In as many times as we have been on the
internet or in a discussion or a chat group, we almost always run into
someone who feels offended that we use the word "God" when we talk
about the One and Only God (Allah in Arabic).
It is surprising to notice that most
of these Muslim brothers and/or sisters do not know that the word
"Allah" is the Arabic word for the word "God". Many of them
believe that "Allah" is the name of the Muslim God. They do not realize
that the word "Allah" does not belong exclusively to the Muslims
and that it has always been used before (and after) Islam by the
Arabic-speaking Jews and Christians when they speak about God.
Talking to English speaking people about
God using the word "Allah" is very much the same like speaking to
Arabic speaking people about "Allah" using the word God. It makes
all the sense to show respect to the people and their language by
speaking to them in the language they use.
Insisting on the use of the word "Allah"
which is the Arabic word for God immediately creates the illusion that
"Allah" is a whole different deity than God of the whole world. It
creates a god that belongs ONLY to the Muslims, and takes the
universality of Islam out of it. We found the comment sent by Abu
Iman Robert Squires to be very informative and we re-produced it here.
The word "ALLAH"
A Comment by : Abu Iman Robert Squires
Assalamu Alaikum,
I would like to strongly concur with your observations about
the use of the word "Allah" in English and any other language. Both
from my conversion experience in America and my experience doing da'wah
here in Kuwait, it is definitely 100% - without a shadow of a doubt -
better to use the word "God" when making da'wah to English speaking
people.
This alone is enough to open many hearts and minds since
many people think that Muslims worship a different God. I've come
across some Arab brothers who insist in using only the word "Allah".
They somehow think that it implies Tawhid while the word "God" implies
the Trinity, etc., etc.
You know, the problem with such people is not their
knowledge of Arabic, but their ignorance of English. The mushriks
(disbelievers) at the time of the Prophet (saws) used the word Allah,
and so do Arabic-speaking Christians. The word itself in no way implies
tawhid. The reason it implies tawhid to Muslims is that they're
Muslims. Others use this word in ways that are nothing but shirk.
The word God implies tawhid to me because I have the Islamic
concept of Him. It's all in the concept, but has nothing to do with the
word itself. Also, there are statements in some da'wah pamphlets that
say "all prophets since Adam used the word Allah" and that "the word
Allah is exactly the same as the Aramaic word Jesus used for God".
The first statement is baseless and can be proved to be
logically incorrect from the Quran. The second statement is incorrect,
but the words are only similar, but NOT exactly alike. This whole trend
of using "Allah" in English seems to come about rather recently.
Most of the translations and writings done back in the
1940's and 1950's used the word "God", which is a perfectly good
translation of the word Allah in Arabic. M.M. Pickthall being the main
exception, since he seemed to have used "Allah" in all of the
translations that I've seen.
The change came, I believe, as a result of Nasserite Arab
Nationalism. Many Arabs I know over here still don't know the
difference between Islam and Arab Nationalism! They seem more
interesting in defending their pride heritage than really spreading the
message. But this is in no way limited to Arabs, I've dealt with
Pakistanis, Malaysians, Turks and Afghanis that have the same hang-up.
The mentality of some of these brothers almost approaches
that of the Bani Isra'il - the "our God vs. your God" mentality! By the
way, I've never met an English-speaking convert to Islam (or
Spanish-speaking, or French-speaking) who disagreed with me on this
point. Most them went through a stage wondering why (some) Muslims
insist on using Allah.
I should also add that I know a lot of Muslims that use
"God" when speaking English. I find this rather common among most
Egyptians that I know. In Morocco, where I visit quite frequently, the
also use Dieu when they parlez francais.
Insh'allah, more Muslims will realize this and our da'wah
will become more effective. This is a BIG barrier, but many Muslims
don't realize it. Many come up with baseless reasons to justify it (for
whatever reason). What do we converts know anyway!!! Ha! Another point
before I go...some people like to try to draw exact parallels between
English and Arabic words which just don't fit.
