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Nothing Personal

Description: More On Allah

Nothing Personal - More On Allah

by Eugene Yapp

Once again, Dr Ng Kam Weng has given a compelling argument on why the word 'Allah' should not be a forbidden word to non-Muslim Malaysians.

In his response to a previous comment by Kristian Sugiyarto, the Research Director of Christian research agency Kairos said 'Allah' must not be understood as a personal name of God.

He urged, "We should not perpetuate such misunderstandings by avoiding sensitive religious disagreements. It is important that proper instruction pertaining to the linguistics/semantics of the words be given to clear up such misunderstanding".

What's this misunderstanding really all about and why the need to clear this "misunderstanding" as Ng put it? Let's look at what he said before we offer some salient observations.

Ng began his comments by explaining from Arabic grammar that 'Allah' is a generic word and therefore follows the grammatical rules of other generic words when it comes to determining a second noun.

By following this grammatical rule, Ng argued that 'Allah' was never construed as 'the Allah' and hence refuted the notion that if 'Allah' was not a personal name, it must have the article 'the' before 'Allah'. Such a grammatical rule is also reflected in Hebrew where the word in a construct state never takes the article but only the genitive, e.g. the man of (genitive) God (construct).

The upshot of this analysis is that when it comes to the name of God, it is overly simplistic to determine if a word is a personal name or otherwise by simply looking at whether the article is present. The determination of that issue must be gleaned from its historical, grammatical and linguistic/semantics usage as a whole rather than on one particular factor.

In the case of 'Allah', Ng pointed out from linguistic/semantics usage that 'Allah' as a generic name for God, and not 'Tuhan', should be rendered the right word to translate as God. The confusion as Ng said, was simply due to the fact that the Malays in this land are not familiar with Arabic and the Arabic usage of the word. Perhaps adding to the confusion is the translation of God's personal name in Hebrew to 'Lord' in the Greek Old Testament.

In any case, Ng perceived there was also the element where the misunderstanding had become so ingrained in the thoughts and minds of the Malays that it has become difficult, and indeed sensitive, to point out the truth.

Hence, proper instructions are needed in this regard as sensitivity towards religious matters is not confined just to the Malay/Muslims but to other non-Muslim religious groups as well.

 

What shall we make of these comments?

One may say that Ng goes right down to the root of the controversy. He makes no attempt to detract from the fact that the misunderstanding or lack of understanding in the use of the word 'Allah' stems from an inadequate understanding of the Arabic language. However, it is clear to us that language is not the only hindrance.

After all, and to be fair, it is true that there are many among the Malays who are familiar or even skilled in Arabic.

The more pertinent and probable cause seems to be what Ng termed as 'inculturation' - where the majority who may not be familiar with the language and controversy have uncritically accepted and adopted within their knowing and beliefs that 'Allah' is a personal name of God without investigating further the truth and merits of the assertion.

In light of this, there is an urgent and critical need for a broad-based 'public culture' where there is open discourse, deliberation and exchange on the claims of both Muslims and Christians to seek the truth and build consensus.

This is necessary as any cultural-religious community may have 'blind spots' and to avoid exploitation by some insidious elements or by some political bureaucrats out to further their own agenda.

Only with such a broad-based public culture in which all parties come together to seek truth and consensus in objective terms and rationality can space for religious understanding and acceptance be preserved and enhanced.

At present, this seems farfetched given the Government's stand on the matter. But Christians, as the eschatological people of God, do have hope - that our God is a God of truth and every culture and sphere of influence is already being redeemed for and by Christ in truth! For us to reclaim the truth of 'Allah', Christians must be informed and interested.

Are we aware and interested enough and can we agree with Ng that "imposing a linguistic taboo that bans the use of the word 'Allah' by non-Muslims is an act that offends the sensitivity of non-Muslims"? According to Ng, "The present Muslim act is to make it a taboo to use the word 'Allah' as a magic symbol since it attempts to nullify a concrete historical tradition and render it non-existent by a decree/mantra."

Let's pray for illumination of minds and transformation of hearts so that this "Muslim act" does not become a reality. Then, let's share and express this concern with the public. The call for prophetic voice has been issued and one that the Church must heed for its continued purpose and survival!



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