage of Arabs believed that Saudis had nothing to do with 9-11 and an amazingly high percentage of Americans still believe that we had a legitimate reason, related to 9-11, to attack Iraq
- same thing, too few people will accept information that conflicts with their self-perception.
"al" is the definite article, and is not what comes from "el". The "il" of "ilah" comes from the Aramaic Elah (used in the Aramaic sections of the Bible), which of course comes from "el/eloah".
Christianity Today Magazine has a good article about the differences between Muhammad's view of God and the Christian view of God.
Here is a small sample:
Let's go back to our question: Is the Father of Jesus the God of Muhammad? The answer is surely Yes and No. Yes, in the sense that the Father of Jesus is the only God there is. He is the Creator and Sovereign Lord of Muhammad, Buddha, Confucius, of every person who has ever lived. He is the one before whom all shall one day bow (). Christians and Muslims can together affirm many important truths about this great God—his oneness, eternity, power, majesty. As the Qur'an puts it, he is "the Living, the Everlasting, the All-High, the All-Glorious" (2:256).
But the answer is also No, for Muslim theology rejects the divinity of Christ and the personhood of the Holy Spirit—both essential components of the Christian understanding of God. No devout Muslim can call the God of Muhammad "Father," for this, to their mind, would compromise divine transcendence. But no faithful Christian can refuse to confess, with joy and confidence, "I believe in God the Father. … Almighty!" Apart from the Incarnation and the Trinity, it is possible to know that God is, but not who God is.