why are the icons called "avatar'

[lovefordeen]

assalaamu alaikum

i ask out of love for knowledge and to do things right as much as possible...

i find it a little strange that icons are called "avatar' in an islamic website like this...i got a message saying 'choose your avatar"....isn't better if it were choose your "icon"..i understand that "avatar" may be a word commonly used nowadays,but shouldn't we consider the meaning before using such terms...i would love to choose an icon,but it makes me think twice because of the word "avatar"...


asslaamu alaikum

 

[alf2]

I think because of the position of the icon.

 

[nyerekareem]

One thing about language, brother: it is always evolving. There are words that in their origin meant one thing yet today mean another. So I'm thinking that using the web term avatar shouldn't be something that we Muslims should find conflict with.

 

[Hassan]

I still think it odd sometimes when filling out forms.. there is only One I 'submit' to, and He definitely isn't a website

 

[hayat84]

:salam2:
from what I remember,the term "Avatar" comes form sanscrit,where the "avatara" are some kind of cratures,I don't know if they are demons,but the use of this term is due to the fact that the avatar can't be seen,but can use the human's dimention to show itself.
correct me if I'm wrong

 

[septithol]

ooh, I know what an 'avatar' is. It's a term from a religion, I believe Hindu-ism. An 'avatar' in the Hindu religion, is a *representative* of a god (one of the Hindu gods). It is sent by the god to represent it, in some sort of function, either to carry out the god's will, or to deliver a message from the god to a particular audience. There are various reasons why a Hindu god might create an avatar, either the god is too busy with other things to attend to certain tasks, or the god is so powerful that the presence of the actual god would destroy people, which the god did not want to do.

Anyway, the 'avatar' or representative of a deity could take different forms. It could be a veritable twin of the deity, with the same appearance and powers, or some other sort of creature, created (or even assigned) to carry out a specific task, or deliver a specific message.

So, anyway, one of the above posters is correct, the meaning of this word has changed, it now refers to not merely the representative of a Hindu deity, but also to the representative of a person, on various websites. Which can be (depending on the website) just a picture or phrase the person has chosen to represent themselves, or an image of the person, being controlled by the person. Human beings, as we cannot physically enter ourselves into computers or the internets, need something, an avatar, to represent them.

I learned this from a book called 'Timestorm', which was about some strange cosmic phenomena that caused different periods of history to start getting jumbled together on the planet earth. At one point, the main characters met up with a man (or maybe it was a creature, I forget, it's been a long time since I read the book) who told them that he was the 'avatar' of some scientist from a future time, and had been sent to help them fight the timestorm. The scientist could not come himself, as he was busy doing other things to fight the timestorm, back in his own future time, so he had created the avatar, which in this case was an actual living person or creature, to represent him and carry out this particular task for him.

 

[strive-may-i]

I do not find myself attaching to the original language , nor do most of internet users. The word has taken a totally different meaning in the internet world. In former it was about a diety taking human form, in latter its about a human trying to iconify, Its just a handle of identity in virtual medium, another sign that eases in recognizing...

Avtaar - is a new symbolic personification of a familiar idea. the Avatar of a profile is again personification of a idea, belief, message the profile wants to convey, project to the world.

The Avatar word that is now used in popular internet culture is derived from the gaming roots. In internet world, an avatar is special icon (graphical representation) of a user in virtual and it usually highlights a trait , belief, appearance, personality of user. Avatar necessarily need not be a living form. As long as the Avatar does not cross the limits its fine... is it not?