|
Notis: Det följande är en reproduktion av artiklen
Should we use the word "Allah" or the word "God"?!.
Lika många gånger som vi varit ute på Internet eller i en diskussionsgrupp,
träffar vi nästan alltid på någon som känner sig förolämpad när vi använder
ordet "Gud" när vi talar om Den Ende Guden (Allah på Arabiska).
Det är förvånansvärt att de flesta av dessa Muslimska bröder och/eller
systrar inte vet att ordet "Allah" är det Arabiska ordet för "Gud." Många av
dem tror att "Allah" är namnet på en Muslimsk Gud. De inser inte att ordet
"Allah" inte bara tillhör Muslimerna, och att det alltid använts före (och
efter) Islam av Arabisk talande Judar och Kristna när de talar om Gud.
När man talar till Engelsk talande människor om Gud och använder ordet
"Allah" är det samma sak som när man talar till Arabisk talande människor om
"Allah" och använder ordet Gud. Det är sunt förnuft att visa respekt för
människorna och deras språk genom att tala till dem på det språk de
använder.
Att insistera på att använda ordet "Allah" vilket är det Arabiska ordet för
Gud skapar direkt illusionen att "Allah" är en helt annan gudomlighet än hela
världens Gud. Det skapare en gud som BARA tillhör Muslimerna, och tar bort det
universella i Islam ur det.
We (Submission.org) found the comment sent by Abu Iman Robert Squires to be very
informative and we re-produced it here.
The word "ALLAH"
A Comment by : Abu Iman Robert Squires
Assalamu Alaikum,
I would like to strongly concur with your observations about the use of
the word "Allah" in English and any other language. Both from my
conversion experience in America and my experience doing da'wah here in
Kuwait, it is definitely 100% - without a shadow of a doubt - better to
use the word "God" when making da'wah to English speaking people.
This alone is enough to open many hearts and minds since many people
think that Muslims worship a different God. I've come across some Arab
brothers who insist in using only the word "Allah". They somehow think
that it implies Tawhid while the word "God" implies the Trinity, etc.,
etc.
You know, the problem with such people is not their knowledge of
Arabic, but their ignorance of English. The mushriks (disbelievers) at the
time of the Prophet (saws) used the word Allah, and so do Arabic-speaking
Christians. The word itself in no way implies tawhid. The reason it
implies tawhid to Muslims is that they're Muslims. Others use this word in
ways that are nothing but shirk.
The word God implies tawhid to me because I have the Islamic concept of
Him. It's all in the concept, but has nothing to do with the word itself.
Also, there are statements in some da'wah pamphlets that say "all prophets
since Adam used the word Allah" and that "the word Allah is exactly the
same as the Aramaic word Jesus used for God".
The first statement is baseless and can be proved to be logically
incorrect from the Qu'ran. The second statement is incorrect, but the
words are only similar, but NOT exactly alike. This whole trend of using
"Allah" in English seems to come about rather recently.
VMost of the translations and writings done back in the 1940's and
1950's used the word "God", which is a perfectly good translation of the
word Allah in Arabic. M.M. Pickthall being the main exception, since he
seemed to have used "Allah" in all of the translations that I've seen.
The change came, I believe, as a result of Nasserite Arab Nationalism.
Many Arabs I know over here still don't know the difference between Islam
and Arab Nationalism! They seem more interesting in defending their pride
heritage than really spreading the message. But this is in no way limited
to Arabs, I've dealt with Pakistanis, Malaysians, Turks and Afghanis that
have the same hangup.
The mentality of some of these brothers almost approaches that of the
Bani Isra'il - the "our God vs your God" mentality! By the way, I've never
met an English-speaking convert to Islam (or Spanish-speaking, or
French-speaking) who disagreed with me on this point. Most them went
through a stage wondering why (some) Muslims insist on using Allah.
I should also add that I know a lot of Muslims that use "God" when
speaking English. I find this rather common among most Egyptians that I
know. In Morocco, where I visit quite frequently, the also use Dieu when
they parlez francais.
Insh'allah, more Muslims will realize this and our da'wah will become
more effective. This is a BIG barrier, but many Muslims don't realize it.
Many come up with baseless reasons to justify it (for whatever reason).
What do we converts know anyway!!! Ha! Another point before I go...some
people like to try to draw exact parallels between English and Arabic
words which just don't fit.
