So what do you think "Allah" means?

This is a very common misconception. Most of the people misunderstand the word "Allah". They think it means "The God of Muslims" or a God that only Muslims worship etc.

And most of the people abuse the word "Allah" (swear at it) when they see it or hear it. Even Christians and other people that believe in one God do it. As I've already mentioned: "They think it means "The God of Muslims" or a God that only Muslims worship etc."

But that's totally wrong. The word "Allah" is an Arabic word, which means "God". Its same as "God" in English and all other languages. If someone swear at the word "Allah" it is same as he/she swears at "God". Swearing at the word "Allah" doesn't mean you swear at the God of Muslims. Because we all believe in the same God. Its the same God for Muslims, Christians, Jews and all the other religions that believe in one God.

The only reason that most of Muslims use the word "Allah" for "God" is that:
The Holy Book of Muslims is written in Arabic, and the word "Allah" is considered a better name to use for God in the Muslim Scripture - The Holy Quran.

P.S: I want this thread to be friendly. I didn't post it to hurt the feelings of other people. I am just trying to clear a very common misconception. Please be friendly.

Thanks

-Farooq Azam-

 

even Wikipedia knows http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allah and if you want some other ways to say god
Dios - Spanish
Deu - French
Got - German
God - Afrikaans / Dutch
Nkos - Zulu
Jehova - multilingual
Allah - Arabic
Dyw - Cornish
Dew - Breton

 

That is true. But i don't think Christians swear on that so many times. Allah means God. I new that when i was 5 years old.

 

This is true, Arabian Christians here in Jordan say "Allah" when they pray in Arabic, saying Allah is the God of Muslims is like saying Dieu is the God of French,

I also think part of the confusion is that many Muslims prefer to use the word "Allah" and not the word "God" when they write/speak in English and this is because it has no plural, since God is one, while the English word can be in plural "Gods".

 

My current definition of 'Allah' is Barack Obama, though there have been many times in my life where the word 'Allah' meant toilet. No offense.

 

Allah has been argued convincingly to be the "Moon" god - hence why the moon (crescent) features on top of many Islam places of worship, flags, etc - The "Moon" god was big in Ancient Babylon and many other tribes/city states of the fertile crescent and Arabia - as such some Christians argue that their God is very different from Muslims God, certainly there are many differences between the two religions - salvation by grace, versus salvation by works (living a holy life, submission to God) - i.e. doing the five pillars of Islam - e.g. basic creed, daily prayers, alms giving, ramadan fast, Hajj - trip to Mecca; - some would argue this isn't too different from basic Roman Catholism - salvation through the sacramental system - baptism, marriage/celebacy, confirmation, mass, etc. However both are very different from fundamentalist or Bible believing Christianity - i.e. born again - which says Salvation is a gift of God only available through Jesus Christ - This places it on a direct contradiction/ collision course with Isalm which says Jesus was only a prophet not THE messiah. Most Muslims who have taken the trouble to read the Bible see this conflict and thus must argue the Bible we have today is not an accurrate translation unlike the Koran which must be read in the original Arabic to be "properly understood" - and the view that the Koran is word for word what God "wrote" rather than an God "inspired" writer.

Obviously there are various sects within each religion but I for one can't agree that the god of Isalm is the same God of true Christianity.

 

how do you consolidate the fact that jews do not belive in jesus either yet you belive your god to be the hebrew god?
and if god changed his mind from when he talked to moses untill he became jesus, how do you know that he did not change his mind again

 

Yeah.
Allah == God.

Simple.

Dr. Zakir naik has said that they prefer using the word "allah" rather than "god" because god + father = godfather ,
and so on which is not Islam believes in.

So,

GOD == ALLAH == GOD .

Thus the proof.



NOTE:

I am not a Muslim,
I am not a Sikh
I am not a Christian
I am not a Hindu.

I am an Indian and my vote is for

Congress.

 

Pizzaman - your extended answer:-

Although the Jews often refer to the LORD, elohim, GOD, etc as their God as a special people even the Old Testament makes it clear that the LORD was the creator God of the whole world - hence Jonah telling his fellow sailors/travellers that His God was the LORD who made the heavens and the earth, etc - the Sailors were exceeding afraid - obviously the name of the LORD had spread further than just the Israelites.

I would like to correct a misconception about the Jewish (Israelite) people before the time of Jesus - many people today wrongly assume that to be a Jew you must be born a Jew. Not so - not even in the Old testament. Many people became part of the children of Israel - during the Exodus there was the mix multitude - people who were not directly descended from Jacob (Israel) but left Egypt with the 12 tribes because they have been converted by seeing the power of their LORD through the plagues that fell on Egypt.

