Allah is the Arabic name for the Abrahamic god. In Russian, this word usually refers to Islam. It is believed that it comes from the abbreviation al-ilāh, which means "god", consists of "El" and "Ela", the Hebrew and Aramaic designations of it. What does the word mean, how did it appear, and what kind of God is in Islam? Read below.
Usage history
The word Allah has been used by Arabs of different religions since pre-Islamic times. More specifically, it is interpreted as a term for God by Muslims (both Arab and non-Arab) and Christians. It is also often used in this way by Babists, Baha'is, Indians and Maltese, as well as Mizrah Jews.
Etymology
The etymology of the name has been widely debated by classical Arab philologists. Basra grammar school specialists believed that this word is formed spontaneously or as a specific form of lāh (from the verbal root lyh in the meaning "high" or "hidden"). Others assumed that it was borrowed from Syriac or Hebrew, but most believed that it comes from Arabic al - “deity” and ilāh “god”, which resulted in al-lāh. Most modern scientists adhere to the latest theory and are skeptical of the borrowing hypothesis. He is the only god in Islam.
Analogs
Related words exist in other Semitic languages that are common in the Middle East, including Hebrew and Aramaic. The corresponding Aramaic form is Elah (אלה), but its underlined state is Elaha (אלהא). This is written as ܐܠܗܐ (ālāhā) in Biblical Aramaic and ܐܲܠܵܗܵܐ (ʼAlâhâ) in Syriac. That is how it is used by the Assyrian church - and both versions simply mean "God." Biblical Hebrew mainly uses the plural (but functional and only) form of the Elohim (אלהים), but less often also refers to the variant of Eloah.
Most scholars believe that God in Judaism and Islam is one and the same, but different cultures see him in different guises, which is explained by the peculiarities of perception. Although, in essence, if in Christianity Jesus Christ and saints we see on icons (and even Jehovah is represented as a dove), how Allah may look like, no one knows. For believers, he is the Absolute, which cannot be seen firsthand.
Regional Options
Regional variations of the word are found in both pagan and Christian inscriptions. Various theories have also been proposed regarding the role of Allah in pre-Islamic polytheistic cults. Some authors suggest that during polytheism, the Arabs used this name as a reference to the creator god or the highest deity of their pantheon. The term may have been in the Meccan religion, but its meaning and usage are not defined. According to one hypothesis dating back to Wellhausen, the word Allah means the following: the supreme deity of the Quraysh, who were the ruling tribe of ancient Mecca. He could be the designation of Hubal (the head of the pantheon) over other gods.
However, there is also evidence that Allah and Hubal were two different deities. According to this hypothesis, the Kaaba (Muslim shrine) was first dedicated to a supreme deity named Allah, and then adopted the Pantheon of Quraysh after their conquest of Mecca about a century before the time of Muhammad. Some inscriptions seem to indicate the use of Allah as the name of a polytheistic deity centuries earlier, but we do not know anything for sure and can only speculate.
Some scholars believe that Allah may have been a distant creator, who was gradually overshadowed by more local, more mundane and close representatives of the pantheon. There is disagreement as to whether the future god of Islam Allah played a major role in the Meccan religious cult.
It is known that there was never any iconic image of him. Allah is the only god in Mecca who did not have an idol. Today, his images also can not be found anywhere.
Allah was also mentioned in pre-Islamic Christian poems by some Hasanid poets and tanuhids in Syria and Northern Arabia.
What can be said about the idea of God in Islam? He is presented by the unique, omnipotent and sole creator of the Universe and is equivalent to God the Father in other Abrahamic religions.
According to the Islamic faith, Allah is the most common name for the creator of the universe, and humble submission to his will, sacraments and commandments is the core of the Muslim faith. "He is the only creator of the universe and the judge of mankind." "He is unique and by nature alone (aḥad), all-merciful and all-powerful." The Qur'an proclaims "the reality of Allah, His inaccessible secret, His various names and His actions on behalf of His creations."