The word "ilah" in Arabic can be used for a false god or for
Allah. (Like when God says (paraphrased) the "ilah" of Ibrahim", and
numerous other example.) Anyone who can read the Quran should know
this. However, unlike the word "god" in English, which ALWAYS implies a
false god. Non-native English speakers sometimes mistakenly believe
that "god" and "God" are the same English word, but they are not. They
carry completely different meanings. If they doubt this, then they
simply don't know how to speak the English language. And to say that
the word "Allah" can only be used for the Supreme Almighty Creator is
refuted by the Quran itself.
It clearly says (and I paraphrase here rather liberally)
that Christians say that "Allah is Jesus". There you have it, applying
"Allah" to something that isn't "Allah" right there in the Quran. You
see, what people really mean to say is that you SHOULDN'T use "Allah"
for anything except the Almighty Creator, but you still CAN. The same
thing goes for the word God.
People can use it in the wrong way, but that doesn't make it
right. The truth is that this word too should only be used for the
Almighty Creator. Remember...God has sent prophets to everyone in their
OWN LANGUAGE, i.e. a language that they can understand. How many more
people around the world wouldn't be dying on SHIRK if many Muslims woke
up and started making da'wah in a way people can understand? Well, I've
spoken my peace.
Abu Iman Robert Squires
Here is another comment and response by Steven Thomas;
To: BILL H--------
From: STEVEN THOMAS
Sorry Bill, but your sources are dubious at best. Souroush
for instance is a evangelical missionary associated with Jimmy Swaggart
- great reliability there!
The fact is that Allah does not refer to the moon god or
have associates. The linguistic breakdown of Allah is "The/Al God/Lah".
That is why all Christian Arabs (monophysists, Nestorians, Orthodox,
Roman, and Protestant (yes, even Mr. Shouroush) use the term Allah to
refer to God the Father when they speak Arabic. Lest you wonder where I
am coming from, my degrees are Biblical Arch. and Arabic language.
Try again.
Steven.
--- The Pitts <c---@centurytel.net> wrote:
The god of the Quran and the God of the bible are
completely different. Allah being contrived from AI-Llah the moon god.
Please feel free to research it yourself. As your own documentation
says,.."don't mean to offend anyone."
Peace,
There is no one offended here.
God of the Arabic Bible is called "Allah". I do not think
you believe that there is a god for the English Bible and another god
for the Arabic Bible and a third for the Italian bible...etc. It would
be too naive.
There is ONLY one God. His name in English is God, in
French: un dieu, in Italian: dio, in German: Gott, in Spanish: Dios, in
Portuguese: Deus, in Arabic: Allah, and in Aramaic : alaha.
All these are no more than the names of God in different
languages To this day the Christian Arabs pray to Allah and talk about
Allah. They called Him Allah even before Islam was born and they
know they were not worshipping any moon god. Those who still speak
Jesus language (Aramaic/syriac) call God alaha to this day like Jesus
did. Jesus did not pray to a moon god but to alaha (Allah), the One and
Only God.
The Arabic Bible, use the word Allah for God. If you want
any images of the Arabic Bible with the word Allah in it (for God of
the Bible), please let me know.
If you want to verify it, call any Arabic church in the USA
or any English speaking country and ask them what they call God in
their Arabic Bible and whether they still use the word Allah in their
Bible or not.
Jewish Arabs also pray to Allah and talk about Allah just
like an English person talks about God.
The Origin of the name "Allah"
It seems unlikely that the name Allah comes
from al-ilaah "the God", but rather from the Aramaic/Syriac alaha,
meaning 'God' or 'the God'. The final 'a' in the name alaha was
originally the definite article 'the' and is regularly dropped when
Syriac words and names are borrowed into Arabic. Middle-eastern
Christianity used 'alah' and 'alaha' frequently, and it would have
often been heard.
But in the Aramaic/Syriac language there are
two different 'a' vowels, one rather like the 'a' in English 'hat' and
the other more like the vowel in 'ought'. In the case of 'alah', the
first vowel was like 'hat' and the second like 'ought'. Arabic does not
have a vowel like the one in 'ought', but it seems to have BORROWED
this vowel along with the word 'alah'. If you know Arabic, then you
know that the second vowel in 'allah' is unique; it occurs only in that
one word in Arabic.
Scholars believe that Jesus spoke mostly
Aramaic, although sometimes he spoke Hebrew and he might have spoken
Greek on some occasions. If Jesus spoke Aramaic, then he referred to
God using basically the same word that is used in Arabic.
