AlKitab - my personal view

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Actually this is still about the "Allah" controversy.  Many of my Christian brothers and sisters, including my brothers and sisters of other religious persuasions, think this is only about language so why the fuss?

When we translate religious texts into other languages, the name is usually not translated.  That's why we have the Quran (sometimes spelled Koran), the Gita, the Vedas, the Tao and etc. all in English.  In Malay, the names are retained but the spelling may differ slightly based on pronunciation.

The Bible is translated as AlKitab in Indonesian, but the word is not Indonesian but Arabic.  In Arabic "kitabun" is a book while "Al Kitab" means "the book" but the Bible is not "a book" nor "the book", it is a collection of books (the number varies among the different denominations), so why the need to translate the title?  Why not leave it as "Bible" or "Bibel" based on the way it is pronounced.

The Old and New Testaments are translated as the Perjanjian Lama and Baru.  To me the word "Testament" means a covenant, a statement of belief, an evidence of proof or something in those lines.  "Perjanjian" on the other hand simply means an agreement or contract.

Coming to "Allah", it is Arabic and not Malay.  If it is to be used, it must be used in the way it is understood in Malay i.e. the specific name for God.

The problem with using it in the Bible is that God is used sometimes as the specific name for the Deity and some times in the general sense.  Other times the specific name of the Deity is Lord, Lord God and even Lord Jesus.

I think that the way forward is for the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, as the "guardian" of the Malay Language, and the Church authorities to get together in producing an accurate Malay translation of the Bible.

Having said that, what about those, like the Islamic religious authorities, who think that having a Malay translation of the Bible would lead to mass apostasy among the Muslims?  My answer is, "Please resign your posts.  If you cannot educate Muslims in the proper concepts of their faith, why are you there?"