Should Christians Use the Name Allah?
- philhoraia
- Aug 22, 2023
- 2 min read
In this post I shall be giving my view on this question. Allah is the name of the Muslim deity. Originally it would have been appended to the chief deity of the Ka'bah's name Hubal. Hubal was an import and it is likely that the word allah too was an import. In the Sirah we find the founder of Islam's putative grandfather Abd al-Muttalib invoking Allah beside Hubal's shrine. It is likely that it was known as Hubal Allah, 'Hubal God'. 'Allah' we might view as being the Nabataean word for 'god'. Now in the Bible we often come across the phrase Yahweh Elohim, 'Jehovah God'. But of course allah is not the Arabic for 'god'; rather, ilah is. Muslims will say that the vile name is a contraction and that it is 'The God'. If we are to understand The God, in the sense of 'the one and only god', did the supposed grandfather of the founder of Islam believe that Hubal, invoked under the name Allah, was the one and only god, or was Hubal/Allah just one of a number of false deities worshipped?
We find the odious name of the Qurayshi abomination in the standard Arabic Bible. Why? The translators either simply inserted it into the text or they were imitating people who had adopted the vile name, living among heathens and imitating them. But fortunately there are people who have wished to avoid using this vile name in reference to God. There is now an online translation that does not use the name Allah. Allah and the Arabic Bible
In a Hindi transliterated translation we find Parameshvar. https://www.wordproject.org/bibles/parallel/b/hindi_TR.htm According to Wikipedia:
Paraméshwara (IAST: Parameśvara, Sanskrit: परमेश्वर), or Parashiva or Sadashiva, is the term usually referred to the Hindu God Shiva as the Supreme being and Supreme Reality. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parameshwara_(god)
Should Shiva be invoked because of a translation?
In the ancient Middle East a number of deities called El were worshipped, even God himself was called El. The word itself is simply a generic word for 'god'. But it was (usually) clear what deity was being invoked and spoken of. Then there was Baal. We read of the Baals (plural) in the Bible. Originally this simply meant 'master', and today it is still a common word in Hebrew. But the word became contaminated by association with heathenism. In Hosea 2:16 we read:
And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali. https://biblehub.com/hosea/2-16.htm Ishi means 'my man', 'my husband'.
The Israelites often fell into heathenism and here they probably simply adopted the word ba'al in imitation of the heathens around them.
In 2 Samuel 2:8 a son of Saul is called Ish-bosheth (Man of Shame) but in 1 Chronicles 8:33 and 9:39 Eshbaal. In 2 Samuel 4:4 his grandson is called Mephibosheth. Originally the word ba'al would have appeared but the word bosheth 'shame' was substituted.
So, my view? Christians should NOT use the name of the filthy abomination of the Muslims.
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