Allah Is A Man?
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Peace,
It is easier in Arabic and Persian where third person is not gender dependant. We have simply used masculine form as it traditionally has been standing for authority I think and I know it is inevitable to say any other third person alternative in English because it feel disrespectful to say "it" about God.
God bless you
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peace,
this shows all human language(trials), are insufficient to pay respect/describe Allah. the only language universal is the language you 'feel at heart' without even moving your tongue - intuition, the only divine language of Allah.
Allah talks with this language to all humans / creations.
peace.
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yeah but aren't we still genderizing God can we say God Or Lord in replace of him or he
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Peace,
Sometimes I try to keep away from pronouns for that reason, but it somehow feels repetitive to use just God or Lord all the time. For a fluent English it takes some pronouns unfortunately. I see God as a being that is not a man nor a woman, but in English we may be a bit restricted. The portrayal of God as a grumpy old man in Heaven is just a man-made idea.
God bless you
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deeply humble to say i understand now thank you my brother
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It is the word which is in Arabic gramaticaaly masculine, the concept is not masculine. The same as kitab, kitab is not a masculine thing, but the word is gramatically masculine. Same as in many languages. But if, for instance in Spanish which is also gramtically gendered for all words, we said "divinidad", it would be feminine, and we would not say "?l" (he) but "ella" (she). So no, Allah is not gendered, not at all. That, to Arabic speakers is too clear to invite the lightest doubt, same as in Spanish and other gramatically gendered languages. The word, its gramatical descrition is something, the thing itslef is something else. If we say, "esperanza" (hope) we know it is not a woman, it is a meaning which is not feminine or masculine, the word, gramatically is feminine.
In English I know there are a few names of things which are gendered, as masculine or feminine, and not in neuter "it", and I suppose it makes a lot of sense may be to disgender the word "God" or Allah, because it does not convey what it does in gendered languages. Like "mesa" (table) in Spanish is feminine, it would never ocurr to a Spanish speaker that the table itself would have a gender or see it as something sexed. It would be preposterous, but gramatically the word "mesa" is feminin. That is what happens with the word Allah.
Sometimes I can appreciate too that in Enlgish it really sounds violent to call God He, as if he was a male. It is only habit that takes the hardness off it. I guess it is the speakers of English who should do something about that.
Salaam
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Since my title brought you here i was wondering why do we describe Allah as a HE why do we do that and people said is out of respect but if we said Allah as a SHE it isnt right im just confused why do we put a gender on Allah, God, Lord, The Great Spirit. whats your thought on this subject
Arabic has two grammatical genders, masculine and feminine. For example, "sams" means sun, and "madnat" means city, both are feminine. Or for example, the name of any town or city would also be feminine. It does not necessarily mean the thing is female. Also, things that are naturally male or female would be either masculine or feminine respectively.
Joe
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Salaam
Masculine or feminine both in english and Arabic just a gender of the word.
Example is the word "Allah" a masculine word, yes it is, but just hurufiyah,the gender of that Arabic word, not His/It's gender.Allah is not same with the human , " There is nothing that equals Him (ِ " (QS 4211).
I believe this came from the word "misyaal" which means pattern,example or type and pronoun "hi-hu" as pronoun of Allah/God.
I intepreted this verse if God has no similiarity at all with His creations especially for gender.Btw my theory if Allah is a masculine word is
Allah is not a proper noun but common noun.The characteristics of proper nouns is this words has neutral in gender and forbidden to be translated into another languages evan it can.Example Muhammad.
The word "Allah" is masculine in gender and it's feminine form is "Allata" / (the main rules of feminine/muannatz is ta' in the last word).This word appeared in ayat 5319.
Because of this the word "Allah" can be translated into another language "God". -
What people have said so far is right.. the gender comes from language.
However, it is also true that people have "genderized" God into a male figure. Typically it people made the God into the image of the closest authority they had, their father. Traditionally, the father was more a formal authority and more distanced than the mother. So, God ended up being the Lord, the Father, Him... more so than what comes from the language. Mankind has always had problems understanding God, or what God is not.
Peace
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The Quran says " huwa Allah " nothing else gets the title " huwa" but the corrupted Arabic we have today removed that understanding from us . In the Quran man is referred to as " "alazi ". Some times Allah is redeemed to as huwa alazi as well . But huwa is only for Allah .
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The Quran says " huwa Allah " nothing else gets the title " huwa" but the corrupted Arabic we have today removed that understanding from us . In the Quran man is referred to as " "alazi ". Some times Allah is redeemed to as huwa alazi as well . But huwa is only for Allah .
I am amazed at such comments . . .
The above is clearly incorrect on few levels.
brickwall
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true my mistake ,huwa and hiya are present in the quran.
but what i meant here is that Allah sometimes gives himself the plural form as well,does that make him more than one?
no it does not for if so it would conflict with quran teaching " la illaha illa Allah"
"illahukum illahun wahid"
so when God states that huwa as in him does that mean it is feminine or masculine. you think masculine,what do you say?
clearly when Allah says " la yalid wa la yuwlad" it is clear that Allah has kept away the gender issue away from him or how to refers to himself.
we might realize in the future that there is more to the arabic language we are reading in the Quran we only mis interpret it now.
so dont say he is male or female for both are not right.
Huwa Allah.
to take Arabic as we know it at face value and not to research more the true meaning of words from the quran would be a mistake.
that is why i try to see more meanings in words from the quran.
eg huwa when it refers to allah it is singular but does that mean that huwa is the opposite of hiya ,if we put down all that to logic ,then obviously this is not the case.clearly when we refer to Allah as huwa that is not the opposite of hiya.still we don't say hiya Allah.there could be more to this.needs more time to reflect on .there are instances in the quran where huwa refers to a female and not a male.i will show you look at aya 16-97 huwa here comes in the form of "Is".
Allah knows best. -
and the chimp please stop that guy from banging his head to the wall.
he makes me sound like a complete-------------- you know what. -
Major problem for someone who thinks in English. I remember a long debate on the plural reference to God as well. Elohim (Pluralis Majestatis). Arabic, Hebrew, Tamil, Sinhalese... An uncountable number of languages has this. English doesnt.
You cant call God, "it". Empathise with the language of concern, not look through the keyhole of a glass door. That is height of stupidity.
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I would like to point out that i am only stating my point of view ,I don't claim to be right but i am only suggesting.
this forum is a great place for that,i have learned a lot from it.
as i have looked at some topics i have seen that it all goes back to how we interpret the Quran,once we open the door to interpretations we will see a lot of different point of views and that is the beauty of it.
i can say it only gets better .
keep an open mind and use it ,that is why Allah gave it to us.
peace -
HAHAHAHA I THOUGHT ABOUT THAT BUT WHAT MAN CAN LIVE UP TO EVER ATTRIBUTE HE IS THE OFTEN REPEATER OF CREATION BUT HE HAS NO OFFSPRING? CONSIDER!!!