@at_taywani: Everyone loves to be translation police, especially with the word Allah. What they don’t understand is that translation is never just about language but constraints. What environment are you in? What words are available to you? What will people misunderstand if you use a foreign word vs. a local word? That’s why Han Kitab happened. In the 16th-17th century, Chinese Muslims in Ming/Qing dynasty were under huge pressure to prove they were still Chinese. They couldn’t just say “Allah” and expect people to get it. So scholars like Wang Daiyu and Liu Zhi did something genius - they took words everyone already knew - 真 (true, authentic) + 主 (Lord, Master) - and combined them. 真主. The True Lord. It says La ilaha illallah without using one Arabic word. By saying TRUE Lord, you negate that all other lords are false. And they deliberately avoided using 佛 (Buddha) or 上帝/天主 which Christians use, to make it clear - this is not a foreign god, this is Rabb al-Alamin. And the most genius part: Even though 真 and 主 are common words, the combination 真主 is pretty much only used by Muslims in our times. Just like Allah in Arabic is understood by all Arabs, but you know it’s the Muslims who use it. But here’s the part I didn’t say in the video: Today, the very thing that made it genius - that only Muslims use it - is what makes it sensitive. In today’s environment, because 真主 is uniquely Muslim, the system can instantly recognize you as Muslim just from that one word. It’s searchable and flaggable. So now, 400 years after Han Kitab scholars chose this word to survive, Chinese Muslims in some places have to think about NOT using it to survive. They might be forced to find another word, because it’s too obviously Muslim. That’s why you can’t judge a translation without judging the environment it was born in.

Abdullah At-Taywani

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Region: TW

Thursday 10 September 2026 10:00:46 GMT