Jalal Abualrub has decided to write an entire book responding to Craig Winn’s The Prophet of Doom (online edition), titled The Prophet of Mercy. The first two chapters of Abualrub’s book can be downloaded from his website (1, 2).

As time permits, and solely by the grace of the Lord Jesus, we will tackle those parts of the response that are relevant to biblical issues and doctrines. We will, if necessary, address Abualrub’s distortions of key essential Christian doctrines, as well as his distortions of Islamic theology and Muslim sources.

In this, our first response, we seek to address Abualrub’s defense of Allah being the God of the Holy Bible, as opposed to being the moongod or some other pagan deity (*).

Some introductory remarks are necessary before we proceed to address Abualrub’s claims. My own personal view regarding the use of the word Allah is that if treated as a generic noun, a common noun denoting any deity, then it is acceptable as a reference for the true God of the Holy Bible. However, Islamic theology does not treat Allah as a generic noun, but views it as their god’s own personal name. In Muslim thinking, Allah functions as the proper name of the deity, much like the name Peter or John. This is where the problem lies since, according to the Holy Bible, the one noun which functions as the true God’s proper name is Yahweh, not Allah. The fact that Muslims view the name Allah as a proper noun, as opposed to a common noun descriptive applicable to any deity, and that the Quran nowhere uses the name Yahweh in connection to god, is sufficient evidence to show that we are not dealing with the same God revealed in the Holy Bible. This will become more evident as we examine the etymology of the word Allah, and the manner in which the word was used prior to the advent of Islam.

With this stated we can now focus on what Abualrub writes:

Allah is the Moon God?

Evangelicals are so desperate to convince the general public of Islamic evilness that one website of theirs ( http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/moongod.htm ) actually suggested that Allah is the Moon-God, and thus, Muslims worship the moon. They must mean the same moon about which the Quran declares this, { And from among His Signs are the night and the day, and the sun and the moon. Prostrate yourselves not to the sun, nor to the moon, but prostrate yourselves to Allâh Who created them, if you (really) worship Him }; [41:37]. These people are utterly blatant and will stop at nothing, including lying in a shameful way, to defame Islam. This Quranic Verse refutes their article in its entirety, and we will soon refute the minor parts of it, Allah willing.

RESPONSE:

Note first: Abualrub likes to attack ALL Evangelicals for what SOME Evangelicals do or think. Most Evangelicals who write about Islam do NOT claim that Allah is the moon god (the many authors in this very site, THE major Evangelical website on Islam, do not propagate this theory), and basically no Evangelical claims that Muslims are worshipping the moon. Christians or Evangelicals as a whole are not evil and guilty simply because a few among them supposedly do something that Abualrub does not like.

If one actually reads the article referred to in the above quotation, it will be rather obvious that Abualrub is grossly distorting what the author says. Here are some relevant quotes, adding some emphasis for the sake of clarity:

The Muslims claim that Allah in PRE-ISLAMIC times was the biblical God of the Patriarchs, prophets, and apostles. The issue is thus one of continuity. Was "Allah" the biblical God or a pagan god in Arabia during PRE-ISLAMIC times? The Muslim's claim of continuity is essential to their attempt to convert Jews and Christians for if "Allah" is part of the flow of divine revelation in Scripture, then it is the next step in biblical religion. Thus we should all become Muslims. But, on the other hand, if Allah was A PRE-ISLAMIC PAGAN DEITY, then its core claim is refuted. Religious claims often fall before the results of hard sciences such as archeology. We can endlessly speculate about the past or go and dig it up and see what the evidence reveals. This is the only way to find out the truth concerning THE ORIGINS OF ALLAH. As we shall see, the hard evidence demonstrates that the god Allah was a pagan deity. In fact, he was the Moon-god who was married to the sun goddess and the stars were his daughters.

… When the popularity of the Moon-god waned elsewhere, the Arabs remained true to their conviction that the Moon-god was the greatest of all gods. While they worshipped 360 gods at the Kabah in Mecca, the Moon-god was the chief deity. Mecca was in fact built as a shrine for the Moon-god.

The evidence reveals that the temple of the Moon-god was active even in the Christian era. Evidence gathered from both North and South Arabia demonstrate that Moon-god worship was clearly active even in Muhammad's day and was still the dominant cult. According to numerous inscriptions, while the name of the Moon-god was Sin, his title was al-ilah, i.e. "the deity," meaning that he was the chief or high god among the gods. As Coon pointed out, "The god Il or Ilah was originally a phase of the Moon God." The Moon-god was called al-ilah, i.e. the god, which was shortened to Allah IN PRE-ISLAMIC TIMES. The pagan Arabs even used Allah in the names they gave to their children. For example, both Muhammad's father and uncle had Allah as part of their names.

The fact that they were given such names by their pagan parents proves that Allah was the title for the Moon-god even in Muhammad's day. Prof. Coon goes on to say, "Similarly, under Mohammed's tutelage, the relatively anonymous Ilah, became Al-Ilah, The God, or Allah, the Supreme Being."

This fact answers the questions, "Why is Allah never defined in the Qur'an? Why did Muhammad assume that the pagan Arabs already knew who Allah was?" Muhammad was raised in the religion of the Moon-god Allah. But he went one step further than his fellow pagan Arabs. While they believed that Allah, i.e. the Moon-god, was the greatest of all gods and the supreme deity in a pantheon of deities, Muhammad decided that Allah was not only the greatest god but the only god.