From Christoph.Heger@t-online.de (Dr. Christoph
Heger)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: How About That Moon God?
Date: Wed Mar 25 18:59:38 EST 1998
Message-ID: <6fc5pa$c8l$1@waltz.rahul.net>
Greetings to all,
The theory that Allah had been the name of an
old Arabic moon god (or moon goddess?) is not familiar to me and I am
not in a position to accept or falsify it. The following remarks only
are thought to serve further elucidation of the matter.
The ancient Greek historian Herodotos in the
first volume of his historic work "Histories Apodexis", line 131-132,
refers to the religion of the Persians. He writes:
"They sacrifice to the sun and the moon and the
earth and the fire and the water and the winds. Only to those they
sacrifice of old. In addition they learnt to sacrifice to Urania [=the
Celestial one, i.e. Aphrodite; Ch.H.], too. They learnt it from the
Assyrians and the Arabs. The Assyrians call Aphrodite Mylitta
[Assyrian: Bilit; Ch.H.], the Arabs Alilat..."
This "Urania", indeed, in some connections
appears as a moon goddess. "Alilat", of course, is to be related to the
Arabic feminine form "al-ilah", a nomen unitatis which has the meaning
of "the (single) deity".
The etymological derivation of "Allah" as a
contraction of "al-ilah", which was maintained in numerous
contributions to sri, too, is "popular" etymology and surely not
historic. It would be rather strange that especially the "i" should
have been disappeared due to neglect of the speakers, since the
syllable "il" is the most important in "al-ilah": "il" or "el" is the
semitic word for God since times immemorial.
Instead, the word "Allah", as a lot of other
words, especially words of the religious sphere, was imported from the
Syriac (Aramaic) language: "alaha" - with three long a-vowels -, is the
Aramaic word for the (Christian) unique God. The last (long) "a"
characterizes the status absolutus in the Aramaic language and was duly
omitted by the Arabs like case endings in the Arabic vernacular,
whereas the understanding of the first syllable of "alaha" as an
article was a common misunderstanding like for instance in
"al-Iskandar" from Greek "Alexandros" etc. The doubling of the "l" is
irrelevant, since the doubling sign is a very late invention of Arabic
orthography, centuries after Muhammad.
Kind regards,
Christoph Heger
Even some of the traditional Scholars agree on this one; see
this Question and answer from a traditional scholar.
The Origin of the Word 'Allah'...
Question:
What is the derivation of "Allah"? Some
scholars say it derives from al+ illah ("the God"), but many Muslim
Ulema and translators of the Quran (such as Maulana Muhammad Ali)
disagree with this, and say that "Allah" is whole in itself, as a
proper name for the Supreme Creator. But is there any philological
relationship between Allah and other Semitic terms for "God" such as
Eloah (Hebrew) and Alaha (Aramaic/Syriac)?
Thank you.
Peace and blessings of Allah be with you.
Shahid M, USA
Reply
Although a lot has been said about the
philology of the word ‘Allah’, however, in my opinion, the former of
the two opinions noted by you seems to be closer to the correct one. A
detailed discussion compiling the opinions of various scholars of the
Arabic language regarding the origin of the word can be seen in “Lisaan
al-Arab” under the word “Aliha” (a-l-h). In my opinion, ‘Allah’ is an
Arabic word meaning ‘the God’. According to the general principle of
making proper nouns from common nouns in the Arabic language, the word
“ilah” (common noun) has been converted to “al-ilah”, which became
“Allah” due to the turgidity and the slight difficulty of pronunciation
of the word “al-ilah”.
The Quran, because its prime and first
addressees were the Arabs, used the word “Allah” for the Supreme Being,
as that had traditionally been the word used for the Supreme Being in
that language. The same had been the case in the older scriptures.
Those scriptures, like the Quran, used those words for the Supreme
Being, which had already in vogue in those languages, to refer to the
Supreme Being.
However, there have been scholars of the Arabic
language who ascribe to the opinion that “Allah” is the actual name of
the Supreme Being. It is indeed important to the evidence that they
have provided into account. Nevertheless, I feel that to give God a
name is a requirement of us, humans. God, being the absolute being is
in no need for a name.
May the Almighty guide us all to the path of
His liking.
info@submission.org
