Allah and the Qur'an

'We' and 'Us' is NOT the third person, its the first person plural.

And its known as a "royal 'we'", to show a position of authority/status.

[quote=Ya'qub]'We' and 'Us' is NOT the third person, its the first person plural.

And its known as a "royal 'we'", to show a position of authority/status.[/quote]

Way'da go teach... you tell her!!

yes i know THAT.

i meant for example

"And to thy Lord turn (all) thy attention."
(Surah Al inshirah verse 8 )

"Except as Allah wills: For He knoweth what is manifest and what is hidden."
(Surah Al- Ala Verse 7)

[quote=Ya'qub]'We' and 'Us' is NOT the third person, its the first person plural.

And its known as a "royal 'we'", to show a position of authority/status.[/quote]

as forum language goes . .

+1!

Why do we refer Allah as HE, his etc since allah is uncomparable to humans.?

1. We refer to Allah Ta’ala with pronouns such as ‘He’, ‘Him’ etc because Allah Ta’ala refers to himself in the Quran with these pronouns.

Allah Ta’ala mentions: “He is Allah, besides whom, none has the right to be worshipped but He”. (Sura Hashr 22)

The Arabic word for He is 'huwa'.

That misses the point, totally. "Why does He refer to himself as He?" is the real question. I've lost quite a bit of faith in that website, to be honest.

This is just my opinion, I may be wrong, but I think he refers to himslef in the 3rd person sometimes to emphasise a certain point or to show how complex he can be.
He refers to himself as a He rather than a She because if he called himslef She then arrogant men would have rejected Him purely on that basis, whereas when calling Himself a He while stating that he unlike any man on Earth, arrogant men are less likely to reject him (though this on its own doesn't guarantee that they will accept him either, but it's a start).

Or it could be down to the Arabic language where the masculine terms can be used to describe more things as the feminine are a specialisation...

Most of the commands in the Qur'an also are made to the male gender - but I think there is a verse that clarifies that it is for both genders and not the one.

God is genderless. Gender is something that has been added to creation.

[quote=wednesday]plus I also learnt that males are the most dominant of all the species that exist... hence emphasising on authority/ and status by using the word 'He' [/quote]

Is that strictly true or is it something that is taught without real explanation?

Look at lions - the females do most of the work, the hunting etc... the males are lazy.

[quote=The Lamp]That misses the point, totally. "Why does He refer to himself as He?" is the real question. I've lost quite a bit of faith in that website, to be honest.[/quote]
Any reason why?

[quote=The Lamp]This is just my opinion, I may be wrong, but I think....[/quote]
One word of advice. NEVER speak about the Qur'an by saying 'I think' or 'in my opinion'.

[quote=MuslimBro]Why do we refer Allah as HE, his etc since allah is uncomparable to humans.?

1. We refer to Allah Ta’ala with pronouns such as ‘He’, ‘Him’ etc because Allah Ta’ala refers to himself in the Quran with these pronouns.

Allah Ta’ala mentions: “He is Allah, besides whom, none has the right to be worshipped but He”. (Sura Hashr 22)

The Arabic word for He is 'huwa'.[/quote]

that wasnt the question but thanks for the info anyway 🙂

[quote=Ya'qub]'We' and 'Us' is NOT the third person, its the first person plural.

And its known as a "royal 'we'", to show a position of authority/status.[/quote]

thanks for answering my stupid question :S

and evryone else thanks for the other answer 🙂

[quote=MuslimBro]

[quote=The Lamp]This is just my opinion, I may be wrong, but I think....[/quote]
One word of advice. NEVER speak about the Qur'an by saying 'I think' or 'in my opinion'.[/quote]
On the contrary, it is always important to state that it is your opinioin if that's the case.

It is kufr to interpret the Qur'an according to your own desires, but understand what interpret means. It means to state your own opinion is the only oipinion and that all other ones are false.

Us laymen should NOT be interpreting the Qur'an.

Just imagine a person like Abu Bakr (ra) who was asked a question re a word which is in the Qur'an. To which he replied, "Which Heaven shall shelter me if I speak without knowledge of the Kalam of Allah".

Freaky you should ask this i just did that in mosque today. Like someone else said it mshows authority like the queen always uses 'We the royal family'....

[quote=MuslimBro]Us laymen should NOT be interpreting the Qur'an.[/quote]

True but does that also mean we should not try to read it/translations? No.

That is not the Islamic way. It was the way of some past nations where the religion was not democratised and allowed to be understood by the normal person.

Trying to put the qur'an and its meaning into the exclusive realm of the elite is... erm... elitist IMO.

I don't think he means nobody should try to interpret the Qur'an. I think he meant only scholars should on the basis of the Ahadith and perhaps the special revelations of the Sufis.

If I am correct in understranding his intention, I would still add that I believe a little speculative interpretation is permissible in the context of the layman 'reflecting' on the meaning of the Qur'an. But this should be kept to the person reflecting or they should emphasise it is only their opinion.

[quote=YasminCullen]Freaky you should ask this i just did that in mosque today. Like someone else said it mshows authority like the queen always uses 'We the royal family'....[/quote]

hmm thanks after i got the answer i thought it was a very stupid question but i feel better knowing im not the only one who thought about it 🙂

[quote=You] True but does that also mean we should not try to read it/translations? No.

