BLASPHEMY OF ALLAH - PART 1

O people of the scripture (Christian)! Do not exceed the limits in your religion, nor say of ALLAH but the truth. The Messiah 'Isa (Jesus), son of Maryam (Mary), was (no more than) a Messenger of ALLAH and His word, ("Be!" - and he was) which he bestowed on Maryam (Mary) and a spirit (Ruh) created by Him. So believe in ALLAH and His Messengers. Say not: "Three (Trinity)!" Cease! (it is) better for you. For ALLAH is (the only) One Ilah (God), Glorified is He (Far Exalted is He) above having a son. To Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth. And ALLAH is All-Sufficient as a Disposer of affairs - Surah An-Nisa' 4: 171

BLASPHEMY OF ALLAH

1. THE OPENING - THE CONFUSION

“Eli..Eli..lamma sabachthani”..Matthew 27:46!

“Eloi..Eloi..lamma sabachthani”..Mark 15:34!

This were the cry of Jesus on the cross as reported and narrated in the Bible itself in his native romanised Hebrew language.

And the translation can be found in the English translation Bible as follows:

“My God..My God, why have thy forsaken me”.

Now, if you were to ask any Malaysian, either expert in Bahasa Melayu or even ordinary folk on the street, the proper and correct translation of this verse in Bahasa Melayu would be:

“Oh Tuhanku, Oh Tuhanku, mengapa Engkau meninggalkan Aku”.

The word “God” therein should and could only be correctly translated as “Tuhan”.

But that was not how it was translated. It was translated as follows:

“Allahku..Allahku, mengapa Engkau meninggalkan Aku”.

This translation can be found in the Bible Al-Kitab of the Malay-Indonesian version!

In English, that would have been re-translated as:

“My Allah, my Allah, why do You forsaken me”?

But you can’t find such translation in the English version of the Bible.

2. BETWEEN ‘ALLAH’ AND ‘TUHAN’

And that lead me to ask that one big question; why on earth did the Christian translated the word “God” to “ALLAH” in the Malay translation, and called it Al-Kitab?

Don’t you think that it is a bit questionable? And don’t you see why we Malay-Muslim in Malaysia is very skeptical about the intention of such translation?

Now, let us see part of the lyrics of the song entitled “Allah Peduli” by Christian Indonesia singer Agnes Monica:

“Allah mengerti, Allah peduli, segala persoalan yang kita hadapi, tak akan pernah dibiarkannya, ku bergumul sendiri, sebab Allah Yesus ku mengerti”.

Don’t you think it is weird if the lyric is translated in English as follows:

“Allah understand, Allah care, all questions that we faced, will not be forsaken, for me to deal with it alone, because Jesus my Allah understand”.

Don’t you agree with me that the proper translation would have been:

“God understand, God care, all questions that we faced, will not be forsaken, for me to deal with it alone, because Jesus my God understand”.

But why on earth the word Allah was used instead in the lyric?

What about the name of a church, which in English is called “Church of the Lamb of God”, but translated in Bahasa Melayu as “Gereja Kembiri Allah”. Which if re-translated back to English would be “Church of the Lamb of Allah’.

Do you agree with that?

I can list down all the verses and sentences either in the Bible, in your publications, in lyrics, name of churches etc that we think has been wrongly translated using the word ‘Allah’ instead of ‘Tuhan’.

3. ‘ALLAH’ IS A SPECIAL NAME – PROPER NOUN

You see, in Bahasa Melayu, the word ‘ALLAH’ is a proper noun, a special name attributed to the One and Only God as believed by Muslim.

And we should never translate a person’s name to our language, as it would destroy the name itself.

Would you translate the name Tiger Wood to Harimau Kayu? It is the correct translation, but would you do it? And do you think Tiger Wood would respond to you if you were to call him Harimau Kayu?

Or would you call President Bush as ‘Presiden Semak’? After all ‘bush’ in Bahasa Melayu means ‘semak’? And do you think President Bush would respond to you if you shout for him calling him ‘Semak’?

Or if you want to stretch it further, do you think “Jesus” would respond to you if you were to shout his name “Jesus” if he walked passed you?

As you know, Jesus was a Jew. And he used Hebrew as his language. And in his language, his name is pronounced as Yeesoa (although written in romanised alphabet as Yeshua). I bet you that he will just ignore you if you were to shout his name as Jesus!

And where did you get the name Jesus? It is from the Greek version of the New Testament written by many writers including Paul (whose actual name is Saul) and others which used the word “Ieosus”. It was the then translated to the old English as “Yesus”, before it was modernized into modern English as “Jesus”.

You see, you have translated his name to a name that he himself would not even recognized!

But the western world (especially the Christian western world) during their colonization days from the 16th century onwards was in this habit of changing the special name of people and places that finally it has lost its original meaning, or doesn’t carry any meaning at all!

