Should Muslims who do not speak Arabic
use the word Allah or God?
By: A. Mohamed
Recently, there has been some controversy between non-Arabic-speaking Muslims. The subject of the controversy is whether to use the word Allah or the word God when Muslims are speaking about God in a language other than Arabic. For some reason, there seem to be those who are enraged when the word God is used during a conversation in English.
The cause of the problem is that many Muslims believe that Allah is the 'personal' name of God. Others say that the word Allah is a combination of two Arabic words which are 'al' meaning 'the' and the word 'ilah' meaning God. Combining the two words, they claim, gives the word Allah.
This article is a reply to those claims in the light of the Holy Quran.
1- The correct translation of the two Arabic words 'al' and 'ilah is 'The God' and not God. That is because the word Allah is not the same spelling as the word al ilah.
2- The word Allah is not a product of two words combined as is claimed. In fact, if we break down the word Allah into two words without adding or removing any letters we would get: Al - Lah
The Arabic word (Al-Lah) is in fact a great insult to God. The Arabic word 'Lah', pronounced 'lahi' (with the tashkeel), is the adjective from the word 'lahw' which means frivolous or idle talk. We see this word used in the following verse:
And among the people is he who trades in 'lahw al-hadith' (frivolous hadith) and thus leads others away from the path of God without knowledge, and he makes a mockery of it. Those will have a humiliating punishment. 31:6
The adjective 'lah' therefore means one who engages in frivolous talk. That is the result we would get if we were to interpret the word Allah as a combination of two words.
3- As mentioned, the words 'al' 'ilah' translate to 'the God'. The phrase 'the God' is also insulting to God. The word "the" makes the noun that follows it an "article". This is insulting to the majesty of God. God is not a person or an item. It is therefore disrespectful to speak about God as 'the God'.
4- God Almighty is far above our comprehension. What God is cannot be confined to the singular. God is not a person and thus to insist that God has one personal name is to personalize God and to adapt Him to human standards where every person has a personal name.
5- When we speak in Arabic, the word Allah is naturally used. When we speak to an English-speaking person, the word God is used. When we speak to a French-speaking person, the word Dieu is used. When we speak to a German-speaking person, the word Gott is used, and so on.
Whether the word Allah, God, Dieu or Gott is used, the subject is always the One God who is the Creator of all things.
Insisting on using the word Allah when speaking to those who do not speak Arabic immediately creates the false supposition that Allah is a different god than the God of the Torah and the Gospels. All that does is create a false understanding of a god called Allah who belongs only to Muslims. Subsequently, this alienates non-Muslims and leads them to think that Muslims worship a different god.
6- We read in the Quran that to God belongs the 'Beautiful Names' (plural). Each and every one of those "Beautiful Names" is a name of God and not just an attribute of God. Naturally, every name of God has a meaning and denotes an attribute of God, but each one of those names is also a name of God. It follows that to isolate one name and claim that it is the 'name' that must be used is contrary to the words of the Quran:
Say, "Call upon Allah, or call upon the Almighty. Whichever you call upon, to Him belong the Beautiful Names." Do not shout your Salat nor whisper it, but seek a path in between. 17:110
This verse makes the issue very clear. God states that He does not have one name. In God's infinite Greatness, there is not one name that is sufficient to make reference to Him. If God had one specific name, then God would not tell us that all the others are also names of Him.
7- One of God's 'Beautiful Names' is 'Al-Ghafoor' which means 'The Forgiver'. Another of God's 'Beautiful Names' is 'Al-Raheem' which means 'The Merciful'.
When speaking in English, Arab-speaking Muslims have no problem using the English equivalents, 'The Forgiver' and 'The Merciful'. The question here is why they have no problem using the translation of some of the names of God but not others of His names. The only answer can be that they do not treat the name Allah as one of God's names (as God stated in 17:110) but as the 'personal' name of God.
8- Finally, let us consider the receivers of the previous Scriptures. Such Scriptures which were also revealed by God were revealed in other languages such as Hebrew and Aramaic. We do not see the name Allah in any of those previous Scriptures. Surely if the name Allah is the name we should use whichever language we are speaking then we would expect the name Allah to be given in the previous Scriptures. Was the correct name of God (Allah) kept a secret from all previous people and their messengers and only revealed to humanity with the revelation of the Quran? Have the people of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David and Jesus who had never heard the word Allah during their respective times been calling God by the wrong name all the time?