Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost, is a term found in English translations of the Bible, but understood differently among the Abrahamic religions.
While the general concept of a spirit that permeates the cosmos is a general feature of most religions (e.g., Brahman in Hinduism and Tao in Taoism and Great Spirit among indigenous peoples of the Americas), the term Holy Spirit specifically refers to the beliefs held in the Abrahamic religions.
For the majority of Christians, the belief in the Holy Trinity implies the existence of three distinct holy persons being one eternal Triune God. Although the New Testament does not have a formal doctrine of the Trinity and contains no discussion of the Trinity as such, it speaks of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. In the New Testament the doctrine never becomes a "tritheism"; it does not have three Gods or even two. The Shema of the Old Testament[Deut. 6:4] belongs to the New Testament also: "The Lord our God is one".[Mk. 12:29][5] Christian denominations that do not share this doctrine and designation are referred to as Nontrinitarians.
In Islam, the Holy Spirit (Arabic: الروح القدس al-Ruh al-Qudus, "the-Spirit the-Holy") is mentioned several times in the Qur'an, where it acts as an agent of divine action or communication. In Hadith it is commonly identified with the angel Gabriel (Arabic Jibreel). The Spirit (الروح al-Ruh, without the adjective "holy") is also used as the creative spirit from God by which God enlivened Adam, and inspired the angels and the prophets. The belief in Trinity, as it is defined in the Qur'an, is explicitly forbidden by the Qur'an and called a grave sin. The same applies to any idea of the duality of God (Allah).[26][27] Though grammatical gender has no bearing on actual gender in non-personal nouns, the term holy spirit translates in and is used in the masculine form in all the Qur'an. In Arabic language the word "Holy Spirit" does not translate as سكينة Sakinah used in a feminine term. The term sakinah means state of relaxation.
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