The Muslim's claim that Allah is the God of the Bible and that Islam arose from the religion of the prophets and apostles is refuted by solid, overwhelming archeological evidence. Islam is nothing more than A REVIVAL of the ancient Moon-god cult. It has taken the symbols, the rites, the ceremonies, and even the name of its god from the ancient pagan religion of the Moon-god. As such, it is sheer idolatry and must be rejected by all those who follow the Torah and Gospel.

This article is not alone in stating that al-ilah, specifically Ilah, from whence we get Allah, was a title for the moongod Sin:

"The relation of this name, which in Babylonia and Assyrian became a generic term simply meaning 'god', to the Arabian Ilah familiar to us in the form Allah, which is compounded of al, the definite article, and Ilah by eliding the vowel 'i', is not clear. Some scholars trace the name to the South Arabian Ilah, a title of the Moon god, but this is a matter of antiquarian interest." (Alfred Guillaume, Islam [Penguin Books Inc., Baltimore, 1956], p. 7; underline emphasis ours)

The paper also mentions that the ninth century Christian apologist, Abd al-Masih al-Kindy, asserted that Muslims got their conception of Allah from the Sabeans:

Al-Kindi, one of the early Christian apologists against Islam, pointed out that Islam and its god Allah did not come from the Bible but from the paganism of the Sabeans. They did not worship the God of the Bible but the Moon-god and his daughters al-Uzza, al-Lat and Manat…

Here are some quotes from the late, great Sir William Muir’s commentary on the Apology of Al-Kindy:

The first Section is devoted to a defence of the doctrine of the Trinity, in which the argument is, to our apprehension, often weak and far-fetched. His friend had invited him to embrace the Catholic, or Hanyfite, faith of Abraham, their common father. Our Apologist answers that the Hanyfite faith was in reality the idolatrous religion of the Sabeans, which the patriarch professed before his conversion to the worship of the One true God. "Which of these two religions of Abraham," he asks, "am I to adopt? If it be the Unity, I reply that the revelation thereof made to Abraham was inherited by Isaac, not by Ishmael, and descended in the line not of the Arabs, but of the Israelites; and it is for them, and not for you, to invite me to the same." … (Muir, The Apology of Al Kindy Written at the Court of Al Mamun (Circa A.H. 215; A.D. 830): In Defence of Christianity Against Islam, pp. 41-42; online edition; bold emphasis ours)

What makes this truly interesting is that the following source states that the Sabeans worshiped the moon and even called it Allah!

… Particular to Arabia, Coon elucidates on this phenomenon of astral preference,

"Among the northern Semites the sun was the most important, as the promoter of fertility in vegetation; in southern Arabia, where the sun is too hot for comfort, and scorches and withers, the night is the time for coolness, and, in the moonlight, the time for travel and work. Nomads travel much at night, and the moon with its phases gives them their yardstick for measuring time. Thus, whereas the sun was the important god to the northern Semites, the moon was supreme among the southern groups, including not only the southern Arabian peoples, but also the pre-Islamic Arabs proper, who lived farther north in the peninsula."³⁸

There is much evidence to connect Allah with the worship of the moon god in Arabia. The moon god, whether by the name of Sin or by some other, was worshipped in temples all across the peninsula. The Sabaeans even had a moon god whose specific appellation was "Allah"³⁹… (Source)

Ironically, the Muslims were identified as Sabeans by those around them, presumably due to the similarities in their beliefs:

… Then the Prophet proceeded on and the people complained to him of thirst. Thereupon he got down and called a person (the narrator 'Auf added that Abu Raja' had named him but he had forgotten) and 'Ali, and ordered them to go and bring water. So they went in search of water and met a woman who was sitting on her camel between two bags of water. They asked, "Where can we find water?" She replied, "I was there (at the place of water) this hour yesterday and my people are behind me." They requested her to accompany them. She asked, "Where?" They said, "To Allah's Apostle." She said, "Do you mean the man WHO IS CALLED THE SABI, (with a new religion)?" They replied, "Yes, the same person. So come along." They brought her to the Prophet and narrated the whole story. He said, "Help her to dismount." The Prophet asked for a pot, then he opened the mouths of the bags and poured some water into the pot. Then he closed the big openings of the bags and opened the small ones and the people were called upon to drink and water their animals. So they all watered their animals and they (too) all quenched their thirst and also gave water to others and last of all the Prophet gave a pot full of water to the person who was Junub and told him to pour it over his body. The woman was standing and watching all that which they were doing with her water. By Allah, when her water bags were returned the looked like as if they were more full (of water) than they had been before (Miracle of Allah's Apostle) Then the Prophet ordered us to collect something for her; so dates, flour and Sawiq were collected which amounted to a good meal that was put in a piece of cloth. She was helped to ride on her camel and that cloth full of food-stuff was also placed in front of her and then the Prophet said to her, "We have not taken your water but Allah has given water to us." She returned home late. Her relatives asked her: "O so and so what has delayed you?" She said, "A strange thing! Two men met me and took me to the man WHO IS CALLED THE SABI' and he did such and such a thing. By Allah, he is either the greatest magician between this and this (gesturing with her index and middle fingers raising them towards the sky indicating the heaven and the earth) or he is Allah's true Apostle." ...