Likewise the Old Testament has numerous stories about people joining the people of Israel - e.g. Ruth - your God shall be my God, your people my people - she eventually became an ancestor of King David.

Further Rahab the prostitute who was saved from the fall of Jericho, likewise Moses' own wife who was not "Jewish".

If you read the story of King David you will see he had many others as part of his "team" including Edomites, Moabites, etc. - He even had amongst his mighty men people as far away as Hittites (Modern Turkey) - e.g. Uriah the Hittite (1 Chronicles 11:41) - Solomon married a daughter of an Egyptian Pharoah - so when you say the term "Hebrew" God you are not being true to the Old Testament - the Old Testament is full of "foreigners" acknowledging the LORD as God - King Nebuchadnezzer "now I, Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the King of Heaven" (Daniel 4:37).

God did not become Jesus - Jesus always was GOD - John 1 - In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God, He was in the beginning with God, All things were made through Him and with Him nothing was made that was made ... verse 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us"

He didn't become Jesus - Jesus was always God. By the Muslims saying Jesus is not God but a prophet then I must logically conclude they must be worshipping a different God to the one I am.

P.S. GOD states he does not change - Malachi 3:6 - "For I am the LORD, I do not change")

- the term in the story you quote is God Repented (not so much changed his mind but showed his mercy - Exodus 32:14 - So the LORD relented NKJV) This term is only used 3 times - once in the story with Moses (which many scholar point was more a test of the faith of Moses), once when God repented/regretted that he had made man - just before he destroys the world with the worldwide flood - quite frankly given so in the days of Noah so shall the end of the world be - we are given a picture of mass murder, stealing, immorality, evil - I glad God wasn't happy with such a situation. (NKJV - Gen 6:6 - "And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth"

The correct sense of the translation is - turned away, relented, sorry - Not GOD changed his mind - if God knows all time [is all time, beyond time] - i.e. the future - He already knows what His decision is going to be - hence why he doesn't change.

The Jews failed to recognise Jesus as the Messiah, as the Son of God, as Immanuel (God with us) - that is their error not GOD's. Because of this mass rejection (although much of the early church was converted Jews) - the Gospel was taken to the whole world - as Paul says to the Jew first and then the Gentile - i.e Paul a Jew, believed other Jews should recognise Jesus was/is the LORD. The disciples and apostles were Jewish Christians. They saw no difference between the LORD and Jesus the Word/LORD become flesh. All bar John went to their deaths/martyrdom because of this belief.

 

then how do you reconcile these two things that you have said here. in one instance you blame god and in the other you blame man.
notice another thing
all three religions pray to the god that created them. do you belive there are different gods that created different people?
you can belive that islam is not a religion that i can understand but to say there is one god but my god is not your god and your god is not my god makes no heehaw

 

this word Dr. Zakir Naik irritates me

 

Tell me why does that irritate you ???

 

In Malaysia, the government only allows Muslim use Allah.. and illegal for other religion to use it!

 

i think Allah means, Halla Backwards!

 

Pizzaman

yes Judiasm, Christianity and Islam all believe in a creator God - in that I agree they are similar - however the question was is Allah just the "God" of the Muslims - I think I've shown in my argument above clearly that Christians and Muslims have a totally different view of God that can not be harmonized - most Christians believe in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - One God but three "examples" for a better word - or a three headed God in the argument of some Muslims - hence the accusation that Muslims are Monotheists whilst Christians are tri-Godists- not quite the truth because many have difficulty understanding the doctrine of the trinity.

Because 90%+ Christians (except J.W's and others) believe Jesus is GOD and Muslims would/do have a major problem with that, the logical conclusion is we can't be worshipping the same God. As to how Christians reconcile that - most would simply say that Muslims are following a false prophet that leads people away from the truth about God - i.e that Salvation is a GIFT of God through Faith - not submission. Jesus warned that after him would come many False prophets telling lies-

I know some Muslims may want to cut of my head for this one, but the logical fact is - If you are a BIBLE believing Christian - YOU MUST BELIEVE Muhammad is a FALSE Prophet, most likely inspired by Satan to lead people away from the gospel ... if you didn't believe Muhammed is a false prophet then you would probably be a Muslim. The two religions can not be reconciled - and that's why Fundamentalist Muslims know they can't live with Christian neighbours - because they DO NOT worship the same God - a Fundamentalist Muslim must believe that somewhere along the line Christians perverted the Bible - hence the contradictions with the writings of their "true" prophet - who likewise said there would be no prophet after him, and then the Bahai's would argue with that saying that all religion is a continous evolution and each prophet shows a different "'face/aspect/manifestation" of God (with their prophet "Bahá'u'lláh") - a philosophy I reject because I don't believe God goes around deliberately contradicting himself - and if you seriously study religion there are massive differences between them - on a doctrinal, philosophical, ethical, moral and world view level - hence why countries with different religions end up with vastly different world views, standards, morals, outlooks, even economics.

