In Islam, unlike in Christianity, God is neither a literal man nor a metaphorical male. God is never referred to as ‘father’ but we do have to grapple with the same masculine third person singular that, for some, is problematic. In the Chapter titled, The Iron, God says, “It is He who created the heavens and earth in six days and then established Himself above the Throne. He knows what penetrates into the earth and what emerges from it and what descends from the heaven and what ascends therein; and He is with you wherever you are. And Allah, of what you do, is Seeing.” One may ask, why ‘He’ and not ‘She’? It’s first important to restate that God is not like His creation, which means in this specific instance that He is not gendered. When I studied Aqidah (creed/theology), I remember our Sheikh (teacher) saying, “Whatever you imagine in your mind about Allah, He is different from that”. It is crucial that we understand the usage of He has nothing to do with gender, God is beyond gender. Still, if God is beyond gender, why isn’t it equally viable to use ‘she’ as it is to use ‘he’? Knowing that neither represents God’s reality and would only be used for convenience to refer to a Lord that is beyond constriction, on what grounds would it be wrong to use ‘she’?
The logic of ‘He’
There is a logical reason to use ‘He’ and far less so for the usage of ‘She’. In Arabic the third person singular masculine is the pronoun ‘Huwa’ but it is not only masculine, it is also the default pronoun, unlike English, Arabic does not have an equivalent of the pronoun ‘it’. And some historians even argue that, ’Huwa,’ was once used as the only singular pronoun and used to refer to men, women and objects (1). While it is fair to say that ‘He’ is not the perfect equivalent to ‘Huwa’ because in English ‘he’ only refers to the masculine/men, it is also fair to say that between using ‘he’ and ‘she’, ‘he’ is the better option because it is at least one possible translation of the pronoun (‘Huwa’) that God uses to refer to Himself.
‘They’ and ‘It’ as possible solutions
Some have said, I believe correctly, that ‘They’ and ‘It’ would also be possible. ‘It’ because it is the another possible translation of ‘Huwa’, ‘they’ because our Lord also refers to Himself as the majestic ‘We’. While I’d immediately dismiss ‘They’ for my personal use —it feels uncomfortable and would likely lead to obfuscation than to clarity, I do believe ‘It’ could be a more comfortable possibility for those uncomfortable with ‘He’ and maybe especially for those who come out of the Christian faith and have formerly believed God to be a man. It’s worth mentioning that ‘it’ may feel uncomfortable for some because it often refers to objects and animals but ‘it’ also refers to ideas, concepts and thoughts. None of the aforementioned characterize God —he is not an object or an idea, but the opposition to ‘it’ when suggested as an alternative to using ‘He’ is often that it is a lowly word (because it refers to objects and animals) but ideas and concepts are not lowly so maybe that isn’t a valid concern. This is not to argue for the usage of ‘it’ but to explore other viable options and to acknowledge that ‘she’ is not one of them.
The misogynist ‘He’
But why have we found ourselves asking these questions? The why of an argument is as relevant as the what of the argument, maybe even more important than the inquiry itself. What has happened to make us uncomfortable with the use of the ‘He’ pronoun? It’s important to admit that our comfort with ‘He’ may not have the right intentions. As we discussed, we use ‘He’ for grammatical convenience. But that is a “scholarly” approach to the discussion, it does not necessarily encompass why individual Muslims feel more comfortable using ‘He’ over other pronouns. It could be that for some of us we are comfortable using He because it allows us a great deal of ease in discussing theology with our non-Muslim peers despite their ‘He’ being literal and ours only being grammatical. It could also be that we feel comfortable using ‘He’ because some of us to believe ‘He’ to be both grammatical and metaphorical, God is powerful and strong, both masculine qualities —of course, this is wrong as God’s 99 names cover that which is attributed to men and that which is attributed to women (mercy, kindness), but if you ask some Muslims why God is referred to as ‘He’, you will sadly get answers that demonstrate their understanding of God as a masculine being (even if metaphorical). Another reason some Muslims may feel comfortable calling God ‘He’ can be misogynistic, they believe men are superior to women and thus naturally God should be called ‘He’ and not ‘She,’ which would be too lowly and unsuitable for God, needless to say that would be the most disturbing of reasons.
The useless ‘She’
And the Feminist reasoning for using the pronoun ‘she’ instead of ‘he’ may be to correct this misogynistic/masculine understanding of God. Which would indeed be applicable to Christianity. Yet even if their goal is a more expansive view of God by using the feminine pronoun, it still falls flat. For one; it is superficial. To call a male god ‘she’ within Christianity would not relieve him of his maleness. Secondly, to claim god is not male but female only restricts god as being one gender instead of the other. What we need, what is true, is that God is beyond the limitations of His creation, gender is a limitation of being in a human body, something not applicable to God.
God is neither man nor woman
God is not a man nor a woman, not masculine nor feminine, not an object, idea nor a concept and yet we must speak in the language we are given, to attempt to not do so would be too great of a difficulty. In the end, with all the rules and proper etiquette, we must, above all else, prioritize our personal relationship with God. That name which we refer to the Beginningless Eternal in our quiet moments, outside of debate, when we are calling out in need, that is what matters most. Whatever we choose to call God, let us not get so bogged down in minutiae that we forget to call on Him at all.
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See our companion video, ‘God, pronouns, Patriarchy and Feminism, with Faatimah Knight, here.
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