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File:Allah-eser.jpg
Name of Template:ArabDIN written in Arabic calligraphy by 17th century Ottoman artist Hâfız Osman.
For other uses, see Allah (disambiguation).
This article is about the Arabic word "Allah". See God in Islam for the Islamic conception of God.
Allah

Allah (Arabic: الله, Template:ArabDIN, IPA: [ʔalˤːɑːh]) is the standard Arabic word for "God".[1] While the term is best known in the West for its use by Muslims as a reference to God, it is used by Arabic-speakers of all Abrahamic faiths, including Christians and Jews in reference to "God".[2][1][3] The term was also used by pagan Meccans as a reference to the creator-god, possibly the supreme deity in pre-Islamic Arabia.[4]

The concepts associated with the term Allah (as a deity) differ among the traditions. In pre-Islamic Arabia, Allah was not the sole divinity, having associates and companions, sons and daughters. In Islam, Allah is unique, the only God, transcendent creator of the universe and omnipotent.[2][1] Arab Christians today, having no other word for 'God' than 'Allah'[5], use terms such as Allāh al-ab (الله الآب) to mean God the father. There are both similarities and differences between the concept of God as portrayed in the Qur'an and the Hebrew Bible. [6]

Unicode has a codepoint reserved for Allāh, ﷲ = U+FDF2.[7]

Etymology

Medallion showing 'Allah' in Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey.

The term Allāh is most likely derived from a contraction of the Arabic article al- and Template:ArabDIN "deity, god" to Template:ArabDIN meaning "the god".[4] Another theory traces the etymology of the word to the Aramaic Alāhā.[4] Cognates of the name "Allāh" exist in other Semitic languages, including Hebrew and Aramaic.[3] The corresponding Aramaic form is אֱלָהָא ˀĔlāhā in Biblical Aramaic and ܐܰܠܳܗܳܐ ˀAlâhâ or ˀĀlōho in Syriac.[8].

The contraction of al- and Template:ArabDIN in forming the term Allāh (“the deity” in the masculine form) parallels the contraction of al- and Template:ArabDIN in forming the term al-Lāt (“the deity” in the feminine form). [9]

Usage in Arabic

Allah script outside Eski Cami (The Old Mosque) in Edirne, Turkey.

Pre-Islamic Arabia

In pre-Islamic Arabia, Allah was used by Meccans as a reference to the creator-god, possibly the supreme deity.[10] Allah was not the sole divinity and the notion of the term may have been vague in the Meccan religion.[4] Allah had associates and companions, whom pre-Islamic Arabs considered as subordinate deities. Meccans held that a kind of kinship existed between Allah and the jinn.[11] Allah had sons[12] and the local deities of al-ʿUzzā, Manāt and al-Lāt were his daughters[13] The Meccans possibly associated angels with Allah.[14][15] Allah was invoked in times of distress.[16][15] Muhammad's father name was ʿAbdallāh meaning the “servant of Allāh.”[15] But for sure the Allah in his name can not refer the Jewish Elohim but Meccan diety probably a moon god.

Muslims

Main article: God in Islam

In Islam, Allah is the name of the nameless God,[9] the pivot of the Muslim faith.[1] He is the only God, transcendent creator of the universe, and the judge of humankind.[2][1] He is unique (wahid) and inherently one (ahad), all-merciful and omnipotent.[1] The Qur'an insists upon "the reality of Allah, His inaccessible mystery, His various names, and His actions on behalf of His creatures." [1]

According to the tradition of Islam there are 99 Names of God (al-asma al-husna lit. meaning: "The best names") each of which evoke a distinct characteristic of Allah. The most famous and most frequent of these names are "the Merciful" (al-rahman) and "the Compassionate" (al-rahim).[17][2]

Others

Arabic-speakers of all Abrahamic faiths, including Christians and Jews, use the word "Allah" to mean "God".[3] The Christian Arabs of today have no other word for 'God' than 'Allah'.[5] Arab Christians for example use terms Allāh al-ab (الله الآب) meaning God the father, Allāh al-ibn (الله الابن) mean God the son, and Allāh al-ruh al ghodus (الله الروح القدس) meaning God the Holy Spirit (See God in Christianity for the Christian concept of God).

Arab Christians have used two forms of invocations that were affixed to the beginning of their written works. They adopted the Muslim basm-allah, and also created their own Trinitized basm-allah as early as the eight century CE.[18] The Muslim basm-allah reads:

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

And the Trinitized basm-allah reads:

In the name of Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God.

The Syriac, Latin and Greek invocations do not have the words "One God" at the end. This addition was made to emphasize the monotheistic aspect of Trinitian belief and also to make it more palatable to Muslims. [18]

According to Marshall Hodgson, it seems that in the pre-Islamic times, some Arab Christians made pilgrimage to the Kaaba, a pagan temple at that time, honoring Allah there as God the Creator.[19]

Other usage

English and other European languages

The history of the word "Allāh" in English was probably influenced by the study of comparative religion in 19th century; for example, Thomas Carlyle (1840) sometimes used the term Allah but without any implication that Allah was anything different from God. Tor Andræ's biography of Muhammad (1934) however always used the term Allah though he "allows that this is 'a conception of God', seems to imply that it is different from the Jewish and Christian conceptions." By this time Christians were also becoming used to retaining the Hebrew term "Yahweh" untranslated (it was previously translated as 'the Lord'). [20]

