Huwa = He

If We had sent down this Qur'an upon a mountain, you would have seen it humbled and coming apart from fear of Allah. And these examples We present to the people that perhaps they will give thought.

[AL-HASHR Ch.59:V.21]

          In the name of Allah, The Entirely Merciful, The Especially Merciful. I started my entry with Basmallah. This is new entry with new topic and new challenge. As usual, before we begin with the new topic, let us praise to Allah for still gives us chance to enjoy His blessings and grace. Thanks to Him for letting us still alive and still healthy. At the same time, many people are dying and suffering from many diseases.

          We are still with a topic regarding about God @ Allah. I am trying to answer something that people are questioning about. So today we are to discuss about God’s gender. For Muslims, we believe that Allah has no gender. He is neither a man nor a woman. But now the question is, if Allah has no gender, why Allah uses “He” as pronouns? I already quoted verses from Quran and all the verses using “He” to refer to Allah. We also use “He” to refer to Allah in our daily life speaking.

He is Allah, other than whom there is no deity, Knower of the unseen and the witnessed. He is the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful.

[AL-HASHR Ch.59:V.22]

          In Arabic and English, we have specific terms for man and woman. For example in Arabic huwa means he and hiya means she. It is also the same for –hu means his and –ha for her. But in English, only for man and woman when can do the classifying not for non-living things. For example tables, chairs, fans and others. For these non-living things, we use “it”. In Arabic, we have special case. This is because we also can do the classifying for animals and non-living things. We classified them under muzakkar and mu’annath.

          The above I mentioned is about linguists distinguish between natural gender and grammatical gender. Natural gender is determined by physiology; an animal with a male sex organ is naturally masculine and an animal with a female sex organ is naturally feminine. Grammatical gender is determined by language convention. French is the language that almost similar to Arabic in this case. Because of the influence of English in our daily life, we think that the word “He” used to describe God’s gender. But actually it is totally wrong.

He is Allah, other than whom there is no deity, the Sovereign, the Pure, the Perfection, the Bestower of Faith, the Overseer, the Exalted in Might, the Compeller, the Superior. Exalted is Allah above whatever they associate with Him.

[AL-HASHR Ch.59:V.23]

          In English, if one uses the masculine or feminine pronoun to refer to something that does not have natural gender, one is representing the thing as person, usually for powerful rhetorical effect. This rhetorical device is called personification. Language like Arabic, such masculine or feminine pronominal references carry no connotations of humanness. The femininity of shams (sun) or masculinity of qamar (moon) is grammatical gender based purely on language convention.

          Thing that I understood is that, the masculinity does not shows it greater than femininity. Based on the example above, it shows that femininity of sun is greater than the masculinity of moon. Neither is femininity a defect for the word, shams, nor masculinity a pride for qamar. In English, using "He" for something without natural gender connotes personification, but not in Arabic.

He is Allah, the Creator, the Inventor, the Fashioner ; to Him belong to the best names. Whatever is in the heavens and earth is exalting Him. And He is the Exalted in Might, the wise.

[AL-HASHR Ch.59:V.24]

          Why choose huwa over hiya? In Arabic language, grammatical masculinity is the norm, while grammatical femininity is the exception. Since in Arabic, most words are grammatically masculinity, therefore the expected grammatical gender for Allah is masculinity. Masculinity connotes powerful majesty, femininity connotes gentle mercy. The grammatical masculinity of the word Allah connotes majesty that helps us realize our servant hood to our Lord.

          I think this topic is quite heavy and difficult to understand. I hope that I already make things easier and more understandable. I already read about this topic in one book. Again that book was written by Dr. Danial Zainal Abidin, Islam The Misunderstood Religion. He is my favorite writer.  I have a collection of his books. But the book I mention before, I read it cursory because I give the book to my friend as a present. But the idea that I write in this topic, I found in one website. His explanation very good and some of it comes from there.

          The conclusion is that Allah has no gender. The word “He” does not means natural gender as we as think about. I hope that from this entry, I already solve the misunderstood about God’s gender. I hope that this entry can helps you if anyone asking you about this topic. If there any mistakes, hope that you can correct me. The idea from the reader is most welcome so that I can improve my writing and my style of presentation.

[He is] Creator of the heavens and the earth. He has made for you from yourselves, mates, and among the cattle, mates; He multiplies you thereby. There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the Hearing, the Seeing.

[ASY-SYURA Ch.42:V.11]

~Wallahua’lam~