Who is Allah? That is a question that many believers and non-believers may ask themselves. It is remarkable that the word Allah is not only used in Islam, as many people think. However, there are also Christians who use the word Allah to refer to their god, although this is a minority. Discover who Allah is, which religions worship him and what figure he represents.
- Meaning of the name
- Origin of the word in pre-Islamic Arabia
- Allah in Islam
- Allah in Christianity
- And also in Judaism
The Arabic symbol for Allah. / Source: Nevit Dilmen, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA-3.0)
Meaning of the name
The term Allah is a portmanteau of the Arabic words al and ilāh, where ‘al’ stands for ‘the’ and the second word stands for ‘only’. By ‘the only one’ the faith in question refers to the fact that He is the only god that one worships. However, the corresponding Armenian word ‘Ĕlāhā’ simply refers to ‘god’, also in Assyrian the name refers only to ‘god’ and not to ‘the only one’.
Origin of the word in pre-Islamic Arabia
In pre-Islamic Arabia, the name Allah was already used by the Meccans to refer to the creator and the omnipotent greatness. At that time, however, Allah was not considered the only god, although according to the Meccans he was responsible for the rain and the creation of the Earth. Since he was by no means the only god, the faith was not only about him and there were fewer stories about him than there is now. However, he was important, it was believed that Allah had a series of sons and that his daughters were some other gods. Perhaps Allah of that time can be compared to the angels of today, important for the origins and maintenance of faith, but the final prayer revolves around other figures.
Allah in Islam
According to the Islamic faith, Allah is the one and only name of God. For example, the following sentence is written in the Qur’an: ,He is the only God, the creator of the universe and the judge of humanity., Although the Islamic faith sees Allah as the only God, there are 99 different names for God. Each individual name represents a certain characteristic of God. The most famous names of Allah are ‘the Most Merciful’ or ‘ar-raḥmān’ and ‘the Most Merciful’ or ‘al-raḥīm’.
Allah is a word that is used in various forms in the vocabulary of Muslims. These include: ‘hallowed be God’ or ‘Subhan-Allah’, ‘glory be to God’ or ‘Alha mdulillah’ and ‘Allāhu Akbar’ or ‘God is great’. In everyday life, these and many more sayings are combined with everyday sentences.
According to Francis Edwards Peters, an American professor, Allah is the same god as the God of the Jews. ,The Quran indicates that the Prophet Muhammad honors the same God as the Jews. Allah of the Quran is the same Creator as the one the Jews worship.
Allah in Christianity
The name Allah is also used for several faiths other than Islam. Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews in particular use the word Allah to refer to God. In fact, the current Arabic vocabulary has no other word for God than Allah. Even residents of Malta call their God simply ‘Alla’, while almost the entire population of the island is Roman Catholic.
According to Marshall Hodgson, an American religious scholar, Arab Christians even worshiped the Allah who is central to Islam today. For example, according to Hodgson, in the pre -Islamic era, Christians would have made pilgrimages to the Kaaba, a temple where Allah was worshiped.
And also in Judaism
Since Hebrew and Arabic are very related Semitic languages, it is generally accepted that Allah and the Biblical Elohim simply mean the same thing. The Hebrew Eloah is also often regarded as a ‘synonym’ for Allah. Eloah therefore stands for ‘the God’ and ‘God of Gods’.
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