Even when the term Allah (as a deity) is not broadly used in a language, expressions based on this term may be popular. For example, because of the centuries long Muslim presence in the Iberian Peninsula, the word ojalá (Arabic: إن شاء الله) today exist in the Spanish language, borrowed from Arabic. This phrase literally means "God willing" (in the sense of "I hope so").[21]

Some Muslims leave the name "Allāh" untranslated in English. [22] Sometimes this comes from a zeal for the Arabic text of the Qur'an and sometimes with a more or less conscious implication that the God that Jews and Christians worship is not really true in it the full sense.[23] On the other hand, The usage of the term Allah by English speaking non-Muslims in reference to the God in Islam, Marshall G. S. Hodgson says, can imply that Muslims are worshiping a mythical god named 'Allah' rather than God, the creator. This usage is therefore appropriate, Hodgson says, only for those who are prepared to accept its theological implications. [23]

Comparative religion

Some western scholars 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. [9] 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. [9] 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.[24]

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.[6] According to Encyclopedia Britannica [1]:

God, says the Qur'an, “loves those who do good,” and two passages in the Qur'an express a mutual love between God and man, but the Judeo-Christian precept to “love God with all thy heart” is nowhere formulated in Islam. The emphasis is rather on God's inscrutable sovereignty, to which one must abandon oneself. In essence, the “surrender to Allah” (Islam) is the religion itself.

Typography

Islamic Republic Coat of Arms, since 1979.

Unicode has a codepoint reserved for Allāh, ﷲ = U+FDF2.[7] This character according to the official Unicode specification can be decomposed to alif-lām-lām-heh (الله‎ U+0627 U+0644 U+0644 U+0647). [25] Arabic type fonts often have special ligatures for [A]llāh and ommit the initial alif.[26]

The calligraphic variant of the word used as the Coat of arms of Iran is encoded in Unicode, in the Miscellaneous Symbols range, at codepoint U+262B (☫).[27] The Coat of arms of Iran appears in the center of the flag of Iran. It can be understood as either a stylized design of the word Allah, as a representation of the globe, or as two crescents.[28]

Abjad numerals

Abjad is an ancient numerical system in the Arabic-speaking world. In this system each of the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet represent the units, tens and hundreds up to an including 1000.[29] The numerical value of the letters of Allah (الله) according to the traditional Arabic abjad system adds up to 66. [30]

See also

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Allah
Typography

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Allah." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Cite error: The named reference "Britannica" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b c d Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa, Allah
  3. ^ a b c Columbia Encyclopedia, Allah Cite error: The named reference "Columbia" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b c d L. Gardet, "Allah", Encyclopedia of Islam Cite error: The named reference "EoI" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b Lewis, Bernard; Holt, P. M.; Holt, Peter R.; Lambton, Ann Katherine Swynford (1977). The Cambridge history of Islam. Cambridge, Eng: University Press. p. 32. ISBN 0-521-29135-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ a b F.E. Peters, Islam, p.4, Princeton University Press, 2003
  7. ^ a b Unicode Standard 5.0, p.479,492 [1]
  8. ^ The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon - Entry for ˀlh
  9. ^ a b c d Böwering, Gerhard, God and His Attributes, Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān, Brill, 2007.
  10. ^ See Qur'an 13:16 ; 29:61-63; 31:25; 39:38)
  11. ^ See Qur'an 37:158)
  12. ^ See Qur'an (6:100)
  13. ^ See Qur'an (53:19-22 ; 16:57 ; 37:149)
  14. ^ See Qur'an (53:26-27)
  15. ^ a b c Gerhard Böwering, God and his Attributes, Encyclopedia of the Qur'an
  16. ^ See Qur'an 6:109; 10:22; 16:38; 29:65)
  17. ^ Bentley, David (1999). The 99 Beautiful Names for God for All the People of the Book. William Carey Library. ISBN 0-87808-299-9. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  18. ^ a b Thomas E. Burman, Religious Polemic and the Intellectual History of the Mozarabs, Brill, 1994, p.103
  19. ^ Marshall G. S. Hodgson, The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization, University of Chicago Press, p.156
  20. ^ William Montgomery Watt, Islam and Christianity today: A Contribution to Dialogue, Routledge, 1983, p.45
  21. ^ Islam in Luce López Baralt, Spanish Literature: From the Middle Ages to the Present, Brill, 1992, p.25
  22. ^ F. E. Peters, The Monotheists: Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Conflict and Competition, Princeton University Press, p.12
  23. ^ a b Marshall G. S. Hodgson, The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization, University of Chicago Press, p.63
  24. ^ Encyclopedia Britannica
  25. ^ Unicode Character 'Arabic ligature Allah isolated form' (U+FDF2) [2]
  26. ^
  27. ^ Unicode Standard 5.0, p.209,210 [3]
  28. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica, flag of Iran
  29. ^ M J L Young, J D Latham, R B Serjeant, Religion, Learning and Science in the 'Abbasid Period,Cambridge University Press, p.254
  30. ^ The Journal of the Numismatic Society of India, 1939, p.86

References

  • The Unicode Consortium, Unicode Standard 5.0, Addison-Wesley, 2006, ISBN 0321480910, [4]
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