The Name of God : Attempting To Move Beyond The Polemics
The general reaction towards the impending non-renewal of the publication permit of the Roman Catholic Church’s newspaper, Herald, has generally taken two main approaches :
- The Muslim Perspective
The assertion of the right to restrict the use of the term Allah by non-Muslims when referring to God in the Malay language due to fears of confusion and the lingering suspicion that it is meant to proselytise Muslims
- The Christian Perspective
The assertion of the right to use the term Allah by Malaysian Christians when referring to God in the Malay language due to the precedent set by Arab speaking Christians and the lingering suspicion that this is meant to further restrict the freedom to profess their faith
What troubles me is that neither perspective attempts to seek to breach the barrier that divides us as a community and approach the issue with the presumption of goodwill on the part of either parties. In fact, there is an underlying presumption of ill-will with Christians assuming that this is another attempt to undermine their freedom to profess their faith as they see fit and Muslims assuming that there is an insidious attempt to proselytise their brethren by the Christian community.
An appeal to an Arabic precedent in using the term Allah is, in my humble opinion, inherently flawed. While the Malay language does derive a lot of their vocabulary from Arabic roots; especially its religious vocabulary, the Malay language is not the Arabic language. Fellow blogger; Hafiz Noor Shams; presents a well written introduction of how the original Arabic term Allah has evolved from a common noun to a proper noun in the Malay language. While it is arguable that this evolution is perhaps a result of historical revisionism or at the very least a contemporary development, it does provide a better understanding as to why such a misunderstanding could occur.
Such evolution in the usage of terminology is not unique to the Malay language. In the Chinese language, the term shangdi (上帝) was originally borrowed from the Chinese folk religions by Bible translators as the translation for the term God when they translated the Bible into Chinese. Over time, the term shangdi evolved to an almost exclusive usage within the Christian community.
On the other hand, the accusation that Christians may have insidious designs in translating the term God to Allah is equally flawed.
One of the challenges that the Bible translators faced when translating the Bible into the Malay language was the difficulty in translating the terms יהוה (YHWH), אֲדֹנָי (Adonai), אל (El), אלהים (Elohim) and the other derivations of the name of God in the Hebrew scriptures into the Malay language. This becomes especially difficult in the instances where the term אֲדֹנָי יהוה (Adonai YHWH) appears together.
In many English translations, the above combination has generally been translated as Lord GOD following the convention set by William Tyndale since the 16th century. The term יהוה (YHWH) was also translated as LORD or LORD (in capitals) to distinguish it from the term אֲדֹנָי (Adonai) which was translated as Lord.
The use of Allah was first used to translate the name of God into Malay with the publication of the diglot Gospel of Matthew in Dutch and romanised Malay in 1629 as a result of the work of Albert Cornelisson Ruyl. Further translations of the Christian scriptures in the Malay language (both in its romanised as well as Jawi forms) from the 17th century onwards continued with the convention of using the term Allah as the translation of the name of God. This was especially so in the occurences of the אֲדֹנָי יהוה (Adonai YHWH) combination whereby it became translated as Tuhan Allah.
In contemporary usage, this has resulted in the convention whereby the term יהוה (YHWH) where it occurs in the Bible being generally translated as Allah or TUHAN (in capital letters) and the term אֲדֹנָי (Adonai) translated either as Tuhan (in capital and small letters). The term אלהים (Elohim) has also been generally translated as Allah. A good example can be seen in how Deuteronomy 6:4 is translated :
In the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia edition of the Leningrad Codex :
שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֶלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָד
transliterated as :
Shmo Ishral YHWH aleinu YHWH AchdThe English language Today’s New International Version :
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one
The Malay language Today’s Malay Version :
Ingatlah, hai Israel! TUHAN – dan TUHAN satu-satunya – ialah Allah kita.
and perhaps more literally in the Alkitab Terjemahan Baru :
Dengarlah, hai orang Israel: TUHAN itu Allah kita, TUHAN itu esa!
While there has been a few different translations that have chosen to use the term Jehovah or Yahweh where the term YHWH occured, this have generally been of very limited usage and popularity due to the inherent difficulties in actually determining how YHWH was initially pronounced in the first place plus the half a millenia popular convention and usage as elaborated above.
