Why Allah is the Unique Name of Islam's entity of worship?

[Mosacked]

It is a common understanding amongst muslims, that the word ‘allah’ means ‘the-god’. It is made up of 2 distinct arabic words, ‘al’ meaning ‘the’ and ‘ilah’ meaning ‘god’.

What this means is that there is already an arabic word for the noun – god. Which is ILAH.

So the question is, why then do muslims use ‘allah’ synonymously for the regular noun of ‘god’ instead of using ‘ilah’?

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):

Next, note the Islamic call ‘La ilaha illa Allah’ which means, ‘There is no god but allah’. Now try substituting the word ‘allah’ with ‘the-god’ and you have ‘There is no god but the god’. Which is evidently syntactically in error unless one accepts the word ‘allah’ to mean ‘god’. Which would instead make the statement rather absurd since it would then mean ‘There is no god but god’.

Calligraphic writings of allah and god is also entirely different. See: www.arabbible.com/t-Allah.aspx

What Christians should ask themselves is, so what now? Even Christians in the middle east refer to god as allah? Remember this, in a large community of muslims, there is NO REPLACEMENT for the word ‘god’ EXCEPT allah. Over these thousands of years the name of allah has been morphed to mean ‘god’ due to constant reference and ignorance. But some simple checks and logic will reveal to you that the word is shockingly misplaced.

‘GOD’ is a title conferred on the one and only omnipotent creator. Just like ‘President’ is a title. If I say ‘Obama’ is President, it probably would be correct for the next 3 years but only within the boundaries of USA, but if I say ‘McCain’ is President, then I must have either made a typographical error or I am seriously delusional.

“There is no President but McCain”? Sounds like treason to you? Well it is, at least spiritually speaking. It has always been treason.

muslimsopenyoureyes.blogspot.com

Let me know if you think this understanding is in error, but only with valid points of argument.
.

 

[James_S_Saint]

The word “Allah” was formed of the 2 word/sounds; “All” and “ah”

All == The Whole, The Holy
Ah == Spirit

Allah == The Holy Spirit

---

Rahman == “manifestation of awareness/wisdom”

 

[Mosacked]

The word “Allah” was formed of the 2 word/sounds; “All” and “ah”

All == The Whole, The Holy
Ah == Spirit

Allah == The Holy Spirit

---

Rahman == “manifestation of awareness/wisdom”

You must mean that arabs use the 26 letters of the english alphabet.

I know what is desperation, but what you’re doing here is an exposure of your lack of sensibility.

 

[Sagefrakrobatik]

This is Ironic yesterday I was listening to NPR and there were group of experts arguing on the use of Allah by non-Muslims many of the guests on the show said that Christians and Jews can use the term Allah or call God whatever they want. Although I am studying Arabic I do not know alot about that paticular word all i know is it sounds alot like the arabic word for 'on". as in “Put that ON the table.”

 

[James_S_Saint]

I know what is desperation, but what you’re doing here is an exposure of your lack of sensibility.

Well that is probably true of one of us.

 

[Eric63]

On an interesting note from a recent story in Malaysia. The Catholic Church has argued and successfully proved in the Malaysian courts the term Allah was originally a Christian term for God in the arabic world. The term was used for 600 years prior to Islam’s existence as a religion.

This was in a court case over Bibles in Malaysia containing the word Allah. The Malaysian government had attempted to block the importation of the Bibles due to the use of Allah by nonmuslims was offensive to muslims.

It was my understanding that the Malaysian government is appealing the court decision as of this time.

 

[Kadaveri]

Although I am studying Arabic I do not know alot about that paticular word all i know is it sounds alot like the arabic word for 'on". as in “Put that ON the table.”

The word you’re thinking of there is `ala (على), it’s a totally different word.