Abu 'Abdullah said: The word Saba'a means "The one who has deserted his old religion and embraced a new religion." Abul 'Ailya said, "The Sabis are a sect of people of the Scripture who recite the Book of Psalms." (Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 1, Book 7, Number 340)

... Abu Dhar went to the Mosque, where some people from Quraish were present, and said, 'O folk of Quraish ! I testify that None has the right to be worshipped except Allah, and I (also) testify that Muhammad is Allah's Slave and His Apostle.' (Hearing that) the Quraishi men said, 'Get at this SABI (i.e. Muslim)!' They got up and beat me nearly to death. Al 'Abbas saw me and threw himself over me to protect me. He then faced them and said, 'Woe to you! You want to kill a man from the tribe of Ghifar, although your trade and your communications are through the territory of Ghifar?' They therefore left me. The next morning I returned (to the Mosque) and said the same as I have said on the previous day. They again said, 'Get at this SABI!' I was treated in the same way as on the previous day, and again Al-Abbas found me and threw himself over me to protect me and told them the same as he had said the day before.' So, that was the conversion of Abu Dhar (may Allah be Merciful to him) to Islam." (Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 56, Number 725)

... So when he came to Mecca, someone said to him, "You have become A SABIAN?" Thumama replied, "No! By Allah, I have embraced Islam with Muhammad, Apostle of Allah. No, by Allah! Not a single grain of wheat will come to you from Jamaica unless the Prophet gives his permission." (Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 5, Book 59, Number 658)

... Unais went until he came to Mecca and he came to me late. I said: What did you do? He said: I met a person in Mecca who is on your religion and he claims that verily it is Allah Who has sent him. I said: What do the people say about him? He said: They say that he is a poet or a Kahin or a magician. Unais who was himself one of the poets said. I have heard the words of a Kahin but his words in no way resemble his (words). And I also compared his words to the verses of poets but such words cannot be uttered by any poet. By Allah, he is truthful and they are liars. Then I said: you stay here, until I go, so that I should see him. He said: I came to Mecca and I selected an insignificant person from amongst them and said to him: Where is he whom you call as-Sabi? He pointed out towards me saying: He is Sabi. Thereupon the people of the valley attacked me with sods and bows until I fell down unconscious. I stood up after having regained my consciousness and I found as if I was a red idol... These women met Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) and Abu Bakr who had also been coming down the hill. He asked them: What has happened to you? They said: There is Sabi, who has hidden himself between the Ka'ba and its curtain. He said: What did he say to you? They said: He uttered such words before us as we cannot express. Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) came and he kissed the Black Stone and circumambulated the House along with his Companion and then observed prayer, and when he had finished his prayer, Abu Dharr said: I was the first to greet him with the salutation of peace and uttered (these words) in this way; Allah's Messenger, may there be peace upon you, whereupon he said: It may be upon you too and the mercy of Allah. He then said: Who are you? I said: From the tribe of Ghifar. He leaned his hand and placed his finger on his forehead and I said to myself: Perhaps he has not liked it that I belong to the tribe of Ghifar... (Sahih Muslim, Book 031, Number 6046)

Hence, the issue of the paper is one of pre-Islamic worship, whether in pre-Islamic times Allah was a pagan deity, or was he considered the same true God of the Holy Bible. The article clearly recognizes that during Muhammad’s time, Allah went from being a name for the chief pagan deity of Mecca to the true, universal God worshiped even by Jews and Christians. The paper, therefore, is not claiming that Muslims are knowingly worshiping the moon god, but that the god which they believe is the true universal sovereign of all was originally nothing more than a pagan deity, the high god of a pantheon of lesser gods, which Muhammad then turned into the one god of all. In other words, despite the Muslims thinking that they are worshiping the one true God revealed in the Holy Bible, in reality they are unknowingly worshiping a pagan deity which Muhammad passed off as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

For more on the issue of whether the name Allah initially referred to a moon deity or not, please read the articles posted in the following link: www.answering-islam.org/Index/M/moongod.html

Before KJV of the Bible Was Ever Written, There Were Arabic Bibles Calling the Lord by His Name, ‘Allah'

Craig Winn does not like to call Allah by His Name, ‘Allah'. However, the name ‘Allah' is found in all the Arabic Bibles that have been printed in the West –in tens of millions– by Evangelical Christians and freely distributed in poor Arab and Muslim countries to preach the Monotheistic Gospel to pagan Muslims! I know that ‘Allah' is the name used in these Arabic Bibles, because I received several of them when I was living in Kuwait . For evidence, the reader is encouraged to log onto this website: ( http://www.e-sword.net/bibles.html ) wherein the word ‘Allah' is used in the first verse contained in the version of the Bible entitled, The Arabic Smith & Van Dyke Bible . Further, ( http://www.arabicbible.com/bible/codex_151.htm) posts this article: “ The Mt. Sinai Arabic Codex 151 is indeed a most exciting discovery. It appears to be the oldest Arabic translation of the Bible in existence which was done in 867 AD…It was discovered at St. Catherine monastery in Mt. Sinai in the 1800's. ” The ‘oldest copy' of the Arabic Bible referred to here also uses the word ‘Allah' when describing the Creator .

I read various copies of the Arabic Gospel¹² about a dozen times, in addition to the dozen times in which I read various English Bibles. I do not claim to have become a scholar on the Bibles, because to be as such, one certainly needs more than 10,000 hours.

