who is allah

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Who is Allah?
by Abu Iman 'Abd ar-Rahman Robert Squires

Some of the biggest misconceptions that many non-Muslims have about Islam have to do
with the word "Allah". For various reasons, many people have come to believe that
Muslims worship a different God than Christians and Jews. This is totally false, since
"Allah" is simply the Arabic word for "God" - and there is only One God. Let there be no
doubt - Muslims worship the God of Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus -
peace be upon them all. However, it is certainly true that Jews, Christians and Muslims
all have different concepts of Almighty God. For example, Muslims - like Jews - reject the
Christian beliefs of the Trinity and the Divine Incarnation. This, however, doesn't mean
that each of these three religions worships a different God - because, as we have already
said, there is only One True God. Judaism, Christianity and Islam all claim to be
"Abrahamic Faiths", and all of them are also classified as "monotheistic". However, Islam
teaches that other religions have, in one way or another, distorted and nullified a pure
and proper belief in Almighty God by neglecting His true teachings and mixing them with
man-made ideas.

First of all, it is important to note that "Allah" is the same word that Arabic-speaking
Christians and Jews use for God. If you pick up an Arabic Bible, you will see the word
"Allah" being used where "God" is used in English. (Click here to see some examples of
the word "Allah" in the Arabic Bible.) This is because "Allah" is the only word in the
Arabic language equivalent to the English word "God" with a capital "G". Additionally, the
word "Allah" cannot be made plural or given gender (i.e. masculine or feminine), which
goes hand-in-hand with the Islamic concept of God. Because of this, and also because
the Qur'an, which is the holy scripture of Muslims, was revealed in the Arabic language,
some Muslims use the word "Allah" for "God", even when they are speaking other
languages. This is not unique to the word "Allah", since many Muslims tend to use Arabic
words when discussing Islamic issues, regardless of the language which they speak. This
is because the universal teachings of Islam - even though they have been translated in
every major language - have been preserved in the Arabic language.

It is interesting to note that the Aramaic word "El", which is the word for God in the
language that Jesus spoke, is certainly more similar in sound to the word "Allah" than the
English word "God". This also holds true for the various Hebrew words for God, which are
"El" and "Elah", and the plural form "Elohim". The reason for these similarities is that
Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic are all Semitic languages with common origins. It should
also be noted that in translating the Bible into English, the Hebrew word "El" is translated

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variously as "God", "god" and "angel"! This imprecise language allows different
translators, based on their preconceived notions, to translate the word to fit their own
views. The Arabic word "Allah" presents no such difficulty or ambiguity, since it is only
used for Almighty God alone. Additionally, in English, the only difference between "god",
meaning a false god, and "God", meaning the One True God, is the capital "G". In the
Arabic alphabet, since it does not have capital letters, the word for God (i.e. Allah) is
formed by adding the equivalent to the English word "the" (Al-) to the Arabic word for
"god/God" (ilah). So the Arabic word "Allah" literally it means "The God" - the "Al-" in
Arabic basically serving the same function as the capital "G" in English. Due to the above
mentioned facts, a more accurate translation of the word "Allah" into English might be
"The One -and-Only God" or "The One True God".
More importantly, it should also be noted that the Arabic word "Allah" contains a deep
religious message due to its root meaning and origin. This is because it stems from the
Arabic verb ta'allaha (or alaha), which means "to be worshipped". Thus in Arabic, the
word "Allah" means "The One who deserves all worship". This, in a nutshell, is the Pure
Monotheistic message of Islam. You see, according to Islam, "monotheism" is much more
than simply believing in the existence of "only One God" - as seemingly opposed to two,
three or more. If one understands the root meaning of the word "Allah", this point should
become clear. One should understand that Islam's criticism of the other religions that
claim to be "monotheistic" is not because they are "polytheistic" in the classic sense, but
because they direct various forms of worship to other than Almighty God. We will
discuss the meaning of worship in Islam below, however, before moving on it should be
noted that many non-Muslims are unaware of the distinction between simply believing in
the existence of only One God and reserving all worship for Him alone. Many
Christians are painfully unaware of this point, and thus you often find them asking how
Muslims can accuse the followers of Jesus, peace be upon him, of being "polytheists"
when they were all "monotheistic Jews". First of all, it should be clarified that the word
"polytheist" doesn't really sound right in this context, since to many it implies simply
believing in the existence of more than one God. So in an Islamic context, "associators",
"man-worshippers" or "creature worshippers" might be more accurate and appropriate
terms - especially since Christians believe Jesus to be both "100% God and 100% man",
while still paying lip-service to God's "Oneness". However, as we're previously touched
upon, what is really at the root of this problem is the fact that Christians - as well as the
members of other religions - don't really know what "monotheism" means - especially in
the Islamic sense. All of the books, articles and papers that I've read which were written
by Christians invariably limit "monotheism" to believing in the existence of "One
Sovereign and Creator God". Islam, however, teaches much more than this.
Suffice it to say that just because someone claims to be a "monotheistic" Jew, Christian
or Muslim, that doesn't keep them from falling into corrupt beliefs and idolatrous
practices. Many people, including some Muslims, claim belief in "One God" even though
they've fallen into acts of idolatry. Certainly, many Protestants accuse Roman Catholics of
idolatrous practices in regards to the saints and the Virgin Mary. Likewise, the Greek
Orthodox Church is considered "idolatrous" by many other Christians because in much of
their worship they use icons. However, if you ask a Roman Catholic or a Greek Orthodox