In the Islamic tradition, there are 99 Names of God (al-asmā 'al-ḥusná lit, which means: "best names" or "most beautiful names"), each of which is a distinctive characteristic of its merits. All these names refer to Allah, the highest and most comprehensive divine name. Among the 99 names, the most famous and most common are “Merciful” (al-Rahman) and “Compassionate” (al-Rashim). These are the names of God in Islam. The discursive theology of Muslims encourages us to begin any sacrament with an appeal to bismilla. This is the answer to the question of what God is in Islam.
According to Gerhard Bevering, unlike pre-Islamic Arab polytheism, Allah in Islam has no like-minded and associates, and also there is no relationship between him and the genies. Pre-Islamic pagan Arabs believed in a blind, implacable and insensitive fate, which a person could not control. This was replaced by the Islamic concept of a powerful, but prudent and merciful god (in Islam, the concept of him is just that).
According to Francis Edward Peters, “The Quran insists, Muslims believe, and historians claim that Muhammad and his followers worship the same god as the Jews. Allah of the Quran is the same Creator God who transmitted the covenant to Abraham. ” Peters claims that the Qur'an portrays him as more powerful and distant than Yahweh (Jehovah among the Israelites), as the universal principle of all principles. Many people wonder what kind of god is in Islam. Muslims believe that it is definitely not the same as in Judaism and Christianity. However, many disagree with this, especially religious ecumenists and supporters of integral traditionalism.
Key Ideas of Faith
In the above paragraphs, the basic ideas of the Muslim faith, which the representatives of this religion have adhered to for centuries, are provided. They can be briefly listed:
- Unconditional worship of Allah.
- Perfect adherence to the instructions of the Koran.
- Non-recognition of any other authorities except Allah and his prophet Muhammad.
The blind love of Muslims can be seen today. So, the name of the father of Muhammad was "Abd-Allah", which means "the servant of Allah." The prefix "Abd" is very popular today.
God and man in Islam, as in all creationist religions, are strictly separated. If in Christianity Jesus Christ is close to his flock, then Allah is very distant from her, but no less revered.
Pronunciation
To correctly pronounce the word Allah, you need to focus on the second "I" (ل). When the word is preceded by the vowel “a” (فَتْحة) or the vowel “and” (ضَمّة), then Lam is pronounced in an explicitly severe form - with Tafhim. Thus, this heavy Lam connects with the whole body of the tongue, and not just with its tip.
Languages that do not usually use the word Allah to denote God may still contain popular expressions that use it in another notation. For example, due to the centuries-old presence of Muslims on the Iberian Peninsula, today there is the term ojalá in Spanish and oxalá in Portuguese, borrowed from the Arabic inshalla (إن شاء الله). This phrase literally means “if God wills” (in the sense of “I hope so”). The German poet Mulman used the form of the name as the name of the poem about the supreme deity, although it is not clear what he intended to convey to the readers. Most Muslims do not translate the name into Russian and other languages.
Malaysia and Indonesia
Christians in Malaysia and Indonesia use this term to refer to God in Malaysian and Indonesian (both of them are standardized forms of Malay).
The main Bible translations use Allah as a Hebrew translation of the Elohim (translated in English Bibles as “God”). This dates back to the early translation work of Francis Xavier in the 16th century. In the first dictionary of the Dutch-Malay language, Albert Cornelius Ruil, Justus Eurnius and Caspar Wilten in 1650 (revised edition from 1623 and 1631 in Latin) recorded “Allah” as a translation of the Dutch word “Godt”. Ruil also translated the Gospel of Matthew in 1612 into Malay (an early translation of the Bible into a non-European language, made a year after the publication of King James's version), which was printed in the Netherlands in 1629. He then translated the Gospel of Mark, published in 1638.
