Origins of the term 'Allah'

EyesOfKohl · Dec 30, 2010

Assalamu alaikum
Peace and blessings be upon you all

I would like to know about the origins of the term 'Allah'.

Alot of people seem to think it was brought along by Muhammad (P.B.U.H. for Muslim's). Muhammad's father was the chief of the Pagan tribe of 'Koreish' and his father was 'Abd Allāh ibn Abd al-Muttalib', of the family of Hashim (Shaiba ibn Hashim). 'Abd Allāh' means 'slave of Allah'. I would like to know why Muhammad's father also used this term in his name, since he was a Pagan worshipper?

The Jewish references I've read call God by the names - Elohim, Yahweh and Ellah (In Syriac). But I would like to know where 'Allah' came from? Did the early Gospel's in Arabia use the term 'Allah'? Or did they use Jewish names?

Is it also permissable for a Christian to use this name - 'Allah' and sayings like 'Allahu Akbar' (God is Great), 'Insh'Allah' (If it is God's will)... etc?

Dharma Wheel · Dec 30, 2010

The Early gospels in Arabia used Allah (a contraction of Alilah), in place of the Hebrew cognate ''Ha'El'' (''The Good''). ''A''l mean"the" and ''ilah'' means "god", much as ''Ha'' means ''the and '''El'' means ''god''. The ''ilah'' or ''lah'' element is merely a cognate of the Hebrew ''El'' found also in ''Elohim'', as Arabic and Hebrew are closely related langauges (Western Semitic).

The Arabs always worship the same good, they just believe in a pantheon of Semitic gods rather than just ''El'', thus people can be called ''Abd Allah'', which correctly means ''servant'' or ''follower'' of god.

I believe modern Christians in Arabic speaking countries use ''Allah akbar'', and they certainly use the term ''Allah'' in place of the English ''God'', the Latin ''Daeus'' etc. Mizrahi Jews - Arabic speaking Jews - call their god ''Allah'' too.

Dharma Wheel · Dec 30, 2010

Explains more about it here:

Why do many Arab Christians refer to God as âAllahâ? - ChristianAnswers.Net

wanelad · Dec 30, 2010

Considering Christians do not follow Muhammad, they follow Jesus whom clearly stated 'I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but through me' John 14:6. No Allah is not recognised by Christians and never will be it has pagan origions, the following link may help you in your quest

Where did Allah come from?

Jane_the_Bane · Dec 30, 2010

"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. Biblical Hebrew mostly uses the plural form (but functional singular) Elohim. The corresponding Aramaic form is ʼĔlāhā אֱלָהָא in Biblical Aramaic and ʼAlâhâ ܐܰܠܳܗܳܐ in Syriac."
(Source: Wikipedia)

Nooj · Dec 30, 2010

Zatara Kriszto said:
Is it also permissable for a Christian to use this name - 'Allah' and sayings like 'Allahu Akbar' (God is Great), 'Insh'Allah' (If it is God's will)... etc?

Arab Christians use those terms liberally.

Dharma Wheel · Dec 30, 2010

wanelad said:
Considering Christians do not follow Muhammad, they follow Jesus whom clearly stated 'I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but through me' John 14:6. No Allah is not recognised by Christians and never will be it has pagan origions, the following link may help you in your quest

Where did Allah come from?

See my post above you and the post by Jane The Bane, bellow you.

Also do you use the word ''God''? God is an Old English word of ''pagan origin''. It originally meant as a singular, Woden, and as a plural (Gods), any deity.

God, from Old English God, from Proto-Germanic guthan (see Old Norse guð, and Gothic guþ), from Proto-Indo-European ghut.

Why should Arabic Christians not use their linguistic word when English-speaking Christians do?

Dharma Wheel · Dec 30, 2010

Jane_the_Bane said:
"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. Biblical Hebrew mostly uses the plural form (but functional singular) Elohim. The corresponding Aramaic form is ʼĔlāhā אֱלָהָא in Biblical Aramaic and ʼAlâhâ ܐܰܠܳܗܳܐ in Syriac."
(Source: Wikipedia)

Snap.

JJWhite · Dec 30, 2010

Zatara Kriszto said:
Assalamu alaikum
Peace and blessings be upon you all

I would like to know about the origins of the term 'Allah'.

