You are missing our excellent site navigation system. Register here for free and get full operational site navigation system. Benefits of full navigation system: Additional items in "home" menu for registered users, shortcuts to your account managements, quick-shortcut links to download and forum sections, show staffs and members online, notify you for new private messages and shortcut to individual messages grouped by senders, tracking latest forum posts since your last visits and reads, and much more.  
 User:  Pwd:  Code: Security Code
 

Free-Islam.com Free-Islam.com
::  Home  ::  Access Quran Project  ::  Free Islam Quran Translation  ::  Account  ::  Inbox  ::  Forums  ::  Downloads  ::  MP3 Player  ::  Video  ::  Arcade  ::  Chess  ::  Guest Book  ::
www.free-islam.com :: View topic - Is 'Allah' a common noun?
www.free-islam.com Forum Index Search Forum FAQ Memberlist Ranks Statistics Usergroups
View Favorites Sudoku Coloku Lexoku Profile Log in to check your private messages Log in
Information Is 'Allah' a common noun?

Post new topic Reply to topic
www.free-islam.com Forum Index » Bring it on   
View previous topic :: View next topic
AuthorMessage
The
Rook
Rook


Status:
Age: 110
Faith: Islam
Gender:Gender:Male
Zodiac: Taurus
Joined: Nov 26, 2006

Posts: 529

blank.gif

Post subject: Is 'Allah' a common noun? Reply with quote  

A website that I came across makes an amusing (albeit retarted) claim: that 'Allah' or 'God' is a common noun. The reason for such an imbecile claim is apparently faith -- looks like the Bibliolator's Bible tells him that 'YHWH' (yeah, consonants, not even Yahweh) is the proper name of God. As such, faith necessitates the dude to live out the rest of his existence as a jerk.


However, it must be clearly understood that neither “god” nor “God” is a “proper noun”; rather they are both “common nouns”, referring to someone: in the case of “god”, to any deity; and in the case of “God”, to a specific deity. The common noun “man” is a way of referring to someone without using his name; likewise, using the common noun “God” is a way of referring to that unique One, without using His name.


What are valiant Bibliolator has probably always struggled with is using a dictionary. I will put up Mr. Webster's entry for 'proper noun':


: a noun that designates a particular being or thing, does not take a limiting modifier, and is usually capitalized in English - called also proper name


The definition could be called a little tricky (or forced to appear tricky), but as far as 'Allah' is concerned it should not be a problem. Then why does our valiant Bibliolator take a tumble? Possibly this is why:


If someone called a person “man” they would be correct, but generic. And if someone called him “Robert” they would also be correct, but personal. Now let’s talk about God….

When we refer to “God”, the term is true and acceptable. However “God” is not His name, just as “man” is not my name. I have a name by which those who know me can call me. To others, I might be referred to as “that man”. Names are more intimate.



It is hard to follow the gibberish there, but what he seems to be saying is that God has a Name, and only that Name can be called a proper noun, and all other references are merely common nouns.

It's a lame attempt, but what makes it worse is the motivation behind the attempt -- faith. The dude is not employing any agrument other than along the lines of "Bible tells us YHWH is God's only Name". And once he has concluded that God's only Name is 'YHWH,' he is convinced that 'YHWH' alone is a proper noun, and all other references are common nouns. What probably fails to tickle him is that the Quran doesn't mention YHWH.

Coming back to 'Allah' or 'God,' we are making a specific reference. The dude draws a false parallel and forces a false analogy (how common is this practice) between 'man' and 'God'. A man is one among many men, but God is only One.
Post Posted:
Thu 18 Feb, 2010 9:32 pm
Top of PageView user's profileSend private message
Display posts from previous:   
All times are GMT + 10 Hours
Post new topic Reply to topic
www.free-islam.com Forum Index » Bring it on  

 


Add To Favorites
Printable version
Jump to:  
Key
  You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You cannot download files in this forum


All times are GMT + 10 Hours
Ported for PHP-Nuke by nukemods.com
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group :: Theme & Graphics by Daz
Powered by BonusNuke an extensivly modified PHP Nuke system.
All logos and trademarks in this site are property of their respective owner. The comments are property of their posters, all the rest ? 2005 by me.
You can syndicate our news using the file backend.php or ultramode.txt
PHP-Nuke Copyright © 2004 by Francisco Burzi. This is free software, and you may redistribute it under the GPL. PHP-Nuke comes with absolutely no warranty, for details, see the license.
Page Generation: 0.28 Seconds
:: fiapple phpbb2 style by Daz :: PHPNuke theme by www.nukemods.com :: BonusNuke modified theme by www.bonusnuke.com ::
[ Script generation time: 0.2835s (PHP: 86% - SQL: 14%) ] - [ SQL queries: 41 ] - [ Pages served in past 5 minutes : 89 ] - [ GZIP disabled ] - [ Debug on ]