Pulau Pinang, meaning Island of Acera-nut became meaningless Penang!

Singapura, meaning City of Lion became meaningless Singapore!

Jabbal Tariq, a mountain (jabbal) named after the Muslim military commander and Liberator of Andalusia, Spain (Tariq Bin Ziyad) became meaningless Gibraltar!

Ibnu Sinna, the renowned Muslim scholar who modernized and revolutionized medical study and treatment became meaningless Aversenna!

Salahudin Al Ayyubi, meaning the Pious Follower of Islam, the Liberator of Jerusalem from the Crusaders became meaningless Saladin!

Dimasyq, a place of gathering of mankind in Surya (you named it Syria) became meaningless Damascus!

And so on…and so on…and so on!!!

The original native name that has special meaning dan history attached to it was lost; and became something meaningless!

4. ALLAH – ONENESS AGAINST TRINITY

So my question is; is that the hidden agenda, that one day we may all wake up one morning suddenly realizing that there’s two type of ALLAH:

ALLAH Hu Ahad – The Oneness of ALLAH; or

ALLAH Hus Salis – ALLAH in trinity form three-in-one!

For the Muslim, the name Allah is a special name, it is a proper noun. That’s why throughout the Muslim world, you will find that we use the same ONE name – ALLAH.

And for the Muslim, the name ALLAH signify one and only meaning – that ALLAH is One, ALLAH is Self-Sufficient Master to Whom all creatures need, He begets not, nor was He begotten. He has no Son, nor Daughter, nor Mother, nor Father! And there is none co-equal or comparable unto Him”.

So you see the problem?

5. CONTEMPTUOS OF ‘ALLAH’

When you want to use the name ALLAH in your translated Malay-Indonesian version of the Bible Al-Kitab, you were referring to ALLAH as God in trinity form – God The Father, The Son & The Holy Spirit; which is translated as ALLAH Bapak, ALLAH Putra & ALLAH Ruh Suci!

It is stated in The Bible Al Kitab Malay-Indonesia version (pages 197: at 25-27) “Akulah yang memberi hidup dan membangkitkan orang mati”, kata Yesus kepada Marta. “Orang yang percaya kepada Ku akan hidup, walaupun ia sudah mati. Dan orang hidup yang percaya pada Ku, selama-lamanya tidak akan mati. Percayakah engkau akan hal itu. “Tuhan,” jawab Marta, “saya percaya Tuhan Anak Allah, Raja Penyelamat yang akan datang kedunia ini”.

This is not only repugnant to the very name of ALLAH, it is contemptuous. It is blasphemy to the name ALLAH. In fact, it is self contradictory in term as ALLAH means One and Only God, whereas you belief in and you mean it to be Three-in-One God!

If you were to use Allah in the context of Oneness of God, with no Son, no Father, no Associates neither a Holy Spirit, then by all mean go ahead. We have no problem with that as long as you respect the sanctity of the name ALLAH as prescribed by Islam.

6. ALLAH IN SIKHISM*

In comparison, see how Sikhism use the term ALLAH in their translated version of their Holy Book called Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji.

For example, at page 1136 line 9 (Guru Arjun Dev) it says “Ek gusa-i alihu mera” which was translated in English as ‘The One Lord, the Lord of the World, is my God ALLAH’.

Or by Guru Nanak Dev, "The primal Lord God is called ALLAH"; "O Baba, the Lord ALLAH is Inaccessible and Infinite"; "He is ALLAH, the Unknowable, the Inaccessible, All Powerful and Merciful Creator";

Or by Namdev, "and she said, 'why not you abandon your lord Raam, and worship his Lord ALLAH";

Or by Kabeer, "The Lord ALLAH is unseen, He cannot be seen";

Can you see the vast difference between the Sikh used of the translated word ALLAH and the Christian? The Sikh meant it to be One God, One Lord! And it is their faith that there is only One God! Whereas you meant it to be Three-in-One God; with a Begotten Son!

And thanks to you, I am now beginning to study what is the difference between the Muslim belief and the Sikh. If they also believe in ALLAH as One God, then for all you know Muslim and Sikh maybe of the same root. But that is a subject that I may pursue in different forum, insya ALLAH!

(to be continued "The Blasphemy of ALLAH - Part 2)

Adios amigos, grasias!

Yours truly, the servant of ALLAH.

Zulkifli Bin Noordin

Kuala Lumpur

Jumaat / Friday

02nd Rabi'ul Awal 1435

03rd Jan 2014

 Note:

* I stand corrected on my interpretation of the Sikhism belief as aforesaid for I may be wrong in concluding that Sikhism also belief in Oneness of ALLAH.

** Again I stand corrected if my understanding of The Bible as aforesaid is wrong.