Islahi Centre

Why the Almighty’s name is Allah?

The Old Testament

The word Allah is similar to the Hebrew Eloh(im) used in the Old Testament. The Jews have always understood the plural suffix after Eloh as a “plural of respect” or a “Royal plural”. Eloh and Allah are pronounced similarly except that there is an extra accent on the syllable ‘lah’ in the Arabic.This is not surprising as the Arabs and the Israelites are of common stock both being descended from Abraham(peace be upon him)-the former through his first born Ismael(pbuh) and the latter through Issac(pbuh).

The Arabic Allah can be broken down to Al-ilah or “The God”.The Arabic ilah meaning “god” is the same as the Hebrew Elah. Arabic and Hebrew are of course sister languages (both are Semitic languages)and Hebrew exegetes have long acknowledged their dependence on Arabic to recover lost meanings of old words. This was because the Arabs having less contact with the outside world at least until the 7th century were more likely to have retained the original connotations.

The pre-Islamic Arabs were aware of Allah as The Divine Essence but they had invented their own 360
daughters of Allah which they worshipped and whose intercession they sought.They had installed idols of
their smaller deities in the Ka’bah at Mecca. These idols were later smashed by Muhammad(peace be upon him) and the Ka’bah was once more dedicated to the worship of The One True God.

The New Testament

The word is used in the Arabic translation of the King James Version and in fact this is the word used for God in the Arabic translation of John 3:16, the most widely translated verse of the Bible.Christian Arabs had used this word even before the advent of Islam in Arabia. Also the “Lumen Gentium”, a document produced by the Second Vatican Council(1962-65) says, “Allah is the only word that Arabic-speaking Christians have for God”.

Why is God called Allah?

Allah says, ‘Say: “Call upon Allah, or call upon Rahman: by whatever name ye call upon Him, (it is well): for to Him belong the Most Beautiful Names.’ [isra 17: 110]

Allah prefers that we call on Him by the name Allah.

When Zakir Naik [a propagator of Islam from Mumbai, India] was asked why Muslims prefer Allah to the name God, he replied-

The word God can be played around with, unlike the name of Allah!

The various ways in which the word ‘god’ may appear are-
gods
goddess
godmen
godmother
godfather

But, the word Allah is Allah and can never take the above mentioned forms. Allah is unique and so is His name.