The Malaysian government in 2007 prohibited the use of the term Allah in other contexts other than Muslim, but the Malay Supreme Court repealed the law in 2009, declaring it unconstitutional.
The modern controversy was caused by the mention of this name by the Roman Catholic newspaper The Herald. The government appealed the decision and the High Court suspended the execution of its decision pending appeal. In October 2013, the court ruled in favor of the ban.
In early 2014, the Malaysian government confiscated more than 300 Bibles for referring to this word to denote the Christian god. Nevertheless, the use of the name of Allah is not prohibited in two states of Malaysia - Sabah and Sarawak. The main reason is that their use has long been established and local Alkitab (Bibles) are widely distributed in East Malaysia without restrictions for many years.
In response to media criticism, the Malaysian government introduced a “10-point solution” to avoid confusion and misleading people. The 10-point solution is in line with the spirit of the 18 and 20-point agreements between Sarawak and Sabah.
The word Allah is always written without an “aliph” to indicate a vowel. However, in the spelling of musical texts, a small diacritical “alif” is added at the top of the “shadda” to indicate pronunciation.
The calligraphic version of the word adopted as the coat of arms of Iran is encoded in Unicode, in the range of different characters, at the code point U + 262B (☫).
Moon deity
The assertion that Allah (the name of God in Islam) is the lord of the moon, who was worshiped in pre-Islamic Arabia, originates in 20th-century science. This theory has been most actively promoted by American evangelists since the 1990s.
The idea was proposed by archaeologist Hugo Winkler in 1901. It was widely distributed in the United States in the 1990s, first thanks to the publication of Robert Mori's pamphlet God of the Moon God Allah: in the archeology of the Middle East (1994), followed by his book Islamic Invasion: Confronting the Fastest-Growing Religion in the World (2001) . Morea’s ideas were popularized by cartoonist and publisher Jack Chick, who drew a fictional animated short story entitled “Allah Had No Son” in 1994.
Mori claims that this word was the name of the moon god in pre-Islamic Arab mythology, for it is believed that Allah as a term implies worship of a different deity than the Judeo-Christian. Some believe that adherence to the lunar calendar and the predominance of crescent images in Islam is the source of this hypothesis. Joseph Lambard, a professor of classical Islam, stated that the idea “offends not only Muslims, but also Arab Christians who use the name Allah to mean God.”
The symbol of the crescent, adopted as a coat of arms, is not a sign of early Islam, as one would expect if it were associated with pre-Islamic pagan roots. The use of the crescent symbol on Muslim flags originates in the late Middle Ages. 14th-century Muslim flags with a crescent moon pointing upwards on a plain field included the flags of Gabes, Tlemcen (Tilimsi), Damas and Lucania, Cairo, Mahdia, Tunisia and Buda.
Franz Babinger hints at the possibility that the symbol was adopted by the Eastern Romans, noting that the crescent alone has a much older tradition and dates back to the Turkic tribes living in the depths of Asia. Parsons considers this unlikely, since the star and crescent were not a widespread motive in the Eastern Roman Empire during the Ottoman conquest.
Turkish historians tend to emphasize the antiquity of the crescent among the early Turkic states in Asia. In Ottoman tradition, there is an Ottoman legend that tells of the dream of Osman I, in which he was reportedly seeing the moon rising from the chest of a Muslim judge, whose daughter he wanted to marry. “... he went down into his own chest. Then a tree grew out of his loins, which, as it grew, covered the whole world with the shadow of its green and beautiful branches. ” Under him, Osman saw the world spread out before him. It was he who became the first ruler of the Ottoman Empire.
Pagan roots
Islamic flags with the calligraphy of the Koran were usually used by Mughal emperor Akbar. It was Shah Jahan, who, as you know, encrusted the symbols of the crescent and stars on his personal shield. His son Aurangzeb also approved similar shields and flags. Subsequently, other famous warriors used these symbols.
