Why do we refer to God as “He”?

Allah has no gender. He is neither male nor female. “He” is simply a choice of language, because “it” does not fit the Living One, and nearly every society has linked the feminine with weakness.

Allah has no gender. He is not male in the human sense, nor female. This is not because He stands somewhere in between. These terms simply do not apply to Him. The first verse above says that nothing is like Him.

Gender belongs to the world of living creatures on this earth. It does not even apply to heavenly beings. Even the angels are neither male nor female. All the less can it be applied to God.

Still, language has to choose a word when it speaks of God. There are three options, “he”, “she” and “it”. “It” would be wrong, because that is how we speak of things. Allah is living. He is consciousness and the source of all life, as the second verse above says. To be a thing would be a defect, and God has no defect.

That leaves “he” and “she”. In almost every society, even the most modern, the feminine has been linked with weakness. The fact that people still speak today of the liberation of women shows how long women were held down by men. Because the word “she” has so often carried this attributed weakness in language, the word “He” is chosen for God.

So “He” is a choice of language, not a statement about gender. Whoever speaks of God as “He” means the Living One, who stands above every human category.