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person if God is "One", they will invariably answer: "Yes!". This lip-service, however, does
not stop them from being "creature worshipping" idolaters. The same goes for Hindus,
who just consider their gods to be "manifestations" or "incarnations" of the One Supreme
God.
Everyone should be aware of the fact that throughout the long history of the "Abrahamic
Faiths", there have people who, while believing in "One God", have adopted beliefs and
practices that completely nullify their claim to "monotheism". This is the Muslim view of
Christians. We're well aware of the fact that they claim belief in "One God" with their lips,
but this doesn't mean that they don't nullify their claim in other ways. This is because
many people simply haven't been taught everything that Pure Monotheism entails. From
an Islamic point of view, "monotheism" can be nullified in many ways. For example,
simply believing that it is permissible to rule by Western "liberal" and "democratic" laws
in lieu of the Divinely Revealed Law of Almighty God makes one a "polytheist". Certainly,
a person who does such a thing, whether Jewish, Christian or Muslim, doesn't ever
believe that there is another Almighty Creator and Sovereign Lord. However, for all
practical purposes, such a person has take another "god", whether they choose to admit
it or not. In this way they are associating partners with Almighty God (Arabic: shirk), and
thus become a "polytheist" in a practical sense, regardless of their lip-service to
"monotheism". This holds true even if the person doesn't believe what they are doing is
"worship". For example, Roman Catholics who pray to the Virgin Mary will staunchly deny
that they are "worshipping" her. They instead call it "adoration" or some other watered-
down term. However, from an Islamic point of view, what is worship if not this? Islam
teaches that prayer and supplication are the marrow of worship, so if one directs their
prayers to an intermediary (even if the pray is "ultimately" meant for God), then what is
left of worship? Additionally, how can someone who believes in Almighty God follow man-
made laws instead of God's Law, without admitting that they've begun worshipping other
than God? Do they know better than God?
Additionally, the Old Testament makes it perfectly clear that making a "graven image" of
any created thing (not to mention ones which are supposed to "represent" Almighty God)
is prohibited. Please see Exodus 20:4-6, Leviticus 26:1 and Deuteronomy 4:16, 23, 25,
5:8 and Nehemiah 9:6 for some statements in regards to this point. Without addressing
the issue that Christians commonly violate the unambiguous commandment not to even
"make" representations of anything that is in the "heavens above or on the earth
beneath", these verses not only teach that worshipping idols is prohibited, but also that
Almighty God is eternally distinct from His creation and thus nothing in His creation can
represent Him. To believe otherwise is to be a de facto idol worshipper - even if one
claims belief in one, and only one, "True God". In Exodus 20:4-6 and Deuteronomy 4:16,
Almighty God - who is a "Jealous God" - makes it perfectly clear that He is distinct from
His creation.
By giving such clear and merciful guidance to human beings, God is establishing a
universal and eternal Truth for the benefit of mankind. This eternal Truth is the bedrock
of religious guidance, since once people begin to believe that Almighty God mixes with or
can be represented by His creation, they can be duped into believing almost anything.
Once someone accepts that God has become "incarnate" in His creation, or that someone