Now, having elaborated the above, I would venture that to leave such matters to politicians have always been a big mistake, one with consequences that the Church historically has had to deal with and continues to deal with today. In our context, to allow the Internal Security Ministry to determine what constitutes proper usage of religious terminology within a particular faith community would set an extremely dangerous precedent for all faith communities in this country, whether Muslim or otherwise.
In my humble opinion, such difficulties and misunderstandings are best resolved with mutual dialogue on the basis of mutual respect and the assumption of mutual good-will. This of course, might be a bit difficult in our context due to our precedent in using religious and ethnic issues as political tools for division and control. But I have hope and trust in the wisdom of Malaysians to break this mould.
And we should perhaps wise up to the possibility that this is probably just the latest attempt to shore up Umno’s waning fortunes among the Muslim-Malay population by manufacturing a situation where a reaction; at the very least; is guaranteed and put the Muslim-Malay population in an artificial stage of siege against a perceived bogeyman in order to consolidate support for Umno.
Freethinker
well said. I think there should be a compromise in one way or another for a win win situation to move forward… because i dun c good if either is losing…
December 27th, 2007 at 9:45 pmBob K
A thought just hit me. For all the reactions that have been garnered from the Christian community regarding this matter, we sure are very slow in adopting Bahasa Malaysia as our main language of instruction and liturgy.
Maybe some critical self examination is also needed.
December 27th, 2007 at 10:36 pmthe reb
In the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia edition of the Leningrad Codex :
שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֶלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָד
transliterated as :
Shmo Ishral YHWH aleinu YHWH Achd
the transliteration should come out sth like this:
Shema’ Yisra`el Yhwh (read as adonai) `elohenu Yhwh `ehad
(the short and long vowels as well as the shewas are not shown above. in proper transliteration, we use an appropirate font like SIL Ezra Transliteration which will show the differences)
from the reb
December 28th, 2007 at 2:52 pmBob K
Thanks Reb. Notes of correction from a bona-fide Old Testament scholar are always appreciated.
To clarify matters, my transcript and transliteration is based on the Westminster Leningrad Codex, an online digital version maintained by the J. Alan Groves Center for Advanced Biblical Research at the Westminster Theological Seminary.
It is noted that in Jewish tradition, the name YHWH is not pronounced and almost always is replaced by Adonai.
December 28th, 2007 at 5:44 pmAhmed Tantawi
BobK the munafik writes:
A thought just hit me. For all the reactions that have been garnered from the Christian community regarding this matter, we sure are very slow in adopting Bahasa Malaysia as our main language of instruction and liturgy.
Why should Christians listen to you Bob, a hypocrite? You are a wolf in sheep clothing who is really an Islamic fascist attached to PAS’ subsidiary PKR. That’s why you refuse to prosetylise Muslims to provoke the Muslims to anger. Fortunately, most Christians are smart and rejected both Keadilan and its master, PAS.
Your call for Chinese and Indians to use what you call “Bahasa Malaysia” (which is really Bahasa Melayu) will be rejected as Christians want Malaysia to be multi cultured and emulate Singapore by declared both Mandarin and Tamil as official languages of the federation alongside Bahasa Melayu. Bahasa Malaysia will constitute all 3 national languages. Chinese will never assimilate into the Malay culture, and any attempt to force assimilate a Chinese will be taken as racism/apartheid. The only need for Bahasa Melayu translations of the Holy Bible is for the apostate Muslims (murtads), who are Malay Christians.
Last, we all know the Bangsar Lutheran Church is a schismatic body led by a heretic Sivin Kit who calls himself “pastor” but he is really like you, a hypocrite. Only Catholics are real Christians for the CCC declares that outside the Church there is no salvation.
Maybe some critical self examination is also needed.
It is you who needs some critical self examination of your heretical theology which makes you a hypocrite. I suggest you convert to Islam than be hypocritical. As an ex-Muslim convert to Catholicism, I emulate my sister Lina Joy to be honest. The purpose of translating the Bible into Bahasa Melayu is for use in missionary works among Malay Christians. It is our right to prosetylise, and if it is “illegal” by law, we must break the law. Remember, the PAS-led coalition BERSIH held an illegal rally on November 10, and if PAS can break the Malaysian law, then, Christians must break the man-made laws that are against our faith. Even Jesus Christ broke Jewish law some 2,000 years ago and suffered martyrdom.
