God, especially in Islam.
[Arabic Allāh : al-, the + 'ilāh, god.]
Allah
Did you mean: Allah (in Islam), Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, Allah (first name), Djawhar ben Abd Allah, Illah, ALLAH (abbreviation), Wallah (Arabic)
Dictionary:
Al·lah (ăl'ə, ä'lə)  |
n.
God, especially in Islam.
God, especially in Islam.
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Allah |
For more information on Allah, visit Britannica.com.
| The Religion Book: Allah |
Although the Qur'an of Islam lists ninety-nine names for God, it says most emphatically that la ilah illa' Allah-"there is no God but Allah." Allah is not so much a name as a title. The word means "the God," and it is the name revealed to the prophet Muhammad of the god worshiped by other "people of the book"-that is, Christians and Jews-although they use other names.
Because the Qur'an cannot be translated-that is, any translation is considered merely a study aid, not the true Qur'an-these words are an approximation, but they carry the weight and the essential meaning of Allah.
There is no god but he; That is the witness of Allah, His angels, and those endued with knowledge, standing firm on justice. There is no god but he, the Exalted in Power, the Wise. (Qur'an 3:18)
He it is Who created the heavens and the earth in Six Days, and is moreover firmly established on the Throne [of Authority]. He knows what enters within the earth and what comes forth out of it, what comes down from heaven and what mounts up to it. And he is with you wheresoever ye may be. And Allah sees well all that you do. (57:4)
To Allah belongeth all that is in the heavens and on the earth. Whether ye show what is in your minds or conceal it, Allah calleth you to account for it. He forgiveth whom he pleaseth, and punisheth whom He pleaseth, for Allah hath power over all things. (2:284)
He is the First and the Last, and the Outward and the Inward; and he is the Knower of all things. (57:3)
Sources: Fisher, Mary Pat, and Lee W. Bailey. An Anthology of Living Religions. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000. The Holy Qur’an, trans. with a commentary by Abdullah Yusuf Ali. Beirut, Lebanon: Dar Al Arabia, 1968.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Allah |
Allah (ăl'ə, ä'lə), [Arab.,=the God]. Derived from an old Semitic root refering to the Divine and used in the Canaanite El, the Mesopotamian ilu, and the biblical Elohim, the word Allah is used by all Arabic-speaking Muslims, Christians, Jews, and others. Allah, as a deity, was probably known in pre-Islamic Arabia. Arabic chronicles suggest a pre-Islamic recognition of Allah as a supreme God, with the three goddesses al-Lat, al-Uzza, and Manat as his "daughters." The Prophet Muhammad, declaring Allah the God of Abraham, demanded a return to a strict monotheism. Islam supplements Allah as the name of God with the 99 most beautiful names (asma Allah al-husna), understood as nondescriptive mnemonic guides to the Divine attributes.
Bibliography
See S. Friedlander, Ninety-Nine Names of Allah (1978).
| Mideast & N. Africa Encyclopedia: Allah |
The Arabic equivalent of the English word God.
A likely etymology of the term is that it is an ancient contraction of al-ilah (Arabic for "the god") and was probably first used in Arabian cosmologies before Islam to refer to some kind of high deity who may have been considered the progenitor of a number of lesser divinities. The word Allah is best known in the West as the name Muslims ascribe to the one and only God, whom they believe to be the transcendent and partnerless creator, lord, and judge of the universe. It is important to note that according to Muslim teaching, Allah is not only the God of the prophet Muhammad but also the God of Moses and Jesus - and is therefore identical to the divine being of Jewish and Christian sacred history.
While Muslim tradition recognizes Allah to be the comprehensive name of God encompassing all the divine attributes, it also ascribes to the deity an additional ninety-nine "beautiful names" (al-asma al-husna), each of which evoke a distinct characteristic of the godhead. The most famous and most frequently referenced of these are "the Merciful" (al-rahman) and "the Compassionate" (al-rahim).
Bibliography
Guillaume, Alfred. Islam. London: Cassell, 1963.
