Use of the word Allah as a name, even when speaking English
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Peace ths,
I really understand your concern about issues of non-Arabic speaking muslims, assuming arabic cultures as Islamic. If singing for Islam, they use Arabic style of music. Till growing beard as sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad. This was really stress by groups of Jammah Tabligh from India, Pakistan or Bangladesh on beard issue. They say growing beard is one of the sunnah and quite important in their Maulana's book. I think Orthodox Jews also have thicker beard. What's the difference between Jews beard and Muslims beard? No difference.
The point, is Muhammad really making beard as an issue in his lifetime? I don't think so. If beard is to be so important as a Sunnah, I think it's not fair to muslim male in other parts of the world especially in Far East country where in biological factor, not so much beard on their chin. Muhammad had no time to inform his Arabic culture while delivering the message of QURAN. His task is only to deliver the message. No other thing.
So, all these ethnic cultures, biological factors have nothing to do with the Quran message from AlMighty God. Quran only stress on Tauhid or Oneness of God and reflect it in our daily lives and activities regardless of culture. God already mentioned in Quran, that He have created various types of races and cultures and languages on this planet Earth, to make everybody recognised each other. The only difference is understanding of God as a creator and what we sould do and we should not do.
Besides that also nothing to do with technological factor. Historically it happened many many years ago, where some so called muslim ulamaks reject television in their homes. I think Al-Qaeda also have many iPhones, Cds, DVD players, wireless internet facilities in their mountains.
Other issue that I also wonder, in regards to anger of muslims all over the world towards the West. I knew it's because of oppression of the Israelis towards the Palestinians. The think is the way, we show anger by burning of US flags and Israeli flags and stamping by feet, set fire, trigger the guns and shooting in the air by the mask men. The burning of these flags also done in other countries. This kind of thing will never stop the aggression of the Israelis. Actually muslims should think for a second, why Almighty God, until now, not giving Palestinians on wining side? There might be something to be done on muslim side. In Quran, God said, contact Me, I'm near to you. Muslims all over the world pray day and night, crying to God for help, but still the Israelis became more aggresive from time to time.
Some muslim organizations call muslims to boycott American products. Well, if we want to boycott, why only boycott KFC, McDonald. Why not boycott Boeing aircraft, so that muslims who want to perform Hajj use other brand of airlines. Why using Windows product (also American product) in their computer but at the same time says "Down to America". I knew some so call ulamaks really angry towards the US in the speech and pray for the fall of US Government, but at the same time, their son or daughter was studying for a doctorate at US universities. If we pray for down with America, it will surely affect the muslims in America. We sould never pray for bad things. We should pray for good and hope God will switch the hearts of the non-Muslims from hatred to respect to the muslims. If we show aggression and explode ourselves with bomb because of God, then the non-Muslim will be more aggresive towards us. If we show respect and humble, we must know, the non-Muslims are also human, with hearts. We must don't and never knock their bulidings down, but knock their hearts.
All these kind of attitudes, is mainly because of wrong interpretation about Islam and Quran. History speaks for itself.
Peace.
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Peace ths,
So this has been bothering me for years and I figured it was time to get to the bottom of it.
Firstly let me apologize if this has been discussed before, I did a search, and did not come up with anything.
So,
What bothers me specifically is the use of the word Allah when people speak another language. Why is this done?
I am an Arabic speaker, and as I'm sure you all know, Allah simply means 'The God' in the Arabic language. It comes from Al (The) and Ilah (god).
Now, I'm sure you all know that the word Allah is also used by Arab Christians and Jews, and was even used to refer to God before Islam.
So why do people continue to use the term Allah when speaking English? God has no name in Islam in the sense of humans having arbitrary names like Michael, Dave, Adnan, etc. His names are characteristics, through which we can then understand him better. And the only one that is not a characteristic, but which is used as a name is Allah.
Why this is important
The reason this bothers me is because I think the overuse of the word Allah alienates Muslims from people of other religions. They begin to associate the term Allah with Muslims and see it as a foreign term used by "others". They do not associate the word with God.
However, if Muslims used the word 'God' when speaking English or other languages, this strikes a chord with people, and helps them understand the topic at hand with something they are familiar with and have thought about. It brings to their minds images of God that they have harbored since childhood, instead of turban-wearing terrorists, wife beaters, child molesters, and whatever other stereotypes Muslims now have.You are right in your intuition. Not translating the common noun "allah" is indeed bothersome. It hides from people the universal concept of the one god regardless of what language they speak. Not clarifying this universal concept and hiding it behind a meaningless proper name is not a lot different from what 3187 is telling us to do and warning us against
Let's not exchange clarifying the god's book for buying some petty elitist attitude about Arabic.
Peace,
Ayman
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Peace all,
ths
We use the word ?god? or ?allah? to refer to god not that this is god?s names? that?s all.Ayman
Thanks for that, you?re right grammar issues play a part. However some people recognise ?allah? as a common universal concept of god not just a muslim/arab deity. There are people who think allah and god are different and that ?allah? is the god for the muslims, whereas god is their deity. Allah isn?t exclusive to muslims I know that. I guess for linguistic purposes sticking to one language would be more proper and less confusing? it?s just how people become accustomed to things. -
Yes I agree, well said.
I know YOU know what you're talking about. I'm not worried about that. I'm worried about the countless Muslims walking around the world thinking that it is in fact God's exclusive name by which he must be addressed. And despite the condescending attitude of people generally towards me posing this question, I think the magnitude of this debate proved that it's actually not commonly understood or thought about.
