From today’s Wall Street Journal Europe:
In neat Arabic writing above the mirrors of the Easy Cut barbershop here, signs tell patrons to praise Allah, work toward paradise and refrain from talking politics in the shop.
“You’re not allowed to talk about religion or politics here because we don’t want trouble between our customers,” said Ejaz Ahmed, who owns the shop in this city’s Pollokshields section.
His modest storefront is around the corner from a mosque on Forth Street where police found a car tied to the plot to ram a burning jeep into Glasgow Airport’s main terminal on July 1.
As a handful of customers waited for haircuts and Middle Eastern news played on a grainy television set one recent afternoon, Mr. Ahmed said religion and politics can lead to heated argument and he would rather not risk it.
Frankly, if my local barbershop put up a sign telling me to praise “Allah”, I’d find another barbershop. Or wear a Christian message T-shirt the next time I went in. Of course, I’d risk a bad hair cut because of it. but then “Hey who cut your hair man, it looks [i]awful[/i]!” 😉
Jim Elliott <><
Ok, let me get this right: You wouldn’t go to a barbershop that has a sign saying, “Praise God”?
As the article indicates, the sign was in Arabic, and the Arabic word “Allah” simply means God. It also happens to be the word that Christian Arabs used to refer to God.
Kevin,
I disagree that the Muslims worship the same God as Christians and Jews. Allah does not mean “God” generically, it refers to a specific tribal diety in Arabic historical culture. There are many sites and books on the subject, some of which I’ve read, I suggest you google a few of them and do some research on your own.
BY the way, just because Christian Arabs use the word doesn’t ‘baptize’ it generally. Perhaps they are correct in the way they use it, perhaps not. Personally, I would prefer they use Christian/Jewish names instead.
On the other hand, many Christians use the made-up word “Jehoviah” to refer to the name of God, even though this is a mis-translation of “Yahweh” into German. One Jewish writer puts it “the name that never was”. Chaim Potok said of the name of God “It may have been pronounced ‘Yahweh’, definately NOT Jehoviah, and never from the lips of a pious Jew!” ([i][u]Wanderings[/u][/i])
So just because someone uses a name-word for God doesn’t mean it’s historically or theologically correct.
Actually, I have read on the subject, taken classes, met with Muslims, met with Arab Christians. “Allah” means “God.” The beginning of the of first pillar of Islam, the Shahadah, “‘aÅ¡hadu ‘al-lÄ ilÄha illÄ-llÄhu . . .,” means, “I testify that there is no god but God,” just as in the Nicene Creed we state, “We believe in one God . . .” “Allah” for Muslims (more than just Arabs) is no more a tribal deity than “YHWH” is. Go to an Anitochian Orthodox Church that uses Arabic in the liturgy, you’ll hear “Allah.” Palestinian Anglicans, if they worship in Arabic, “Allah.”
Btw,
Arabic-speaking Christians were using the word “Allah” for God even before the Qur’an was revealed to the Propeht Muhammad.
You have a citation for this last claim?
Citation, I mean for “Arab Christians” using “Allah” before 600.
Here’s the more commonly accepted account of the history of the name “Allah” from [url=http://letusreason.org/Islam6.htm]Let us reason ministries[/url] (sorry, it’s a bit long, but I’ve also cut it down a bit!):
[blockquote]The Arabic name for “God†is the word “Al-ilah.†It is a generic title for whatever god was considered the highest god. Different Arab tribes used “Allah†to refer to its personal high god. “Allah†was being worshipped at the Kaa’ba in Mecca by Arabs prior to the time of Mohammed. It was formerly the name of the chief god among the numerous idols (360) in the Kaaba in Mecca before Mohammed made them into monotheists. Historians have shown that the moon god called “Hubal†was the god to whom Arabs prayed at the Kaa’ba and they used the name “Allah†when they prayed.
Today a Muslim is one who submits to the God Allah.
Islam means submission to (Allah), but originally it meant that strength which characterized a desert warrior who, even when faced with impossible odds, would fight to the death for his tribe. (Dr. M. Baravmann, The Spiritual Background of Early Islam, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1972)
Many believe the word “Allah†was derived from the mid- eastern word “el†which in Ugaritic, Caananite and Hebrew can mean a true or false God. This is not the case, “The source of this (Allah) goes back to pre-Muslim times. Allah is not a common name meaning “God†(or a “godâ€), and the Muslim must use another word or form if he wishes to indicate any other than his own peculiar deity.†(Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics (ed. Hastings), I:326.)
