pronounciation of the word "Allah"
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salaamoon alaykoom, i have been bothered for a while about the correct pronounciation of the word "Allah" because when i began to study arabic many years ago, i was taught that this word was spelled with what is called "dagga" alif over the shaddah but at the same time taught that the word "Allah" was pronounced with "a" as in "father". It never made sense to me that this was the only word with "dagga" alif that was pronounced that way. All other words that contained this vowel marking were pronounced with "aa" as in "alif". What else i noticed is that the newest publications of The Noble Quran now do not use the "dagga" alif over the shaddah in the word "Allah" but now use "fatha". Can anyone here explain why this is?
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Peace Mekaeel,
All the vocalization marks are not part of the original text of the great reading but were added over 300 years later in the 10th century CE. So they reflect how people in medieval times thought the text ought to be pronounced. So the vocalization marks may not reflect how the words actually sounded when the great reading was first revealed.
Linguists even differ on whether the great reading was declined according to the rules of Arabic grammar. The text has low functional load of the declination so one can understand it without vocalization marks based declination. This is confirmed by the fact that the text of the great reading often reflects a complete disregard for even consonantal declination. For example, "sabi'un" in 569 would have been "sabi'in" according to the rules of Classical Arabic grammar. Another is the use of "moqimin" instead of "moqimun" in 4162. Yet another is in 2177 where "sabirin" is used instead of "sabirun". So if even consonantal declination was sometimes completely disregarded then we can be absolutely certain that the 10th century CE invented vocalization marks based declination was largely disregarded.
We don't even know what some individual letters were sounded, let alone vowel vocalization. For example, while the letter Kaf is currently pronounced as "Ka", there is evidence in the form of early Greek manuscripts of transliterated Arabic words, which suggests that it may have been actually pronounced "Cha". To this day, in Saudi Arabia, the "Kaf" is pronounced "Cha", especially when it comes at the end of a word (such as the second person possessive). In many rural Arabic dialects the "Qaf" is pronounced as "ga" instead of "qa". In short, unless you happen to have tapes or CDs dated from 1400 years ago then there is no way to know exactly how the great reading originally sounded.
My advice to you is that how words sound is not an important matter as long as you understand what they mean. If you understand what the word "Allah" means then this is all that matters.
I hope this helps.
Peace,
Ayman
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Salaamoon alaykoom, Ayman
That is exactly the problem that i am having. What does the word "Allah" mean? Logic and reasoning tell me that conventional understanding of "Allah" meaning God is not a fair representation of this word especially when the word for god, "ilaah", is juxtaposed with "Allah". For me and my relationship with our creator, it is enough for me to call upon Him with the article "Al" because He has made it absolutely clear to me that He is THE! As in "howa al". Everything else in the universe is "a", as in a sun, a galaxy, etc. He is the only THE in this creation so it only stands to reason that He is THE god!, and the most reasonable meaning that i can derive from the word "Allah" is THE god as in "al ilaah". What else can a reasonable and logic mind conclude when looking at all of the attributes with which He describes Himself, THE RaHman, THE RaHeem, THE King, etc. etc. etc.
thank you for your response -
You are right it is not such a simple thing. It is a way of trying to express the idea of a Divine Name. The Name of The Spirit which comes from it. It is the Arabic way of rendering the same idea that is rendered Ton Theon in Greek. In Hebrew the same idea is now rendered HaShem.