An answer I gave on this topic in a different thread:

There are two scholarly opinions on the immediate etymological origin of the word Allah. The first is that it is a conjunction of the phrase al-ilah; the second is that it’s a loan word from Aramaic-Syriac that has been Arabised, the original word being alaha. In my opinion, the second is by far the most likely; as there are serious problems with the first opinion of which I have never seen an adequate resolution, and seems to be little more than folk etymology. Firstly, the most important part of the word *ilah *is the il, which is the Proto-Semitic word for ‘God’. From this we also get the Akkadian ilu, Aramaic/Syriac alaha, the Hebrew El, *Eloh *and Elohim; it’s unlikely that if a word were to be formed from al-ilah the il would be the part of the word that is dropped. Also *Allah and ilah are not as similar as they appear to be when transliterated into basic Latin script. Firstly the l *in *Allah *is velarised (like the l in ‘loch’), but the l in ilah is a clear unvelarised l (like the l in ‘love’), this is especially important as there is no velarised l in Arabic phonology, implying that the source is from a language other than Arabic. Secondly, the second a in Allah is not the same as the a in ilah, the second a in Allah being like the vowel sound in ‘warm’, and the a in ilah being like the vowel sound in ‘cat’. Again, the vowel sound in Allah and ‘warm’ does not exist in Arabic, implying the word is of foreign origin. Indeed Allah is the only word in Arabic which has these two sounds.

The second opinion is more convincing because these two sounds do exist in Aramaic/Syriac; whatsmore the word for ‘God’ in Aramaic, alaha (the word Jesus Christ most likely used to refer to God, if you’re interested) is pronounced using these two sounds in exactly the same way as the Arabic Allah is. Also, the only real difference between the two words, that the Aramaic has an extra a at the end whereas Allah doesn’t, can be easily explained in that this extra a is grammatical and denotes the definite article, which would be superfluous in Arabic and is usually dropped when Aramaic/Syriac words are taken into Arabic.

But regardless of which etymology you deem to be the most likely, there is a broad consensus in scholarly opinion that Arabic word Allah ultimately originates from the Proto-Semitic il and means ‘God’. It is not the personal name of a god.

Also, the word *ilah *means ‘god’ with small ‘g’, Allah means ‘God’ with a capital ‘G’. I hope people recognise the difference. La ilaha illallah means ‘There is no god but GOD’.

 

[Mosacked]

On an interesting note from a recent story in Malaysia. The Catholic Church has argued and successfully proved in the Malaysian courts the term Allah was originally a Christian term for God in the arabic world. The term was used for 600 years prior to Islam’s existence as a religion.

This was in a court case over Bibles in Malaysia containing the word Allah. The Malaysian government had attempted to block the importation of the Bibles due to the use of Allah by nonmuslims was offensive to muslims.

It was my understanding that the Malaysian government is appealing the court decision as of this time.

600 years before islam’s existence, christianity was still stuck in the hands of the romans, the apostles were persecuted and killed. Unless you’re telling me one or more of the apostles went to preach to the arabs and they instituted the word to the arabs???

Anyway, I guess you could perhaps be referring to the record that ‘allah’ was already worshipped to prior to islam’s development…BUT NOTE. That is when it was worshipped as 1 of 300 over idols in the Ka’aba.

Not disputing WHEN, the name was used. Disputing its use to refer to something else besides the islamic entity of worship.
.

 

[Mosacked]

The word you’re thinking of there is `ala (على), it’s a totally different word.

An answer I gave on this topic in a different thread:

Also, the word *ilah *means ‘god’ with small ‘g’, Allah means ‘God’ with a capital ‘G’. I hope people recognise the difference. La ilaha illallah means ‘There is no god but GOD’.

And foolish means silly with the small ‘s’ and Kadaveri means Silly with the big ‘S’.

Does the above make any sense? It doesn’t. Why doesn’t it? Because its really just what I’m spouting and not backed with any explanation/justification.

 

[Kadaveri]

From Merriam-Webster -

God: the supreme or ultimate reality.
god: a being or object believed to have more than natural attributes and powers and to require human worship.

Understand the difference capitalisation brings?

 

[benidict]

From Merriam-Webster -

God: the supreme or ultimate reality.
god: a being or object believed to have more than natural attributes and powers and to require human worship.

Understand the difference capitalisation brings?

your actually are going to try to have a dialouge with mosacked??? good luck on that

 

[staffsgt7]

your actually are going to try to have a dialouge with mosacked??? good luck on that

So bashing instead of discussing is your way?

If I were to refer to anything as Allah I would be referring to your Lucifer.

