Let's Call God Allah

Allah

Allah
(Arabic: الله‎ Allāh, IPA: [ʔalˤːɑːh]
( listen))
is the standard Arabic word for God.
While the term is best known in the West for its use by Muslims
as a reference
to
God,
it is used by
Arabs of all Abrahamic faiths, including Mizrahi Jews,
Baha'is and Eastern Orthodox Christians,
in reference to
"God".
The term was also used by pagan Meccans as a reference to the creator-god, possibly the supreme deity in pre-Islamic Arabia.
The concepts associated
with
the term
Allah (as a deity)
differ among the traditions.
In pre-Islamic Arabia amongst pagan Arabs,
Allah was not considered the sole divinity,
having associates and companions, sons and daughters–a concept which Islam thoroughly and resolutely did away with.
In Islam, the name Allah is the supreme and all-comprehensive divine name. All other divine names are believed to refer back to Allah.
Allah is unique, the only Deity,
creator of the universe and omnipotent.
Arab Christians today
use terms
such
as
Allāh al-ʼAb ( الله الأب, "God the Father")
to
distinguish their usage
from
Muslim usage.
There are both similarities and differences between the concept of God as portrayed in the Qur'an and the Hebrew Bible.
Unicode has a codepoint reserved for Allāh, ﷲ = U+FDF2.
Many Arabic type fonts
feature
special ligatures for
Allah.

Etymology
Medallion
showing
'Allah' in Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey.
The term
Allāh
is derived from
a contraction of the Arabic
definite article
al- "the" and ʼilāh "deity, god"
to
al-lāh
meaning
"the [sole] deity, God"
(ho theos monos).
Cognates of the name
"Allāh"
exist in other
Semitic languages,
including
Hebrew and Aramaic.
The
corresponding
Aramaic form is אֱלָהָא ʼĔlāhā in Biblical Aramaic and ܐܰܠܳܗܳܐ ʼAlâhâ or ʼĀlōho in Syriac.
The contraction of al- and ʼilāh
in
forming
the
term
Allāh
("the god", masculine form)
parallels the contraction of
al- and ʼilāha
in
forming
the term
Allāt ("the goddess", feminine form).
Usage in Arabic
Pre-Islamic Arabia
In pre-Islamic Arabia, Allah
was used
by
Meccans as a reference to the creator-god, possibly the supreme deity.
Allah at Rohtas Fort Pakistan
Allah
was not
considered the sole divinity;
however,
Allah was considered the creator of the world and the giver of rain.
The notion of the term may have been vague in the Meccan religion.
Allah was associated with companions,
whom
pre-Islamic Arabs considered as subordinate deities.
Meccans held that a kind of kinship existed between Allah and the jinn.
Allah was thought to have had sons
and that the local deities
of
al-ʻUzzá, Manāt and
al-Lāt were His daughters.
The Meccans possibly associated angels with Allah.
Allah was invoked in times of distress.
Muhammad's father's name
was
‘Abdallāh
meaning
the
“servant of Allāh.”
or
"the slave of Allāh"
Islam
Main article:
God in Islam
See also:
Names of God in the Qur'an
According
to
Islamic belief,
Allah
is the
proper name of God,
and humble submission to His Will,
Divine Ordinances and Commandments is the pivot of the Muslim faith.
"He is the only God,
creator of the universe,
and
the judge of humankind."
"He is unique
(wahid)
and
inherently one
(ahad),
all-merciful
and
omnipotent."
The Qur'an
declares
"the reality of Allah, His inaccessible mystery, His various names, and His actions on behalf of His creatures."
Allah script outside Eski Cami
(The Old Mosque)
in
Edirne, Turkey.
In
Islamic
tradition,
there are 99 Names of God
(al-asma al-husna lit. meaning: "The best names")
each of which evoke a distinct characteristic of Allah.
All these names refer to Allah,
the supreme and all-comprehensive divine name.
Among the 99 names of God,
the
most famous and most frequent
of
these names are
"the Merciful"
(al-rahman)
and
"the Compassionate"
(al-rahim).
Most Muslims
use the
untranslated Arabic phrase
"insha' Allah"
(meaning "God willing")
after references to future events.
Muslim discursive piety encourages beginning things
with the invocation
of
"bismillah"
(meaning "In the name of God").
There are certain phrases in praise of God that are favored by Muslims,
including
"Subhan-Allah"
(Holiness be to God),
"Alhamdulillah"
(Praise be to God),
"La-il-la-ha-illa-Allah"
(There is no deity but God)
and
"Allāhu Akbar"
(God is great)
as a devotional exercise of remembering
God (zikr).
In a Sufi practice known as zikr Allah
(lit. remembrance of God),
the Sufi repeats and contemplates on the name Allah
or
other divine names while controlling his or her breath.
Some scholars
[who?]
have suggested that Muhammad
used the term
Allah in addressing
both pagan Arabs and Jews or Christians in order
to
establish a common ground for the understanding of the name for God,
a claim
Gerhard Böwering says is doubtful.
According to Böwering,
in contrast with
Pre-Islamic Arabian polytheism,
God in Islam does not have associates and companions nor is there any kinship between God and jinn.
Pre-Islamic
pagan
Arabs believed in a blind,
powerful,
inexorable and insensible fate
over which man had no control.
This was replaced with the Islamic notion of a powerful
but
provident and merciful God.
According to Francis Edwards Peters,
"The Qur'an insists, Muslims believe, and historians affirm that Muhammad and his followers worship the same God as the Jews (29:46).
The Quran's Allah is the same Creator God who covenanted with Abraham".
Peters states that the Qur'an portrays Allah as both more powerful and more remote than Yahweh, and as a universal deity,
unlike
Yahweh who closely follows
Israelites.