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God: Abba or Rabb?

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Description: Christians view the Muslim God as distance,unapproachable, and impersonal.  The article compares the Christian Name ofGod, Abba to one of the most frequently used Name of God in the Quran, Rabb,extracting their meaning and usage.

  • By Imam Mufti (© 2013 IslamReligion.com)
  • Published on 03 Jun 2013
  • Last modified on 25 Jun 2019
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Abba of the Bible

GodAbbaorRabb.jpgChristians refer to God as Father in their creeds,prayers, and liturgy.  God, the Father, is seen as one of the three persons of Trinity. They believe that the Father has a Son, Jesus.  Christians think they alone havea personal relationship, both with the Father and the Son. Abba is saidto be the transliteration of the Aramaic word for father.  It is always used asa direct address to God the Father.  It appears three times in the entire NTand only once in a gospel.  In Mark 14:36 ("Abba, Father, all things arepossible unto thee").  The other two occurrences are in the letters ofPaul, in Rom 8:15 and Gal 4:6.

A great debate exists between Jewish and Christianwriters about the nature of God as a father orabba (the Aramaic wordfor father).  The debate started with what a German Lutheran scholar,Joachim Jeremias,wrote in his book, "The Prayers of Jesus," translated by John Bowden.  Hisessential argument was repeated in slightly modified forms by most Christians. EdwardSchillebeeckx made it popular among Roman Catholics in his book, "Jesus."

What Jeremias basically stated was that, firstly, "abba"represents a special use by Jesus that was central to his teaching; second,that for Jesus it expressed a special kind of intimacy and tenderness derivingfrom the origin of the word ‘abba’ from baby talk; third, that it was distinctfrom the practice of Judaism.  His point was that Jesus referring to God asAbba is not derived from the OT or from his Palestinian Jewish background.  Insteadit represents his unique relationship with the "Father." Therefore, someChristian writers went on to say that God can be referred to as ‘daddy,’ mostsaying it is too informal and lacks respects.  Interestingly, feministChristian writers had a serious problem with the idea of God as a male and havewritten several critical books.

While most in contemporary Church simply repeat theabove points and base popular theology on it,[1]it has been severely criticized.  Mary Rose D’Angelo highlights evidenceagainst it in her article ‘Abba and "Father": Imperial Theology and the JesusTraditions’[2]Several Jewish authors like Alon Goshen-Gottstein[3]  and Gerald Friedlander[4] havebrought evidence that rabbis and Jews have used ‘abba’ to refer to God.

S.  Vernon McCasland of the University of Virginiawrote, ‘The expression "Abba, Father" occurs just three times in the NewTestament…(it) presents a challenge because of the way it has defied thetranslators from the very beginning right up to our own day.  The following 27translations which I have consulted illustrate the problem…Almost withoutexception it has been simply transliterated.  Yet Abba is not an English word,nor is it Latin, German, French, or Spanish; and no reader in most cases,unless he happens to be a Semitist, could do more than to make a vague guess asto what it means.  It strikes the uninformed reader like the unintelligibleformula of some magical incantation.  Most of the translators have left it asit were charged with a deadly mana."[5]

Rabb of the Quran

When we turn to the Quran, it clarifies that neither Godhas a son nor is God a father.  Many a Christian when they hear this from me,they think we have no relationship with God because Christians relate to God inhuman terms of father and son.  They see Christians as having a ‘personal’relationship with Jesus and the Father, but "Allah" seems like a distant beingto them.

The Muslim relationship with God is expressed inRabb,or more properlyar-Rabb, one of the most frequently repeated Names ofGod in the Quran, the Muslim scripture.  It is the most common Name with whichGod is invoked by prophets and the prayer’s of the pious.  The Name is clear inits meaning and beautifully captures the deep relationship with God.

Linguistically, according to by Ibn Faris[6] the ancientArabs used the wordrabb to mean:

·Fixing what’s broken and maintaining it. Rabbis the master, creator, and maintainer.

·Sticking close to something.

·Joining something with another.

In the Quran, the wordRabb when applied to God means[7]:

1.Rabb is the Master who has no equal, a Master who completelysurrounds His creation with His gifts.[8]

2.Rabb is the Nurturer of His creation, yet He is not theirfather. Rabb nurtures His people, taking them from one phase of life toanother, showering them with His blessings, and sustaining their lives allalong. Rabb provides His creation with their livelihood as He alonecontrols the treasures of the heavens and the earth.

3.Rabb nurtures the hearts, souls, and the character of Hisloved ones.[9] The prayers of the prophets and the pious in the Quran invoking the NameRabbmakes this meaning clear:

The Prayer of Abraham:"O myRabb, grant me wisdom and join me with the righteous (enter me intheir ranks)." (Quran 26:83)

The Prayer of the Pious:"O myRabb, forgive (our sins) and show mercy (towards us).  Undoubtedly,You are the Best of those who show mercy." (Quran 23:118)

Prayer of Adam and Eve:"O ourRabb, we have wronged ourselves and if You were not to forgive uswe will certainly be of the losers." (Quran 7:23)

Prayer of Noah: "O myRabb,forgive me and my parents." (Quran 71:28)

Lastly, the wordar-Rabb is repeated in the Quranas theRabb of ‘all the worlds,’ ‘of everything,’ ‘of Moses and Aaron,’ ‘ofthe Great Throne,’ ‘of the heavens and the earth,’ and ‘of the East and theWest.’


Footnotes:

[1]See entry ‘Fatherhood of God’ in Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of BiblicalTheology.

[2]Mary Rose D’Angelo,Journal of Biblical Literature, vol.  111, No.  4(Winter, 1992), pp.  611-630.  Published by:The Society of BiblicalLiterature.

[3]See "God the Father in Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity: TransformedBackground or Common Ground?" in Journal of Ecumenical Studies, 38:4, Spring2001.

[4]See "The Jewish Sources Of The Sermon On The Mount" published by KessingerPublishing, LLC (January 11, 2005).

[5]See "Abba, Father" by S.  Vernon McCasland,Journal of Biblical Literature,vol.  72, No.  2 (Jun., 1953), pp.  79-91.  Published byThe Society of BiblicalLiterature.

[6]Abu al–Husayn Ahmad b.  Faris b.  Zakariyyah b.  Muhammad b.  Habib becameknown, in view of his expertise, as ‘lexicographer/linguist’ (al–Lughawi). For the title of his book incorporating the concept of ‘Law of the Language’ hemay be regarded as the ‘Father of Linguistics.’ He studied in Qazwin, gainedprominence in Hamadan and died at Rayy in 395 H (1004/1005 CE).  The maincontribution of Ibn Faris consists in his important works in the cognate areasof etymology, philology, lexicography and linguistics, such as

(i)The Book on the Principles of Language (KitabMaqa’is al–Lugha)

(ii)The Book of Generalities/Synthesis inLanguage (Kitab al–Mujmal fi al–Lugha)

(iii)Al–Sahibi (The Law of the Languageand the Usages of the Language and the Usages of the Arabs in Their Speech). (http://islamicencyclopedia.org/public/index/topicDetail/id/107)

[7]Shar’ Asma il-Allahi Ta’ala al-Husnaby Dr.  Hassa al-Saghir, p.  123-125

[8]cf.  Tafsir Ibn Jarir and Tafsir Ibn Kathir

[9]Taisir al Karim al-Rahman, vol5, p.  485

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