 

[benidict]

So bashing instead of discussing is your way?

If I were to refer to anything as Allah I would be referring to your Lucifer.

and i would gues you are mosackeds brother. yep makes sense same personality.

 

[dzheremi]

So after this same silliness is shot down in the “Malaysian Churches” thread, you give it its own thread?

Anyway, I have to agree with Kadaveri here, as the linguistically-valid opinions would first consider cognates in related (Semitic) languages to look for a common root. As is written in the link I posted in the “Malaysian Churches” thread, it comes down to common roots:

Where does it come from? Nobody knows with certainty, but the words for “god” or “deity” in all Semitic languages, extinct and extant, are all similar in that they consist of an initial glottal stop (represented by A, E, or I, when written in Latin letters), followed by the L sound, sometimes followed by the sound AH (or OH), variously pronounced. Arabic, Aramaic, and Hebrew cognates seem to derive from an ancient root, possibly pronounced EL, and thought to signify power.

This is borne out by looking at Aramaic/Syriac forms, which are Alaha or Aloho (depending on dialect). Do you also want to argue that the Syriac-speaking Christians are also worshiping a false deity? That is the height of insanity. JESUS CHRIST, THE SAVIOR HIMSELF spoke Aramaic, and He called out on the cross “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabatchthani?” This “Eloi” is Aramaic for “My God” (the full phrase is “My God, my God, why have your forsaken me?”). It is the Aramaic cognate with “Allah”, coming from the same '-L-H root (I don’t know enough about Aramaic to know why the h is not present in this case, but I would guess perhaps Aramaic is closer to the proto-Semitic root, in which the final -ah is apparently not stable; see here)

Stop slandering the Savior of all mankind with your anti-Semitic invective.

 

[dzheremi]

So after this same silliness is shot down in the “Malaysian Churches” thread, you give it its own thread?

Anyway, I have to agree with Kadaveri here, as the linguistically-valid opinions would first consider cognates in related (Semitic) languages to look for a common root. As is written in the link I posted in the “Malaysian Churches” thread, it comes down to common roots:

This is borne out by looking at Aramaic/Syriac forms, which are Alaha or Aloho (depending on dialect). Do you also want to argue that the Syriac-speaking Christians are also worshiping a false deity? That is the height of insanity. JESUS CHRIST, THE SAVIOR HIMSELF spoke Aramaic, and He called out on the cross “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabatchthani?” This “Eloi” is Aramaic for “My God” (the full phrase is “My God, my God, why have your forsaken me?”). It is the Aramaic cognate with “Allah”, coming from the same '-L-H root (I don’t know enough about Aramaic to know why the h is not present in this case, but I would guess perhaps Aramaic developed from a particular form of the proto-Semitic root, in which the final -ah is apparently not stable; see here)

Stop slandering the Savior of all mankind with your anti-Semitic invective.

 

[Eric63]

Somebody can not stand that Islam is not as old as Christianity. If I recall the Roman Empire became Christian and Rome ruled over the Arab world.

 

[ralphinal]

For the record, there were Christians in Arabia in Muhammed’s time. Even more, there were heretics there as well.

By the time Muhammed set foot on the earth, Arabic speaking Christians were praying to God.

 

[Mosacked]

From Merriam-Webster -

God: the supreme or ultimate reality.
god: a being or object believed to have more than natural attributes and powers and to require human worship.

Understand the difference capitalisation brings?

The capitalization of ilah is Ilah. Not allah. Can i say the capitalization of mohammad is mostmad?

 

[Mosacked]

For the record, there were Christians in Arabia in Muhammed’s time. Even more, there were heretics there as well.

By the time Muhammed set foot on the earth, Arabic speaking Christians were praying to God.

And they referred to god using the regular word ilah. Before islam, there was no arabic. Whatever they spoke was unofficial dialect. Arabic came for and from islam.

 

[dzheremi]

You misunderstand Kadaveri’s point. “Allah” is God with a capital “G”, as we would capitalize it in English when talking about God. “Illah” is god with a lowercase “g”, as we might write it when talking a particular god of a pantheon. It has nothing to do with capitalization in Arabic, as such a thing does not exist.