I didn't mean that it lost something in the translation from Arabic to English. Clearly the Arabic words used are "He" or "Him" or what ever.
I understood. I've studied a number of languages although not Arabic. Human languages have sometimes different ways of dealing with masculine, feminine, and neuter, but they have a way.
"It" doesn't accomplish the idea for me, as it creates a dispassionate image of some limited object. </i?
I'll bet that if the Quran, which was written a bit before you were born, had used It, you would have been quite accepting of the usage and adjusting your sense of the word, It, accordingly. "It" just seems strange to you having grown up with "Him."
Sometimes in the Quran "We" the plural form is used, even at the insistance that God is One.
"We" works for me. It conveys something greater than a human. Of course, we goes with they, them, and us, not him. So it logically follows that the Quran would use the plural pronoun in any case.
So, I think We/Us/They/Them is a great choice for pronouns. As I said earlier, It would be fine if practitioners weren't otherwise acclimated. Another alternative would be to not use pronouns at all and just say Allah. "He" is, at best, the fourth best choice, linguistically speaking.
I would not presume to dictate how people should refer to their deities. My only point is that your justification for "He" is lame. I recognize that human culture was documented my male chauvinists pigs. Your trying to deny it or put some spin on it makes it even less palatable.
Karen |
