I dont know if this topic has been discussed before. What are the origins of the word Allah? Is it a word that was used for the first time in the Quran or was it used before by the pagans to refer to their God?
Re: Allah.
I read that it's from
Al- ilah
Meaning "The God".
I don't know if this is true or not since my arabic lessons never got far while I lived in Saudi
Re: Allah.
prophet Muhammad's father was Abd-Allah. His uncle's name was Obied-Allah. These names reveal the personal devotion that Muhammad's pagan family had to the worship of Allah the moon god
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rvikz.....i was browsing and there was a (clearly anti-muslim) site that said the same thing about Allah= moon god. i didnt think much of it except that it stated that the ISLAMIC ENCYCLOPEDIA itself said that Allah was the moon god of the pagans. I tried to search for it in google but i did not find anything....the site did not provide a link either (to the encyclopedia)
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it is generic word for god in arabic but concept of god is changed after islam
not the name. arabic christian may refer jesus as their allah
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The moon-god concept is a falsehood put out by early Christian "orientalists". It's based heavily on the crescent moon symbol of Islam - and overlooks the fact that the arabs bever used the crescent moon. The crescent moon was the symbal of the Ottoman family and only became an Islamic symbol after all Sunni Muslims began using it to show loyalty to the ottoman caliph.
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in English we can revert to calling "The Lah" ... or The God.. separates Him from all the other false gods..
btw.. Christians in the arabic world use Bibles in Arabic. Maybe Mr. "allah-is-the-moon-god-and-i-know-it-from-a-bad-Google-search-of-trashy-islamophobic websites" rvikz would care to pick one up to see what word is used for God there.
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ok so the purpose of sticking to the word Allah (for pakistanis and other non-arabs) is separation purposes only right?
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btw.. Christians in the arabic world use Bibles in Arabic. .
Arabic bibles use "Allah" the word for God I have seen it myself ........infact if you want to prove a evangelical wrong that is the best thing to do
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Correct infact the turks got it from the Byzantine greeks
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We could also say God of Abraham or God of Moses it would be essentially the same thing
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arab language came first before religen so how can you say word allah came only after islam?
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interesting. is that related to the pakistan flag crescent? and it has no relationship with the islamic lunar calendar?
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how arabs will ask non-arab non-muslim "who is your god' ?
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Not that I know of…it might be related to the khilafat movement but has nothing whatsoever to do with islam,flags during the time of the prophet(saw) were either black or white plain.
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who is saying that?
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The Crescent grew from being an Ottoman symbol, to being a symbol of loyalty to the ottomans, and then because of its ubiquity in Muslim lands, to simply being a symbol of Islam (which is why the mainly shia Azerbaijan includes a crescent in its flag despite historically being a part of Shia Persia and thus not owing allegiance to the Ottomans).
The crescent in Pakistan’s flag is nothing other than a symbol of Islam.
Re: Allah.
rvikz, ilah means God. I'm sure an Arab Muslim could have a conversation with an Arab non-Muslim and ask him/her who is your ilah and the person would know exactly what's being asked.
Re: Allah.
The colour green's association with Islam is similarly a late development. The original Ottoman banner was a red flag, with a green circle with 3 yellow crescents in it.
Later, the Ottomans separated this flag into 2 distinct flags, one to be flown to represent the nation, and one to be flown to represent Islam (the nation and Islam being the 2 aspects that together formed the state) The national flag was a red flag with a white crescent; the religious flag was a green flag with a white crescent.
On both flags, the ottomans later added a five-pointed star to represent the five pillars of islam.
Obviously, the national flag was only flown within the territory which the ottomans ruled directly.
The green flag with the crescent and star became in all other nations that recognised the Khalifat but were not directly ruled, as the universal symbol of (sunni) Islam, because it was the symbol that the Ottomans chose for Islam.
What'sn fascinating about this is that the 2 most common symbolsof Islam, the crescent & star, and the green flag, are actually nothing more than what Muslims across the world adopted as a symbol of loyalty to the Khalif, based upon the symbols of the Khalif's family.
I'm sure that if you took a time machine back 1400 years and showed the Prophet (pbuh) the flag of Pakistan, he wouldn't be able to see anything remotely Islamic about it!