Is Allah God?
I always wonder about this.
Why do Catholics insist Allah is synonymous with God? Muslims don’t.
.- A senior government official in Malaysia has ordered a Catholic newspaper to drop the use of the word “Allah” in its Malay language section if it wants its publishing permit renewed, the Associated Press reports.
The Herald, published by Malaysia’s Catholic Church, has translated the word God as “Allah.” Che Din Yusoff, a senior official at the Internal Security Ministry’s publications control unit, has said this usage is erroneous because “Allah” refers to the Muslim God.
“Christians cannot use the word Allah. It is only applicable to Muslims. Allah is only for the Muslim god. This is a design to confuse the Muslim people,” Che Din told the Associated Press. - CNA
[Photo: Evidently Allah wanted this woman stoned to death.]
January 8th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
I have long since contended that moslems do not worship the same God we do.
January 8th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
I used to think that Muslims were mistaken in their understanding of God. Now I think they really do worship somebody else. Somebody from below.
January 9th, 2008 at 7:36 am
Wasn’t there a bishop in a Scandinavian country who recently spoke to the ‘fact’ that in not too short a time we would all be adopting the Hebrew name /word for God, which is akin to the Muslim word.
The article was in the Catholic World Report one or two issues back. If I get time I might try to find it … or someone else can … if they think it would make a pertinent comment here.
January 10th, 2008 at 8:29 am
Friend, you don’t have to worry about Allah being God. There is only one God of Abraham. The way I see it, the Muslims have a badly formed description, indeed a caricature, of the one God. What you see in the picture is not a reflection of Allah, but of a human construction, a human law.
January 11th, 2008 at 10:57 am
the argument of using Allah- lies in it being the word for God. Should we stop using “GOD” because non-catholics of the known form, or gentiles use it, no, nor should the Arabic Christians.
The argument of Allah “being” in some sense the God of Abraham, may best be understood in Lumen Gentium XVI and in Extra Ecclesium Nulla salus.
This does not make their Allah true, but does mean that via natural revelation, elements of Allah, are in fact elements of God, as with part of his system.
January 11th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Did the God of moses “evilly” demand that sorcerers be burnt, as many “Christians” have, or that adulterers be stoned?
Is our crusades period one of “evil”, or the Spanish inquisition? As some accuse?
Are they Muslim fundamentalists, or normal Muslims. We get insulted when grouped with some, may we condemn all Islamics for such? What group, what Mosk?
“The-Antichrist-2″ ?
hardly different from name catholics are named. Such branding does not increase zeal to join us, and resembles cryi9ng wolf.
We cannot judge by racial standards- we may judge the effect of Islam, and say it is lesser than us, and they may say the same of Catholicism.
We cannot see the moral conscience of all. We cannot discount what the Vatican says.
They are a lesser faith, with what we count as lesser truth, but we cannot say that some or many do not in fact worship God, for goodness worships good, and evil- evil.
please see this article, and the argument against feenyite views
http://scripturelinkencyclopedia.stblogs.com/2007/11/07/extr a-ecclesiam-nulla-salus-outside-the-church-no-salvation/
it may aid in understanding the Pope’s statements, but while I believe Islam is not the full truth, and that many evil people practice it,, then again many falsely are called Christian.
We must see through His eyes.
January 11th, 2008 at 11:27 am
And, what is evil?
I don’t see people condemning abortion with the same fury-
how do the Islamics feel about this idea, We as catholics don’t condone it, but we can only name them non-catholic- or must we judge all people by this same standard, murder as murder.
Why was she killed, was it on the same grounds that many feel a need for death penalties, should we maybe fight these in our nations along with the death penalties there? Perhaps for Islamic law, she was killed, but then again, your nation may also kill innocents- such is the result of death penalties.
Please, we must stop abuse when we may, but let us do so rationally, no matter the culture. More information may aid- perhaps it is a single government or many- I assure you there are many reasons they hate us, perhaps some made up, but I live in a country, resent under the clutches of a so-called “Christian” government which did much in His name, while apposing his truth. I am of course Christian, and it is sad that my country’s current government allows abortion… sadder, that hate was once called “Christian”, and apposed the Ancient Religion.
March 29th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
wow…its soo surprising how people speak with no knowledge of any sort! Being a muslim…Allah means GOD…our GOD is Allah…Allah is Gods name…get it???
noo not Abraham…not Jesus…etc.
But God the divine…the unseen, the merciful, the all-forgiving…above heaven!!!