Couldn't agree more.
I thought I'd ask a 'simple' question to introduce myself in this forum, and I got instead quite a debate, but wait till I pull out the heavy questions!
Inshallah I'll get the opportunity to learn from you and get a deeper understanding of some of the problems that have been bothering me over the years. -
Salaam,
Allah does not mean God, as this term is a personification giving gender, the female equivalent being Goddess, if you are truly in search of truth, and not simply interested in confusion of religion, (Islam is not a religion it is a Deen), you should read this explanation.
http//servantofthelight.com/content/view/129/162/
If you want further clarity, read this one
http//servantofthelight.com/content/view/7/27/
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"god" whether with small g or capital g is not the name, in English it is noun but not name. And Allah is the Name.
And "al" in Allah is not definite article, it is part of the name;You are really confused. Any person who had not lost his brains in the basket of hadith and sunnah or among volumes of sectarian books, would not need to look at the Madine University's publication to see the clear etimological and semantic connection beetwen ELAH and ELLAH.
I have Ibn Ba'z' book claiming that the EARTH is not rotating and declaring any one rejecting it to be an apostate deserving to be killed. His book was published in 1970s by the same university you are recommending to us.
God, the God, or Allah is neither Arab nor English. So, your attempt to make an Arabic word, ALLAH (the god), a proper name for the Creator of the Universe, can be explained with two diseases Igronance and/or Arab nationalism, which are well promoted by fabricated hadith and sects.
Peace,
Edip -
Peace Edip Yuksel,
Regarding Ibn Baz, he is the same as Christian Church during the time of the 14th century where they reject Galileo's idea of the Solar System.
Some sunni muslims ulamak have none other in their mind than killing people for rejecting their views. That's why some extremist willing to blow themselves up in any place in the world to show their frustration and anger and then go to heaven easily.
Peace.
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It is probable that the word "Allah" had been employed by Arab Pagans, Christians, and Jews since well before the revelation of the Quran. While the lay non-Muslim will be loathe to use the word "Allah" for God, those who are aware of the long-standing pedigree of the term "Allah" are indeed more accommodating, and in Malaysia the Christians have alleged deprivation thanks to the monopolization of "Allah" by Muslims. However, the Quran chastises the inappropriate employment of the term "Allah" as disbelief (573), so from the Quranic point of view they are definitely struggling.
If "Allah" and "God" have the same connotation, then it is unreasonable to protest against using "Allah" in English conversations, unless somebody is going to claim that "God" is a divinely appointed (and exclusive) term for use in the English language, as the "standardized usage" argument lacks merit.
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sallam, u r right GOD has no name even in so called arabic language ( as word "arabic" itself means "mother tongue" ) even if u read chapter 1 verse 1 word "Alhamdolillah" c that carfully u will find letter "Alif" (A) missing & in very nx sentance word "RAB" is use. its mistake of ours who follow religion blindly without using commonsence due to that for centuries this so called "Arabs" r fooling ppl around.
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Salaam, why not use one of Allah's other 98 names?
I sometimes refer to Him as The Most High!
Peace. -
Salaam, why not use one of Allah's other 98 names?
I sometimes refer to Him as The Most High!
Peace.That is good. In one to one address one can and should use the specific qualitative attribute to seek his attention whom he is calling. But when one is talking about him to some third person he has first to introduce his Title or Personal name whereafter he can narrate his attributes. If one talks to third person mentioning merely some trait the other person can ask who is he you are talking about.
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So this has been bothering me for years and I figured it was time to get to the bottom of it.
Firstly let me apologize if this has been discussed before, I did a search, and did not come up with anything.
So,
What bothers me specifically is the use of the word Allah when people speak another language. Why is this done?I am an Arabic speaker, and as I'm sure you all know, Allah simply means 'The God' in the Arabic language. It comes from Al (The) and Ilah (god).
Now, I'm sure you all know that the word Allah is also used by Arab Christians and Jews, and was even used to refer to God before Islam.
So why do people continue to use the term Allah when speaking English? God has no name in Islam in the sense of humans having arbitrary names like Michael, Dave, Adnan, etc. His names are characteristics, through which we can then understand him better. And the only one that is not a characteristic, but which is used as a name is Allah.
Why this is important
The reason this bothers me is because I think the overuse of the word Allah alienates Muslims from people of other religions. They begin to associate the term Allah with Muslims and see it as a foreign term used by "others". They do not associate the word with God.
However, if Muslims used the word 'God' when speaking English or other languages, this strikes a chord with people, and helps them understand the topic at hand with something they are familiar with and have thought about. It brings to their minds images of God that they have harbored since childhood, instead of turban-wearing terrorists, wife beaters, child molesters, and whatever other stereotypes Muslims now have.Right bro. I agree with you. And I believe that there is no point in saying Allah instead of GOD when we are speaking in English. Since the word 'Allah' means 'the GOD' in Arabic.
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To GOD belong the best names. sun
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I think the newer copies of his translation still carry "God" rather than "Allah" in the footnotes.
The use of the word Allah as a 'name' really is a new phenomenon at least amongst the muslims of South Asia... in the good old days we used to use the word Khuda instead of Allah when speaking in Urdu, but that has changed drastically since the mid-1980's. I purposely tease my acquaintances my wishing them KhudaHafiz instead of the AllahHafiz that has been imposed ever since. jedi