Alot of people seem to think it was brought along by Muhammad (P.B.U.H. for Muslim's). Muhammad's father was the chief of the Pagan tribe of 'Koreish' and his father was 'AbdAllāh ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib', of the family of Hashim (Shaiba ibn Hashim). 'Abd Allāh' means 'slave of Allah'. I would like to know why Muhammad's father also used this term in his name, since he was a Pagan worshipper?

ٌRemember that the Arabs were descendants of Abraham through Ishmael. We believe that Ishmael was a prophet, and that he had taught his people about monotheism and the worship of One God. There may have been other Arab prophets as well.

The Qur'an says that Prophet Muhammad was sent during a time when no prophet had been sent for quite a while ('alaa fatratin min al-rusul). During this time, the Arabs started taking on the practice of having tribal idols which they worshiped as intermediaries to God.

There are many verses in the Qur'an which clearly show this. Off the top of my head..

Describing what the polytheistic Arabs would say... 'And we worship them for no other reason but so that they draw us nearer to Allah'

Many verses which start off with 'and if you ask them' (the polytheistic Arabs) who created the heavens and the earth, who sends down the rain, etc. they would all answer Allah.. with the following verses then asking 'Why do they then worship others beside Him? Have they no minds?' or something similar.

So, yeah, those Arabs believed in God, but they thought that these idols were beloved by God and if they performed acts of worship to the idols, this would draw them nearer to God, which the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) came to say is not proper monotheism.

Our history books indicate that a man by the name of 'Amru ibn Luhay, I believe, was the first person to bring the concept of idol worship to the formerly monotheistic Arab people. This was many generations before Muhammad.

Mess · Dec 30, 2010

You mean Allah the moon god of Mekka that became the god of Islam?

Jane_the_Bane · Dec 30, 2010

JJWhite said:
ٌRemember that the Arabs were descendants of Abraham through Ishmael.

According to Abrahamaic mythology, that is.
Just as with other such myths (the founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus, who were descended from Trojan royalty; the Irish descending from the "children of Danu", who later retreated to the "summerlands", or else dwell in hollow hills; and many, many others)

It's always good to distinguish clearly between unfalsifiable myth and established historical fact.

Robban · Dec 30, 2010

JJWhite said:
ٌRemember that the Arabs were descendants of Abraham through Ishmael. We believe that Ishmael was a prophet, and that he had taught his people about monotheism and the worship of One God. There may have been other Arab prophets as well.

The Qur'an says that Prophet Muhammad was sent during a time when no prophet had been sent for quite a while ('alaa fatratin min al-rusul). During this time, the Arabs started taking on the practice of having tribal idols which they worshiped as intermediaries to God.

There are many verses in the Qur'an which clearly show this. Off the top of my head..

Describing what the polytheistic Arabs would say... 'And we worship them for no other reason but so that they draw us nearer to Allah'

Many verses which start off with 'and if you ask them' (the polytheistic Arabs) who created the heavens and the earth, who sends down the rain, etc. they would all answer Allah.. with the following verses then asking 'Why do they then worship others beside Him? Have they no minds?' or something similar.

So, yeah, those Arabs believed in God, but they thought that these idols were beloved by God and if they performed acts of worship to the idols, this would draw them nearer to God, which the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) came to say is not proper monotheism.

Our history books indicate that a man by the name of 'Amru ibn Luhay, I believe, was the first person to bring the concept of idol worship to the formerly monotheistic Arab people. This was many generations before Muhammad.

In plain everyday terms, something like going to the Forman on the factory floor instead of going to the Boss/owner himself.

JJWhite · Dec 30, 2010

Jane_the_Bane said:
According to Abrahamaic mythology, that is.
Just as with other such myths (the founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus, who were descended from Trojan royalty; the Irish descending from the "children of Danu", who later retreated to the "summerlands", or else dwell in hollow hills; and many, many others)

It's always good to distinguish clearly between unfalsifiable myth and established historical fact.

Okay... according to our religious tradition then , all Arabs other than the tribe of Jurhum (which Ishmael married into) are descendants of Abraham.

wanelad · Dec 30, 2010

Dharma Wheel said:
See my post above you and the post by Jane The Bane, bellow you.

Also do you use the word ''God''? God is an Old English word of ''pagan origin''. It originally meant as a singular, Woden, and as a plural (Gods), any deity.

