بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم bismi-llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīm In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Meaning of Allah Allah is the Name of the Lord, the Exalted. It is said that Allah is the Greatest Name of Allah, because it is referred to when describing Allah by the various attributes. For instance, Allah said, Al- Quran 59:22-24 God is He, Beside Whom there is no other god;- Who knows (all things) both secret and open; He, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. God is He, Beside Whom there is no other god;- the Sovereign, the Holy One, the Source of Peace (and Perfection), the Guardian of Faith, the Preserver of Safety, the Exalted in Might, the Irresistible, the Supreme: Glory to God! (High is He) above the partners they attribute to Him. He is God, the Creator, the Evolver, the Bestower of Forms (or Colours). To Him belong the Most Beautiful Names: whatever is in the heavens and on earth, doth declare His Praises and Glory: and He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise. Who is Allah First of all, it is important to note that Allah is the same word that Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews use for God. If you pick up an Arabic Bible, you will see the word Allah being used where God is used in English. This is because Allah is the only word in the Arabic language equivalent to the English word God with a capital G. Additionally, the word Allah cannot be made plural or given gender (i.e. masculine or feminine), which goes hand-in-hand with the Islamic concept of God. Because of this, and also because the Quran, which is the holy scripture of Muslims, was revealed in the Arabic language, some Muslims use the word Allah for God, even when they are speaking other languages. This is not unique to the word Allah, since many Muslims tend to use Arabic words when discussing Islamic issues, regardless of the language that they speak. This is because the universal teachings of Islam - even though they have been translated in every major language - have been preserved in the Arabic language. It is interesting to note that the Aramaic word El, which is the word for God in the language that Jesus spoke, is certainly more similar in sound to the word Allah than the English word God. This also holds true for the various Hebrew words for God, which are El and Elah, and the plural form Elohim. The reason for these similarities is that Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic are all Semitic languages with common origins. It should also be noted that in translating the Bible into English, the Hebrew word El is translated variously as God, God and angel! This imprecise language allows different translators, based on their preconceived notions, to translate the word to fit their own views. The Arabic word Allah presents no such difficulty or ambiguity, since it is only used for Almighty God alone. Additionally, in English, the only difference between God, meaning a false God, and God, meaning the One True God, is the capital G. In the Arabic alphabet, since it does not have capital letters, the word for God (i.e. Allah) is formed by adding the equivalent to the English word the (Al-) to the Arabic word for God/God (ilah). So the Arabic word Allah literally it means The God - the Al- in Arabic basically serving the same function as the capital G in English. Due to the above mentioned facts, a more accurate translation of the word Allah into English might be The One -and-Only God or The One True God. Al- Quran 2:255 God! There is no god but He,-the Living, the Self-subsisting, Eternal. No slumber can seize Him nor sleep. His are all things in the heavens and on earth. Who is there can intercede in His presence except as He permitteth? He knoweth what (appeareth to His creatures as) before or after or behind them. Nor shall they compass aught of His knowledge except as He willeth. His Throne doth extend over the heavens and the earth, and He feeleth no fatigue in guarding and preserving them for He is the Most High, the Supreme (in glory). More importantly, it should also be noted that the Arabic word Allah contains a deep religious message due to its root meaning and origin. This is because it stems from the Arabic verb taAllaha (or alaha), which means to be worshipped. Thus in Arabic, the word Allah means The One who deserves all worship. This, in a nutshell, is the Pure Monotheistic message of Islam. You see, according to Islam, monotheism is much more than simply believing in the existence of only One God - as seemingly opposed to two, three or more. If one understands the root meaning of the word Allah, this point should become clear. One should understand that Islams criticism of the other religions that claim to be monotheistic is not because they are polytheistic in the classic sense, but because they direct various forms of worship to other than Almighty God. We will discuss the meaning of worship in Islam below, however, before moving on it should be noted that many non-Muslims are unaware of the distinction between simply believing in the existence of only One God and reserving all worship for Him alone. Many Christians are painfully unaware of this point, and thus you often find them asking how Muslims can accuse the followers of Jesus, peace be upon him, of being polytheists when they were all monotheistic Jews. First of all, it should be clarified that the word polytheist doesnt really sound right in this context, since to many it implies simply believing in