Allah
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This article is about the Arabic word "Allah". For the Islamic conception of God, see God in Islam.
For other uses, see Allah (disambiguation).
Allah (Arabic: الله Allāh, IPA: [ʔalˤːɑːh] (
listen)) is the standard Arabic name for God.[1] While the term is best known in the West for its use by Muslims as a reference to God, it is used by Arabs of all Abrahamic faiths, including Mizrahi Jews, Bahá'ís and Eastern Orthodox Christians, in reference to God.[1][2][3]
listen)) is the standard Arabic name for God.[1] While the term is best known in the West for its use by Muslims as a reference to God, it is used by Arabs of all Abrahamic faiths, including Mizrahi Jews, Bahá'ís and Eastern Orthodox Christians, in reference to God.[1][2][3]The name was previously used by pagan Meccans as a reference to the creator deity, possibly the supreme deity in pre-Islamic Arabia.[4][5] 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 which Islam thoroughly and resolutely did away with. In Islam, the name Allah is the supreme and all-comprehensive divine name. All other divine names are believed to refer back to Allah.[6] Allah is unique, the only Deity, creator of the universe and omnipotent.[1][2] Arab Christians today use terms such as Allāh al-ʼAb ( الله الأب, "God the Father") to distinguish their usage from Muslim usage.[7] There are both similarities and differences between the concept of God as portrayed in the Qur'an and the Hebrew Bible.[8] It has also been applied to certain living human beings as personifications of the term and concept.[9][10]
Unicode has a codepoint reserved for Allāh, ﷲ = U+FDF2.[11] Many Arabic type fonts feature special ligatures for Allah.[12]
Contents[show] |
Etymology
| Arabic |
| الله |
| Transliteration |
| Allāh |
| Translation |
| God |
The term Allāh is derived from a contraction of the Arabic definite article al- "the" and ʼilāh "deity, god" to al-lāhho theos monos).[4] Cognates of the name "Allāh" exist in other Semitic languages, including Hebrew and Aramaic.[3] Biblical Hebrew mostly uses the plural form (but functional singular) Elohim. The corresponding Aramaic form is ʼĔlāhā אֱלָהָא in Biblical Aramaic and ʼAlâhâ ܐܰܠܳܗܳܐ in Syriac.[13] meaning "the [sole] deity, God" (
The contraction of al- and ʼilāh in forming the term Allāh ("the god", masculine form) parallels the contraction of al- and ʼilāha in forming the term Allāt ("the goddess", feminine form).[14]