Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Shifting Pronouns

Question: In the Koran, isn't All-h often referred to in the plural 'us' and/or 'we'?

Answer: Allah uses both I and We/Us when referring to Himself. There are a few explanations for this as follows:
1) The We/Us is the royal plural pronoun, as in when a king refers to himself, he uses We or Us instead.
2) When Allah is referring to something which He alone does/did, He refers to it in the singular pronoun I, where as when speaking of tasks which He delegates to angels, for example, the pronoun is We / Us. http://can-you-answer.com/scripts/miscArticles.asp?artno=92

UPDATE:
[June 4, 2017] Contrary to the above explanation, there is a literal, factual difference between the singular and plural usage. Please read the subheading THE CREATOR  I and THE CREATORS WE at the following link: Human: Body or Soul?