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Allah

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Divinities

   Arabic
   اﷲ
   Transliteration
   Allāh
   Translation
   "The God"

   Allah is the Arabic language word referring to "God", "the Lord" and,
   literally according to the Qur'an, to the "God of Abraham, Isaac and
   Jacob" in the Abrahamic religions. It does not mean "a god", but rather
   "the Only God", the Supreme Creator of the universe, and it is the main
   term for the deity in Islam. However, "Allah" is not restricted to just
   Islam, but is used by Christians and Jews in some regions.

   Most Arabic-speaking Muslims, Middle-Eastern Christians and
   Arabic-speaking Jewish Communities (including the Yemenite Jews,
   several Mizraḥi communities and some Sephardim) use "Allāh" as the
   proper noun for "God". Etymologically, the name Allah is probably a
   contraction of the Arabic al-Ilah, “the God.” The name's origin can be
   traced back to the earliest Semitic writings in which the word for god
   was Il or El, the latter being an Old Testament synonym for Yahweh.
   Allah is the standard Arabic word for “God” and is used by Arab
   Christians as well . Allāh is found in the Qur'an and in Arabic
   translations of both the Tanakh and the Gospels and even in the
   Indonesian translations of the Bible. Christians believe that Allāh is
   ath-Thalouth al-Muqaddas - The Holy Trinity, thus whole Allāh is
   consisted from Abu-Father, Bin-Son, and Ruh-Spirit.

   Outside the Arabic World, the use of "Allāh" is generally associated
   exclusively with Islam, and is used to refer specifically to the
   Islamic concept of God. It is nearly the same as the Jewish conception
   of a single God, but differs from the Trinitarian Christian conception
   of God. In Islam, the concept of one God is strictly observed. The
   Qu'ran refers to a Jewish belief in Ezra as the Son of God, although
   historical Judaism is also strictly monotheistic.

   Islamic scholars often translate "Allāh" directly into English as
   "God", especially Qur'an alone Muslims. Other scholars feel that
   "Allāh" should not be translated arguing that "Allāh" is the term for
   "the Only God" in a glorified pronunciation. This is a significant
   issue when translating the Qur'an.

   According to the tradition of Islam there are 99 Names of God. They are
   the names of God revealed in the Qur'an.

Etymology

   The word Allāh (ألله) is derived from a contraction of the Arabic words
   al- (the) and ʾilāh (deity, masculine form) — al-ilāh meaning "the
   god". Cognates of the name "Allāh" exist in other Semitic languages,
   including Hebrew and Aramaic.

   Muslim and non-Muslim scholars often translate "Allāh" directly into
   English as "God"; and Arabic-speaking Jews and Christians refer to
   Allāh as God. Also, it is believed that in Islam, "Allāh" means the
   same God that the people of Christianity and Judaism faith believe in;
   in other words, the three prominent religions believe in the same God.
   However, some Muslim scholars feel that "Allāh" should not be
   translated, because they perceive the Arabic word to express the
   uniqueness of "Allāh" more accurately than the word "god", which can
   take a plural "gods", whereas the word "Allāh" has no plural form. This
   is a significant issue in translation of the Qur'an.

   The word "Allāh" had been used in the Arabic tongue in the Jāhilīyah
   (pre-Islamic) period; it occurs in Arabic classical poetry and was also
   used by Jews in certain regions (for cognate Hebrew Elōah), as well as
   by the pagan tribes in the Arabian peninsula to signify a chief deity.

   Along with Allāh, the pre-Islamic Arabs believed in a host of other
   terms to signify gods, such as Hubal and al-Lāt, al-`Uzzah, and Manah.
   Pre-Islamic Jews referred to their supreme creator as Yahweh or Elohim.
   This view of Allāh by the pre-Islamic pagans is viewed by Muslims as a
   later development having arisen as a result of moving away from
   Abrahamic monotheism over time since the building of the Kaaba. In the
   Qur'an, Muhammad orally transmits a rebuttal to this common belief at
   the time in the verse "17:40 Has then your Lord (O Pagans!) preferred
   for you sons, and taken for Himself daughters among the angels? Truly
   ye utter a most dreadful saying!". Secular historians, meanwhile, have
   postulated that monotheism is the result of an evolution from
   henotheism, the belief in a supreme deity as well as various lesser
   divinities. (See Judaism.) The pagan Arabians also used the word
   "Allāh" in the names of their children; Muhammad's father, who was born
   into pagan society, was named "`Abdullāh", which translates "servant of
   Allāh". "`Abdullāh" is still used for names of Muslim and non-Muslims
   (e.g. Christians also used the word, as testified by the Zabad
   inscription). "Abdullāh" was also the name of the father of Maimon,
   whose son Moses is the Jewish principal Rabbi commonly known in English
   as Maimonides. Maimonides himself wrote his works mostly in Arabic on
   which his name appear as "Mussa bin Maimun ibn Abdullah al-Kurtubi" (
   موسى بن ميمون بن عبد الله القرطبي ).

