I am a new Muslim and have this (probably basic) question: In a couple of the English translations I have, many ayahs have the word "We" when is seems to be referring to Allah. Does anyone know about this? I would like to better understand it. Thanks! jackson
Welcome to Islam beautiful way of life, Allah has guided you to this deen alhamdulilah. I think you made a typo "Muslim since 1014" unless your 1000 years old
Allah azza wa jal often uses the royal plural to express His Majesty, but He also uses a singular pronoun when expressing His Oneness (and you'll find that all throughout the Qur'an). There's no contradiction there.
This is known as the "royal plural". It is present in Hebrew as well-- maybe all semitic languages, I'm not sure. But it doesn't imply an actual plurality, it just uses the plural to express greatness. Some monarchs and leaders use it even today. I can't give a good example of somebody using it today, but I can give you an example from the Book of Genesis. Remember that throughout the entire Hebrew/Jewish Bible, tawhid is reinforced over and over. The Israelites would have not allowed any form of polytheism to make its way into their Bible so you can use this as an example of the royal plural being used for a singular deity.
"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." (Genesis 1:26)
I am a new Muslim and have this (probably basic) question: In a couple of the English translations I have, many ayahs have the word "We" when is seems to be referring to Allah. Does anyone know about this? I would like to better understand it. Thanks! jackson
Examples:
- 6:7
- 6:9
- 5:32
- 5:48
Peace be Upon those who recieve Guidance,
Jackson this is the Royal Plural used by Allah ta'ala,
like Queen or King uses, similarly used in asian languages like Hindi "Hum" which can refer to a person, or more than one person depending on who is saying it etc,
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brother jackson
here's the link http://islamqa.info/en/606
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