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Tuesday, February 27, 2007

{Quick Reflections 35} The Gender of God

Posted by Badeea at 1:19 PM

Why do some people take for granted that God has a gender? They even go beyond that and take for granted that God is male.
Let us think of this title together. What is the gender of God? Does He have a gender? Why do we say "He" and not "She"?

To answer these questions properly we will need to use a few different tools. Logic (as usual), biology and linguistics.

From a biological stand point, as creatures, we know that all higher forms of life are formed of 2 sexes, male and female. The reason for having 2 sexes is that the sexual interaction between them is necessary for the continuation of existence of that creature. As one generation dies its offspring have to be there if that creature is to continue to be represented in life in later generations. Another reason for having 2 different sexes is that neither of them is psychologically or physically fully independent and either one needs the other to maintain a healthy and stable life.
On the other hand lesser forms of life are known to reproduce asexually through budding or division. Again the "need" for reproduction is the continuation of existence of that creature as all creatures are mortal and bound to die one day.

Accordingly if an entity is bound to live for ever it does not need to reproduce or have an offspring either sexually or asexually. Also if an entity is "perfect" on its own it does not need another entity to exist either in space or in time parallel to it.

Now if that entity is God, the Most Perfect, the Creator of time and space, the Creator of creatures that reproduce either sexually or asexually we will need to ask ourselves a few questions.
Since He is "perfect" why would He have other entities next to Him? Why would He exist in different "formats"? How can the Creator of "existence" and "formats" exist in formats?!
Since He is the Creator of time and space, then the finite limits of neither the past, present and future nor of place, can encompass Him. (Kindly refer to http://www.daraltarjama.com/dt/forum/showthread.php?p=354#post354). Accordingly how can some people say that His so called "Son", which is a so called "format of Him" existed on Earth in a certain finite place during a certain finite time?

Pure logical answers to the above questions confirm that God is genderless and exists in only one format that only He knows about and is One and only One Who is not limited by place or time.

Now since He does not have a gender as He is the Creator of gender, from a linguistic stand point we refer to Him as "He" and not "She" because our mental and linguistic abilities have to refer to Him using something that is constant and never changing. Accordingly the reason for referring to Him as "He" is our limited mental and linguistic abilities that can never encompass Him.

On the other hand from a social stand point we tend to call the origin of anything "mother" as it is the womb that carries offspring or products into existence, e.g. mother-land, mother-tongue, etc. Accordingly it is very strange that people at a certain era decided to call the Creator of existence "Father" and made up a story about His "Son" and decided that God and His so-called Son are both of the male gender! Why can it not be "Mother" and "Daughter"? Or "Father" and "Daughter"? Or "Mother" and "Son"? The reasons behind that are very clear. At the time that story was fabricated, when the world was ruled mercilessly by the Roman Empire, women and the female sex were regarded as inferior so anything superior or Divine had to be thought of in the more superior form, men and the male sex. Accordingly God had to be "Father". Also Prophet `Isaa (Jesus) whom the whole story was fabricated about was a "man" so it had to be "Son".

From all the above we can conclude that God has no gender (He is the Creator of the concept of gender in the first place) and is One and only One (not existing in multiple finite formats in finite places and times as He is the Creator of formats, places and time).

The Arabic word for God is Allaah which pertains to no gender unlike god in English that pertains to a male gender as goddess pertains to a female gender.

1 comments on "{Quick Reflections 35} The Gender of God"

zax on December 30, 2007 at 3:18 AM said...

يقول الله تعالى
"هو الله الذى لا اله الا هو"
واضح تماما أن الضمير هو يشير الى الله جل جلاله بصيغة المذكر
يقول الله تعالى
"قل هو الله أحد الله الصمد لم يلد و لم يولد و لم لم يكن له كفوا أحد "
مرة أخرى بصيغة المذكر
يقول تعالى فى سورة الجن
"و أنه تعالى جد ربنا ما اتخذ صاحبة ولا ولدا"
نجد أن الله تعالى نفى عن ذاته جل جلاه أن يكون له صاحبة فهذا دليل آخر
و لكن
هل معنى أن رب العزة جل جلاله و تعالى عن الشبيه و النظير مثله مثل المذكر من البشر؟
تعالى الله عن ذلك علوا كبيرا
و لكن نؤمن بما أثبته الله لنفسه جل جلاله من الصفات
و لكن لا نكيف هذه الصفات و لا نشبهه تعالى بأحد من خلقه و لا نعطل صفة أثبتها لنفسه
و لكن نؤمن بها كما جاءت و لا نخوض أبعد من ذلك

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2009 THEME: Islam in the West and Our Children (Discussion & Resources regularly updated)

There is increasing concern that second and third generation Muslims in the West are mostly no longer Muslims so they actually end up adding to the Christian or Atheist population of the West, albeit racially from a non-Western origin. Accordingly, the ratios mentioned in the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-3X5hIFXYU) would be correct in regards to race or ethnicity but not necessarily to religion.

