Allah - The word and the idea of monotheism in the book called "Al Qur'an"

[firedragon]

Allah is a conjunction of Al and Ilah. Al = the, and Ilah = God, Divinity or Deity. Thus the word Allah simply means The God or The Deity that defines monotheism in one word. It is equaling the use of the words “THE MOTHER”, because a person will have one mother. When you say “The Deity” it explicitly means you have one deity or one God. Thus Allah is not completely a representation of the word god but rather, “THE GOD”.

I noticed some people have a problem with the words “ilah” and “Allah”. Questions are asked that ilah is God, Allah is also God, so what’s the meaning of this?

“ilah” means “a thing that is divine” and people are requested not to make anything divine, but Allah or God himself.

One must understand from the natural meaning of the word ilah rather than looking at it from the English language perspective. There are some who insists that the word “ilah” or اله can only mean “God”. The irony is that most who insist this are not Muslim. Well, its true you don’t have to be a Muslim to know this of course. But this is the language, and most of those who insist this are those who have little or no knowledge in Arabic. Yet we can all be humble enough to learn one or two words.

So simply one could answer to the insistence that ilah HAS TO MEAN GOD is “not necessarily”.

“Have you seen the one who took his desire as his “ilah” “ - Quran 45:23.

Clearly above the Quran verse is speaking of one who took his own desire as his god, his divinity, his deity. Which means he has placed his desire above all. Thus the Quran is rejecting all kinds of divinities, including your own havah, or desire.

Same goes with 25:43. Have you seen the one who has taken his desire/ego/wishful thinking as his “ilah”.

So is a statue not to be taken as ilah. 6:74 And Abraham said to his father, Azar: “Will you take statues as ilah?

So does the Quran tell you not to take your wealth as ilah. Not even your children.

La ilaaha illallah the phrase eradicates all kinds of divinities. There is only “The God”. The Arabic word for this as I already cited above is Allah.

This is only the understanding of the language as stated in the Quran. Not faith. Faith is a separate topic. ال or Al is the article. In the word Allah, the article is not divisible of the measure فِعَالٌ in the sense of the measure مَفْعُولٌ , meaning مَأْلُوهٌ , with [the article] ال prefixed to it, so that it becomes الإِلَاهُ , then the vowel of the hamzah is transferred to the ل and the hamzah is suppressed, so that there remains للهُ.

So bottomline is the word Allah means "the divinity" or "The God". Its a conjunction of two words that means The Deity or The Divinity (AL+ILAH). Peace.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Similarly, from Wikipedia ...

The etymology of the word Allāh has been discussed extensively by classical Arab philologists. Grammarians of the Basra school regarded it as either formed "spontaneously" (murtajal) or as the definite form of lāh (from the verbal root lyh with the meaning of "lofty" or "hidden"). Others held that it was borrowed from Syriac or Hebrew, but most considered it to be derived from a contraction of the Arabic definite article al- "the" and ilāh "deity, god" to al-lāh meaning "the deity", or "the God". The majority of modern scholars subscribe to the latter theory, and view the loanword hypothesis with skepticism.​

 

[firedragon]

Similarly, from Wikipedia ...

The etymology of the word Allāh has been discussed extensively by classical Arab philologists. Grammarians of the Basra school regarded it as either formed "spontaneously" (murtajal) or as the definite form of lāh (from the verbal root lyh with the meaning of "lofty" or "hidden"). Others held that it was borrowed from Syriac or Hebrew, but most considered it to be derived from a contraction of the Arabic definite article al- "the" and ilāh "deity, god" to al-lāh meaning "the deity", or "the God". The majority of modern scholars subscribe to the latter theory, and view the loanword hypothesis with skepticism.​

Interesting. Didnt expect that really. This article is excellent.

 

[sun rise]

This is only the understanding of the language as stated in the Quran. Not faith.

I know almost zero about Arabic let alone Quranic Arabic, but looking at alternative translations of the Quran into English it's clear to me that there's often a serious problem. 17:104 translations don't even agree on the tense of the verb, past vs future.

So this thread is an excellent step to start appreciating a couple of the most important words in the Quran.

 

[firedragon]

I know almost zero about Arabic let alone Quranic Arabic, but looking at alternative translations of the Quran into English it's clear to me that there's often a serious problem. 17:104 translations don't even agree on the tense of the verb, past vs future.

So this thread is an excellent step to start appreciating a couple of the most important words in the Quran.

Please open a thread to discuss your issue with 17:104. Lets explore how far each of us are willing to go in order to understand an issue that you raise.