   The Hebrew word for deity, El (אל) or Elōah (אלוה, rarely אלה), was
   used as an Old Testament synonym for Yahweh (יהוה), which is the proper
   name for God according to the Tanakh. The Aramaic word for God is אלהא
   Elāhā ( Biblical Aramaic) and ܐܠܗܐ Alāhā ( Syriac), which comes from
   the same Proto- Semitic word (* ʾil-) as the Arabic and Hebrew terms;
   Jesus is described in Mark 15:34 as having used the word on the cross,
   with the ending meaning "my", when saying, "My God, my God, why hast
   Thou forsaken me?" (transliterated in Greek as ἐλωι elō-i). One of the
   earliest surviving translations of the word into a foreign language is
   in a Greek translation of the Shahada, from 86-96 AH ( 705- 715 AD),
   which translates it as ὁ θεος μονος (ho theos monos) , literally "the
   lone god".

Typography

   An example of allāh written in simple Arabic calligraphy.
   Enlarge
   An example of allāh written in simple Arabic calligraphy.

   The word Allāh is always written without an alif to spell the ā vowel.
   This is because the spelling was settled before Arabic spelling started
   habitually using alif to spell ā. However, in vocalized spelling, a
   small diacritic alif is added on top of the shaddah to indicate the
   pronunciation.

   One exception may be in the pre-Islamic Zabad inscription, where it
   ends with an ambiguous sign that may be a lone-standing h with a
   lengthened start, or may be a non-standard conjoined l-h:-
     * as الاه : This reading would be Allāh spelled phonetically with
       alif for the ā.
     * as الاله : This reading would be Al-'ilāh = "the god",
       uncontracted, by older spelling practice without alif for ā.

   The form in the inscription is shown at .

   Unicode has a glyph reserved for Allāh, ﷲ‎ = U+FDF2, which can be
   combined with an alif to yield the post-consonantal form, اﷲ‎, as
   opposed to the full spelling alif-lām-lām-hā الله‎ which may be
   rendered slightly differently, in particular featuring a diacritic alif
   on top of the shadda. In this, Unicode imitates traditional Arabic
   typesetting, which also frequently featured special llāh types.

   In Abjad numerals, The Name Of Allah (الله) numeric value is 66.

   The calligraphic variant of the word used as the Coat of arms of Iran
   is encoded in Unicode, in the Miscellaneous Symbols range, at codepoint
   U+262B (☫).

History

   Allah script outside Edirne Eski Camii and woman
   Enlarge
   Allah script outside Edirne Eski Camii and woman

   This view of Allāh by the pre-Islamic pagans is viewed by Muslims as a
   later development having arisen as a result of moving away from
   Abrahamic monotheism over time. Some of the names of these pagan gods
   are said to be derived from the descendants of Noah, whom later
   generations first revered as saints, and then transformed into gods.
   The pagan Arabians also used the word "Allāh" in the names of their
   children; Muhammad's father, who was born into pagan society, was named
   " Abdullah", which means "servant of Allāh". Abdullah is still used for
   names of Muslim and non-Muslim Arabs.

   The Hebrew word for deity, El (אל) or Elōah (אלוה), was used as an Old
   Testament synonym for the Tetragrammaton (יהוה), which is the proper
   name of God according to the Hebrew Bible. The Aramaic word for God is
   alôh-ô ( Syriac dialect) or elâhâ (Biblical dialect), which comes from
   the same Proto- Semitic word (*ʾilâh-) as the Arabic and Hebrew terms;
   Jesus is described in Mark 15:34 as having used the word on the cross,
   with the ending meaning "my", when saying, "My God, my God, why hast
   thou forsaken me?" (transliterated in Greek as elō-i).

   One of the earliest surviving translations of the word Allāh into a
   foreign language is in a Greek translation of the Shahada, from 86-96
   AH ( 705- 715 AD), which translates it as ho theos monos, literally
   "the one god". Also the cognate Aramaic term appears in the Aramaic
   version of the New Testament, called the Pshitta (or Peshitta) as one
   of the words Jesus used to refer to God, e.g., in the sixth Beatitude,
   "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see Alaha." And in the
   Arabic Bible the same words: "طُوبَى لأَنْقِيَاءِ الْقَلْبِ،
   فَإِنَّهُمْ سَيَرَوْنَ الله"

Other beliefs

     * Jews for Allah is a group of Muslim former Jews who convert Jews to
       Islam.

     * The Nation of Gods and Earths, one of the many sects created as the
       result of black separatist movements in the United States, holds
       that the word Allāh is the name of the original black man and
       stands for "Arm, Leg, Leg, Arm, Head".,, which is an English
       abbreviation. As the word Allāh is universally understood to be an
       Arabic term, those familiar with the origins and history of Arabic
       and English would consider this a false etymology. This concept
       also differs dramatically from mainstream Islam thought which
       strictly opposes any attempt to portray Allāh as a human or in any
       other way.

     * The Bahá'í Faith, whose scriptures are primarily written in Arabic
       and Persian, also uses Allāh to mean God, though typical practice
       is to use the customary word for God in the language being spoken.
       In certain specific uses Allāh is not translated, rather the whole
       Arabic phrase is used. The chief example of this would be the
       customary Bahá'í greeting Alláh'u'abhá, which is commonly
       translated as God is the All Glorious. They also believe that Allāh
       should not have any pictures drawn of him.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allah"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
