Facts about the Divine name

 Allāh – The Name of God in the Holy Qur’ān

“I alone am Allāh. There cannot be, is no other and will never be One for worship but Me.” (20:14)

His verses (Ayāt) in the Holy Qur’ān have passed the judgement that He is Allāh – Glory be to Him, there is no other Deity but Allāh – He alone possesses this Name, not shared by any other. He is the only Presence that comprehends all presences (al-Wajūd al Jāmi‘). All things in the universe come under the sway of this All-Comprehensive Name.

Allāh is the mighty name of the Self-Existing and Self-Sufficient Being Who comprises all perfect attributes, Who is free from every weakness and defect, is alone worthy of worship, is without partner or peer and is the source of all Love and Grace. Unlike the word “god” in Arabic, the word Allah is never used for any other object or being. It is a substantive name, neither attributive nor descriptive and is inclusive of all His other names and attributes and has primacy over all other titles.

Linguistic Technicality

In the technical vocabulary of linguistics, the word Allāh is Jāmid, that is, it is not derived from any other word. In the pronunciation of Allāh, the letter ‘L’ is stressed. The word Allāh is not a construction of al-ilāh as some people think, but a different and an independent word. The first two letters Al in the word Allāh are an integral, inseparable part of the word. They do not denote the definite article Al of Arabic, which is equivalent to the English ‘the’. In Arabic, the prefix Al is added before the noun to emphasize the word in the sense of ‘most’ or ‘all’, for example al-Rahmān – the Most Gracious. Sībwaih, the great grammarian, and Khalīl, the great linguistic, say, “Since Al in the beginning of the word Allāh is inseparable from it, so it is a simple substantive, not derived from any other word.”

If Al in Allāh were an additional prefix, the common exclamation yā Allāh, (O Allāh!), would not be permitted according to the rules of Arabic grammar, as the form yā al-ilāh or yā al-Rahmān are not permissible in Arabic. Moreover, this supposition would mean that there were different gods – ālihah (plural of ilāh), one of which became gradually known as al-ilāh and was then contracted into Allāh. This supposition is not correct. Allāh has always been the name of the Eternal Being (Hughes: Dictionary of Islam), nor has the word Allāh ever been applied to anyone else but the Divine Being. The pagan Arabs had numerous ilāhs or gods, but none of them was ever called Allāh.

This being the proper name of the Supreme Being has therefore no parallel or equivalent in any other language of the world. The English word ‘god’ is applied to any religious object of worship. Most probably it is related to ‘good’ and origins from heathen mythologies. Jehovah, which is the Aramaic or Hebrew expression Ya Howā, literally means most closely ‘O! That’ or ‘O! Thou’ used to address a Deity, the emphasis is on Huwa which is to emphasize an Existence, therefore it can hardly be a proper name. The Hindus give their senior deity the name of Par-Mātma (the Super Soul), Par-Barham (the Super and the Great), Par-Mishwar (the Great King or Owner), The Parsis give their supreme God the name of Yazdan and Hermes. In the Sikh religion, their great Deity is called Satt which means the Truth. The use of Jehova in the New Testament by the Witnesses of Jehova is a new invention. In the original Greek version and older versions of the New Testament this name was never used and Jesus never employed the name “Jehova”. Although most Christians are unaware of it, the Aramaic speaking Jesus also used the word Allāh (or ‘Allaha’). Christians speaking the Semitic languages still use it. In the Greek and Latin writings this was then rendered to theos or deos, the generic words for ‘god’ in these languages. These words are derived from Dyeus, the name of a heathen god. The French ‘dieu’ or the English ‘deity’ are also etymologically based on that word.

People accept the name of a Deity when it is called in their language, but as soon as the name used by other people is used for their Deity, their is the feeling of prejudice and rejection. The Holy Qur’ān has pointed out this behaviour in the words: And when it is said to them, ‘Prostrate to the Most Gracious (Rahmān)’, they say, ‘What thing is this, the Most Gracious?’ (25:60). People have an individual concept of their Lord, which they ascribe to Him and in which they seek Him. So long as a Deity is presented to them which fits into their fancy and concept, they recognize Him and affirm Him, whereas when the Reality is presented in any other form with another name, they deny Him, flee from Him and treat Him in an improper manner, at the same time thinking they are acting properly and fittingly.

The Holy Qur’ān has not presented a new Deity, but has presented the same Eternal Being Who has always been present in the illuminated human heart, in human conscience (30:8) and in the heavens and the earth, Who is visible in the mirror of the laws of nature and is discernible in the book of nature (30:30). He is the same God who was the God of Abraham, Ismaīl, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Rama, Confucius and all other prophets known or unknown to us (2:4; 2:132-133,136: 3:84; 40:78; 42:13). He is the Being who combined in Himself all the perfect Attributes and is free from all imperfections and is the very apex of beauty and beneficence.
He proclaims in he Holy Qur’ān:

“I am Allāh, the All-Mighty, the All-Wise” (27:9)