the existence of more than one God. So in an Islamic context, associators, man-worshippers or creature worshippers might be more accurate and appropriate terms - especially since Christians believe Jesus to be both 100% God and 100% man, while still paying lip-service to Gods Oneness. However, as we previously touched upon, what is really at the root of this problem is the fact that Christians - as well as the members of other religions - dont really know what monotheism means - especially in the Islamic sense. All of the books, articles and papers that Ive read which were written by Christians invariably limit monotheism to believing in the existence of One Sovereign and Creator God. Islam, however, teaches much more than this. Al- Quran 112:1-4 Say: He is God, the One and Only; God, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him. Suffice it to say that just because someone claims to be a monotheistic Jew, Christian or Muslim, that doesnt keep them from falling into, corrupt beliefs and idolatrous practices. Many people, including some Muslims, claim belief in One God even though theyve fallen into acts of idolatry. Certainly, many Protestants accuse Roman Catholics of idolatrous practices in regards to the saints and the Virgin Mary. Likewise, the Greek Orthodox Church is considered idolatrous by many other Christians because in much of their worship they use icons. However, if you ask a Roman Catholic or a Greek Orthodox person if God is One, they will invariably answer: Yes!”… …This brings us to a more important point: It should be clearly understood that what Islam is primarily concerned with is correcting mankinds concept of Almighty God. What we are ultimately going to be held accountable at the end of our life is not whether we prefer the word Allah to the word God, but what our concept of God is. Language is only a side issue. A person can have an incorrect concept of God while using the word Allah, and likewise a person can have a correct concept of God while using the word God. This is because both of these words are equally capable of being misused and being improperly defined. As weve already mentioned, using the word Allah no more insinuates belief in the Unity of God than the use of the word God insinuates belief in the Trinity - or any other theological opinion. Naturally, when God sends a revelation to mankind through a prophet, He is going to send it in a language that the people who receive it can understand and relate to. Almighty God makes this clear in the Quran, when He states: Al- Quran 14:4 We sent not an apostle except (to teach) in the language of his (own) people, in order to make (things) clear to them. Now God leaves straying those whom He pleases and guides whom He pleases: and He is Exalted in power, full of Wisdom. Never did We send a Messenger except (to teach) in the language of his (own) people in order to make (things) clear to them. (Quran, Chapter 14 - Abraham, Verse 4) Some of the biggest misconceptions that many non-Muslims have about Islam have to do with the word Allah. For various reasons, many people have come to believe that Muslims worship a different God than Christians and Jews. This is totally false, since Allah is simply the Arabic word for God - and there is only One God. Let there be no doubt - Muslims worship the God of Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus - peace be upon them all. However, it is certainly true that Jews, Christians and Muslims all have different concepts of Almighty God. For example, Muslims - like Jews - reject the Christian beliefs of the Trinity and the Divine Incarnation. This, however, doesnt mean that each of these three religions worships a different God - because, as we have already said, there is only One True God. Judaism, Christianity and Islam all claim to be Abrahamic Faiths, and all of them are also classified as monotheistic. However, Islam teaches that other religions have, in one way or another, distorted and nullified a pure and proper belief in Almighty God by neglecting His true teachings and mixing them with man-made ideas As Muslims, we think that it is unfortunate that we have to go into details on such seemingly minor issues, but so many falsehoods have been heaped upon our religion, that we feel that it is our duty to try to break down the barriers of falsehood. This isnt always easy, since there is a lot of anti-Islamic literature in existence, which tries to make Islam look like something strange and foreign to Westerners. There are some people out there, who are obviously not on the side of truth, that want to get people to believe that Allah is just some Arabian God, and that Islam is completely other - meaning that it has no common roots with the other Abrahamic religions (i.e. Christianity and Judaism). To say that Muslims worship a different God because they say Allah is just as illogical as saying that French people worship another God because they use the word Dieu, that Spanish-speaking people worship a different God because they say Dios or that the Hebrews worshipped a different God because they sometimes call Him Yahweh. Certainly, reasoning like this is quite ridiculous! It should also be mentioned, that claiming that any one language uses the only correct word for God is tantamount to denying the universality of Gods message to mankind, which was to all nations, tribes and people through various prophets who spoke different languages.”
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 07:58:00 +0000
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