That is not the Islamic way. It was the way of some past nations where the religion was not democratised and allowed to be understood by the normal person.[/quote]

i agree and i thought i should share this site : http://www.quranexplorer.com/ (click on launch Quran Explorer) it has the nearest translation in "new?" english that iv read.

[quote=MuslimBro][quote=The Lamp]That misses the point, totally. "Why does He refer to himself as He?" is the real question. I've lost quite a bit of faith in that website, to be honest.[/quote]
Any reason why?

[quote=The Lamp]This is just my opinion, I may be wrong, but I think....[/quote]
One word of advice. NEVER speak about the Qur'an by saying 'I think' or 'in my opinion'.[/quote]

Firstly, yes there is a reason, I've just said it, it misses the point.

Secondly, why not? Your accepting that you could be wrong, after all it's Allah who knows best. We can never be 100% sure, so we should say according to my undestanding/interpretation/the interpretation I'm following.
the only thing you've got a point in is saying that we shouldn't randomly assume stuff about the Quran, which isn't really the case here.

I don't know why I bother.

ALright, MuslimBro, don't give up on life, there will be difficult people you meet, mate, some of them will go by the name The Lamp.

My teacher used to mention people who have no knowledge yet they think they're qualified to interpret the Qur'an.

Congratulations, you're the first person I've met.

No need to be elitist. besides, no one has answered my point that the qur'an is meant to be read by the ordinary person...

I have read that according to muslims one of the reasons people of other divinely revealed religions were not as steadfast was because the scriptures were kept as something only for the scholar to interpret/read and hence the ordinary person/layman did not know its message and could easily be misguided.

Are we not following the same path if that is what we are telling others to do? Why are we adopting this approach from other religions?

Islam is meant to be natural, easy and understandable. There will be many details/concepts that need a lot fo study, but that does not mean that reading the qur'an and trying to draw meaning is useless.

[quote=You]I have read that according to muslims one of the reasons people of other divinely revealed religions were not as steadfast was because the scriptures were kept as something only for the scholar to interpret/read and hence the ordinary person/layman did not know its message and could easily be misguided.[/quote]
If every tom, dick and harry interpreted according to their understanding, that would be even worse.

There were times when even the Sahabah (ra) made a mistake in understanding certain revelations so they had to be correct by the Prophet (saw).

As were on the topic, good tafsir's are Tafsir al-Kabir Imam Fakhruddin al-Razi, Tafsir of Abu al-Su'ud, Tafsir al-Jalalayn, Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Tafsir al-Qurtubi. Ma'ariful Quran is excellent as it makes references to the major tafsirs.

I won't say anymore on this topic. Speak to a reliable scholar InshaAllah.

[quote=MuslimBro]My teacher used to mention people who have no knowledge yet they think they're qualified to interpret the Qur'an.

Congratulations, you're the first person I've met.[/quote]

Mate, you're not the first person who makes stuff up about me, I not doing what you think I am, and you definately won't be the last. Can I add Tasfir al Asad too? The one by Muhammad Asad or Aswad, sorry don't know the spelling.

[quote=MuslimBro][quote=You]I have read that according to muslims one of the reasons people of other divinely revealed religions were not as steadfast was because the scriptures were kept as something only for the scholar to interpret/read and hence the ordinary person/layman did not know its message and could easily be misguided.[/quote]
If every tom, dick and harry interpreted according to their understanding, that would be even worse.

There were times when even the Sahabah (ra) made a mistake in understanding certain revelations so they had to be correct by the Prophet (saw).[/quote]

proof? Without it its just a few words. Why would the erroneous understandings not be corrected by others now?

As were on the topic, good tafsir's are Tafsir al-Kabir Imam Fakhruddin al-Razi, Tafsir of Abu al-Su'ud, Tafsir al-Jalalayn, Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Tafsir al-Qurtubi. Ma'ariful Quran is excellent as it makes references to the major tafsirs.[/quote]

Any of them in proper English?

Last time I checked, the only tafsir available in english that was succinct and easy enough to read was by Abul A'la Maududi.

[quote]I won't say anymore on this topic. Speak to a reliable scholar InshaAllah.[/quote]

That's just a cop out. Make your teachers work. ask them why? at worst you will gain a deeper understanding of an issue. at best, so will we.

Salamu alaykum,

Tafsir ibn Kathir is good to read masha'allah.

Wasalam

[quote=UniteTheUmmah]Salamu alaykum,

Tafsir ibn Kathir is good to read masha'allah.

Wasalam[/quote]

Salam.

I have to say, honestly, I found it rather boring. Quite slow and repetitive.

Then again, most books in Islamic bookshops are translated very lazily and uninspirationally, in my opinion (not to mention the typos and other errors).

re: Muhammad Asad. That is just a translation, with quite short notes. Not exactly a tafsir.

I'm yet to find a comprehensive, exciting tafsir in English. If anybody knows any, holla back!

what exactly is tafsir? is it translation? :S

Commentary.

[quote=You]Commentary.[/quote]

k thanks 🙂