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Why do we use “He”for God?(First question)

By: admin

The First Question

One question, which I want to ask is: As you know Allah is only one as all Muslims believe, and according to Qur’an there is no sex of Allah. But you have used “HIS” for Allah in some of your answers, which means that Allah is “HE” a male.

What are your comments, please?

Reply

The words that we use normally have a relationship with the concepts that we have. The concept of Divinity has traditionally been one of power and authority. It is for this reason that man has generally not used the feminine gender for God which,as we all will agree,is associated with softness and tenderness. The “He” that is normally used for God does not signify that we have ascribe to the concept of a male God as compared to a female God, it only signifies the concept of the power and authority.

It is for this reason that in most (if not all) of the languages of the world the basic words used for God are masculine words. Allah, the Arabic word, like God in English, Jehovah in Hebrew, Bhagwan in Hindi etc are all masculine words. Jesus (pbuh) is also reported to have referred to God in the masculine – the Father. All these languages have masculine words for God not because the people who speak these languages ascribe to the concept of a male God. It is simply because they have traditionally ascribed such power and authority to God, which in their perception did not make it suitable for them to use feminine genders for God. Moreover, it seems that man, at that time, had not philosophized the language to the extent of determining the sex of God just because masculine words were used for Him. Neither had language been subjected to the sick operation of the anti-sexists.

Masculine gender for God does not signify a male God just like the feminine gender for rain,breeze,sunlight etc does not signify a female gender of all these God’s creations.

Hope it answers your question

UIUK team

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