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or something is a "manifestation" - and thus representation - of Him, the floodgates are

open and "Truth" becomes a matter of subjective guesswork. Once the first and most
basic concept is violated - regardless of how complicated and sophisticated the rationale
for it might be - it is very easy to fall further and further away from the Eternal Truth of
Pure Monotheism. In the final analysis, it is not a question of whether God is capable of
becoming a man, but rather a question of whether one bases their beliefs about God on
clear, unambiguous and authentic guidance. Once it is left up to the human mind to
decide what Almighty God can and cannot do, the stage is set for misguidance to take
root. Human speculation about God only ends up leading to misguidance and despair,
since no clear conclusions can ever be reached. For example, is God capable of creating
an object so heavy that He is incapable of moving it? If not, does that mean that He is
incapable? It is because of misguided questions like this that Islam clearly teaches that
mankind should only say about God what He has said about Himself. This means all of
our ideas about God must be based on Revelation - not human speculation. In short, the
final prophet of Islam - Muhammad - was sent by Almighty God to preach the same Pure
Monotheism that was practiced by Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus - peace be
upon them all. This Pure Monotheism means not only believing that there is only One God
in existence, but realizing that He is transcedent above His creation and that all worship
is due to Him alone.
Before concluding, we should probably address the practice of those Muslims who insist
on using the Arabic word "Allah" even when speaking English. Even though this practice
certainly is not to be condemned when it is done around those who understand the
meaning of the Arabic word "Allah", it is my experience - both during my years as a non-
Muslim and my years as a Muslim - that such a practice can (and usually does) breed
misunderstanding. It seems that often times, many of the Muslims who use the word
"Allah" in lieu of the word "God", even when trying to attract people to Islam, are
unaware of the severe misunderstandings that many non-Muslims have about Islam (and
the distorted way which Islam has been portrayed in the West). Insisting on using the
word "Allah" only fuels the flames of misunderstanding - so there's no good reason to do
it. I've often wondered what value some Muslims think that using the word "Allah" adds
to the Pure Message that they are trying to convey. ( . . . and I'm still waiting for an
answer!) Unfortunately, those Muslims who insist on using the word "Allah" even when
addressing non-Muslims who are unfamiliar with Islam and the Arabic language, do both
a disservice to themselves and their religion. Unfortunately, this practice is usually based
on the false assumption - by a non-native speaker of English - that the word "God" in
English is incapable of expressing a pure and proper belief in Almighty God. This is
certainly false. If someone says that the English word "God" cannot be used to express
the Pure Islamic Belief in Tawhid, they are wrong not because they don't understand
Tawhid, but simply because they don't understand the English language. Many people
who insist on using the Arabic word "Allah" usually don't realize this, because in reality,
they are not so much affirming the word "Allah" as they are rejecting the word "God" as
unsuitable - based on incorrect assumptions. For someone to assume that the word
"God" presupposes a certain theological point-of-view (such as the Trinity) is simply
Wrong - and that's Wrong with a capital "W". To say the word "God" should be rejected
because it can be changed into "god", "gods" or "goddess" is illogical because each of

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these words has a distinctive meaning and a distinctive spelling - at least to someone
who knows how to speak English correctly. Using the same logic, I can demonstrate that
the root letters "ktb" can be used to form the Arabic words "kitab" (book),
"maktabah" (library), "maktab" (office) and "kaatib" (writer), but does that mean that
these words have the same meaning? Do Arabic-speaking people go through life
confusing libraries with writers and offices with books (both in conversation and in
reality)? I think not! This is not to mention the fact that if the Arabic "Al-" was put in
front of these words in order to make them definite, confusion would be even less likely!
So the logic in both cases is the same, and this is because even though the same letters
are used in "God" and "god", these two words have two different meanings in the English
language. The capital "G" implies something different than the small "g" - and anyone
who denies this simply doesn't know how to speak the English language.
In concluding this point, it should be mentioned that Arabic-speaking Muslims who
believe in Pure Tawhid, Arabic-speaking Christians, the idol worshippers of Mecca and (so-
called) Muslims who believe in "Wahdat al-Wujud" all use the word "Allah". However,
does this guarantee all of them proper belief in "Allah"? Certainly not, because if they
have a corrupt concept of "Allah" it doesn't matter what word they use!

