Masculine Gender for God
Qur'an
Question asked by .
Answered by Dr. Shehzad Saleem
Question:

Does God have a gender? Why does the Qur’ān refer to God in the masculine gender by using words like ‘He’, ‘His’ and ‘Him’?



Answer:

When the Qur’ān addresses God by the masculine gender, it is not because that His gender is masculine. The real reason is that in the Arabic language like almost all the other languages the gender used for addressing God is masculine. In divinely revealed scriptures like the New and Old Testaments also, God has been addressed in the masculine gender. In other words, this is basically related to linguistics and has nothing to do with the gender of the Almighty.

An example may help understanding the point. In the English language, the feminine gender is used for referring to countries. This of course does not mean that a country has a feminine gender; it only means that in a language the gender employed to refer to a country is feminine. How such a gender is selected depends on the usage of a language.

   
 
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