It is a grave danger facing our children and grand children from a real life stand point as statistically only 1/5 of the second generation stay really Muslims when they grow up and are independent and almost non from the third generation are Muslims. And that is why the Western authorities are still permitting the immigration of Muslims inspite of the figures provided in the above video. They know that on the long term the descendants of Muslims in the West leave Islam because their parents raised them up with an Eastern mentality in a Western society instead of an Islamic mentality that encompasses all cultures.

You can see more about that by Jeffrey Lang; an ex-atheist American Mathematics University Professor who reverted to Islam in 1982. He has also written 3 books that I highly recommend; "Struggling to Surrender", "Even Angels Ask" and "Losing my Religion; A Call for Help".
Now I will leave you to enjoy 2 short excerpts from one of his lectures followed by links to his most important full presentation regarding our children.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmqN75NI0xg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT1KGyxBXC0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMANKaX8khw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgivQJKtQME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga2rIUWcPPs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYb2v3Yx1LY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhMN_TZavW0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHeM0H0EMAw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD-YefJH9x0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2eVOKjOqHE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBQp7aZjxjc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4_xxQVGU44

Here is a solution that is yet to be implemented.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geRM4AlFBOU&NR=1

Raising children here is not an easy task ofcourse but if we do it the right way they will be true Muslims in shaa Allaah who are "Informed Muslims" rather than "Muslims by inheritance" like their counterparts in the East. Hopefully they will then be a much better generation than ours.

Quickly, I do believe that the best 4 authors (for example, there are many others but these are my favorite) who could guide us through this difficult process are Yahiya Emerick, Jeffrey Lang, Jamal Badawi and Dalia Mogahed.

Here are some links for future reference and for an ongoing learning process that I have started collecting slowly.
Please spread the below information to all your Muslim contacts in the West.

Jeffrey Lang:
http://meccacentric.com/jeffrey_lang.html I highly recommend the lecture titled "The Purpose of Life". It has true meanings that I have not come across in any Arabic literature.

Yahiya Emerick:
Articles:
http://www.islamicedfoundation.com/articles/articles.htm
http://www.islamfortoday.com/yahiyaemerick.htm I highly recommend reading and spreading the last article in this link by the name of "The Confusion of the Scholars"
Books:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_adv_b/?search-alias=stripbooks&unfiltered=1&field-keywords=&field-author=Yahiya+Emerick&field-title=&field-isbn=&field-publisher=&node=&url=&field-feature_browse-bin=&field-binding_browse-bin=&field-subject=&field-language=&field-dateop=&field-datemod=&field-dateyear=&sort=relevancerank&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.x=29&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.y=8 There are only 14 books, about half for adults and the other half for kids. The extra are just repetitions.

Jamal Badawi:
Many products including books, articles and lectures mostly for adults. You can find them by searching his name online. My favorite is;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMfWURGcvBI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HXGRYaUy6g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyMD_tE6U68
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AixgiXpAFTY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WUgbgLgMXM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3VLRoQ3qUw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5UvvkCDrm4

Dalia Mogahed: (Obama's adviser)
Has one book so far but has a great potential. "Who Speaks for Islam".
You can watch her debate with Irshad Manji (an openly Lesbian Canadian Muslim who is distorting the picture of Islam in the name of "Progressive Islam")http://fora.tv/2008/07/01/Irshad_Manji_and_Dalia_Mogahed_-_Who_Speaks_for_Islam

Finally here is a website for a store that sells lots of Islamic products including Islamic cartoon DVDs in English and Arabic for kids.
http://www.astrolabe.com/category/17/Cartoons_and_KidVid.html?sid=ceb7c5cf8de15b8f1cb92ad29e183a44
 

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