This brings us to a more important point: It should be clearly understood that what Islam
is primarily concerned with is correcting mankind's concept of Almighty God. What we
are ultimately going to be held accountable at the end of our life is not whether we prefer
the word "Allah" over the word "God", but what our concept of God is. Language is only a
side issue. A person can have an incorrect concept of God while using the word "Allah",
and likewise a person can have a correct concept of God while using the word "God". This
is because both of these words are equally capable of being misused and being
improperly defined. As we've already mentioned, using the word "Allah" no more
insinuates belief in the Unity of God than the use of the word "God" insinuates belief in
the Trinity - or any other theological opinion. Naturally, when God sends a revelation to
mankind through a prophet, He is going to send it in a language that the people who
receive it can understand and relate to. Almighty God makes this clear in the Qur'an,
when He states:
"Never did We send a Messenger except (to teach) in the language of his (own)
people in order to make (things) clear to them."
(Qur'an, Chapter 14 - "Abraham", Verse 4)
As Muslims, we think that it is unfortunate that we have to go into details on such
seemingly minor issues, but so many falsehoods have been heaped upon our religion,
that we feel that it is our duty to try to break down the barriers of falsehood. This isn't
always easy, since there is a lot of anti-Islamic literature in existence which tries to make
Islam look like something strange and foreign to Westerners. There are some people out
there, who are obviously not on the side of truth, that want to get people to believe that
"Allah" is just some Arabian "god", and that Islam is completely "other" - meaning that it
has no common roots with the other Abrahamic religions (i.e. Christianity and Judaism).
To say that Muslims worship a different "God" because they say "Allah" is just as illogical
as saying that French people worship another God because they use the word "Dieu",

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that Spanish-speaking people worship a different God because they say "Dios" or that the
Hebrews worshipped a different God because they sometimes call Him "Yahweh".
Certainly, reasoning like this is quite ridiculous! It should also be mentioned, that
claiming that any one language uses the only the correct word for God is tantamount to
denying the universality of God's message to mankind, which was to all nations, tribes
and people through various prophets who spoke different languages.
Before closing, we would like everyone to be aware of the fact that some Christian
missionary organizations print English literature intended to teach Christians about Islam
which say such things as: "Allah is the god of the Muslims" and that "Muhammad came to
get people to believe in the god Allah" - implying that "Allah" is some sort of false "god".
However, when these same organizations print literature in the Arabic language, hoping
to lead Arabic-speaking Muslims "to Christ", they use the word "Allah" for God. It seems
that if they were on the side of truth, they would not have to resort to such
inconsistencies. And on an even more ridiculous note . . . there are also missionary
organizations that exceed this in ignorance (or deceit) by writing books that call on
Muslims to give up their belief in "Allah", and instead worship the "Lord" Jesus, "the Son
of God". Besides making it abundantly clear that they are outside the community of Pure
Monotheism, the people who write such material don't even realize that if they wrote
such a pamphlet in Arabic, it would be self-contradictory. This is because in an Arabic
Bible Jesus is the "Son of Allah"! If an Arabic-speaking person gave up the worship of
"Allah", they would have no God to worship, since "Allah" is simply the Arabic word for
God!

Before we conclude, however, we would like to ask our readers to ask themselves what
they think the reasons are behind all of these lies? If Islam was just some false religion
that didn't make any sense, would so many people, from Western scholars to Christian
missionaries, have to tell so many lies about it? The reason is that the Ultimate Truth of
Islam stands on solid ground and its unshakable belief in the Unity of God is above
reproach. Due to this, Christians can't criticize its doctrines directly, but instead make up
things about Islam that aren't true so that people lose the desire to learn more. If
Muslims were able to present Islam in the proper way to people in the West, it surely
might make many people reconsider and re-evaluate their own beliefs. It is quite likely
that Christians, when they find out that there is a universal religion in the world that
teaches people to worship and love God, while also practicing Pure Monotheism, would at
least feel that they should re-examine the basis for their own beliefs and doctrines.
In case you missed it above, click here to see some examples of the word "Allah" in the
Arabic Bible.
© 1995, 1996 - Islamic Awareness - Kuwait

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