According to the Encyclopedia of Religion, Allah corresponded to the Babylonian god Baal, and Arabs knew of him long before Mohammed worshipped him as the supreme God. Before Islam the Arabs recognized many gods and goddesses, each tribe had their own deity. There were also nature deities. Allah was the god of the local Quarish tribe, which was Mohammed’s tribe before he invented Islam to lead his people out of their polytheism. Allah was then known as the Moon God, who had 3 daughters who were viewed as intercessors for the people into Allah. Their names were Al-at, Al-uzza, and Al-Manat, which were three goddesses; the first two daughters of Allah had names which were feminine forms of Allah. Hubal was the chief God of the Kaaba among the other 360 deities. Hubal was the chief God of the Kaaba among the other 360 deities. Hubal was a statue likeness of a man whose body was made of red precious stones whose arms were made of gold. (Reference Islam George Braswell Jr.)
“Historians like Vaqqidi have said Allah was actually the chief of the 360 gods being worshipped in Arabia at the time Mohammed rose to prominence. Ibn Al-Kalbi gave 27 names of pre-Islamic deities…Interestingly, not many Muslims want to accept that Allah was already being worshipped at the Ka’ba in Mecca by Arab pagans before Mohammed came. Some Muslims become angry when they are confronted with this fact. But history is not on their side. Pre-Islamic literature has proved this.†(G. J. O. Moshay, Who Is This Allah? (Dorchester House, Bucks, UK, 1994), pg. 138).
History has shown Mecca and the holy stone al-Kaaba were holy sites for pre-Islamic pagan Arabs. The Kaaba in Mecca was formerly named Beit-Allah meaning House of Allah. We are told it was first built in heaven. This is in contradistinction to what Moses was instructed to build, something overlooked by the Muslims in their reading of the Bible.
The Koran tells us that Mohammed drove the other idols away; he made one God now the only god and he was its messenger. He kept the Kaaba as a holy, sacred place and confirmed that the black stone had the power to take away man’s sins. He obligated every believer to make a pilgrimage to the stone at least once in his lifetime. (Sura 22:26-37) No Old Testament saint ever had a pilgrimage to the Kaaba and kissed its black stone despite stories that Abraham and Ishmael restored it.
Mohammed used the name Allah which was formerly the name of a specific idol without ever distinguishing it from the idol the Meccan’s were already worshipping. This was a modification of their former worship but never a complete break. He never did say for the people to stop their worship of the wrong Allah, for the right one. It can still be monotheism and not be the God of the Bible
Al-Lat which is a T at the end of the name of Allah, was represented by a square stone whose major sanctuary was in the city of Taif. In the sanctuary was a black stone in the town of Qudayd between Mecca and Medina. She was the goddess of fate, a female counterpart of Allah. Al-uzza was the goddess of east Mecca. It has been said there were human sacrifices made to her and Islamic tradition tells of a story of Mohammed’s grandfather almost sacrificing his son the father of Mohammed to her. What prevented this was his seeking counsel from a fortune teller which told him to ransom his son with one hundred camels. Muslims look to this as the will of Allah to bring Mohammed into existence. (Reference Muhammad husain haykal, Hayat mohammed)
“The name Allah, as the Qur’an itself is witness, was well known in pre-Islamic Arabia. Indeed, both it and its feminine form, Allat, are found not infrequently among the theophorous names in inscriptions from North Africa.†(Arthur Jeffrey, ed., Islam: Muhammad and His Religion (1958), p. 85.) [/blockquote]
Oh, the site also says:
[i]”The first Arabic translation of the Bible was made about the 9th century. Nowhere is the name of Allah found in the Old or New Testament. When Islam became the dominant political force people were coerced to use the name Allah for God or suffer the consequences from the hands of militant Muslims. Because of Islam’s dominance Allah became the common name of God. The translators of the Bible gave in to the religious pressures and substituted Allah for Yahweh in the Arabic Bibles”. [/i]
But they don’t have a footnote for this, so I’ll keep looking for confirmation.
Well, I reasoned that Arabic-speaking Christians pre-7th century would have used the word “Allah” to refer to God. The Syriac/Aramaic word for God is “Alaha” (cf. the Hebrew) “elohim,” and for the first few centuries Syriac was one of the major languages of the Church. I also know that there were Arabic-speaking Christians; so if they used Arabic in the liturgy, the word for God would have been “Allah.” If they were using Syriac, it would have been “Alaha.” It’s no different than “God” being used by English-speakers or “Dieu” by French speakers, “Dios” by Spanish-speakers, etc.
“God” in Aramaic is Elah, not “Allah”, although the pronounciation might be close. “Eli” was what Y’Shua used on the cross, a shortened form of the Name, and it was pointed out in the Gospel that He spoke it in Aramaic. [i]”Eli, Eli, lamma sabacthani?” [/i]
The website [url=http://hebrew4christians.com/Names_of_G-d/Elah/elah.html]Hebrew4Christians[/url] states:
The origin of the Aramaic word [i]Elah[/i] is somewhat uncertain, though it might be related to a root word for “fear” or “reverence”. It is found only in the books of Ezra and Daniel.”
