Holy Spirit

CRITICAL: Two distinct risks converge here. First, as elsewhere in the Islamic world, ‘Ruh al-Qudus’ is often explained in Islamic commentary as referring to the archangel Jibril aiding Jesus, not a co-equal divine Person. Second, and more distinctive to the Malay Archipelago, traditional animist belief (still present beneath official Islam in parts of Malay folk culture) recognizes many kinds of roh (spirits: ancestor spirits, nature spirits, jin), which risks Roh Kudus being heard as merely one spirit-being among many rather than God himself. Both must be explicitly addressed.