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:17 pm
I do speak Arabic and have fiends from all three religions (Islam, Christianity and Judaism)
to start with, the word God is an English word which is not what any profit spoke. that means that the word “God” is a mad up name that was used in translations. God didn’t say call me God, but we did that. Also, the Pope calls him “dei-” or “div-” in Latin (http://www.wordinfo.info/words/index/info/view_unit/621)
second, if you look at the old testaments (written in the language spoken at the time) “God” is referred to as Elle or Elleh (not sure of the spelling). that word is very close to “Ellah” used in Arabic to refer to a god.
finally, Arab countries have Muslims, Christians, and even Jews and all Arab speaking followers in any of the 3 religions refer to the one they worship as Allah not God.
whit these points we can see that the name if u used the word “Allah” or “God” to refer to the all mighty, this means that it is a mater of choice since both words is foreign for the Malaysian language. However Muslims use the Name Allah because that is the name that was revealed in the Holy Book as the name for the Lord, and they don’t see them selves in a position to change his name to what fits the language (you don’t offend people by changing there names to what suites you, so why do that to the one you worship?)
that comment in the article that says that Christians cannot use Allah instead of God is completely wrong. As I said, any Christian in an Arabic speaking country calls in Lord Allah (they don’t even know what the word God means unless it was explained to them, and still they will use the word Allah) and the word God is just an English word and not a universal word (ask your non English speaking Christian friends)
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:34 pm
added note to my previous comment:
God in Hebrew has many names including:
“El” and “Elohim”
read under Elohim:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_God_in_Judaism
and you’ll see that in Aramaic (the language of Jesus) the word for God is Elaha (close to Allah in Arabic and not to God in English)
May 12th, 2008 at 12:54 am
Difference between Allah and God:
People who call there lord as God thinks that God is some what like them
but Allah means no one like him in any world he is only one of his type, if some one else is also there of his type Allah will be no longer Allah (nauzobillah)
May 26th, 2008 at 3:31 am
bismillaherahman erahim qul howallaho ahad allaho samad lam yalid walam yolad walam yakolaho kofwan ahad sadaqallaholazim thats enough to know who is allah.
July 8th, 2008 at 1:02 am
the word God is just as general term, and for Muslim, our God is Allah SWT. that name was already mentioned since human lived in this ‘for awhile’ world, brought by prophet Adam, the first human in this world. faaar before prophet Isa born. creator must not be the same essense to its creations.
August 3rd, 2008 at 3:26 pm
i am a muslim now for almost 6 years and i was a teacher of the catholic faith for many years …and now Alhamdulilah i am muslim .. i just wanted to say thank you for the information and may Allah ( God ) reward you. Ameen
September 3rd, 2008 at 1:17 am
By the name of the Alimighty and unique Allah.There is no God but Allah and Mohammad is his messenger. Allah is the creator of the creatures.You must all know the God of the land and sky believe in him and be muslim . he is really kind and perfect, no body is powerful except him in the world.
October 27th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
It all depends on what your understanding of the word God is. If you know it means “The one and only Holy Spirit, creator or all things and the master of the Heaven and Earth” then you’re refering to Allah (SWT). There’s no need to rotate the cube around in the palms of your hands for a whole week to finally come to realize that it is a cube and then swear it’s nothing but a cube; leave this behaviour to the apes…and go on to the next step: Understand what God (Allah) has brought you here for…there’s a great purpose, but we just waste our lives trying to debate (with ourselves) that a cube is a cube instead of trying to put the cube to good use. Thank you for waking up and God/Allah bless you all.
November 6th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Ok now lets translate or try to translate the exact meaning of Allah and how it came to be.. the name Allah came from the two words of al and ilah al meaning the and ilah meaning god.. and god can be meant in many different ways we can say in english that there are many gods or used in a feminine form goddesses and ilah in arabic was used before the time of islam when many of the people who were living in mekkah worshipped many gods.After islam came to the prophet Mohammad(PBUH)and revealed that there is only one God the God of all the prophets and messengers before which is including Abraham whom worshipped One God and the same God as muslims worship today, the word Allah which was also revealed in the Quran came to describe only one god, The God. so muslims believe in every prophet that came before including the prophet Mohammad (PBUH) so i have one question for everyone, if the jews believe that if people believe in Moses and God they will go to paradise but the christians and catholics believe in Moses and God but they believe that if you don’t believe in Jesus you will not go to paradise then they are safe to go to paradise but muslims believe that if you don’t believe in the prophet Mohammad(SAWS) then you will not go to paradise and the muslims believe in Moses and Jesus.. Who is most likely to go to paradise then? just something to think about.. i think everyone should look outside of their religion and study every religion as not to discriminate but to learn about and then in the end decide which religion is really bet suited for them both with their hearts and with their minds, for the best thing to fight against satan is with faith and knowledge.. this way satan can not come into your heart when you have faith or brainwash you when you have knowledge…