No, it isn’t. It’s not a proper name when Christians use it (we have had threads here before where Arab Christians explained how the different religious communities use and view the word; it is very interesting). It really is the noun used in Arabic for “God”, whether or not you also believe it to be a proper name (as Muslims apparently do).
There is some debate as to where exactly “Allah” comes from, as there is some grammatical trouble with getting “Allah” from “al-Illah” if you go any deeper than just assuming it is a contraction.
Because, as you yourself recognize, they see “Allah” as a proper name - a personal pronoun as well as a noun.
To answer this, we must understand that the word ‘allah’ is declared as the personal name of the islam’s entity of worship. This is a thoroughly accepted understanding amongst Islamic academics.
The quran quotes in 17:110‘“Call upon Allah, or Call upon Rahman; By whatever Name ye call upon him, (it is well):
Um…but that IS what it means. “La ilaha illa Allah” means “there is no god but God”. In Muhammad’s context, surrounded by Jews and gnostic Christians, but also many pagans among his own people, it would make sense to declare this to say that “Allah” (which, yes, was the name of the supreme diety in the pre-Islamic, pagan Arab pantheon) is the only one of the many gods being worshiped that is worthy of worship.,
Because they aren’t the same word…why is this so difficult to understand? We Christians may talk about the gods of other religions, which don’t receive the reverential capitalization given to God because they are something other than what we recognize as God. In fact, you’ll see in many translations of the Bible that GOD is given in all capitals. It’s not an accident, just as it is not an accident that Arabic speakers use “Allah”.
As it is for Christians, too, and not only Arabic speakers (have you ever met a Maltese person? They use “Alla”, because their language ultimately descends from Arabic). Again, where is the problem? Just because we use the same word does not mean we have the same theology. If I pray in Arabic, I will use Allah and not feel in the least bit uncomfortable with it.
Um…no?
This is an awful analogy.
So does the fact that “Allah” was used by Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews to refer to “God” (“capital g” God) before Islam ever existed mean nothing to you? Muhammad/Islam did not invent this word. He picked it up from everyone around him - from the Christians and Jews as the name for GOD, from the pagans as the word for their supreme creator-god. It is the term that he could use to reach all communities, even if not all communities understand it the same. This is the same situation as there is today in the middle east regarding “Allah”.
I think it is a deeply flawed argument, which perhaps makes more sense to an American than to others as we by and large subscribe to either a monotheistic faith or no faith. Not so in Arabia in the time before Islam, where paganism coexisted with Christianity and Judaism, so it would have made a lot of sense to distinguish between
god and
God. Perhaps it would help to read
this article, written by a certified Arabic translator on the subject. After that, if you are still interested, there is an entire book devoted to this called “Arabic, Islam, and the Allah Lexicon : How Language Shapes Our Conception of God” (ed. John A. Morrow) that would probably satisfy you (I write “probably” because I haven’t read it myself, but I hear it is very good).
Um…okay…as long as you’re fine with it…whatever it is!