The word "ilah" in Arabic can be used for a false god or for Allah.
(Like when God says (paraphrased) the "ilah" of Ibraham", and numerous
other example.) Anyone who can read the Qu'ran should know this. However,
unlike the word "god" in English, which ALWAYS implies a false god.
Non-native English speakers sometimes mistakenly believe that "god" and
"God" are the same English word, but they are not. They carry completely
different meanings. If they doubt this, then they simply don't know how to
speak the English language. And to say that the word "Allah" can only be
used for the Supreme Almighty Creator is refuted by the Qu'ran itself.
It clearly says (and I paraphrase here rather liberally) that
Christians say that "Allah is Jesus". There you have it, applying "Allah"
to something that isn't "Allah" right there in the Qur'an. You see, what
people really mean to say is that you SHOULDN'T use "Allah" for anything
except the Almighty Creator, but you still CAN. The same thing goes for
the word God.
People can use it in the wrong way, but that doesn't make it right. The
truth is that this word too should only be used for the Almighty Creator.
Remember...God has sent prophets to everyone in their OWN LANGUAGE, i.e. a
language that they can understand. How many more people around the world
wouldn't be dying on SHIRK if many Muslims woke up and started making
da'wah in a way people can understand? Well, I've spoken my peace.
Abu Iman Robert Squires
Here is another comment and response by Steven Thomas;
To: BILL H--------
From: STEVEN THOMAS
Sorry Bill, but your sources are dubious at best. Souroush for instance
is a evangelical missionary associated with Jimmy Swaggart - great
reliability there!
The fact is that Allah does not refer to the moon god or have
associates. The linguistic breakdown of Allah is "The/Al God/Lah". That is
why all Christian Arabs (monophysists, Nestorians, Orthodox, Roman, and
Protestant (yes, even Mr. Shouroush) use the term Allah to refer to God
the Father when they speak Arabic. Lest you wonder where I am coming from,
my degrees are Biblical Arch. and Arabic language.
Try again.
Steven.
--- The Pitts <c---@centurytel.net> wrote:
The god of the Quran and the God of the bible
are completely different. Allah being contrived from AI-Llah the moon god.
Please feel free to research it yourself.As your own documentation
says,.."dont mean to offend anyone."
Peace,
There is no one offended here.
God of the Arabic Bible is called "Allah". I do not think you believe
that there is a god for the English Bible and another god for the Arabic
Bible and a third for the Italian bilbe...etc. It would be too naive.
There is ONLY one God. His name in English is God, in French: un dieu,
in Italian: dio, in German: Gott, in spanish: Dios, in Potugese: Deus, in
Arabic: Allah, and in Aramiac : alaha.
vAll these are no more than the names of God in different languages To
this day the Christian Arabs pray to Allah and talk about Allah.
They called Him Allah even before Islam was born and they know they
were not worshipping any moon god. Those who still speak Jesus language
(Aramaic/syriac) call God alaha to this day like Jesus did. Jesus did not
pray to a moon god but to alaha (Allah), the One and Only God.
The Arabic Bible, use the word Allah for God. If you want any images of
the Arabic Bible with the word Allah in it (for God of the Bible), please
let me know.
If you want to verify it, call any Arabic church in the USA or any
English speaking country and ask them what they call God in their Arabic
Bible and whether they still use the word Allah in their Bible or not.
Jewish Arabs also pray to Allah and talk about Allah just like an
English person talks about God.
The Origin of the name
"Allah"
It seems unlikely that the name Allah comes from al-ilaah
"the God", but rather from the Aramaic/Syriac alaha, meaning 'God' or 'the
God'. The final 'a' in the name alaha was originally the definite article
'the' and is regularly dropped when Syriac words and names are borrowed
into Arabic. Middle-eastern Christianity used 'alah' and 'alaha'
frequently, and it would have often been heard.
But in the Aramaic/Syriac language there are two different
'a' vowels, one rather like the 'a' in English 'hat' and the other more
like the vowel in 'ought'. In the case of 'alah', the first vowel was like
'hat' and the second like 'ought'. Arabic does not have a vowel like the
one in 'ought', but it seems to have BORROWED this vowel along with the
word 'alah'. If you know Arabic, then you know that the second vowel in
'allah' is unique; it occurs only in that one word in Arabic.
