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What does "Allah"
mean? – Comments by Rashid Samnakay Say Allah, not God-In the January 2008 Tolu-e-Islam an
Urdu article appeared to give a message along with on other important issues,
that it is not appropriate to substitute the word GOD for Allah, when writing
in the English language. This is, it says further, because the word God
does not convey the same meaning of lailahaa-illallah as that of "except
for Khuda there is no such being which has the right of authority" and
therefore it should be written as "there is no Sovereign except
Allah" Commonly in English language the word God is given to mean 'the
supreme being' and as 'the supreme Creator of monotheistic faiths' etc. Now if
we insist that when referring to God we must write Allah, it means as if this
name is registered in some Arabic government's Birth and Death registry and
that it has issued a birth certificate to that effect, to that 'being' who is
now named "Allah" specifically. This gives the impression not only that this 'being' is for
Muslims but specifically it is a monopoly of the Arab-nation and the other
Muslims adopted HIM to qualify to be termed as Muslims. This can be extended to
many other traditions and practices of the Arabs, such as their dress mode,
copied by others to project themselves as 'good Muslims' or 'complete Muslims'
. It becomes that Allah is NOT therefore a universal supreme being for the
whole Creation. This gives rise to a comical situation when others say that
your God is not the same as ours. Your Allah is different! Quran tells us that divine messengers had come in all ages,
places and time periods prior to Muhammad. It stands to reason therefore that
they spoke myriads of languages and conveyed the concept of a supreme being and
transmission of HIS message in their own languages, as Muhammad Rasulullah did
in Arabic Quran by combining the two words al and ilah according to the rules
that it became Allah (17-22). What is more is that the word Allah was already
in vogue then, it was not manufactured for Arabic speaking people by
Rasulullah. There was not then and is not now an international common
language in which a compound word could be used to give the full meaning of
Allah as "the only supreme creator of the universe with total authority
and control over HIS creation". In English language by using the
word God, if an elaboration is required then there is no logical reason that
such an elaboration could not be given. This attitude towards other people and
their language smacks of linguistic racism that, they do not posses the true
concept of GOD accept today's Muslims! The writer of the Urdu article goes on to use the word Khuda
twenty five(25) times in it, not counting the attribute khudawandi which are
repeated number of times, because he assumes that the word Khuda in Urdu
imparts the meaning completely, which as we know is not true. This issue is raised to highlight the broadness of the Deen
Islam and its acceptance of other Faiths as worthy of respect and consideration
in the Universality of humanity in conjunction of HIS Unity, and to dispel the
myth that Arabic and Arabs are some what holier than thou, which they are not. Moderator - Agree, I am used to Khuda Hafiz as well. A few
among us want to tighten the noose around the name Allah. Mike Ghouse |
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