RESPONSE:

We are glad that Abualrub has decided to appeal to the Arabic Bible in order to establish his position, since this will backfire against him, as we will see below. As we will be showing, although the term Allah was/is used by Jews and Christians, they obviously do not have the same Being in view that the Muslims do. In fact, neither Jews nor Christians view Allah as the personal name of their God.

Did Jesus Ever Call the Lord by, ‘God'?

Matthew 27:46 states, “ And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? ”

If Muslims are challenged to bring forth the original Arabic words of their Holy Book, the Quran, they will produce a copy of it that is perfectly identical to every other copy that Muslims have in any other part of the world. Can Christians or Jews accomplish the same fete regarding the Two Testaments?

RESPONSE:

I am assuming that Abualrub is citing the words of the Lord Jesus to prove that he cried out to Allah, or that Allah is a more accurate word to use than the English word God. To see why he is mistaken, we only need to cite the original language of the texts in question, taking a look a Psalm 22:1 first, since this is where Jesus quoted from:

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?" Psalm 22:1

Hebrew- Eli, Eli, lamah ‘azavtani?

Syriac- ‘Alahi ‘Alahi lemana’ sebaqtani?

Arabic- ‘Ilaahiy ‘Ilaahiy, limaadhaa taraktaniy?

In the Psalm citation, the word used for God is Eli, from the word el, with the letter i being the possessive suffix "my." The word el is often used as a part of people’s names, as in Isra-EL, Ishma-EL, Immanu-EL etc. The Quran takes over some of these names, but instead of retaining the word el, it uses its Arabic equivalent il:

O Children of Isra-EL (Isra’IL)! Remember My favour wherewith I favoured you, and fulfil your (part of the) covenant, I shall fulfil My (part of the) covenant, and fear Me. S. 2:40

Remember We made the House a place of assembly for men and a place of safety; and take ye the station of Abraham as a place of prayer; and We covenanted with Abraham and Isma'IL (Ishma-EL), that they should sanctify My House for those who compass it round, or use it as a retreat, or bow, or prostrate themselves (therein in prayer). S. 2:125 Y. Ali

The Syriac and Arabic translations of this Psalm use alah and ilah in place of el. Neither word corresponds exactly to Allah, even though they are related. We will explain this more thoroughly later on in the paper.

And now Jesus’ words, taken from the Markan parallel:

"And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me (ho theos mou ho theos mou eis ti me egkatelipes)?’ Mark 15:34

Arabic- wa fi assaa3ati atthaalitati, sarakha yasou3 bisawtin 3adhiymin: ‘alowiy ‘alowiy, lamaa shabaqtaniy? ‘ay: ‘ilaahiy ‘ilaahiy, limaadhaa taraktaniy?

Again, the words used are Aramaic eloi, Greek theos, and Arabic ilah respectively. All these words are used generically to refer to any person or thing, and not just for the true God. Why this is important will become clearer a little later on.

I challenge the readers, Craig Winn and all of Christendom and Judaism to produce a single original manuscript of the Torah or the Gospel -with stress on the word, ‘ original '. If anyone is ever able to successfully respond to this challenge, that original copy will most certainly be in a language other than English and will not contain the word, ‘God' to describe the Creator.

Here is the very first verse in the ‘version' of the Bible called, Transliterated Pronounceable , Genesis 1:1 , " Bree'shiyt baaraa' 'Elohiym 'eet hashaamayim w'eethaa'aarets. " If transliterated into English, this verse reads like this (as in KJV), " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. "

RESPONSE:

Abualrub seems to be rather confused at this point, or at least inconsistent, since he demands of Christians what he himself cannot produce for his own book. If by original manuscript Abualrub means the original languages in which the books of the Holy Bible were written (i.e. Hebrew, Aramaic, Koine Greek), then yes we can produce those. If, by original manuscript, Abualrub means the very document written by the prophet or apostle, known as the autograph, then the answer is rather obvious. No Christian or Jew can produce the autograph, but neither can Abualrub produce the original Quranic manuscript written down by Muhammad or by one of his scribes. In fact, there wasn’t just one manuscript of the Quran, but several which were compiled after Muhammad’s death. It was Uthman who decided to standardize what he felt was the more authentic version from many competing codices which were written down by ear and eye witnesses of Muhammad, men who had committed the Quran to memory. Uthman decided to burn these other primary codices.

In fact, even to this day there isn’t one version of the Quran, but at least two that are still used from over a dozen versions. These versions are called qiraat, or readings, by Muslims, which they expediently deem to be equally authoritative:

When reading the Qur'an, we frequently refer to Warsh or Hafs and say, "This is Hafs" or "This is Warsh". What we mean by that is that this is the riwaya or Warsh or the riwaya of Hafs. It is the riwaya of a particular qira'a. The qira'at or the readings, or methods of recitation, are named after the leader of a school of Qur'an reciters. Each qira'a derives its authority from a prominent leader of recitation in the second or third century hijri who in turn trace their riwaya or transmission back through the Companions of the Prophet. For instance, in the back of a Warsh Qur'an, you are likely to find "the riwaya of Imam Warsh from Nafi' al-Madini from Abu Ja'far Yazid ibn al-Qa'qa' from 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas from Ubayy ibn Ka'b from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, from Jibril, peace be upon him, from the Creator." Or in Hafs you will see "the riwaya of Hafs ibn Sulayman ibn al-Mughira al-Asadi al-Kufi of the qira'a of 'Asim ibn Abi'n-Nujud al-Kufi from Abu 'Abdu'r-Rahman 'Abdullah ibn Habib as-Sulami from 'Uthman ibn 'Affan and 'Ali ibn Abi Talib and Zayd ibn Thabit and Ubayy ibn Ka'b from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace." These all go back to the Prophet.

