Firstly, the learned Rev. Andrews remark that Catholics would continue to use the word Allah despite a 1988 Selangor enactment banning them from doing so was clearly against the State Laws. He did issue those arrogant remarks even after being reminded by the Selangor Sultan against it. Whether the State Laws which have existed since 1988 were unconstitutional would have to be dealt with legally as a separate matter. In the meantime the State Laws must be obeyed. Secondly, as I have said many times in other threads in this MSN forum, that based on plain logic, non-Muslims including the Catholic Christians cannot be prevented from using the Arabic word Allah. This was done even during the Prophet Mohammeds era without him objecting to it. Even his non-Muslim father used the name Abdullah which in Arabic means Servant of Allah. AND NOTE ALSO: The first Verse of the opening Surah in the Hoy Quran says: Alhamdulillahi-Rabil-Alamien meaning in Arabic All Praise be to Allah, God the Almighty of All the Universes NOT -Rabil-Muslimin or of All the Muslims only. Apparently many Muslims do not read history, Islamic history especially, and perhaps even if they do they overlook many significant messages & their meanings that are meant to guide them. Thirdly, the usage of the Arabic word Allah by the various non-Islamic Religions have different connotations which employ different concepts of the Almighty in contrast to the belief of the Muslims. The laymen can be easily misled or confused either intentionally but more so unconsciously due to their lack of historical knowledge. Briefly, the Christians after AD 325, adhere to the Nicene Creed of TRINITY which says Jesus is God the Son who has EQUAL status & EQUAL divinity to God the Father - both Eternal & PRE-EXISTING with the former sitting on the right-hand side of the latter thus putting God the Father on the LEFT-HAND-side of Jesus. Later as a result of the Filioque Controversy, it was accepted especially by the Churches of the West, that the Holy Spirit had a double procession from both God the Father and God the Son to Jesus in human form (a quite complex explanation). In Islam on the other hand, the Muslims believe that Allah the Almighty is the ONE & ONLY CREATOR without any partners or associates, Eternal, PRE-EXISTING, Formless, Ever Present Everywhere Simultaneously, All-Knowing and All-Forgiving - that Jesus was NOT divine, NOT Pre-Existing but a Prophet & a human just like any other new creations by Allah. These are the differences in the Concepts in the usage of the Arabic word Allah. Therefore, lastly, to avoid any further possible misunderstandings or confusion, especially by the laymen, these differences in conception of the words usage must be EXPLAINED WELL to ALL Malaysians to avoid any split or further split in the National Unity which is paramount to ALL Malaysians. With this in view, any Mega Publicity Drives to make these differences clear to the general public should be welcomed. Positively speaking, even these debates about the matter taking place in the public arena are informative & useful to the public.
Posted on: Sun, 19 Jan 2014 04:24:22 +0000
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