Who is Allaah?

Who is Allaah?
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. 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
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 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 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 transcendent 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 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",
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 unshakeable 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.