There are slight differences in these readings, for example, where one stops, as in Surat al-Baqara (1): "Dhalika'l-Kitabu la rayb" or "Dhalika'l-Kitabu la rayba fih" as well as some voweling differences ("suddan" or "saddan"), and sometimes a difference in the letters due to different diacritical marks, as ya' or ta' (turja'una or yurja'una). Sometimes a word will have a shadda or not have a shadda…

Today, the two readings most used are the qira'a of 'Asim in the riwaya of Hafs, and the qira'a of Nafi' in the riwaya of Warsh. Also in use in Africa is the qira'a of Abu 'Amir in the riwaya of ad-Duri. (Source; bold emphasis ours)

(C)ertain variant readings existed and, indeed, persisted and increased as the Companions who had memorised the text died, and because the inchoate (basic) Arabic script, lacking vowel signs and even necessary diacriticals to distinguish between certain consonants, was inadequate. ... In the 4th Islamic century, it was decided to have recourse (to return) to "readings" (qira'at) handed down from seven authoritative "readers" (qurra'); in order, moreover, to ensure accuracy of transmission, two "transmitters" (rawi, pl. ruwah) were accorded to each. There resulted from this seven basic texts (al-qira'at as-sab', "the seven readings"), each having two transmitted versions (riwayatan) with only minor variations in phrasing, but all containing meticulous vowel-points and other necessary diacritical marks. ... The authoritative "readers" are:

Nafi` (from Medina; d. 169/785)
Ibn Kathir (from Mecca; d. 119/737)
Abu `Amr al-`Ala' (from Damascus; d. 153/770)
Ibn `Amir (from Basra; d. 118/736)
Hamzah (from Kufah; d. 156/772)
al-Qisa'i [sic] (from Kufah; d. 189/804)
Abu Bakr `Asim (from Kufah; d. 158/778)

(Cyril Glassé, The Concise Encyclopedia of Islam [Harper & Row: San Francisco, 1989], p. 324, bold added)

The following Salafi website acknowledges this mass confusion which surrounded the Quran's transmission:

Secondly, what is meant by styles (ahruf, sing. harf)?

The BEST of the scholarly OPINIONS concerning what is meant is that there are seven ways of reciting the Qur’aan, where the wording may differ but the meaning is the same; if there is a different meaning then it is by way of variations on a theme, not opposing and contradiction.

Thirdly ...

It is known that Hishaam was Asadi Qurashi (i.e., from the clan of Bani Asad in Quraysh) and ‘Umar was ‘Adawi Qurashi (i.e., from the clan of Bani ‘Adiyy in Quraysh). Both of them were from Quraysh and Quraysh had only one dialect. If the difference in ahruf (styles) had been a difference in dialects, why would two men of Quraysh have been different?

The scholars mentioned NEARLY FORTY DIFFERENT OPINIONS concerning this matter! Perhaps the most correct is that which we have mentioned above. And Allaah knows best.

Fourthly:

It seems that the seven styles were revealed with different wordings, as indicated by the hadeeth of ‘Umar, because ‘Umar’s objection was to the style, not the meaning. The differences between these styles are not the matter of contradiction and opposition, rather they are synonymous, as Ibn Mas’ood said: “It is like one of you saying halumma, aqbil or ta’aal (all different ways of saying ‘Come here’).”

Fifthly:

With regard to the seven recitations (al-qiraa’aat al-saba’), this number is not based on the Qur’aan and Sunnah, rather it is the ijtihaad of Ibn Mujaahid (may Allaah have mercy on him). People thought that al-ahruf al-saba’ (the seven styles) were al-qiraa’aat al-saba’ (the seven recitations) because they happened to be the same number. But this number may have come about coincidentally, or it may have been done deliberately by Ibn Mujaahid to match what was narrated about the number of styles (ahruf) being seven. Some people thought that the styles (ahruf) were the recitations, but this is a mistake. No such comment is known among the scholars. The seven recitations are one of the seven styles, and this is the style that ‘Uthmaan chose for all the Muslims.

Sixthly:

When ‘Uthmaan made copies of the Qur’aan, he did so according to one style (harf), but he omitted the dots and vowel points so that some other styles could also be accommodated. So the Mus-haf that was copied in his time could be read according to other styles, and whatever styles were accommodated by the Mus-haf of ‘Uthmaan remained in use, and the styles that could not be accommodated fell into disuse. The people had started to criticize one another for reciting differently, so ‘Uthmaan united them by giving them one style of the Qur’aan.

Seventhly:

Your saying that Mujaahid’s different recitations meant the seven styles (ahruf) is not correct, as was said by Shaykh al-Islam ibn Taymiyyah. (Majmoo’ah al-Fatawa, vol. 13, p. 210) ...

Islam Q&A (www.islam-qa.com)

(Question #5142: The revelation of the Qur’aan in seven styles (ahruf, sing. harf); bold and capital emphasis ours)

Imagine, if you would, what Abualrub would have said if Christians claimed that the Bible had been transmitted in seven different versions, or readings, and that each reading has come through two transmissions, totaling fourteen versions! And this doesn’t even apply to the English translations of the Quran, but solely to the alleged Arabic original which Abualrub claims he is able to produce!

