The Essence of Islam – Volume II — Page 25
Arabic the Mother of Tongues 25 every word acquires true honour and greatness from the position assigned to it by a lexicon, and no one is entitled to bestow such honour upon a word as the lexicon does not bestow. That is why even the Word of God does not disregard the lexicon, and according to all sensible people, in order to determine the honour and greatness of a word, recourse must first be had to the lexicon, in order to ascertain what robe of honour it has bestowed upon that word. Keeping this criterion in mind, we find that all that the lexicon discloses is that when a person is in fact born of the seed of another, and he who drops the seed has no further connection with his birth, it is said that that other is his Abb (father). If it should be desired to indicate that Almighty God is Himself the Conscious. Creator of a person, and Himself leads him towards perfection, and out of His great mercy bestows appropriate bounties on him, and is Himself his Guardian and. Supporter, the lexicon does not permit that these connotations may be expressed by the employment of the word 'Father'; the lexicon provides another term for the expression of this concept, and that word is Rabb, the true meaning of which we have just set out on the authority of the lexicon. We are not at all entitled to invent our own lexicon, and must follow the division of words established by God from the beginning. . The Word 'Father' is Derogatory to God. This would show that the application of the word Father to God is disrespectful and derogatory to Him. Those who have invented against Jesus the charge that he was in the habit of calling God Almighty 'Father', and in fact believed that God was his father, have been guilty of accusing him of a false and hateful offence. Can any