|
Why is Allah referred to as Him or He if Allah does not have a gender or not associated with his creation. |
|
|
Salam, It is not the creation nor us who call Allah He or Him but rather it is Allah who calls Himself He just like Allah says, [He is Allah , other than whom there is no deity, Knower of the unseen and the witnessed. He is the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful] [ 59 v22 ] and also says, [He is Allah , other than whom there is no deity, the Sovereign, the Pure, the Perfection, the Bestower of Faith, the Overseer, the Exalted in Might, the Compeller, the Superior. Exalted is Allah above whatever they associate with Him] also says, [ 59 v23 ] [He is Allah , the Creator, the Inventor, the Fashioner; to Him belong the best names. Whatever is in the heavens and earth is exalting Him. And He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise] [ 59 v24 ] So you see it is Allah who calls Himself He and therefore, it is obligatory upon us to use the term He due to who He is and His power and also to show that He exists and that He is a live so when you use the word He your talking as if Allah is wright there with you and that He is not far off although He is above the seven heavens but He Sees and Hears when one mentions Him, therefore, this word has more meaning then what it seems like and all you have to do in order to understand is to examine the words that are used and their meanings and how they are used then you will come to the conclusion of understanding why it is used. In conclusion it is obligatory upon us to use the words He or Him or His when describing Allah and His attributes. Allah knows best. |
|
|
why do we refer to Allah as "HE"? Allah has no physical attributes - it is generally agreed that the parts of the Qur'an which mention Allah (ta'aala) seeing, hearing, or with hands or sitting on the throne ('arsh) are purely metaphorical and that Allah has no physical attributes (other than the fact that the entire physical universe is an emanation of Allah ta'aala). In Arabic, there is no word for "it," only pronouns which roughly correspond to the English "she" and "he." So does anyone object to referring to Allah as "It"? I anticipate people being opposed to that just based on the fact that it goes against tradition, but in this case tradition is imperfectly founded. In English this seems to apply the Christian idea that God is the "father," which thereby implies that God has given birth (and as we all know, lam yalid wa-lam yuulad). But in Arabic, maybe if there had been a neuter word like "it" this would not be the case. Also, using the word "He" obviously perpetuates male hegemony. There's no reason that there can't be total gender equality and still preserve the message of Islam, and for that reason it seems like using "It" to refer to Allah ta'aala should be welcome. And if you object to this idea, can you point to anything about Creation that is inherently masculine such that the Creator would be masculine? |
|
|
your question is already answered..kindly look at the accepted answer...it is ALLAH him self who addresses himself as HE and tells his creation to do so..!! and that is the reason why we dont put she or it ..!! the frustrating thing about this website is that people overlook the obvious, all the time. the point is that Arabic has only He and She. Persian/Bengali/Turkish have only one word - for he/she/it. We have three - he, she, and it. So it's clearly an accident of language and also reflects dynamics of gendered hegemony in society. So, all I'm saying is that it's a problem that we should think about. There is a difference between natural gender and grammatical gender. In French or Arabic, nouns are always grammatically masculine or feminine, even when they don't have a natural gender. Chaise (French for "chair"), for example, is grammatically feminine, hence one refers to it with the same pronoun that one uses for "Marie" or "Fatima", i.e., elle (French for "she").. Kursiyy (Arabic for "chair"), however, is grammatically masculine, so one refers to it with the same pronoun that one uses for "John" or "Ahmed", i.e., huwa (Arabic for "he"). Languages like Arabic, though, have no neuter gender, and such masculine or feminine pronominal references carry no connotations of humanness.The Quran refers to Allah using the masculine pronoun huwa because the word "Allah" is grammatically masculine, not because Allah is naturally masculine (Allah be our refuge). In English, using "He" for something without natural gender connotes personification, but not in Arabic. There is no implied anthropomorphism whatsoever. Neither, as explained above, is there any trace of misogyny. @tursun its not that am overlooking the "obvious thing" cause I dont find anything obvious in it..I am satisfied with the answers I got and did'nt had furthermore concerns about it so dint became a question tag and thought much on it ! Aaliya that's a good answer (the preceding one), thanks. But that's what I'm getting at: since it implies no anthropomorphism, why not just use the word "It"? If we did that, then we would get around the confusing situation of a gendered pronoun referring to a non-gendered God (ta'aala). Sorry for not being more careful about my post, and thanks again...it's an interesting problem. trust me ! there is no point of debating or thinking on a situation which is clearly clarified by ALLAH swt himself in the preceding ayah's..! lets not create much of that confusion cause the more we ask "WH" questions, the more we get drowned in that question..[quran 2:66-71] You have started like you always do. Stop commenting on what you dont know also we are not worshipping the black stone. whom are you addressing?
