Muslims & God

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jakasaki

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I’ve asked this question in other forums but have yet to receive an answer which makes any sense.

Why do **ENGLISH **speaking Muslims call God Allah?

English speaking Italians do not call God Dio in conversation.

English speaking Greeks do not call God Theos in conversation.

English speaking Germans do not call God Gott in conversation.

etc… etc…

Muslims claim that Allah means God. Yup! I get that. So why not say God since you are speaking English… crickets… silence…!
 
jakasaki said:
I’ve asked this question in other forums but have yet to receive an answer which makes any sense.

Why do **ENGLISH **speaking Muslims call God Allah?

English speaking Italians do not call God Dio in conversation.

English speaking Greeks do not call God Theos in conversation.

English speaking Germans do not call God Gott in conversation.

etc… etc…

Muslims claim that Allah means God. Yup! I get that. So why not say God since you are speaking English… crickets… silence…!
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For no other reason than “that is what they are taught to do”. It’s not that complicated.
It may be to emphasize that they are Moslem, as opposed to any other variety of theist.
Just out of curiosity, why do you care?
 
Why do Christians who speak English call Jesus by the Greek version of the name?
 
I think that the Arabian language is an important part of the Islamic religion; it is the language of Koran and the language of Mohammed. So Muslims may like to retain this one important word in its, so to say, native language.

God bless, V.
 
I do both. I do it because I’m in the habit of doing it; I recite Qur’anic verses in my every day prayers (salah). When I’m reciting [in arabic], a verse of the Qur’an, it makes no sense to switch gears and use he tenglish word [God] and then switch back to arabic. I often type Allah as “Allah azza wa jal”, which means “God, the Mighty and Majestic”, but since most persons here wouldn’t know what that means, I don’t normally type that way. “Allah subhanahu wa Ta’ala” is another common phrase that refers to Allah and it means “Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He”.

Moreover, when I’m talking about something Islamic, if someone hears me use the words “God” or “The Lord”, they may assume that I’m a christian. When ‘Allah’ is said, they’ll know immediately that I’m a muslim. 😃
 
arthra said:
Baha’is and some Christians use “Allah” as well…🙂
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Just to clarify, the Baha’i translations into English use the word “God”, our prayers use the word “God” etc. So Baha’is do not usually go around talking about “Allah” in English-speaking countries, unlike English-speaking Muslims who normally use the word “Allah”.

Allah is normally only used by english-speaking Baha’is when we say “Allah’u’Abha”, which means “God is the most glorious”, which is a greeting and also a Dhikr for Baha’is.
 
ComplineSanFran said:
Why do Christians who speak English call Jesus by the Greek version of the name?
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I’m not following this.

‘Jesus’ is an English translation of the name, and it could be argued that ‘Joshua’ is also and English translation, despite that fact that these English translations are of the older Greek and Hebrew (Aramaic?) forms.

Your question is like asking “Why do Christians who speak English call God by the old Germanic version of the word?” or “Why do Christians who speak French call God by the Latin version of the word?”
 
I always thought it was because the literal translation of Allah is “The God.” Meaning it takes away any opportunity to pluralize it or cause confusion.

When we say God, we can make it plural by saying gods, as if there are more than one. This isn’t possible with the name Allah. That’s what I’ve been told before but I don’t know how true it is as I don’t speak Arabic.
 
Hello Pam,

I think it’s similar to how english speaking people can say “bye” but sometimes say “Ciao” even if they’re not Italian.

If I know the person I’m speaking with knows what a word means then i’ll stick with the original word.
jakasaki said:
I’ve asked this question in other forums but have yet to receive an answer which makes any sense.

Why do **ENGLISH **speaking Muslims call God Allah?

Muslims claim that Allah means God. Yup! I get that. So why not say God since you are speaking English… crickets… silence…!
Click to expand...
 
famdigy said:
Hello Pam,

I think it’s similar to how english speaking people can say “bye” but sometimes say “Ciao” even if they’re not Italian.

If I know the person I’m speaking with knows what a word means then i’ll stick with the original word.
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Thanks Fammy ~

When I visit English forums and new English speaking converts to Islam continuously use Allah this, Allah that I just don’t get it! The only other Arabic words they use is gulst & dawa!

Nice to see you here again dear friend.
 
Cavaradossi said:
When I speak of Jesus in English, I certainly do not call Him , but rather* 'ʤiːzəs], ***as is normal for English speakers.

I’ve never seen that word before.

I just did a google search & found it in Websters dictionary but it does not tell me how to pronounce it.
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arthra said:
Baha’is and some Christians use “Allah” as well…🙂
Click to expand...
I have never heard an English speaking Christian use the word Allah.

I am aware that Middle Easter Christians who speak Arabic do say Allah, but this thread it not about them.

It’s about English speaking people only!
 
drac16 said:
I do both. I do it because I’m in the habit of doing it; I recite Qur’anic verses in my every day prayers (salah). When I’m reciting [in arabic], a verse of the Qur’an, it makes no sense to switch gears and use he tenglish word [God] and then switch back to arabic. I often type Allah as “Allah azza wa jal”, which means “God, the Mighty and Majestic”, but since most persons here wouldn’t know what that means, I don’t normally type that way. “Allah subhanahu wa Ta’ala” is another common phrase that refers to Allah and it means “Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He”.

Moreover, when I’m talking about something Islamic, if someone hears me use the words “God” or “The Lord”, they may assume that I’m a christian. When ‘Allah’ is said, they’ll know immediately that I’m a muslim. 😃
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Thanks Drac!
 
Valentinus said:
I think that the Arabian language is an important part of the Islamic religion; it is the language of Koran and the language of Mohammed. So Muslims may like to retain this one important word in its, so to say, native language.

God bless, V.
Click to expand...
I get what you are saying, but your post is not a fact!

There are millions of muslims who do not & cannot read Arabic & rely on English versions of the Quran.

Yes, they do memorize as many prayers in Arabic as they can, but they hardly know the meaning.
 
Well I think it is just tradition, not to mention there are some orthodox Jews who call God Yahweh even while speaking in an English setting. I believe this is why JW’s call God Jehovah, because it is an English rendering of the word Yahweh.
 
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