>Conceptually, Allah is beyond gender.

will say the same thing, but when one of the apostles himself is a raving mysogynist...

i guess my question is, what came first? the exclusively male god, or the culture that spawned him.


>but since arabic is a
>gendered language Allah is often referred to using the male
>pronouns in the Quran....but there are instances of Allah
>being referred to in the feminine as well. and while using
>gendered pronouns is common, actually assigning gender to
>Allah would/should be semi-blasphemous....

yeah. that's what i meant in my original statement. muslims and the koran itself are a little better about that than judeo-christian groups with the constant "heavenly father" references.


>the atrributes of masculine and feminine stem and flow from
>the Divine, but they cannot be ascribed to the Divine. the
>Divine is beyond gender. its very similar to taoist
>conceptualisation....and some work is being done making this
>connection.....

i agree, actually.

i don't believe in God as being male or female, as such. in describing different *aspects* or manifestations of God/Divinity, however, i think it might be appropriate to break those down into "masculine" and "feminine" as necessary for understanding.

i just don't feel you can have one without the other. if you're going to speak to one, you need to balance the equation. otherwise things aren't gonna come out right.


>but yes, sadly, most muslim communities reflect and inject
>their own patriarchical beliefs into their understanding of
>Islam, or also intentionally twist it to suit their
>agendas....

true indeed.

it's sad. and i find it abhorrent that women have had to suffer so widely for that.



~~~~
~*~musical revolution~*~

"The world was warned about this...The CIA calls what happened in London today "blowback." It is wrong, it is heinous, it is murder plain and simple, and it was as predictable as the sun rising in the East." ~Wm Rivers Pitt