— SCOTT ALEXANDER
| Islamic Dictionary: Allah |
The personal name of the one true God in Islam. Nothing else can be called Allah. The term has no plural or gender. From the 112th sura of the Qur'an: "In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Say (O Mohammad) He is God the One God, the Everlasting Refuge, who has not begotten, nor has been begotten, and equal to Him is not anyone."
| Devil's Dictionary: allah |
A cynical view of the world by Ambrose Bierce
n.
The Mahometan Supreme Being, as distinguished from the Christian, Jewish, and so forth.
Allah's good laws I faithfully have kept,
And ever for the sins of man have wept;
And sometimes kneeling in the temple I
Have reverently crossed my hands and slept.
Junker Barlow
| Wikipedia: Allah |
This article is about the Arabic word "Allah". For the Islamic conception of God, see God in Islam.
For other uses, see Allah (disambiguation).
 |
This article contains Arabic text, written from right to left in a cursive style with some letters joined. Without proper rendering support, you may see unjoined Arabic letters written left-to-right instead of right-to-left or other symbols instead of Arabic script. |
Allah (Arabic: الله, Allāh, IPA: [ʔalˤːɑːh] (
listen)) 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".[1][2][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 amongst pagan Arabs, Allah was not considered the sole divinity, having associates and companions, sons and daughters - a concept which Islam thoroughly and resolutely abrogated. In Islam, the name Allah is the supreme and all-comprehensive divine name. All other divine names are believed to refer back to Allah.[5] Allah is unique, the only Deity, creator of the universe and omnipotent.[1][2] Arab Christians today use terms such as Allāh al-ʼAb ( الله الأب, "God the Father") to distinguish their usage from Muslim usage.[6] There are both similarities and differences between the concept of God as portrayed in the Qur'an and the Hebrew Bible.[7]
Unicode has a codepoint reserved for Allāh, ﷲ = U+FDF2.[8] Many Arabic type fonts feature special ligatures for Allah.[9]
| Arabic |
| الله |
| Transliteration |
| Allāh |
| Translation |
| God |
Contents |
Etymology
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).[4] Cognates of the name "Allāh" exist in other Semitic languages, including Hebrew and Aramaic.[3] The corresponding Aramaic form is אֱלָהָא ʼĔlāhā in Biblical Aramaic and ܐܰܠܳܗܳܐ ʼAlâhâ or ʼĀlōho in Syriac.[10]
The contraction of al- and ʼilāh in forming the term Allāh ("the god", masculine form) parallels the contraction of al- and ʼilāha in forming the term Allāt ("the goddess", feminine form).[11]
Usage in Arabic
Pre-Islamic Arabia
In pre-Islamic Arabia, Allah was used by Meccans as a reference to the creator-god, possibly the supreme deity.[12]
Allah was not considered the sole divinity; however, Allah was considered the creator of the world and the giver of rain. The notion of the term may have been vague in the Meccan religion.[4] Allah was associated with companions, whom pre-Islamic Arabs considered as subordinate deities. Meccans held that a kind of kinship existed between Allah and the jinn.[13] Allah was thought to have had sons[14] and that the local deities of al-ʻUzzá, Manāt and al-Lāt were His daughters.[15] The Meccans possibly associated angels with Allah.[16][17] Allah was invoked in times of distress.[17][18] Muhammad's father's name was ‘Abdallāh meaning the “servant of Allāh.” or "the slave of Allāh"[17]
Muslims
Main article: God in Islam
See also: Names of God in the Qur'an
According to Islamic belief, Allah is the proper name of God,[11] and humble submission to His Will, Divine Ordinances and Commandments is the pivot of the Muslim faith.[1] "He is the only God, creator of the universe, and the judge of humankind."[1][2] "He is unique (wahid) and inherently one (ahad), all-merciful and omnipotent."[1] The Qur'an declares "the reality of Allah, His inaccessible mystery, His various names, and His actions on behalf of His creatures."[1]
In Islamic tradition, there are 99 Names of God (al-asma al-husna lit. meaning: "The best names") each of which evoke a distinct characteristic of Allah.[2][19] All these names refer to Allah, the supreme and all-comprehensive divine name.[5] Among the 99 names of God, the most famous and most frequent of these names are "the Merciful" (al-rahman) and "the Compassionate" (al-rahim).[2][19]
Most Muslims use the untranslated Arabic phrase "insha' Allah" (meaning "God willing") after references to future events.[20] Muslim discursive piety encourages beginning things with the invocation of "bismillah"(meaning "In the name of God").[21]
