listen), [ʔalˤˈlˤɑː]) is the Arabic word for God (with a capital G) while "ʾilāh" is the term used for a deity or a god in general.[2][3][4] It is used primarily by Muslims, but also by Bahá'ís, Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and Sikhs.[5][6][7] It is related to ʼĔlāhā in Aramaic, the language of Jesus and the New Testament.The term Allāh is derived from a contraction of the Arabic definite article al- "the" and ʾilāh "deity, god" to al-lāh meaning "the [sole] deity, God" (ὁ θεὸς μόνος, ho theos monos).[8] Cognates of the name "Allāh" exist in other Semitic languages, including Hebrew and Aramaic.[9] Biblical Hebrew mostly uses the plural form (but functional singular) Elohim. The corresponding Aramaic form is ʼĔlāhā ܐܠܗܐ in Biblical Aramaic and ʼAlâhâ ܐܲܠܵܗܵܐ in Syriac as used by the Assyrian Church, both meaning simply "God".[10] In the Sikh scriptures, Guru Granth Sahib, the term Allah, Punjabi (Gurmukhi): ਅਲਹੁ is used 46 times respectively.
The name was previously used by pagan Meccans as a reference to a creator deity, possibly the supreme deity in pre-Islamic Arabia.[11][12] The concepts associated with the term Allah (as a deity) differ among religious traditions. In pre-Islamic Arabia amongst pagan Arabs, Allah was not considered the sole divinity, having associates and companions, sons and daughters–a concept that was deleted under the process of Islamization. In Islam, the name Allah is the supreme and all-comprehensive divine name, and all other divine names are believed to refer back to Allah.[13] Allah is unique, the only Deity, creator of the universe and omnipotent.[5][6] Arab Christians today use terms such as Allāh al-ʾAb (الله الأب, "God the Father") to distinguish their usage from Muslim usage.[14] There are both similarities and differences between the concept of God as portrayed in the Qur'an and the Hebrew Bible.[15] It has also been applied to certain living human beings as personifications of the term and concept.[16][17]
Unicode has a codepoint reserved for Allāh, ﷲ = U+FDF2.[18] Many Arabic type fonts feature special ligatures for Allah.
Usage in Arabic
Pre-Islamic Arabia
In pre-Islamic Arabia, Allah was used by Meccans as a reference to the creator-god, possibly the supreme deity.[20]
Islam
Main article: God in Islam
See also: Names of God in the Qur'an
In Islamic tradition, there are 99 Names of God (al-ʾasmāʾ al-ḥusnā lit. meaning: "The best names") each of which evoke a distinct characteristic of Allah.[6][28] All these names refer to Allah, the supreme and all-comprehensive divine name.[13] Among the 99 names of God, the most famous and most frequent of these names are "the Merciful" (ar-raḥmān) and "the Compassionate" (al-raḥīm).[6][28]
Most Muslims use the untranslated Arabic phrase ʾinšāʾ Allāh (meaning "God willing") after references to future events.[29] Muslim discursive piety encourages beginning things with the invocation of bismi-llāh (meaning "In the name of God").[30]
There are certain phrases in praise of God that are favored by Muslims, including "Subhan-Allah" (Holiness be to God), "Alhamdulillah" (Praise be to God), lā ʾilāha ʾilla-llāh (There is no deity but God) and "Allāhu Akbar" (God is great) as a devotional exercise of remembering God (zikr).[31] In a Sufi practice known as zikr Allah (lit. remembrance of God), the Sufi repeats and contemplates on the name Allah or other divine names while controlling his or her breath.[32]
Some scholars[who?] have suggested that Muhammad used the term Allah in addressing both pagan Arabs and Jews or Christians in order to establish a common ground for the understanding of the name for God, a claim Gerhard Böwering says is doubtful.[27] According to Böwering, in contrast with Pre-Islamic Arabian polytheism, God in Islam does not have associates and companions nor is there any kinship between God and jinn.[27] Pre-Islamic pagan Arabs believed in a blind, powerful, inexorable and insensible fate over which man had no control. This was replaced with the Islamic notion of a powerful but provident and merciful God.[33]
According to Francis Edwards Peters, "The Qur'an insists, Muslims believe, and historians affirm that Muhammad and his followers worship the same God as the Jews (29:46). The Koran's Allah is the same Creator God who covenanted with Abraham". Peters states that the Qur'an portrays Allah as both more powerful and more remote than Yahweh, and as a universal deity, unlike Yahweh who closely follows Israelites.[15]
Christianity
The Aramaic word for "God" in the language of the New Testament is ʼĔlāhā, or Alaha in later Syriac, as used by Assyrian Christians.Arabic-speakers of all Abrahamic faiths, including Christians and Jews, use the word "Allah" to mean "God".[7] The Christian Arabs of today have no other word for 'God' than 'Allah'.[14] (Even the Arabic-descended Maltese language of Malta, whose population is almost entirely Roman Catholic, uses Alla for 'God'.) Arab Christians for example use terms Allāh al-ʾab (الله الأب) meaning God the Father, Allāh al-ibn (الله الابن) mean God the Son, and Allāh ar-rūḥ al-quds (الله الروح القدس) meaning God the Holy Spirit (See God in Christianity for the Christian concept of God).
Arab Christians have used two forms of invocations that were affixed to the beginning of their written works. They adopted the Muslim bismi-llah, and also created their own Trinitized bismi-llah as early as the eight century CE.[34] The Muslim bismi-llah reads: "In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful." The Trinitized bismi-llah reads: "In the name of Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God." The Syriac, Latin and Greek invocations do not have the words "One God" at the end. This addition was made to emphasize the monotheistic aspect of Trinitian belief and also to make it more palatable to Muslims.[34]
According to Marshall Hodgson, it seems that in the pre-Islamic times, some Arab Christians made pilgrimage to the Kaaba, a pagan temple at that time, honoring Allah there as God the Creator.[35]
Judaism
Main articles: Mizrahi Jews and Names of God in Judaism
As Hebrew and Arabic are closely related Semitic languages, it is commonly accepted that Allah (root, ʾilāh) and the Biblical Elohim are cognate derivations of same origin, as in Eloah a Hebrew word which is used (e.g. in the Book of Job) to mean "(the) God" and also "god or gods" as in the case of Elohim, ultimately deriving from the root El, "strong", possibly genericized from El (deity), as in the Ugaritic 'lhm "children of El" (the ancient Near Eastern creator god in pre-Abrahamic tradition).