Scholars believe that Jesus spoke mostly Aramaic, although
sometimes he spoke Hebrew and he might have spoken Greek on some
occasions. If Jesus spoke Aramaic, then he referred to God using basically
the same word that is used in Arabic.
From Christoph.Heger@t-online.de (Dr. Christoph
Heger)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: How About That
Moon God?
Date: Wed Mar 25 18:59:38 EST 1998
Message-ID:
<6fc5pa$c8l$1@waltz.rahul.net>
Greetings to all,
The theory that Allah had been the name of an old Arabic
moon god (or moon goddess?) is not familiar to me and I am not in a
position to accept or falsify it. The following remarks only are thought
to serve further elucidation of the matter.
The ancient Greek historian Herodotos in the first volume of
his historic work "Histories Apodexis", line 131-132, refers to the
religion of the Persians. He writes:
"They sacrifice to the sun and the moon and the earth and
the fire and the water and the winds. Only to those they sacrifice of old.
In addition they learnt to sacrifice to Urania [=the Celestial one, i.e.
Aphrodite; Ch.H.], too. They learnt it from the Assyrians and the Arabs.
The Assyrians call Aphrodite Mylitta [Assyrian: Bilit; Ch.H.], the Arabs
Alilat..."
This "Urania", indeed, in some connections appears as a moon
goddess. "Alilat", of course, is to be related to the Arabic feminine form
"al-ilah", a nomen unitatis which has the meaning of "the (single) deity".
The etymological derivation of "Allah" as a contraction of
"al-ilah", which was maintained in numerous contributions to sri, too, is
"popular" etymology and surely not historic. It would be rather strange
that especially the "i" should have been disappeared due to neglect of the
speakers, since the syllable "il" is the most important in "al-ilah": "il"
or "el" is the semitic word for God since times immemorial.
Instead, the word "Allah", as a lot of other words,
especially words of the religious sphere, was imported from the Syriac
(Aramaic) language: "alaha" - with three long a-vowels -, is the Aramaic
word for the (Christian) unique God. The last (long) "a" characterizes the
status absolutus in the Aramaic language and was duly omitted by the Arabs
like case endings in the Arabic vernacular, whereas the understanding of
the first syllable of "alaha" as an article was a common misunderstanding
like for instance in "al-Iskandar" from Greek "Alexandros" etc. The
doubling of the "l" is irrelevant, since the doubling sign is a very late
invention of Arabic orthography, centuries after Muhammad.
Kind regards,
Christoph Heger
Even some of the traditional Scholars agree on this one;
see this Question and answer from a traditional scholar
The Origin of the Word 'Allah'...
Question:
What is the derivation of "Allah"? Some scholars say it
derives from al+ illah ("the God"), but many Muslim Ulema and translators
of the Qur'an (such as Maulana Muhammad Ali) disagree with this, and say
that "Allah" is whole in itself, as a proper name for the Supreme Creator.
But is there any philological relationship between Allah and other Semitic
terms for "God" such as Eloah (Hebrew) and Alaha (Aramaic/Syriac)?
Thank you.
Peace and blessings of Allah be with you.
Shahid M, USA
Reply
Although a lot has been said about the philology of the word
‘Allah’, however, in my opinion, the former of the two opinions noted by
you seems to be closer to the correct one. A detailed discussion compiling
the opinions of various scholars of the Arabic language regarding the
origin of the word can be seen in “Lisaan al-Arab” under the word “Aliha”
(a-l-h). In my opinion, ‘Allah’ is an Arabic word meaning ‘the God’.
According to the general principle of making proper nouns from common
nouns in the Arabic language, the word “ilah” (common noun) has been
converted to “al-ilah”, which became “Allah” due to the turgidity and the
slight difficulty of pronunciation of the word “al-ilah”.
The Qur’an, because its prime and first addressees were the
Arabs, used the word “Allah” for the Supreme Being, as that had
traditionally been the word used for the Supreme Being in that language.
The same had been the case in the older scriptures. Those scriptures, like
the Qur’an, used those words for the Supreme Being, which had already in
vogue in those languages, to refer to the Supreme Being.
However, there have been scholars of the Arabic language who
ascribe to the opinion that “Allah” is the actual name of the Supreme
Being. It is indeed important to the evidence that they have provided into
account. Nevertheless, I feel that to give God a name is a requirement of
us, humans. God, being the absolute being is in no need for a name.
May the Almighty guide us all to the path of His liking.
|