There are certain phrases in praise of God that are favored by Muslims, including "Subhan-Allah" (Holiness be to God), "Alhamdulillah" (Praise be to God), "La-il-la-ha-illa-Allah" (There is no deity but God) and "Allāhu Akbar" (God is great) as a devotional exercise of remembering God (zikr).[22] In a Sufi practice known as zikr Allah (lit. remembrance of God), the Sufi repeats and contemplates on the name Allah or other divine names while controlling his or her breath.[23]
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'.[6] (Even the Arabic-descended Maltese language of Malta, whose population is almost entirely Roman Catholic, uses Alla for 'God'.) Arab Christians for example use terms Allāh al-ʼab (الله الأب) meaning God the father, Allāh al-ibn (الله الابن) mean God the son, and Allāh al-rūḥ al-quds (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.[24] The Muslim basm-Allah reads: "In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful." 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.[24]
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.[25]
Other usage
English and other European languages
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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. However, in his biography of Muhammad (1934), Tor Andræ always used the term Allah, though he allows that this 'conception of God' seems to imply that it is different from that of the Jewish and Christian theologies. By this time Christians were also becoming accustomed to retaining the Hebrew term "Yahweh" untranslated (it was previously translated as 'the Lord').[26]
Languages which may not commonly use the term Allah to denote a deity may still contain popular expressions which use the word. For example, because of the centuries long Muslim presence in the Iberian Peninsula, the word ojalá in the Spanish language and oxalá in the Portuguese language exist today, borrowed from Arabic (Arabic: إن شاء الله). This word literally means "God willing" (in the sense of "I hope so").[27]
Some Muslims leave the name "Allāh" untranslated in English.[28] 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 Jewish and Christian concept of God is not completely true in its details.[29] Conversely, 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.[29]
In other scripts and languages
- Allah in other languages with Arabic script is spelled in the same way. This includes Urdu, Persian/Dari, Uyghur among others.
- Bengali: আল্লাহ Allah
- Chinese: 阿拉 Ālā, 安拉 Ānlā; 真主 Zhēnzhǔ (semantic translation)
- Greek: Αλλάχ Allách, Θεός Theós (God)
- Hebrew: אללה Allah
- Hindi: अल्लाह Allāh
- Japanese: アラー Arā, アッラー Arrā, アッラーフ Arrāfu
- Maltese: Alla
- Korean: 알라 Alla
- Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian: Алла́х Allakh
- Serbian, Belarusian, Macedonian: Alah, Алах
- Thai: อัลลอฮ์ Anláw
Comparative religion
Some scholars[who?] 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.[11] 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.[11] 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.[30]
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.[7]
Typography
The word Allāh is always written without an alif to spell the ā vowel. This is because the spelling was settled before Arabic spelling started habitually using alif to spell ā. However, in vocalized spelling, a small diacritic alif is added on top of the shaddah to indicate the pronunciation.
One exception may be in the pre-Islamic Zabad inscription,[31] where it ends with an ambiguous sign that may be a lone-standing h with a lengthened start, or may be a non-standard conjoined l-h:-
- الاه : This reading would be Allāh spelled phonetically with alif for the ā.
- الاله : This reading would be Al-ʼilāh = "the god" (an older form, without contraction), by older spelling practice without alif for ā.
Unicode
Unicode has a codepoint reserved for Allāh, ﷲ = U+FDF2. This character according to the official Unicode specification is a ligature of alif-lām-lām-shadda-(superscript alif)-hā (اللّٰه U+0627 U+0644 U+0644 U+0651 U+0670 U+0647). There is, however some confusion arising from the fact that Arabic typography usually features a llāh glyph without the preceding alif, which only occurs phrase-initially (or with hamzatu l-waṣl آ in Qur'anic orthography). Consequently, the majority of Arabic Unicode fonts do not conform with the specification and have a glyph without the alif at this position (e.g. those provided by Linotype, the great majority of those licensed to or developed by Microsoft, those of Arabeyes.org, SIL's Lateef and the fonts of CRULP developed in Pakistan), while others have the prescribed form with alif (e.g. SIL's Scheherazade, Adobe Arabic distributed with the Middle-Eastern version of the Adobe Reader 7, Arial Unicode MS, and Arabic Typesetting, distributed with VOLT and with Microsoft Office Proofing Tools 2003).
