Allah

BiIsmillah Arrahmaan Arraheem,
With the name of the One God [Allah], the most beneficent, the merciful

One of the greatest irritations a person can feel is that from a person ignorantly mispronouncing something dear to the person, and not being sure if it's ignorance or malice. Allah, Subhana wa Ta`ala, is one of those. Allah is "the name of the Muslim God", so is the apparent feeling for what it is. Really, I have to wonder why we stick to it. Allah is composed of two parts - Al + Lah. Lah translates to "god", and Al translates to the definite article. Thus, all it really means is "The God", and yet we Muslims always stick to saying Allah when possible. Why?

There are many things in our religion that focus on the fact that we are human and thus forget ("Insan", the word for man, can be argued to come from the same root as the word forget, in Arabic), so there are many attempts towards reminding. Pray five times a day, special congregational prayer once a week, and not to mention the Qur'an which will inshaAllah have a blog post of its own. Hence, I would argue that use of Allah is to remind us regularly of the Oneness that is called God.

In Arabic, the definite article is not just used for definite instances, but for definitive declarations. Whereas we in English would say "Boys like girls", using indefinite forms of each (or, some may argue, collective plurals), the Arabic translation would best be "The boy likes the girl", because though it's not talking about a specific boy, it is saying a definitive statement that holds true regardless of which boy is being referred to. Another way to consider it is in line with the Platonic allegory of an ideal world. In that ideal world, there is one representation of any single figure. Hence, the definitive article can indicate that the instance being referred to is the absolute which is thought of. Hence, saying "Allah" is a constant reminder of that Oneness, that Unity that is the greatest.

That said, there's no point in using words that no one understands. Thus, saying Allah when surrounded by people who don't know anything at all about Islam and have only a tangentiary or cursory interest, it really would be more effective using an amply translated form - "The One God" - in any instance where Allah would be used. Sure, this would lead to awkward grammatical constructs - "The One God's infinite power and ability is why we believe that he would not have 'rested' on the seventh day." or "And so my mother said to me, 'Go ask The One God for patience.'", but both are more effective to English speakers than the more likely to be used "Allah".

Some would argue that using "Allah" forces people to inquire about Islam or learn more. That is possible. For those people for whom it is possible that they would be interested in learning more, using Allah would good. But for those whom you have to force religion into their lives, speaking their language would most likely be most effective, I believe. But, that could just be a personal idiosyncracy.


All good from what I say in this blog comes from the One God [Allah], and all evil and wrong comes from me.