Because a fundamentalist Muslim knows in his heart that his Christian neighbour is not worshipping ALLAH it is no problem to kill him - do Jihad, etc. If a Muslim believes we are all worshipping the same God - surely wiping out other children of God who haven't caught up with the latest "version" God wants us to belong to would be seen as totally wrong.

Don't get me wrong here - obviously not all Muslims believe identical things - hence why we have sunni, shiá, etc - I'm talking basics here

Even Pope John Paul II (and as a Protestant I seldom agree with Roman Catholics) knew that Christianity and Islam do not worship the same God - "the God of the Qur'an is "ultimately a God outside of the world, a God who is only Majesty, never Emmanuel, God-with-us. Islam is not a religion of redemption. There is no room for the Cross and the Resurrection."

The Cross is central to Christianity - to Islam it is irrelevant.

If you are an Atheist this whole discussion is irrelevant.
If you are a Hindu - don't worry you can continue the discussion in the next life
If you are a Budhist then this discussion and worrying about it is tieing you into the reincarnation cycle and you should forget about it
If you are a scientologist then you are probably annoyed that people are discussing religion and you can't charge them for it - (sorry Tom Cruise but being a scientologist just proves you are a dick - not very Christian I know but unfortunately still true - worse case of small man syndrome on the planet). People who demand money to bring you religion/enlightenment are evil.

Anyhow enough of me - what do you and others think - (as Blackadder said, "thinking is so important")

P.S. where did I Blame God? I think its pretty clear man is the one to blame.

 

alstar
i understand your position in regard to the differences with islam.
i also understand that you have no choice but to accept the sameness of god in judaisim and christianity.
my question is about how do you reconcile this difference of your position since both islam and judaisim do not recognize jesus as son of god and/or god.

 

Good question.

Alstar believes in the rapture... and for rapture to occur, there should be evil. Thats how it ends... Good Vs Evil, just like Hollywood...

Then I guess I am evil according to Alstar's philosophy. He knows so little about Islam, almost nothing... Its funny how he can pass judgment about it so easily...

 

Good Lord (no pun) don't let the dweebs in that Dew thread know about this, I'll never live it down.

 

Actually no I don't believe in the rapture. I believe Christ's second coming will be very visual indeed - "every eye will see him" and that the world will be destroyed for a thousand years then Christ will create the new earth; and evil will be destroyed forever. Yes I do believe there is a battle between good and evil and this earth is/was the battleground - it is a battle won by Jesus' death on the cross - whether you choose to participate in that victory or not is YOUR free choice.

No I don't think Muslims are evil. In fact I believe some Muslims will be in Heaven. Salvation is not a lottery where you only win if you are lucky enough to hear the gospel, though hearing the gospel can help - I believe that if you live up to the light revealed to you will be saved.

However why if Islam is so "true", why do you fear allowing people to make their own choice - in a Christian dominated country you can choose your religion - in an Islamic dominanted country if you convert from Islam you are buying yourself a death sentence - so much for freedom to choose. Why does Saudi Arabia ban Bibles, why do they fear Christians preaching in the open - are they that afraid of allowing their citizens free choice -
I resigned my membership from my parents church at my choice - they respected my decision - they didn't punish me for making my own personal decision.

As for my understanding of Islam - I have been to a Mosque and questioned the Iman, I have read some of the Koran (in English translation) very poetic, I understand the five pillars of Islam and what goes on in the Hajj - in that I probably know far more than most non-muslims. I know some of their philosophy on demons, etc. I have read about the life of Muhammed and I do not believe there is any comparsion to the life of Jesus. I know Islam believes in purgatory - something I can not agree in. So am I an expert on Islam? - no - but what I do know I believe is enough to make some comparsions - particularly in fundamentals - i.e. how are you reconcilled to God?

In that the two religions are clearly different and can not be reconcilled.

 

Allah is Above what you think and imagine.

The ignorants know only the errors, they have nothing but falsehood. So, we expect you to say these big errors.


159. Glorified is Allâh! (He is Free) from what they attribute unto Him!

160. Except the slaves of Allâh, whom He choses (the prophets peace be upon them and their true followers).


178. So turn (O Muhammad PBUH) away from them for a while,
179. And watch and they shall see (the torment)!
180. Glorified be your Lord, the Lord of Honour and Power! (He is free) from what they attribute unto Him!
181. And peace be on the Messengers!
182. And all the praise and thanks be to Allâh, The Lord of the worlds.