For more on this subject, please read the following articles:

http://answering-islam.org/PQ/notrevealed.htm#top
http://answering-islam.org/Green/seven.htm
http://answering-islam.org/Green/originof.htm

The truth of the matter is that the Holy Bible has vastly superior textual, historical, archaeological, and documentary evidence than the Quran. The Holy Bible is better attested in terms of manuscript evidence and textual purity as the following links show:

http://debate.org.uk/topics/history/qur_hist.htm
http://debate.org.uk/topics/history/bib-qur/contents.htm
http://answering-islam.org/Campbell/s3c3a.html
http://answering-islam.org/Campbell/s3c3b.html
http://answering-islam.org/Campbell/s3c3c.html
http://answering-islam.org/Campbell/s3c3d.html
http://answering-islam.org/Campbell/s3c3ef.html
http://www.christian-thinktank.com/stil09.html
http://www.tektonics.org/lp/nttextcrit.html
http://answering-islam.org/Quran/Text/index.html

Abualrub continues:

How can ‘God’, be Closer in Pronunciation to, ‘Elohiym’, ‘Il’, ‘Ilu’, ‘Ilah’, than ‘Allah’?

‘God’, Was Never Used in Any Ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek or Latin Judaeo-Christian Scripture Manuscripts

This is an extraordinary, clear testimony regarding the etymology of the Word, ‘God’, that is found in, The Catholic Encyclopedia : ( http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06608x.htm ) . Catholicism, much older and much larger than Protestantism, is also the largest Christian religion in the present time. The only comments made here was that I bold-faced and underlined certain sections of this article to emphasis their content.

" Etymology of the Word ‘God’: (Anglo-Saxon God; German Gott; akin to Persian khoda; Hindu khooda). God can variously be defined as : the proper name of the one Supreme and Infinite Personal Being, the Creator and Ruler of the universe, to whom man owes obedience and worship; the common or generic name of the several supposed beings to whom, in polytheistic religions, Divine attributes are ascribed and Divine worship rendered; the name sometimes applied to an idol as the image or dwelling-place of a god. The root-meaning of the name (from Gothic root gheu; Sanskrit hub or emu, "to invoke or to sacrifice to") is either "the one invoked" or "the one sacrificed to." From different Indo-Germanic roots (div, "to shine" or "give light"; "thes" in thessasthai "to implore") come the Indo-Iranian deva, Sanskrit dyaus (gen. divas), Latin deus, Greek theos, Irish and Gaelic dia, all of which are generic names; also Greek Zeus (gen. Dios, Latin Jupiter (jovpater), Old Teutonic Tiu or Tiw (surviving in Tuesday), Latin Janus, Diana, and other proper names of pagan deities. The common name most widely used in Semitic occurs as 'el in Hebrew, 'ilu in Babylonian, 'ilah in Arabic, etc.; and though scholars are not agreed on the point, the root-meaning most probably is "the strong or mighty one. "

The so-called ‘holy’ Islamic books that Winn claims to have relied on while writing his book are much older historically than any English Bible that contains the word ‘God’ and came into existence centuries before the King James Version of the Bible¹³.

The Arabs, children of Prophet Ishmael (Isma`el), and the Israelites, children of Prophet Jacob (Ya`qub), are cousins, being the children of Prophet Abraham (Ibrahim), as the Bible itself declares. Genesis 16:1-15 , states, " 1. Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar…3. And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian…and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife14…15. And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son's name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael. " Further, ‘Elohiym’, is Hebrew for, ‘Allah’. Abraham was an Arab, from Iraq (Babylon) and the Hebrew people are his descendants, just as the Arabs. The Hebrew legacy started with Abraham ( Genesis 14: 13 , " Abram the Hebrew. " ) and the children of Israel. The Arabic Language is much older than the Hebrew, and the Creator has always been called, ‘Allah’, in Arabic.

Conclusion: the Name of the Creator is, ‘Allah’, not, ‘God’. Craig Winn slandered his Creator, the True Creator of everything and everyone, including Jesus and his mother.

RESPONSE:

Instead of wasting his time looking under the word God in the Encyclopedia, Abualrub should have looked for the word Allah, since this is what he would have found:

Allah

The name of God in Arabic. It is a compound word from the article, 'al, and ilah, divinity, and signifies "the god" par excellence. This form of the divine name is in itself a sure proof that ilah was at one time an appellative, common to ALL the local and tribal gods. GRADUALLY, with the addition of the article, it was restricted to one of them who took precedence of the others; finally, with the triumph of monotheism, He was recognized as the only true God. In one form or another this Hebrew root occurs in all Semitic languages as a designation of the Divinity; but whether it was originally a proper name, pointing to a primitive monotheism, with subsequent deviation into polytheism and further rehabilitation, or was from the beginning an appellative which became a proper name only when the Semites had reached monotheism is a much debated question. It is certain, however, that before the time of Mohammed, owing to their contact with Jews and Christians, the Arabs were generally monotheists. The notion of Allah in Arabic theology is substantially the same as that of God among the Jews, and also among the Christians, with the exception of the Trinity, which is positively excluded in the Koran, cxii: "Say God, is one God, the eternal God, he begetteth not, neither is he begotten and there is not any one like unto him." His attributes denied by the heterodox Motazilites, are ninety-nine in number. Each one of them is represented by a bead in the Moslem chaplet, while on the one hundredth and larger bead, the name of Allah itself is pronounced. It is preposterous to assert with Curtiss (Ursemitische Religion, 119) that the nomadic tribes of Arabia, consider seriously the Oum-el-Gheith, "mother of the rain", as the bride of Allah and even if the expression were used such symbolical language would not impair, in the least, the purity of monotheism held by those tribes. (Cf. Revue Biblique, Oct., 1906, 580 sqq.) Let it be noted that although Allah is an Arabic term, it is used by all Moslems, whatever be their language, as the name of God. (Source; underline and capital emphasis ours)