So it wasn’t often used even in the Bible. It is interesting that anytime the Hebrew root “EL” is used in the Bible, it is transliterated to “AL” in Arabic, perhaps to give a distinction between the Jewish religion and the Muslim religion?
Of course, Allah is also close to Aloha, was ancient Hawaiian related to Arabic? (sorry, just being silly, here.)
Still, I’d like to see an early Arabic translation of the scriptures, pre-Mohammad, to see exactly what words were used for “God” in that language.
oops, since the site earlier said the first Arabic translations were made around the 9th century, then there wouldn’t have been any [i]pre-Mohammad[/i], would there? :bug:
So, make it “I would like to see an early version of the Scriptures in Arabic, to see what words were used.”
One other point, one only has to look AT the god of Islam and the God of Christianity/Judaism to see they are not the same at all.
First of all, I’d recommend looking at other sources for information about Islam. The credentials of the site you mentioned . . . leave much to be desired.
As for what I wrote above, I did not state that “Allah” was the Syriac, rather “Alaha.” (And yes, I did check that one out. . . from various sources, including materials from the Syriac Orthodox Church, which still worships in that language.)
Re: Arabic translations of the Bible being only from the 9th century onwards. Any credible student of history would realize that only means we have [b]extant[/b] translations no earlier than that period. Perhaps there weren’t any official translations into Arabic before the 9th century. That’s beside the point since I wasn’t talking about Arabic translations of the Bible but rather the worship of Arabic-speaking Christians before the 7th century. If they were worshiping in their vernacular, it would have been in Arabic. What’s the Arabic word for God? “Allah.” If they were using a related Semitic language, such as Syriac, the word would have been very similar, just as “Dieu” (French) and “Dios” (Spanish) and Deus (Latin) are similar since they’re from the same family. Likewise, the English word “God” sounds a lot like the German word “Gott” along with the other Germanic languages.
I dunno, they (early Arabic Christians) might have adopted the tradition of using the Hebrew name for God in their worship. As for the venacular, well, that is a good point. We use the Anglicized form of Y’Shua (others say the Hebrew would be Yesu, very close to the Latin, which sounds as if they adopted the Hebrew in “Jesu” pronounced the same) — Jesus, Paul used the Greek Ieosus and Christos for Messiah, and we know God knows who we mean.
However, we would never call God by the name of a pagan diety, such as Ba’al, or Ra, or Mithras, so I still urge caution in re: to the Muslim use of “Allah” since their god is so obviously NOT the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Moses, or the Father of Jesus, the triune God of the Bible.
This is an important discussion & I’d like any Arabists/Islamics experts (almost wrote Islamists!) out there to weigh in.
I would have thought Arab Christians (like Muhammad’s relatives) might have said ‘ilah’ or the Arabic equivalent of ‘lord’ (dominus/kurios/mar/adon etc). But there doesn’t seem to be any epigraphic evidence from that period. That Arabic Christians say ‘allah’ today doesn’t prove anything. ‘al’ is the article in Arabic.
I can’t speak to the earliest history of the Arabic-speaking church, but I speak Arabic and have lived and worked in Arabic-speaking countries on and off for 15 years. My understanding is that Christians in countries with a historic Christian population (think Egypt, Syria, Palestine), Arabic-speaking Christians avoid using Allah in their prayers. Mostly I’ve heard them address prayers to Father (Abbaana = Our Father) or Lord (Rabb). But there is a chance that this is a more modern-adopted practice, derived from needing to preserve a distinct identity as Christians in a Muslim-dominated area.
Among Christian converts from Islam, many do use “Allah,” but it is a source of tension and sometimes controversy for those who are doing church-planting work in Arabic-speaking areas.
I should have added to the above, that my *understanding* is that from earliest times Arabic-speaking Christians never used Allah much if at all, but I don’t have a source to back that up at the moment, and no time to do any further research today. Certainly none of the early Arabic Bible translations I’m aware of used it. Today, some new translations have been produced (geared towards helping reach Muslims) that do use Allah and other “muslim-friendly” terms. And I understand these have been effective. But they are controversial in many circles because of this very debate: is “Allah” the same “God” we worship, the Father of Jesus?
I tend to fall on the side of the debate that just as “God” was “Christianized,” so too “Allah” can be Christianized, i.e. God’s full nature as revealed in Jesus patiently taught and explained, and also the Trinity, etc. But I do know others vehemently opposed to this practice. (In fact, as I think about it, I’m remebering that some of us got into this VERY debate at April’s New Wineskins conference for Anglican missions…) It’s not easily-answered. Much depends on where one works. If one is working in a nearly 100% Muslim-area, it might be best to use Allah and teach what Christian Scripture teaches about our Trinitarian God. But if one is in an area with a historic and much-persecuted Christian minority, one has to take their leaders’ views and beliefs into account.