Allah/AlIlah: Does 'Allah' have a meaning?

**AhmedBahgat**

See this verse brother The:

25:60 واذا قيل لهم اسجدوا للرحمن قالوا وما الرحمن انسجد لما تامرنا وزادهم نفورا

In which we read the unique name of Allah, Alrahman preceded by Li, and again only the alif is dropped, while in the case of Allah, both Alif and Lam are dropped

This implies to me that while the name Alrahamn is still unique to Allah, the name Allah stands on its own as the most unqiue name of Allah

The

I too hold that 'Allah' was used in Arabic before the revelation of the Quran.

I am not so much insisting that Allah has to be Al + Ilah; but I do believe that Allah should mean something (especially in light of 6:3 and 43:84). Like in the case of of AlRahman, which I believe you understand as "The Compassionate".

The other thing was about alif being dropped in other usages, too; as in "bism" Allah. So I feel that it is neither impossible nor certain.

**AhmedBahgat**

The

Cool, buddy. Sleep well. Take care.

The

That's right, brother. When 'bi' precedes Allah or Alghayb then the alif is not dropped, but it is curiously dropped in 'bism'. I think this is the only instance of 'ism' in Quran where the alif is dropped.

**AhmedBahgat**

The

That is the curious part, only in the instance of "bism' Allah is the alif dropped. There are other instances where the alif is retained.

The

There are curious cases of alif being dropped, so I do not rule out 'Allah' as 'Al' + ''Ilah', neither do I insist that such is the case.

On the other hand, Ilah refers only to God. If somebody worships a stone and takes it as his Ilah, it doesn't mean that the stone really becomes his Ilah and can be called as such. The Quran plainly says that only Allah is Ilah, and that we have no Ilah other than Him. And since both of us stick to our respective stance over whether Ilah can be used only for Allah or that it can be used for others, we do have a disagreement over there. To clarify my standpoint, here is how the Quran answers the claim of multiple ilahs:

6:19 Say, what thing is the strongest in bearing testimony? Say, Allah; He is witness between me and you. And this Koran was revealed unto me, that I should admonish you thereby, and also those unto whom it shall reach. Do ye really profess that there are other aalihatan together with God? Say, I do not profess this. Say, verily He is one Ilah; and I am guiltless of what ye associate with Him.

Finally, we disagree over 6:3. I don't believe that 'Allah' with no meaning does justice to the verse. God says that He sends His messengers for guidance, and also gives particular instances like "We sent Noah," or "We sent Shuaib". Similarly, where we know Muhammad is God's messenger, "follow Muhammad" becomes reasonable (because we know he is God's messenger), But Noah, Shuaib, and Muhammad are messengers and instances of messengers, while Allah is God and does not have an instance.

Something is conveyed by "I am Allah's messenger," but saying "I am Allah's Abraham" doesn't carry the same connotation. Likewise, "He is the God in the heavens and the earth" conveys something, but "He is Allah in the heavens and the earth" doesn't.

**AhmedBahgat** · Last edited by AhmedBahgat on Mon 22 Feb, 2010 6:29 pm; edited 7 times in total

The

@ Forget the Alif in Isam as it can be written Bi Ism, it cannot be grammatically incorrect

Why forget it? Can you explain why alif is dropped in 'bism' Allah but retained elsehwere?

Looks like we might have a go at each other again, brother. : grin :

**AhmedBahgat**

The

@ I really dont know why they removed the alif, however I read in the past (many years ago) that it can be written with Alif, I will try to find it for you, this is like Ya Allah, and Yallah

It will be better when there is a definite explanation as to why the alif is missing in 'bism' Allah.

@ However with Li, it is a known grammatical rule that any word with Al, if we add Li to it, then the alif in Al must be removed otherwise it will look La on its own and cause massive confusion in understanding the definite noun that follows, you can see this rule clearly in the Quran where all words with Li and Al, the alif is dropped

We can deduce the dropped alif from the Quran itself.

@Look, it does not need to, my argument is not conclusive neither yours, but I feel without any bias to myself that my argument is a bit stronger than yours, in fact most English translators do not translate the name Allah

There are many translators who do translate it as 'God'. However, I am not aware of many who think that Allah is a meaningless label, brother. So, I do sense a bias, possibly due to a lack of awareness.

@ The good thing out of this that we turned aggressive against each other then we became mellow again, which means that no hard feelings

That's right, brother, there's no point in getting carried away.

@ grammatically, Ilah should refer to any god

That is where we disagree. The Quran says very clearly that Allah Alone is Ilah, so I don't see how it can be any other way.

**AhmedBahgat**

**AhmedBahgat**

The

I think this will help us resolve some misunderstanding, brother. What do you mean by 'god' when you say "grammatically, Ilah should refer to any god".

I ask this because I think now I understand where we are not looking eye to eye.