God, from Old English God, from Proto-Germanic guthan (see Old Norse guð, and Gothic guþ), from Proto-Indo-European ghut.
Why should Arabic Christians not use their linguistic word when English-speaking Christians do?

Did you bother to follow the link I provided? wouldnt seem so; as Jane follows a Panthiest faith yourself Buddist I would hardly expect there to be a good understanding of the Christian faith and the question was asked re Christians thus my answer still stands

Dharma Wheel · Dec 30, 2010

Mess said:
You mean Allah the moon god of Mekka that became the god of Islam?

Allah was never the moon god of Islam, he was the head of the pre-Islamic panthoen just as El was always the creator god of the people who became Jews, even before Abraham gave them monotheism.

Dharma Wheel · Dec 30, 2010

wanelad said:
Did you bother to follow the link I provided? wouldnt seem so; as Jane follows a Panthiest faith yourself Buddist I would hardly expect there to be a good understanding of the Christian faith and the question was asked re Christians thus my answer still stands

Why do I have to? One of my fields is etymology and I gave the correct etymology for ''God'', and English word that is only as ''pagan'' as the Arabic ''Allah''. Did you read the etymology and facts that I gave you? Does Christianity mean you have to ignore linguistics?

Anyway, yes, I did read your link, which even erroneously claimed that Allah was a moon god!

But that is not the point, you think (Christian) Arabs should not call the Christian god by their own word (Allah) for God? Do you use the word ''God''? It has heathen origins too, in Old English (''Anglo-Saxon'') heathenism, and ultimately in Germanic heathenism.

Jane_the_Bane · Dec 30, 2010

With "Allah" being a pretty generic term (just as the English "god" will refer to different entities depending on who uses it), we may safely assume that Arab Christians do *not* believe that they are addressing Muhammad's deity when they use it - just as European Christians do not believe that they address Woden or the Horned God of the Wiccans when speaking of "God".

wanelad · Dec 30, 2010

Actually I rarely use the word God itself apart from in general conversation, when I pray I use Jesus or Father but never God.

Dharma Wheel · Dec 30, 2010

wanelad said:
Actually I rarely use the word God itself apart from in general conversation, when I pray I use Jesus or Father but never God.

''Father'' is a word that originated in a heathen tongue, and again was addressed to their god (Woden) too, however being an English speaking Christian you use non-Hebraic terms for your deity, just as Arabic Christians use Arabic words for the same deity. Arabic Christians speak Arabic, Allah is the generic word for God in Arabic.

peaceful soul · Dec 30, 2010

Jane_the_Bane said:
With "Allah" being a pretty generic term (just as the English "god" will refer to different entities depending on who uses it), we may safely assume that Arab Christians do *not* believe that they are addressing Muhammad's deity when they use it - just as European Christians do not believe that they address Woden or the Horned God of the Wiccans when speaking of "God".

I agree with the principle you discuss, but I am not going to try to establish the origin the word 'god'. Woden is probably not a good candidate.

Arab Christians definitely us the word "Allah" is a different sense than Muslims do. From what I have read, the term was originally al illah, meaning the god, which is simply a recognition of the god of the Bible. It would be natural to understand this for an Arabic speaking Christian. The capitalization is a sign of respect, just as English speaking Christians capitalize god to 'God'.

Depending upon which Muslim you speak to, Allah is considered a proper noun. I would say that most Muslims see it that way. The pagan Arabs used the name Allah long before Islam. As already pointed out, Mohammad's father's name was Abdullah, which is loosely translated as 'slave of Allah'. This shows us that Allah, in its capitalized form, already had significance in Arab religious worship; so, it is easy to conclude that Mohammad repackaged the name for his own god and religious needs.

If Allah is indeed a proper noun, it certainly indicates that the usage among Christians and Muslims is in no way related. I do think that it is likely that Arab Christians used the term allah as a means of relating their deity to the Muslims who would understand the concept of al illah being 'the deity'. It would be same as early Christians using 'deus' to communicate with ancient Romans. But, if the Romans had a concept of deus being something specific to Roman culture, then confusion could exist, as is the case with Muslims, especially today when they use allah to persuade non Muslims that their deity is the same as the Jewish and Christian deity.

Origins of the term 'Allah'

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