Monday, January 4, 2010

The usage of the word 'Allah'

I want to voice out my opinion on the controversy on the usage of the word "Allah" in Herald Catholic (that's the correct name of the newspaper, if I'm not mistaken).

Yes, I respect the court's decision, but I think this case is larger than it looks. Maybe based on the constitution, the newspaper has the right to use the word (according to the judge), but the effect of the usage would be huge. This will make those with low understanding confuse, and who knows the confusion it will bring to the children, especially. This issue has touched the sensitivity of the Muslim.

They say they want to use the word "Allah" as a translation to the word 'god'. But please, the translation to the word 'god' is 'tuhan', not 'Allah'. The word 'Allah' refers specifically to the God of the Muslims. Not everyone knows the word 'Allah', anyway.

Even if we look at the translation to the syahadah of the Muslims, "Aku naik saksi bahawa tiada tuhan yang disembah melainkan Allah, dan aku naik saksi bahawa Nabi Muhammad itu pesuruh Allah." If they say god=tuhan=Allah, we can modify the translation to "Aku naik saksi bahawa tiada Allah yg disembah melainkan Allah"? This is wrong, isn't it?

Let's look at the translation of surah Al-Ikhlas:

"Katakanlah bahawa Allah itu maha Esa. Allah adalah Ilah yg bergantung kepadanya segala urusan. Dia tidak beranak dan tidak pula diperanakkan. Dan tidak ada seorang pun yg setara denganNya."

I mean, really, the word 'Allah' is a kata nama khas, the name of the God of the Muslims, whereas the word 'god' is a just a kata nama, a general noun. To the Muslims, yes, when we say 'God', we refer to 'Allah', but not to the followers of other religions.

If they say 'god'='tuhan'='Allah', then it should be applicable to the other religions as well. For example, "Allah agama Buddha ialah...., Allah agama Hindu ialah...." This is totally wrong. I bet other religions do not want to associate their Gods with 'Allah' as well. I mean, really, 'Allah' is the God for the Muslim.

When we say 'Allah', we refer to The Allah. There is only one Allah in this world. Allah is one.

Allah is the God of the Muslims.

Just because you can do it, does not mean you have to do it.

Please.

p/s: Read Tun. M view on this here.

3 comments:

masmuni said...

Setahu aku maksud Allah (dalam Arabic) adalah "the whole being" or "tuhan yang maha esa" sebab tu orang Arab yang bukan Islam pun menggunakan perkatan Allah sebagai tuhan mereka. Cuma di Malaysia (or maybe other countries) guna Allah untuk refer sebagai tuhan Muslim.

Tapi aku memang tak setuju pasal penggunaan Allah oleh Herald sebab banyak orang Islam di Malaysia tak tahu (atau sebab kita tak biasa) penggunaan Allah sebagai tuhan. Oleh itu banyak orang Islam akan dimanipulasikan, macam
yang kita kena kat Davis.

Ingat tak kita pernah dapat risalah dari orang Kristian dekat Davis pasal "Orang Islam percayakan Allah, orang Kristian pun percayakan Allah. Tapi orang Islam tak tahu pasal Allah itu adalah Jesus." Aku takut benda yang sama akan berlaku di Malaysia dan banyaklah orang yang berjaya dimanipulasikan.

Fiza Pushie said...

Btol2. Aku tadi bace wiki pasal the word "Allah". Kat Arab, org lain pon gune word tu to refer to "tuhan" sebab itu adalah perkataan tuhan dalam bahasa diorang. Kirenye dalam Bahasa Arab god=allah. Diorang takde perkataan lain untuk refer to god. Tapi masalahnya, bahasa kita god=tuhan. And mengikut pemahaman umum masyarakat kita, tuhan agama Islam adalah Allah. So, penggunaan kalimah Allah dalam surat khabar tu sangat2 misleading dalam masyarakat kita and mmg akan ramai yg boleh dimanipulasikan. I mean seriously, everything went well up until now without them having to use that word in the newspaper. Why now nak sangat2 guna perkataan tu and create confusion among people? Tak perlu okay. Gune perkataan tuhan sudah, kalo betul the argument is because nak translate word god tu. No controversy, tak perlu masuk mahkamah, org pon tak bising.

Khalis Afnan said...

i so agree with u guys about these things but i dont like to sound out my opinion because i might be wrong. U do have to take into account taht the christians used to sembah Allah (like the same God) because christian is one of the agama samawi (the religion that descends from the sky). Maybe because of that they want to say that they are praying to the same God as the Musliam are. Maybe.
But the thing is, everyone knows that Christian has changed and it's not as it used to be before. Maybe they used to pray to the same God. But, I think it is safe to say that it is not the case now. SO, i really cant see why they want to use Allah to refer to their God?
I also agree that this would confuse the people in our country who don't really understand Islam and also our children. They may ask us one day that is our God the same as the Christian? that is messed up.

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