December 30th, 2007 at 4:54 pmklconfidential
Ahmed Tantawi = Typical BN politician
Bob,
Don’t listen to him. I feel that Ahmed Tantawi, being very pro BN, is doing exactly what BN politicians do. They politicize everything. This is a religious issue. It shouldn’t be dealt by politicians. (Especially one such as bigoted as Joe Baharum).
I tend to disagree with you on the labelling of the ‘muslim perspectives’. It would be better if you labeled it the ‘malay perspectives’.
I am malay muslim and the way I see it, muslims in other countries don’t have this problem. It’s just here in Malaysia.
I feel that this is due to some PAS and also BN behavior. They tend to focus on things such as the morals of anak2 melayu, melayu murtad, and all the negative issues about the malay muslims. This promotes fear in the hearts of the malays.
Why don’t they focus on the beauty of islam, is beyond me.
Through this fear, THIS particular issue is taking root. This fear is making us regress instead of progress.
They malays fear information and do not embrace it. They refuse to look at things from another perspective as this might ‘jeopardize’ their faith. They fear everything as ‘it might jeopardize their faith’.
I’m malay and this saddens me. But I have faith in malaysians to not buy into this negativity and to find out for themselves the truth behind all the fear tactics that these political entities use to get votes. It’s just so low of them to use it. Pathetic really.
We should choose leaders who are capable in their fields. Not just because they seem to be more religious than others. This is so superficial and lame. Your faith is between you and Allah. Iman itu adalah antara Allah dan kita. Bukan untuk diadili oleh orang lain.
December 31st, 2007 at 4:52 pmklconfidential
Actually, after rereading my comment, I feel compelled to apologize to all readers.
I did not mean to refer to the malays in the following:
“They malays fear information and do not embrace it. They refuse to look at things from another perspective as this might ‘jeopardize’ their faith. They fear everything as ‘it might jeopardize their faith’.”
I find this statement wrong and very one sided. Not all malays do this. I feel the statement above refers to BN and PAS. Not malays. The para above should be read like this:
BN/PAS fear information and do not embrace it. They refuse to look at things from another perspective as this might ‘jeopardize’ the malay faith. They fear everything as ‘it might jeopardize the malay faith’.
It is either their ‘fear’ or their intention of politicizing the issue to get voters. Either way, it’s a shame.
December 31st, 2007 at 5:24 pmBob K
Thanks for your comments, klc.
This Ahmad Tantawi individual (or maybe a group of individuals) is nothing new on this blog. He/they turn up every now and then for quite a few years and make some of the most bigoted statements that probably would have been commonplace in pre-Westphalia medieval Europe. And of course, almost all of them claim to be Christian converts of some sort; although one of them claimed to be a socialist for quite a while until his/their bluff was called.
I wouldn’t disagree too much with your take on who he/they might be.
Regarding the “Muslim perspectives” quote, it has to be taken within the context of the current polemics. I am not implying that all Muslims think like this but a lot of those who claim to be Muslim voices in this current polemical exchange seem to be expressing such views. I have had the privilege of enjoying the friendship and comradeship of many Malay-Muslim Malaysians who’s opinions are a far cry from what is commonly presented in the mass media.
December 31st, 2007 at 10:13 pmklconfidential
I understand. And I do think you have a good point there.
I never knew about one such as Ahmed Tantawi and his ilk. Will watch out for him.
I just wish the people who proclaim to have faith and iman can fully the grasp the meaning of their religion.
Islam calls for its people to ‘always seek knowledge’. But what I see in Malaysia is that they shy away from knowledge which they fear will shake their faiths.
I believe that if you seek knowledge with faith and intention to understand and learn other (and your own) religion/culture etc, your faith will always remain intact.
How else do you renew/strengthen your faith if you don’t seek the knowledge which will bolster it?
By the way this is the first time i’ve visited your site. You have an interesting way of putting across your point.
Pleased to meet your acquaintance.
January 1st, 2008 at 12:05 amBob K
The pleasure is all mine
And I’ve been to your blog before
January 1st, 2008 at 12:42 amSteve F.
There… I ALWAYS knew you are a heretic
January 7th, 2008 at 2:17 pmBob K
This is rich … coming from a advocate of splittism within Leeism
January 7th, 2008 at 5:22 pm