This Encyclopedia is not alone in suggesting that Allah is originally a contraction of two words, al (the definite article) and ilah (common noun for deity or god). There seems to be somewhat of a scholarly consensus that this is the probable origin of Allah. Yet, many Muslims believe that Allah isn’t derived, but happens to be the eternal name of their god:

CONCERNING the real significance of the Arabic word Allah there has been much speculation and endless discussion among Moslem exegetes and lexicographers. The author of the Muheet-el-Muheet dictionary, a Christian, says: "Allah is the name of necessary Being. There are twenty different views as to the derivation of this name of the Supreme; the most probable is that its root is iläh, the past participle form, on the measure fi'äl, from the verb ilaho = to worship, to which the article was prefixed to indicate the supreme object of worship." When we open the pages of Ferozabadi, Beidhawi or Zamakhshari and read some of these twenty other derivations we find ourselves at the outset before an unknown God. The intellectual difficulty was a real one to the Moslem exegete, as he must discover some root and some theory of derivation that is not in conflict with his accepted idea of God. Beidhawi, for example, suggests that Allah is derived "from an [invented] root ilaha to be in perplexity, because the mind is perplexed when it tries to form the idea of the Infinite!" Yet more fanciful are the other derivations given and the Arabic student can satisfy his curiosity in Beidhawi, Vol. I., pp. 5 and 6.

According to the opinion of some Moslem theologians, it is infidelity (kufr) to hold that the word has any derivation whatever! This is the opinion of the learned in Eastern Arabia. They say "God is not begotten," and so if is name cannot be derived. He is the first, and had an Arabic name before the creation of the words. Allah is an eternal combination of letters written on the throne in Arabic and each stroke and curve has mystical meaning. Mohammed, they teach, received the revelation of this name and was the first to preach the divine unity among the Arabs by declaring it. This kind of argument is of one piece with all that Moslems tell us of "the days of ignorance" before the prophet. But history establishes beyond the shadow of a doubt that even the pagan Arabs, before Mohammed's time, knew their chief god by the name of Allah and even, in a sense, proclaimed His unity. In pre-Islamic literature, Christian or pagan, ilah IS USED FOR ANY GOD and Al-ilah (contracted to Allah), i.e., the god, was the name of the Supreme. Among the pagan Arabs this term denoted the chief god of their pantheon, the Kaaba, with its three hundred and sixty idols. Herodotus informs us (Lib. III, cap. viii.) that in his day the Arabs had two principal deities, Orotal and Alilat. The former is doubtless a corruption of Allah Taal, God most high, a term very common in the Moslem vocabulary; the latter is Al Lat, mentioned as a pagan goddess in the Koran. Two of the pagan poets of Arabia, Nabiga and Labid,¹ use the word Allah repeatedly in the sense of a supreme deity. Nabiga says (Diwan, poem I., verses 23, 24): "Allah has given them a kindness and grace which others have not. Their abode is the God (Al-ilah) himself and their religion is strong," etc.

Labid says: "Neither those who divine by striking stones or watching birds, know what Allah has just created."²

Ash-Shabristani says of the pagan Arabs that some of them "believed in a Creator and a creation, but denied Allah's prophets and worshipped false gods, concerning whom they believed that in the next world they would become mediators between themselves and Allah." And Ibn Hisham, the earliest biographer of Mohammed whose work is extant, admits that the tribes of Kinanah and Koreish used the following words when performing the pre-Islamic ceremony of ihlal. ¹ "We are present in thy service, O God. Thou hast no partner except the partner of thy dread. Thou ownest him and whatsoever he owneth."

As final proof, we have the fact that centuries before Mohammed the Arabian Kaaba, or temple at Mecca, was called Beit-Allah, the house of God and not Beit-el-Alihet, the house of idols or gods. Now if even the pagan Arabs acknowledged Allah as Supreme, surely the Hanifs (that band of religious reformers at Mecca which rejected all polytheism and sought freedom from sin by resignation to God's will) were not far from the idea of the Unity of God. It was henotheism² in the days of paganism and the Hanifs led the way for Mohammed to preach absolute monotheism. The Koran often calls Abraham a Hanif and stoutly affirms that he was not a Jew or a Christian (Surahs 2:129; 3:60, 89; 6:162; 16:121, etc.). Among the Hanifs of Mohammed's time were Waraka, the prophet's cousin, and Zaid bin 'Amr, surnamed the Inquirer. Both exerted decided influence on Islam and its teaching. (Zwemer, The Moslem Doctrine of God, pp. 23-27; underline and capital emphasis ours)

It is interesting that Herodotus identified Orotal with the pagan god, Bacchus:

[3.8] The Arabs keep such pledges more religiously than almost any other people. They plight faith with the forms following. When two men would swear a friendship, they stand on each side of a third: he with a sharp stone makes a cut on the inside of the hand of each near the middle finger, and, taking a piece from their dress, dips it in the blood of each, and moistens therewith seven stones lying in the midst, calling the while on Bacchus and Urania. After this, the man who makes the pledge commends the stranger (or the citizen, if citizen he be) to all his friends, and they deem themselves bound to stand to the engagement. They have but these two gods, to wit, Bacchus and Urania; and they say that in their mode of cutting the hair, they follow Bacchus. Now their practice is to cut it in a ring, away from the temples. Bacchus they call in their language Orotal, and Urania, Alilat. (Source; see also this article)

Thus, if Orotal is a corruption of Allah Taal, then this strongly supports the position that, in pre-Islamic Mecca, Allah wasn’t identified with Yahweh God of the Bible.

