The word Allah directly translated from Arabic to English means God. Within the Western world, many people often associate the word Allah with Islam, however the word is used by all Arabic speakers, regardless of which Abrahamic religion they adhere to. Historians and linguists have also discovered that the word Allah was used in Mecca by pre-Islamic pagans, who used it as a name for their creator God, which was obviously a much different deity than the Islamic God of Allah. The word Allah itself, is thought to have been derived from the shortening or contraction of the Arabic word al-ilah, which translates to mean the God, the sole God, or the Deity. What is also very interesting, is that the word Allah also exists within other Semitic languages which include both Aramaic and Hebrew. The Aramaic word is however slightly different, which is Elaha. With regards to Old Biblical Aramaic, the word might also be spelled as Alaha or Aloho.
According to Islamic beliefs, Allah is the only spontaneous being, and the creator of the universe and it's supreme ruler. The whole world is subject to constant change, as it is created each time anew by Allah. All rights and laws of the universe and our world derive from His will and wisdom. Islamic beliefs also state that there is no other God but the one true God Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet. With this confession of faith in the One God, Allah becomes one of the five pillars of Islam. Each and every Muslim must give honor to him through unconditional and absolute surrender to His will and judgments. As it's said, Allah is one and only one, and his omnipotence and dominion is indivisible. As with other Abrahamic faiths, for all Muslims the worst sin is the worship of other gods besides Allah. According to Islam, idolatry is a sin in which Allah never ever forgives you. This can be read or researched further in the Holy Quran in Chapter 4, verse 48.
The word Allah is also used by Arab Christians, who naturally speak the Arabic language. Islam however criticizes Christian views of Jesus as the Son of God and the dogma of the Holy Trinity, which is made up of God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There are however many scriptural parallels between both Islam and Christianity, especially within the Old Testament. Islam also recognizes Jesus Christ as a great and divine prophet, however they do not believe he is the Son of God, and absolutely reject the notion that he died on the cross for the sins of humanity, and that on the third day he was resurrected from the dead in the flesh. Due to this outright rejection of all of the main tenants of the Christian faith, occasionally there is some religious and cultural conflict that arises throughout the Arab world and the Middle East over non-Islamic Christian Arabic speakers using the term Allah to refer to the God of Christianity, or to Jesus Christ.
There are many religious academics and scholars that have concluded that Muhammad himself used the term Allah while addressing Arab pagans, Christians, and Jews in an attempt to establish a mutual understanding of the concept of One God. Some scholars reject this claim however, and state that Muhammad reserved the term Allah strictly for addressing the One God of the Islamic faith, and that he did not ever use it as a name for pagan gods, or the God of Christianity. It is obvious however that he used it when referring to the God of Judaism, as the Islamic faith believes that both Muslims and Jews believe in the same God. That concludes this very brief article on Allah the God of Islam, we hope that you learned something new. Please be sure to continue browsing through our website, as we have tons of other articles related to angels, fallen angels, saints, God, and religion in general. Also please don't forget to add our website to your favorites list.
