Podcast
Recently, received a letter from the audience asking that other religions lead people to goodness the same way also. Why should one believe in Allah instead of other gods? Therefore, successive episodes will first focus on who is Allah and why do we need to recognize the Oneness of God? This can answer the question.
In the Arabic Quran, God refers to himself as “Allah” in many places, while the Chinese translation is “Real God”, and the English translation as God. And whoever speaks Arabic, they called the Creator God as “Allah”.
The name “Allah” is unique and pure, basically meaning that it is unadulterated with other ingredients, without impurities, without, and cannot be altered, added or substituted.
For example, the word lord can be used in a variety of ways, such as Real lord, false lord, male lord, female lord, or landlord. God, too, is versatile, such as male gods, goddesses, door gods, sky gods, and so on. The name “Allah” is unique and cannot be distinguished by gender or by objects and it is always singular.
Since many times, non-Muslims do not understand the name “Allah” and feel that it is just the name of another god such as Guanyin (one of the Chinese Gods name), etc., so the Chinese translation usually uses Real God as a clear distinction.
(112:1-4)
Say, “He is Allah, the One,
Allah, the Self-sufficient One.
He does not give birth, nor was He born,
and there is nothing like Him.”
This Surah 112 is the core of the Qur’an, clearly explaining who is Allah, and this chapter is like a touchstone, clearly distinguishing and pointing out who is the real God.
The first verse states that Allah is one, and there may be an argument that everyone is unique, so, looking at the second verse, “Allah is upon which all things depend”(Chinese translation), according to the Arabic text, everything is provided by Allah and He sustains all living beings with everything they need, such as sun, air, water. Therefore, in many places in the Qur’an, Allah listed His different creations, and each creation is closely related and depends on each other based on His basic creation to survive and reproduce continuously. He doesn’t need anything from us in return. Here, some people may still argue that modern man or technology has also created a lot of different things, so let’s move on to the third verse.
“He did not produce and was not produced”(Chinese translation), “Produce” here means reproduction, as long as any creature is born, then there must be death. Therefore, it must continue to reproduce, and inherit and continue the things left by the predecessors, and Allah He clearly pointed out that He does not need to reproduce, the main reason is that Allah does not die, all things will have an end one day, all things will taste death, but Allah is not limited by this death and time, because Allah is the One who created time and who instituted death. He has complete control over the death of all things and their time. He is completely above what He has created, and nothing can limit Him.
At the same time, unlike His creations, Allah does not needs the union of a male and a female to be born, or to be reproduced, or to be created by other things, because He is the one who created these natural ecology, He is outside all these limits.
He has no beginning and no end. Therefore, when some people or things claim to be, or are called Lord or God, even if the first and second verses are disputed, can this verse be passed? If people still argue about this verse, then look at the last verse.
“Nothing can be his counterpart.(Chinese translation)” According to the original Arabic, counterpart means that no one or anything is similar like He, no one is same as He, and He does not look at all like anything He has created. Therefore, it is completely impossible to imagine what form and shape Allah is.
Therefore, when some people or things claim to be lords or gods, they need to go through the examination of these four verses. If they cannot meet or satisfy the description of any verse, then all these lord and god are false. At the same time, Allah clearly introduced and described Himself to the world.
Arabic grammar is very different from Chinese, but similar to French grammar. All objects in Arabic are classified as feminine or masculine, even dead objects such as tables or chairs are given feminine or masculine names. For example, the table in Arabic is feminine and the chair is masculine, but this does not mean that these non-living objects are really male or female, just the use of grammar.
In many cases, it will be found that Allah uses He to describe, and in Arabic, this He has three meanings, the first is that it has a male meaning, and the second is when it is not known whether the individual is male or female, also He will be used. For example, when a person knocks on the door, and no one knows whether the person who knock is male or female, then He will be used to describe that person.
The third and last point is that all verbs have a masculine root, and the letter representing feminine is not added to the root until it is certain that the person is female. Therefore, if there are ten women here, the feminine “they” is used to describe them, but if there is a man among these ten women, no matter what, masculine “they” can only be used (in Chinese plural form of they can distinguish male or female by changing one word).
So, even though Allah uses He to describe, Allah is not male or female, but only nobody know, so, the last two points of the Arabic grammar are met, and as in the chapters explained before, “no one or anything is similar like He, no one is same as He, and He does not look at all like anything He has created”, so it cannot be imagined by our ordinary mind.
Therefore, in Qur’an, Allah also condemned those who described the angels as female. Similarly, when Allah described the angels, He described them as male, not the angels were male, but simply no one can know the angels gender. Because Allah made man with clay and angel with light, so they cannot be compared. And this unseen knowledge belongs only to Allah.
In Qur’an, Allah sometimes uses “I” and sometimes “we” to speak, but in the Chinese translation, only me is used, perhaps to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings.
Whether it is “I” or “we”, there is no doubt that Allah is One, it is also about Arabic grammar, when in Quran use “we”, it usually emphasizes the power of Allah, and the diversity of Allah’s attributes, also the importance of reminding or warning people of things. At last, when Allah uses “we”, It also shows that Allah is royal or more noble than any royal, because He is the eternal King of all kings. No matter how many kings there are in this world, in the end, they cannot escape death and must return to Allah without a choice.
In conclusion, this episode is a clear and simple understanding of the oneness of Allah, and Surah 112, Allah clearly introduces and describes Himself, and this Surah is also a touchstone to identify other so-called gods or lords. their truth or falsehood, because, in the end, there is not any person or thing that can meet or pass the description of this chapter but Allah.
Only by knowing who Allah is, then one will not be controlled by superstitions, will not be deceived by lies, and even if everyone does the same thing or says the same thing, they will not easily lose themselves and carry away by the flow.
The next episode will continue to learn more about Allah, thank you for listening.