Peace.

The matter is simple. 'He' is 'it' in Arabic. But 'he' has a two-fold meaning in English and Arabic

1. To refer to things that are not familiar. (we mostly use 'it' in this case in English unless we are referring to beings that we relate to, such as a baby or an animal, some may even take 'he' as far as plants and rocks to show that they view them as beings but that is not common. Males typically refer to their cars affectionately as 'she' and their privates as 'he' in English. They personify them to show that they have a special relationship (familiarity) with them. This can be done with any object when a person wants to show that the has a special relationship with it.)

2.To refer to animals & people of the male gender.

In Arabic an unknown thing has to be a 'he' because 'he' includes the concept of 'it' as something vague or unknown in Arabic. Therefore if you refer to something (whose sex you don't not know) as a 'she' you are totally in the wrong. You can only say 'she' when you KNOW that it is female.

For any of you that know Spanish or any other Romance languages the same thing goes. If you don't know what it is you say 'he.' Certain words do have male and female connotations but you don't view those words or ideas as really male or female, you just refer to them as males or females because that is how they are refferred to. No one in their right mind thinks of a restaurant (restaurante) as a male or a chair (silla) as a female. These things are just referred to in this manner.

I don't think that is right for the issue to be looked at as a symbolic thing. It is just how certain languages dealt with how to communicate. In its very beginning it might have been symbolic, but it has lost all practical symbolism now. These languages only allow for such thinking with clever word plays.

It does not have much of anything to do with any divine BALANCE or anything of the sort as Arabic is not the only language that does this and as people who speak these languages mean very different things when they say 'she' in relation to a female being and 'she' in relation to an idea or an object. Not to mention what that would mean for languages that don't use this way of communication, like English for instance. (Do we lack balance? I dont think that is even worth debating)

To refer to God as a 'he' in Arabic is only sticking to Arabic grammar and showing that God's sex is not known (in this case he doesn't have one). It at the same time allows for God to be something that is alive and something with which we have a special relationship.

To refer to God as 'he' in English, doesn't necessarily mean that we view him as a male (although this is the more widespread idea of 'he'). It can and in truth does mean that we view God as something with which we have a personal relationship and which we view as alive, even though we don't know his sex (in this case he doesn't have one).

At the very least all we can say is that English and Arabic are limited in this capacity. They did not invent a new term for this (something whose sex is not known but is alive and is something with which we can have a personal relationship).

I'm sure some language out there has a term for this, but that language probably lacks capacity when it comes to expressing some other concept.
Humans invented these languages and we can only come up with terms for the things that we have the capacity to recognize. THen there's the issue of changing the language of a population which people have done but they had no real control over the matter. WE can express this but we just haven't come up with terms that would elminate any confusion.

Godbless,
Anwar

Indeed there is duality and BALANCE - some may prefer BASS and you may prefer TREBLE. Music is a duality of SOUND and SILENCE though it may be argued that this is not a true PAIR. Once it enters one's mind it is like a seed. Maybe HEMP even, and there is a duality there too between ROPE and DOPE. Nevertheless the seed can overlay the mind on each end and make good of the principle of duality between what is SOWN and what is GROWN.

I must study this further..but to do this i must have enough hemp to start with...i should start planting now, and see what the EFFECTS of this CAUSE will be...though if i just take in enough of the plant in question maybe i too can reach the ONENESS that is the WHOLE...

Peace be upon you,

The God is above the sexual gender. But the God creates in pairs. It is the DUAL THINKING that helps us to understand. When we apply this male female principle to the Creator, we see that the God gives and is in need of nothing, so in THIS perception we see the God as the male principle and the creation as the female principle. It is only a way of looking at things which can be overlayed to any situation to gain wisdom. When we see the extremes on each end, we can better align ourselves with the BALANCE between the extremes. We are a people of BALANCE. We seek to become the WORD(message/messenger) which is "between" the God and creation.

Indeed there is duality and BALANCE - some may prefer BASS and you may prefer TREBLE. Music is a duality of SOUND and SILENCE though it may be argued that this is not a true PAIR. Once it enters one's mind it is like a seed. Maybe HEMP even, and there is a duality there too between ROPE and DOPE. Nevertheless the seed can overlay the mind on each end and make good of the principle of duality between what is SOWN and what is GROWN.

I understand how it would bring us closer to God by thinking of it as a person, but just out of considering the issue, I've been thinking how it might be good if we could refer to God as she. Now I understand what idolfree is saying when he says that we can consider the male-female pair system, but I think we should look at that scenario again, becuase the male in the pair doesn't always have to be the powerful one in a couple, perhaps female beauty can be considered as a major point. Just a thought though. But then again in a verse of the Quran (I can't remember which at the moment' God says something like 'and they even set up female partners with God'. It could be greater sin to consider it as a she, God knows best. I'd like to know what your views are on this.

Peace.
Natu on the line.

The God is above the sexual gender. But the God creates in pairs. It is the DUAL THINKING that helps us to understand. When we apply this male female principle to the Creator, we see that the God gives and is in need of nothing, so in THIS perception we see the God as the male principle and the creation as the female principle. It is only a way of looking at things which can be overlayed to any situation to gain wisdom. When we see the extremes on each end, we can better align ourselves with the BALANCE between the extremes. We are a people of BALANCE. We seek to become the WORD(message/messenger) which is "between" the God and creation.

What I'm trying to say is that it is a familiarity and a cultural thing. If you think that the thing is alive and you are familar with it, meaning you feel as though you have a connection with it you will refer to the 'it' as a he or a she. If you feel as if the thing is lifeless/dead and you don't relate to it in any way you relate to it as an it.

It is because people feel that God is alive (and he is) and that they are familiar with him and have a connection to him that they refer to God as him, and that is why Arabic speakers think of God as a person (him) and even Spanish speakers (Spanish shares the same rules of Arabic when it comes to 'it') think of God as a him. Not because they think he is male (but some unfortunately do) but because they have a relationship with God. In old english and to some extant in modern english, 'him' a nueter to. You see it all the time when people refer to a dog or a baby and they don't know its sex. They say 'so what is his name' or 'how is he.' THey are communicating that they have respect and familiarity for the dog or the baby and believe it to be alive, but the don't know what sex it is.

Godbless,
Anwar