Question:
Semitic languages do not have a gender neutral pronoun, and so are forced to use the male pronoun, he (هو). English, however, does have a gender neutral pronoun, “it.” When describing God in English, could it not be considered more appropriate to address God as It rather than He, as God is beyond understanding or interpretation. He has the connotation of maleness to which God is almost certainly not limited. I thank you very much for your consideration. Though I am not a Muslim, I find great power in your words and I listen to your discourses daily, as well as the Salawat and Quran Recitations. Thank you for your great work.
Answer:
Thank you for your question. First and foremost, you are absolutely right that God in the Qur’an transcends gender; in fact, as the Creator of the very category of gender, God must transcend what God creates:
{[God] created the pairs, male and female.} (Surah Najm:45)
The use of “He” in the Qur’an to denote God is due, as you noted, to the absence of a gender neutral pronoun in Semitic languages. “He” (huwa) is the default pronoun in Arabic and does not have to imply the masculinity of the subject. “She” (hiya) on the other hand refers explicitly to a female subject (thus the use of hiya would immediately ascribe a specific gender to the divine being, Who is beyond gender). If one were to translate huwa literally, and certainly most Muslims would strive to come as close to the literal meaning of the text when translating the Qur’an, one would first turn to the English pronoun “He”. However, a literal translation must take into account the connotations of the chosen word in the target language – therefore, if one were to be more sensitive to the nuances of the Arabic language, and strive to convey a fuller meaning of huwa, then the use of the pronoun “It” could be considered. “It” would certainly convey the non-gendered nature of the divine being. However, there is one important reason that the pronoun “It” would not work in this context: for better or for worse, the English pronoun “It” has a set of connotations, connotations that connect it to inanimate beings or to non-human animate beings which are usually perceived as occupying a position of inferiority to humans, whether it be in knowledge or power.
Yes, the use of “It” conveys gender-neutrality, but also denotes the existence of a thing that stands at a lower level in the hierarchy of being. The pronoun “It” as it is commonly understood in the English language would not convey the majesty and infinitude of God. The pronoun “He” on the other hand, again for better or for worse, has been historically established in the English language as a way to denote the divine.
Certainly, in light of historical violence against women through the abuse of the male pronoun to wield an exclusively male God, we feel that we should be moving away in all religious traditions from the use of “He”, and towards the use of gender neutral pronouns for God in English (in fact, in that process, changing the very connotations of “It”). At this point in time, however, the pronoun “It” does not carry the weight required to denote the divine. (And God knows best)
Dr. Homayra Ziad
