Could the term Allah be used for God?  Truth or mistake?

 

Mr Anonymous:  Allah means in Arabic "the God," exactly the same as "ho Theos" in Greek (John 1:1). It is how God is referred to and addressed in every Arabic-speaking church in the world, and that has been the case since there were Arabic-speaking churches, which had been in Arabia for over 200 years and which were of course known to Muhammad.

Simon: Since Allah was referred to by Arabic Christians or Muslims does that mean we should run after a majority vote?  Let us put another way, in the world today at least 1/3 people are atheists should we all stop believing in a creator God since almost a third are not even believing in a creator?

Second thing one could posit the ho theos argument for a generic term for "God" but it cannot mean that since ho theos can be applied thus somehow Allah must fit too.  Just because every Arabic speaking church pronounces Allah as god it does not make it so.  Perhaps Mr Anonymous should ask the question why did the Bible translators call Allah god in the Arabic Bibles in the first place.

Exodus 23:2 "You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice.

Could I say that this Mr anonymous is playing on people's ignorance?  Maybe!  He is certainly careless with his argument since he is following the crowd and thus breaks a very important Torah precept that we should not follow the crowd to pronounce judgement.

Mr Anonymous:: The Arabic word lah, "god," is closely related to the Hebrew El, plural Elohim, used to refer to the true God in Genesis 1 and elsewhere.

Simon:  A close relation does not mean identity or complete fit.  Arabic Lah and Hebrew El are no where a near a match.  In fact in Arabic there is no such word for God as "lah" lamed, alif and heh and if we apply the closest test to Ilah with the Alef it's closest Hebrew match is Elah which is used in the Bible for an "oak" tree and I can accept that Allah is nothing but wood.  We know what fraud Muhammad was who did not even know the name of Yahuweh and the closest match he found was the name of a Babylonian deity exported in the 6th century BC by Nabonidus. Let's put it another way I could say a donkey is closely related to a horse in many ways but can we say a donkey and a horse are equal?  It's an insult to relate my God Yahuweh with the Islamic god Allah who is nothing but wood and stone.

Let's analyse this further in the actual Arabic language and what the Qur'an terms God.

Sura 16:51 Allah has proclaimed: “Do not worship two-gods (‘ilaahayni); there is only one-God (‘ilaahun)…” 

Note Allah is doing the speaking and saying there is only one God.  The Arabic term used is ILAH ie. one lam for God not two as Mr Anonmyous tried to imply.

Lets look at five translations of the Qur'an to see how the Muslims never translate Allah in anything other than Allah.

       Allaah (Q.1:1):

Now let's look at five Bible translations for the word Yahuweh the personal name of the Elohim of Israel.

-- King James
Isaiah 52:4 For thus saith the Lord God, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.

-- New King James
Isaiah 52:4 For thus says the Lord God: "My people went down at first into Egypt to sojourn there; then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.

-- American Standard
Isaiah 52:4 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, My people went down at the first into Egypt to sojourn there: and the Assyrian hath oppressed them without cause.

-- Living Bible
Isaiah 52:4 My people were tyrannized without cause by Egypt and Assyria, and I delivered them.

-- Revised Standard
Isaiah 52:4 For thus says the Lord God: My people went down at the first into Egypt to sojourn there, and the Assyrian oppressed them for nothing.

--Restoration Scriptures True Name Edition (YATI)

 Isaiah 52:4 For this says the Master hwhy, My people went down before into Mitzrayim to sojourn there; and Ashshur oppressed them without cause. 

We can see that out of 6 Bibles one Bible is marginally correct but only one is the clear winner with out exception with the correct Hebrew name the RSTNE Bible from YATI publication comes top.  Now we can see that while in the Christian world the NAME of Yahuweh is hidden but in the Muslim world it does not matter which language they translate into they are insistent that Allah remains the same because its the personal name of their deity.  While one would get the impression that Christians love to keep the magnificent NAME of Yahuweh hidden is rather shameful but mostly true for the leadership that they have kept it pretty much hidden accept for some.

The generic term for God in Arabic is Ilah that is one Alif and one lam while the name Allah has two Lams.  Let us see what the Muslims themselves believe.