showing 5 of 9
show all
|
|
|
the term "we" in the bible and in the in the quraan is the royal "we" as an example when the king says, "we decree the following declaration,etc" or, "we are not amused." it does not indicate plural; rather it displays the highest position in the language, english, persian, hebrew, arabic, and many languages provide for the usage of "we" for the royal figure. it is helpful to not the same dignity is given to the person being spoken to in english. we say to someone, "you are my friend." yet the person is only one person standing there. why did we say "are" instead of "is"? the noun "you" is singular and should therefore be associated with a singular verb for the state of being, yet we say, "are" the same is true for the speaker when referring to himself or herself. we say, "i am" and this is also in the royal, plural, instead of saying, "i is" when allah uses the term "he" in quraan it similar to the above answer. the word "he" is used when referring to allah out of respect, dignity and high status. it would be totally inappropriate to use the word "it" and would not convey the proper understanding of allah being who allah is; alive, compassionate, forgiving, patient, loving, etc. it is not correct to associate the word "he" with gender, as this would be comparing allah to the creation, some thing totally against the teaching of quraan. |
|
|
What you on? SubhanAllah.. This question is answered by numerous people. You dont make sense.. what is neuter got to do with creating life? Allah is not like His creation. But He does refer to Himself in a masculine way. The following should answer your questions, if not, may Allah help you: Where Does the word "Allah" Come From? "Allah" comes from the Arabic word "elah" - (Arabic) means 'a god' or something that is worshipped. This word (elah) can be made plural, as in "aleha" and it can be male or female. "Allah" comes from "elaha" but it brings more clarification and understanding.
Is "Allah" only for Islam and Muslims? "Allah" is the same word used by Christian and Jewish Arabs in the Bible, before Islam came. On page one [1] of Genesis in the Old Testament, we find the word "Allah" seventeen [17] times. |
|
|
i thing our good brothers answered the question and questioner satisfy already, anybody having question should go to question forum right? why debating here very badly? |
|
|
Allah uses masculine words for Himself. Allah is not male or female. Allah is not like His creation (now that wouldnt have made much sense if i phrased it as "Allah is not like Allah's creation"). And as a brother previously explained, in the English language, we tend to have to use the word He more than usual. Ahh.. be careful, dont become a radical feminist and try change the word History to Herstory. May Allah make us among the pious :) |
|
|
why we cant use the word "Allah" in everywhere where we need to refer Allah's Name... there is no need to use the word he or him........... |
|
|
thats what my question was and caabi has answered it perfectly..!! @Aaliya:Your question and MWM Zinan questions are different as you have asked why 'he' is used and not the other word? and the answer is because no other word is available to describe third person other than he. And zinan question is 'why dont we use word Allah wherever instead of he' and the answer is ofcourse we can use it wherever but since repeating the same word make the sentence too bulky. So he is used . MIND IT. thats what I said bro...we are not able to use ALLAH everywhere and that is why we use the pronoun "he" or "him" rather than using ALLAH everywhere in the sentence. think LOGICAL..!! Not logical, just think straight and to the point, and you will find the difference.... its fine brother..!! okay......
showing 5 of 6
show all
|
|
|
I'm not Dai, but I will try to explain it with my understanding, if there is anything wrong, please correct me hmm... I think it's because of language... I believe in english, "He" refers to Jesus Christ which mean God by christian. english have no word for a third person that not explain the gender of that person, what I mean is, "he" is a pronoun for third person of male and "she" is a pronoun for third person female, but there is no pronoun for third person that not explain the gender. so, when people translate Al-Quran into english, the pronoun of Allah (which is God that have no gender) the translator have no better word than He. But in my native language, Indonesia, we don't have this problem because pronoun that we use for third person not explain the gender which is "Dia" or "Nya". so when we read the translate still not change the meaning that Allah is a God that have no gender. maybe because of that we muslim should use arab languange in shalat. such as kafir. kafir in Islam means a person who rejects the truth of Islam, when people translate it into english it become non-muslim. |
|
|
what my friend said above is right. also, If Allah had said her, people would take it that Allah (swt) was a female or had a gender, he is the default according to Allah and when we use He it does not mean we are referring to a male. I do not know why He is the default word and not her, but that is how people think. |
|
