The term “Allah,” and why Muslims are wary of its English equivalent
I recently wrote an article in which I called (on Muslims) to translate the term “Allah” as “God” in English or the equivalent of the latter in other languages.
The article caused some of my readers to disagree with what I wrote, perhaps because they misunderstood what I meant due to its brevity.
In this article, I will try to expand on the issue at hand, and put it in its proper context.
What prodded me to write about this question was what I saw, heard, and read in the British media about non-Muslim Britons considering that Muslims have a god of their own with a specific name: Allah.
Those people only arrived at their conclusion because some Muslims insisted – and still insist – on using the term “Allah” in translations of the Quran and in writing about Islam in general – ignoring the English term, “God,” which the English use when referring to the creator.
This insistence by some Muslims to use “Allah” instead of “God” when writing in English raises a crucial question: Do Muslims really believe that there is one God who created the universe and all things. This God is referred to in Arabic as “Allah.” This term was used by Arabs long before the Quran was revealed to Mohammed. As other Arabic terms, such as “rajul” have English equivalents (“man” in this case), so does the term “Allah” mean “God.”
In spite of the fact that the term “Allah” was known and used in the pre-Islamic era, and despite the fact that it was used in the poetry of that era (with all the allusions to paganism that that entails), the Quran had no problem at all in using it in proselytizing for God’s new faith. This was mainly because the Quran was revealed in Arabic, and used its commonly used terms and phrases. The Quran also introduced new terms, as well as new interpretations for well-known ones.
I wish to point out here that any term in any language can only be understood within its linguistic context. This applies to the term “Allah” as well, as linguists well know.
The Islamic connotations that the term “Allah” acquired after the Quran was revealed to the Prophet, which involved monotheism and impeccability before wife, child, and partner, were purely because of the Quranic scripture. These new meanings were undoubtedly new to Arabic speakers at the time the Quran was revealed. The term “Allah” had other meanings that it acquired in pre-Islamic literature.
The same applies to any other term in any other language, including the term “God” in English. Outside the context of the Bible – both old and new testaments – the term does not express the true visions of Christianity and Judaism, as we know them through our readings and knowledge. However, within the scriptures, the term acquires these visions.
Therefore, I do not believe there is any problem in using the term “God” in any English language text dealing with Islam or the Holy Quran, or even in the context of translating the Islamic holy book into English. Such texts would undoubtedly contain the Islamic visions of their writers. The use of the term “God” in such texts would express unique meanings quite removed from those mentioned in Christian and Jewish scriptures. This was exactly what I referred to when I wrote that the term “Allah” holds different connotations and meanings between pre-Islamic texts and the Holy Quran.
My argument is reinforced by the fact that Arab Christians use the term “Allah” in Arabic translations of the Bible. Christians existed in the Arabian Peninsula before the advent of Islam, and they had their own holy book, but we do not know whether that book – or at least parts of it – was translated into Arabic before the Quran was revealed. What is certain however is that Arab Christians still use the term “Allah” in modern translations of the Bible. If Christians were wary of the Islamic connotations of the term, they would have used another one. Yet they understand that the use of the term in the Bible would only express the visions of the Christian creed, as this is the context that defines its meaning.
I have absolutely no doubt that by insisting on using the term “Allah” instead of “God,” translators have been contributing towards the erroneous understanding of non-Muslims of the Muslim God as a deity different from that of other monotheistic faiths. The violent and extremist actions of certain groups feigning adherence to Islam – and behaving vis-à-vis non-Muslims according to their skewed vision of Allah – only reinforced that understanding. Those groups arrived at their understanding through:
1. A wrong understanding of the verses of the Quran; they sometimes take certain verses on their own and interpret them out of context, contradicting the verses preceding and succeeding them.
2. Quotes they ascribe to the Prophet Mohammed.
3. Various interpretations of religious texts.
Those groups acted according to such visions when they beheaded, crucified, and raped their victims. Such behaviour has – unfortunately – reinforced the idea that “the Muslim God” is different, a concept that began with the use of the term “Allah” instead of “God” in English language texts.