A statement from the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), Riyadh , Saudi Arabia

It is a known fact that every language has one or more terms that are used in reference to God and sometimes to lesser deities. This is not the case with Allah. Allah is the personal name of the One true God. Nothing else can be called Allah. The term has no plural or gender. This shows its uniqueness when compared with the word god, which can be made plural, gods, or feminine, goddesses. It is interesting to notice that Allah is the personal name of god in Arabic. Allah is a reflection of the unique concept that Islam associates with god. To a Muslim, Allah is the almighty, creator and sustainer of the universe, who is similar to nothing and nothing is comparable to Him.

Now that we have heard it from the horse's mouth himself so we can see who is mistaken.  Its not the Muslims who are mistaken but the Christians who have put Allah in the Arabic Bibles and caused confusion for endless people in the world.  This is termed contextualisation, which means to use similar words known in a culture to associate with the God of Israel thus to bring people understanding but unfortunately this whole school of thought which started in the 70s has backfired with many problems.  One must realise the reasons why Allah was inserted in the Arabic Bibles was simply because during the 9th century when translations were made many translators were afraid to lose their life because Islam was in dominant rule.  Thus by not using the correct term YHWH they went with the status quo to not translate and put Allah instead.  Were these Christians honest?

Some might rightfully think that they were dishonest and deceitful since they feared for their earthly lives but we cannot know what was in their minds eleven centuries down the line, it seems to be at least that they did not have the courage to correctly translate the words from the Bible to the correct terminology so they at least appears gave in to the local prevailing religion.  In my view they would have done better to translate the words correctly as YHWH than Allah which has led to much confusion in later centuries.

Its because of people like this that many of these terminologies have become stumbling block for Muslims, this whole thing has failed miserably to bring Muslims to know who Yahushua (Jesus) of Nazareth is.

Mr Anonymous: Moreover Islam refers to Jesus as the "word of God" and "the Spirit of God."

Simon: It does not make Jesus of Nazareth on par with the Isa of the Qur'an because if it did then the Muslims will crush his own argument by telling you that Isa is created thus you have to accept that also.  You cannot have it half and half or pick and choose passages in the Qur'an that suit you and leave the ones that are against you.  Its ALL or NOTHING my friend.

Sura 3:59 He created him (Jesus) from dust, then said to him: Be.

Mr Anonymous: Its end-time theology is that the Mahdi (the Twelfth Imam in Twelver Shi'ism) will come and set things right among the Muslims (which means "those who submit"), then the Antichrist will arise, and then Jesus will come from heaven and kill the Antichrist and judge the world. This is why Islam is indeed a variation of Christianity, as John of Damascus stated in the 9th century and why the Christian Ethiopian king who gave refuge to the early Muslims when they were persecuted in Mecca declared when he heard their doctrine that there was no more difference than the width of a stick between it and his own faith.

Simon:  Who will come, Isa or Jesus of Nazareth correctly known as Yahushua?  This is why both John of Damascus and the Ethiopian king were mistaken, had they bothered to check with the Muslims they would have love to tell them that Isa is created and only a prophet.  The difference is much greater than a width of stick, its almost like a car and a plane, both can run on fuel, have engines that appear to be similar but the dynamics of operations are completely different.  Here Yahushua of Nazareth is akin to a plane who will carry us to eternity in heaven but Isa is like a car who will never lift off the ground.  The only way for a Muslim is sadly hell without Yahushua (Jesus of Nazareth) and that is his state if he remains in unbelief and ignorance.

Mr Anonymous: Muslims are doubtless mistaken about a great many things, beginning with Muhammad, who was certainly deceived at various points. Granting that he was a false prophet, which I think probable, it remains that those deceived by false prophets are not necessarily cut off from God themselves. The people believed false prophets in Jerusalem in the days of Jeremiah, as indeed they do to this day (Matthew 5:10-12). But they remained God's people, needing tough discipline, but not rejection.

Simon: What twisted logic is this?  Either Muhammad is a false prophet Yes or No, what has deceived got to do with this What about the will and purpose of Muhammad?  At least the Jewish people in Jeremiah's time were Yahuweh's people because the covenants were established with their fathers i.e. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob but when did we ever see a covenant established with Ishmael to qualify the Muslims as Yahuweh's people?  The answer is NEVER.