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 (☫).
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g "Allah." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica
- ^ a b c d e Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa, Allah
- ^ a b c Columbia Encyclopedia, Allah
- ^ a b c L. Gardet, "Allah", Encyclopedia of Islam
- ^ a b Murata, Sachiko (1992), The Tao of Islam : a sourcebook on gender relationships in Islamic thought, Albany NY USA: SUNY, ISBN 0791409147
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b F.E. Peters, Islam, p.4, Princeton University Press, 2003
- ^ Unicode Standard 5.0, p.479,492
- ^
- ^ The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon - Entry for ʼlh
- ^ a b c d Böwering, Gerhard, God and His Attributes, Encyclopaedia of the Qurʼān, Brill, 2007.
- ^ See Qur'an 13:16 ; 29:61-63; 31:25; 39:38)
- ^ See Qur'an 37:158)
- ^ See Qur'an (6:100)
- ^ See Qur'an (53:19-22 ; 16:57 ; 37:149)
- ^ See Qur'an (53:26-27)
- ^ a b c Gerhard Böwering, God and his Attributes, Encyclopedia of the Qur'an
- ^ See Qur'an 6:109; 10:22; 16:38; 29:65)
- ^ a b Bentley, David (September 1999). The 99 Beautiful Names for God for All the People of the Book. William Carey Library. ISBN 0-87808-299-9.
- ^ Gary S. Gregg, The Middle East: A Cultural Psychology, Oxford University Press, p.30
- ^ Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, Islamic Society in Practice, University Press of Florida, p.24
- ^ M. Mukarram Ahmed, Muzaffar Husain Syed, Encyclopaedia of Islam,Anmol Publications PVT. LTD, p.144
- ^ Carl W. Ernst, Bruce B. Lawrence, Sufi Martyrs of Love: The Chishti Order in South Asia and Beyond, Macmillan, p.29
- ^ a b Thomas E. Burman, Religious Polemic and the Intellectual History of the Mozarabs, Brill, 1994, p.103
- ^ Marshall G. S. Hodgson, The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization, University of Chicago Press, p.156
- ^ William Montgomery Watt, Islam and Christianity today: A Contribution to Dialogue, Routledge, 1983, p.45
- ^ Islam in Luce López Baralt, Spanish Literature: From the Middle Ages to the Present, Brill, 1992, p.25
- ^ F. E. Peters, The Monotheists: Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Conflict and Competition, Princeton University Press, p.12
- ^ a b Marshall G. S. Hodgson, The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization, University of Chicago Press, p.63
- ^ Allah, Encyclopedia Britannica
- ^ "Zebed Inscription: A Pre-Islamic Trilingual Inscription In Greek, Syriac & Arabic From 512 CE". Islamic Awareness. March 17, 2005. http://www.islamic-awareness.org/History/Islam/Inscriptions/zebed.html.
-
See also
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References
- The Unicode Consortium, Unicode Standard 5.0, Addison-Wesley, 2006, ISBN 0321480910, [1]
External links
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- Concept of God (Allah) in Islam
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| Translations: Allah |
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - Αλλάχ, Θεός (των Μουσουλμάνων)
Português (Portuguese)
n. - Alá (m) (Rel.)
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
阿拉, 真主
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 阿拉, 真主
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) الله
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - אללה, אלהים
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Did you mean: Allah (in Islam), Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, Allah (first name), Djawhar ben Abd Allah, Illah, ALLAH (abbreviation), Wallah (Arabic)
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| The Religion Book. The Religion Book. 2004 ©Visible Ink Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
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| Mideast & N. Africa Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa. Copyright © 2004 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Devil's Dictionary. Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce, 1911 Read more |
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