IS ALLAH GOD?

The Facts-

  1. Arabic speaking Jews and Christians called YHWH Allah some 500 years before the advent of Islam.  These followers of the One God would certainly not have tolerated naming the One God after some sort of pagan idolatrous deity such as a moon god.
  2. Allah is the Arabic word for God and it means “the God” as compared to “a god” or some certain god like “the moon god.” 
  3. Though Allah was one of the 360 gods represented in the Kabba in Mecca prior to Muhammad, wouldn’t it make sense that of all the idolatrous worship happening in Arabia that the name of the One God would be represented among all the idols?  Certainly with all the Jews and Christians in the surrounding areas the One true God would be counted among all the Arabian tribal deities.  So when Muhammad (pbuh) destroyed all the other idols in the Kabba and said “There is only One God” it was at that moment that the Kabba was purged of idolatry and all attention was shifted to the One true God.  This is a momentous day in the history of the Arab peoples.
  4. There was a group of Abrahamic monotheistic Arabs in Arabia called Hanifs (Hanifi) who worshipped Allah, the One God prior to Islam.  Muhammad was very influenced by their beliefs as many of their pre-Islamic beliefs and practices regarding Adam, Abraham, Ishmael, the Kabba, etc. were adapted into Islam by Muhammad.
  5. The crescent moon, which appears on the dome of most every mosque and is a symbol synonymous with Islamic nations as it appears on their modern flags, is falsely associated with the popular mythology that Allah is a moon god.  The crescent moon was a symbol of the Byzantine Empire and was popularly represented among all of the vassal states of this vast empire.  The Ottoman Empire engulfed much of the Byzantine Empire early on, but it wasn’t until 1453 that they finally seized Constantinople and renamed it Istanbul establishing it as the center of Islamic power and influence.  The Ottomans retained the Byzantine symbol of the crescent moon for their now acquired (former Byzantine) vassal states and with the far reach throughout the Islamic world of the Ottomans at their peak the crescent moon became a symbol synonymous with Islam to the present day.
  6. Jesus spoke Aramaic, a Semitic language closely related to Arabic.  The Aramaic word for the One God is Alaha.  Notice the similarity?  Jesus would have prayed to Alaha.
  7. The oldest biblical Arabic manuscript (Codex 151) dates to 867AD.  It contains most of the New Testament and begins all but 3 books w/ the Bizmallah- “In the name of Allah, the Merciful the Compassionate”—just like every Surah (except one) in the Qur’an.  Only the books of Acts, Romans & II Corinthians begins:  “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”  So even at this early date we see a melding together of Islamic and Christian understanding of the One God and this was seen as compatible not competing.
  8. Today there are more than 20 million Christian Arabs who pray to Allah, the One God.  Certainly they are not all deceived and falsely praying to the wrong god?
  9. Is this a linguistic/cultural misunderstanding or even an ethnocentric prejudice?  Why not take the argument that Allah is not God all the way and say that any other language besides English is referring to the wrong God?  So the French speaking Christians have it wrong cause they pray to Dieu, and the Spanish have it wrong cause they pray to Dios, and the Chinese have it wrong cause they pray to Shang Di.  This reasoning is clearly fallacious.
  10. In fact, the English word “God” comes from the Germanic word “Gott” which has roots in Zoroastrianism referring to a water spirit.  So if we are going to make a big deal about the name used for the One God the question may be more historically accurate asking… Is God Allah?