Quran and Royal plural
By S.Prasadh
2005/11/15
Islam claims itself to be a strictly
monotheistic religion which believes in the one supreme power called ALLAH. But
when you read the QURAN, you can find singular “I” pointing to ALLAH and
many other times “we” indicating ALLAH. This discrepancy is not widely noted
by the readers of the Quran. The Islamic scholars have no valid answer for it,
because they lack logic and facts.
Dear readers, have a look at this. This
material appeared on the website http://www.allaahuakbar.net which
vastly copies Dr.Zakir's FAQs and other information. You
can also find this answer given by Dr.Zakir Naik in many Islamic websites
including his own Islamic Research Foundation.
The
content that is to be scrutinized:
Q24.
Does
Islaam believe in several Gods because the Qur’an uses the word
‘We’ when God speaks in the Qur’an?
Answer:
Islaam is a
strictly monotheistic religion. It believes in and adheres to
uncompromising monotheism. It believes that God is one, and unique in
His attributes. In the Qur’an, God often refers to Himself using the
word ‘We’. But this does not mean that Islam believes in the
existence of more than one God.
Two
types of plural
In
several languages, there are two types of plurals, one is a plural of
numbers to refer to something that occurs in a quantity of more than
one. The other plural is a plural of respect.
a.
In the English language, the Queen of England refers to herself as
‘We’ instead of ‘I’. This is known as the ‘royal plural’.
b.
Rajiv Gandhi, the ex-Prime Minister of
India
used to say in Hindi "Hum
dekhna chahte hain". "We want to see." ‘Hum’
means ‘We’ which is again a royal plural in Hindi.
c.
Similarly in Arabic, when Allaah refers to Himself in the Qur’an, He
often uses Nahnu meaning
‘We’. It does not indicate plural of number but plural of respect.
Tawheed
or monotheism
is one of the pillars of Islaam. The existence and uniqueness of one and
only one God is mentioned several times in the Qur’an. For instance in
Surah Ikhlas, it says: "Say He is Allaah the One and Only."
[Al-Qur’an 112: 1]
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Comments
and Inference :
Anyone who is trained in linguistics
will tell you that in both Hebrew and Arabic, there is no such thing as a royal
plural. First of all if Rajiv Gandhi said" We want to see" It
means he speaks in terms of his PARTY/ORGANISATION. If suppose I belong to
Microsoft, I would say "We made windows". It means collectively as an
organisation we did it.
Why would Allah identify Himself in the
plural form? One of the ways these Muslim scholars escaped the clear suggestion
of the plurality of persons in the Godhead, as found in the word Elohim, was to
claim that this expression was simply an example of the "royal plural
form" used by kings and queens to express their royal nature. The famous
Rabbi Aben Ezra, writing around A.D. 1100, suggested this as a solution. The
"royal plural" is an unusual plural form of speech used by such
royalty as Queen
Victoria
when she uttered her famous line, "We are not amused."
While this evasion regarding "Elohim"
as a "royal plural" appears in numerous Jewish and Islamic
commentaries on the Scriptures, it does not solve the problem. There is no
evidence that this royal plural form of speaking was ever used in ancient
biblical days. The kings and leaders of
Israel
and the leaders of surrounding pagan nations, such as King Nebuchadnezzar or
King Cyrus, never used this form of speech. In fact, it is a comparatively
modern invention that was created by medieval monarchs to emphasize their
elevated status to rule their kingdoms in accordance with the theory of the
"divine right of kings." However, all of the leaders and kings in the
Scriptures speak in the singular form, never in the plural form of address. The
normal mode of royal speech in biblical times was always the same singular form
used by King Nebuchadnezzar in the book of Daniel: "Therefore I make a
decree . . ." (Daniel 3:29). Therefore, the plural name for God Elohim
Myhla must refer to the mystery of the plurality and unity of God in the
Trinity.
When the QUEEN said "we are not
amused" it means, the entire royalty is not amused which means the entire
clan of royal people were not amused!! “Royal
plural” is a colloquial aspect and is usually not accepted. Somehow or the
other, the royal plural is just an invention and I don’t think it takes a
significant place in standard accepted English. There is no ROYAL PLURAL in
Arabic. If Zakir Naik is sure enough to justify that the English grammar is
applicable to Arabic grammar then he or any Muslim should not say QURAN CANNOT
BE TRANSLATED EXACTLY. This shows that ISLAM either actually has a group of GODS
and together they are called as ALLAH, an entity or, Muslim scholars lie to
justify the individuality of Allah. Somehow or the other Muslims lie. Muslims
should refrain from justifying the flaws and rather look forward to rectify the
blemish in their religion.
"Growing Old is mandatory, but
growing up is optional. So better grow up"
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