Before Islam, the Kaaba contained a statue depicting the god Hubal, which the locals considered able to predict the future. The statement is based to some extent on historical research on the origin of the Islamic view of Allah and the polytheism of pre-Islamic Arabia, which date back to the 19th century. They relate to the evolution and etymology of Allah and the mythological identity of Hubal.
Based on the fact that the Kaaba was the house of Allah, but the most important idol in it was the house of Khubal, Julius Wellhausen considered him the ancient name of the deity.
The claim that Hubal is the lord of the moon comes from the German scientist of the early twentieth century, Hugo Winkler. David Leaming described him as a warrior and god of rain, as did Mircea Eliade.
Later authors emphasize that the Nabataean origin of Khubal is a figure imported into the temple, which may have already been associated with Allah. However, Patricia Krone states that “... if Hubal and Allah were the same deity, Hubal would have to survive as an epithet of God, which he did not. And moreover, there would be no tradition in which people are asked to renounce one for the sake of the other. ”
Allah has never been represented by an idol. Such is the image of God in Islam. Today, not a single source telling about Islam can be found a single image of Allah.
Robert Mori’s book, God of the Moon Allah in the Archeology of the Middle East, states that Al-Uzza was identical in origin to Hubal, who was a lunar deity. This teaching is repeated in the treatises "Allah did not have a son" and "Little bride."
In 1996, Janet Parshall, in syndicated broadcasts, claimed that Muslims worship the god of the moon. Pat Robertson said in 2003: “The question is whether Hubal, the moon god of Mecca, is known as Allah.” Sources claim that the evidence used by Morey was a statue found at an excavation site in Hazor, which generally had no connection with Allah. It is this finding that testifies that no analogy can be drawn between the lunar deity and the main god of Islam. However, this statement may be wrong, because all the assumptions of scientists are only hypotheses and can not be considered facts.
In the Book of Idols of the 8th-century Arab historian, Hisham Ibn Al-Kalbi Hubal describes as a human figure with a golden hand. He had seven arrows that were used for fortune telling. While Allah has no images and statues. Muslims consider Christian icons to be idolatry today.
Some Islamic scholars argue that the role of Muhammad was to restore the purified Abrahamic worship of Allah, emphasizing its uniqueness and separation from his own creation, including such phenomena as the celestial bodies. God is not the moon, but he has power over it.
Most branches of Islam teach that Allah is the name in the Qur'an that is used to mean the one and only. He is the same creator and creator worshiped by representatives of other Abrahamic religions, such as Christianity and Judaism. He is the main god of Islam. The mainstream Islamic theological idea is that worship of Allah was transmitted through Abraham and other prophets, but it was corrupted by pagan traditions in pre-Islamic Arabia.
Before Muhammad, Allah was not considered the only deity by the Meccans; however, Allah was, according to the ideas of numerous tribes, the creator of the world and the giver of rain.
The concept of the term could be vague in the Meccan religion. Allah was associated with "companions" whom the pre-Islamic Arabs considered subordinate deities. The Meccans believed that there was a kind of kinship between Allah and the genies. It was believed that Allah had sons - the local deities of al-Uzza, Manat and al-Lat. The Meccans may have associated angels with Allah. It was he who was called in times of disaster. One way or another, his name is the designation of God in Islam. And it is him who is worshiped by Muslims.
Conclusion
In this article, we examined God in Islam. This is an interesting topic, which has many sources and various versions, but we cannot safely consider any of them to be true.
Allah, the god of the religion of Islam, may have descended from a pagan lunar deity - this is an unconfirmed version, but it takes place in search of truth. And this search continues today.
Today, he is a synonym for the Old Testament and New Testament god. His name is known to almost every inhabitant of the planet due to the huge speed of the spread of Islam. Faith in God in Islam is considered mandatory, as in all Abrahamic religions. This tradition continues today and is likely to be alive for many centuries. According to the holy books of Islam, the existence of God is an undeniable fact. And every Muslim does not doubt it.