 

After this e-mail Mr Anonymous replies:

Mr Anonymous: I have two points. If this man's perspective should impress me simply because he is a former Muslim (if indeed that is the case), I invite you to go to the Freedom from Religion website and consult the views of former Nazarene minister Dan Barker and tell me whether you think he is a trusty witness to the truth about Christianity.

Simon:  Why would we want to hear from a self confessed atheist?  What is he going to tell us that Yahushua (Jesus) of Nazareth did not exist, such foolish statements can only come from such people who turn a blind eye to historical evidence.  Mr Dan Barker is simply one of those apostate Christians who became an atheist and fell from grace.  Nobody will remember him in eternity and feel his pain in hell.

After 19 years of evangelical preaching, missionizing, evangelism and Christian song writing, Dan Barker "threw out the bathwater and discovered there is no baby there." Barker describes the intellectual and psychological struggle required to move from fundamentalism to free thought. Sections on biblical morality, the historicity of Jesus, bible contradictions, the unbelievable resurrection, and much more.  

Its quite apparent that Dan Barker's "free thought" was contradicting true faith so something had to give and clearly he had a problem with the historicity of Yahushua, what he terms Bible contradictions and the unbelievable resurrection are simply things that he could not reconcile for himself.  These do not lead to the conclusion that Yahushua (Jesus) of Nazareth did not exist or that there is no resurrection but only an incloclusive small mind can come to such conclusion.  Many historical artefacts attest to Yahushua existing as a verifiable figure.  You would have to deny history to deny Yahushua and that is the fact.

Let's examine some of the evidence for Yahushua's existence.

Item No. 1: In 1990, a Jewish burial box called an ossuary was found in Jerusalem. Construction workers using a bull dozer found the ancient burial cave from the 1st century. Inside the cave were 12 ossuaries. Two of the ossuaries had the name "Caiaphas" which supports that the Caiaphas family buried family members at this site. The most ornate ossuary had the words, "Joseph son of Caiaphas" carved on it two times, implicating the importance of the person buried in the ossuary.

This is the High Priest mentioned in Matthew 26:3 Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas.

Another archaeological find is the discovery of an ossuary referring to "Alexander, son of Simon of Cyrene. In the Gospel of Mark, we read that the Roman soldiers compelled a passer-by, Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander, to carry Jesus’ cross (Mark 15:21).

Accounts of the Crucifixion or people mentioning Yahushua's name

Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews, (A.D. 37-100), the Jewish historian)

Mr Anonymous:  Confirming this caution, consider that in the face Simon's assertions about "Allah," every Arabic-speaking Christian church in the world says "Allah" to denote God. I suggest that you go to an Arabic-speaking Baptist church some morning, or an Antiochan Orthodox, Melkite, or Maronite Catholic Church, and check that out for yourself.

Simon:  Unfortunately Anonymous has this typical attitude of following the herd, the majority as we know it are often wrong.  Mr Anonymous should see how the stock market falls and rises and how the traders make money when the herd goes bull or bear, how the floor traders know to activate the stop points and a flurry of buys generated can send the market racing up and a flurry of sells likewise can send the market down, the only ones quietly making money are the minority in the know and the floor traders.  To apply the same logic of the herd then if I go to 5000 catholic churches and see them ALL venerating Mary then should I do likewise? Or to put it another way if I see a majority of people Buddihsts in Sri Lanka worshipping Buddah then it must be all right that I too should become a Buddhist right?  Wrong. 

Contrary to Mr Anonymous' false ideas such things do not change the fact that Allah is a proper name and so is Yahuweh a proper name and the two are so far apart, to be honest I could say it is like night (Allah) and day (Yahuweh). 

 

Simon Altaf is a prophecy expert a Messianic Christian Rabbi and a writer who has debated many people on different aspects of the Bible, he is the author of five books http://www.abrahamic-faith.com/Books/books.html one co-authored with Walid Shoebat another prophecy scholar and his personal friend.  He has consistently warned the Church of its lax attitude towards Israel and the Jewish people and the lack of understanding of the twelve tribes of Israel.  We must be careful not to reject Yahuweh's holy commandments.  This is our call to re-examine our attitudes towards our brothers the Jews (Judah) and repentance of any error in our life for our current and past mistakes before the great King of Israel returns to judge us all.

 

Abrahamic-Faith