The name of God

Over at malaysiakini, for the last week or so or even longer, there has been a ding dong argument over the use of Allah or Tuhan for non-Muslim reference to God.

I suppose malaysiakini must have received hundreds, if not thousands of letters on the subject to continue that debate. Nothing conclusive of course came out of the argument but then how can such a topic be ever conclusive, apart from my personal recall that I once saw an Islamic book (in English) titled ’99 names of Allah’.

What I have sensed from the debate has been a reluctance (nay, even refusal) by some Malaysian Muslims to allow non-Muslims to refer to their (non-Muslim) God as Allah, whilst the other party insist that it’s OK, drawing on examples from Arabic and Indonesian sources.

Does it matter? Does Someone Divine and Omniscient care what you call Him or as Western women nowadays insist, Her?

Him & Her? Whoa, that’s the start of another debate.