Allah is supposed to be derived from ilah a deity or god, with the addition of the definite article al- Al-ilah, "the God" - or according to some authorities, it is from lah, ie Allah, "the secret one." But Abu Hanifah says that just as the essence of God is unchangeable, so is His name, and that Allah has ever been the name of the Eternal Being (See Ghiyasu-'l-Lughah.)

Allah may be an Arabic rendered of the Hebrew el, and the unused root ul, "to be strong", or from , the singular form of. It is expressed in Persian and Hindustani by the word Khuda derived from the Persian khud, self; the self-existing one. (Hughes' Dictionary of Islam, p. 141; online edition; underline emphasis ours)

The name Allah does not help us much. It is made up of the definite article al and the root 'ilh "god," derived from the same root as the Hebrew 'eloah, sometimes employed in Hebrew poetry for "God"' the plural of which, 'elohim, is the most common general designation of deity in the Old Testament. Etymologists sometimes debate whether 'ilah may not be derived from the verb 'ilaha, which means "to fear," "be perplexed," "to adore." In all probability the root was at first the name of deity, signifying "the terrible one," and the verb was derived from the noun. All this, however, lay far back in Semitic heathenism. In the Old Testament Elohim means "God" (sometimes "gods") and in Moslem parlance Al-lah simply means: "the God", i.e., " the One True God." (Source; underline emphasis ours)

Title:
The Origin of the word 'Allah'

Question:
What is the derivation of the word "Allah"? Some scholars say it derives from al+ illah ("the God"), but many Muslim Ulema and translators of the Qur'an (such as Maulana Muhammad Ali) disagree with this, and say that "Allah" is whole in itself, as A PROPER NAME for the Supreme Creator. But is there any philological relationship between Allah and other Semitic terms for "God" such as Eloah (Hebrew) and Alaha (Aramaic/Syriac)?

Thank you.

Peace and blessings of Allah be with you.

Answer:

Although a lot has been said about the philology of the word 'Allah', however, in my opinion, the former of the two opinions noted by you seems to be closer to the correct one. A detailed discussion compiling the opinions of various scholars of the Arabic language regarding the origin of the word can be seen in "Lisaan al-Arab" under the word "Aaliha" (a-l-h). In my opinion, 'Allah' is an Arabic word meaning 'the God'. According to the general principle of making proper nouns from common nouns in the Arabic language, the word "ilah" (common noun) has been converted to "al-ilah", which became "Allah" due to the turgidity and the slight difficulty of pronouncing the word "al-ilah".

The Qur'an, because its prime and first addressees were the Arabs, used the word "Allah" for the Supreme Being, as that had traditionally been the word used for the Supreme Being in that language. The same had been the case in the older scriptures. Those scriptures, like the Qur'an, used the particular words for the Supreme Being, which were already in vogue in those languages, to refer to the Supreme Being.

However, there have been scholars of the Arabic language who ascribe to the opinion that "Allah" is THE ACTUAL NAME of the Supreme Being. It is indeed important to analyze the evidence that they have provided to support their opinion. Nevertheless, I feel that to give God a name is a requirement of us, humans. God, being the absolute being is in no need for a name. (Source; as accessed on 25 February 2005; underline and capital emphasis ours)

(al´e, ä´le), [Arab.,=the God]. Derived from an old Semitic root referring to the Divine and used in the Canaanite El, the Mesopotamian ilu, and the biblical Elohim, the word Allah is used by all Arabic-speaking Muslims, Christians, Jews, and others. Allah, as a deity, was probably known in pre-Islamic Arabia. Arabic chronicles suggest a pre-Islamic recognition of Allah as a supreme God, with the three goddesses al-Lat, al-Uzza, and Manat as his "daughters." The Prophet Muhammad, declaring Allah the God of Abraham, demanded a return to a strict monotheism. Islam supplements Allah as the name of God with the 99 most beautiful names (asma Allah al-husna), understood as nondescriptive mnemonic guides to the Divine attributes. (Source; bold emphasis ours)

It is a known fact that every language has one or more terms that are used in reference to God and sometimes to lesser deities. This is not the case with Allah. Allah is the personal name of the One true God. Nothing else can be called Allah. The term has no plural or gender. This shows its uniqueness when compared with the word god which can be made plural, gods, or feminine, goddess. It is interesting to notice that Allah is the personal name of God in Aramaic, the language of Jesus and a sister language of Arabic. (Source; underline emphasis ours)

There are several points to be made regarding this name. From al-Qurtubi's tafseer of the basmalah in the Qur'aan, we find the following related to the meaning of this name:

- Nothing else has this name; it is not found in female or plural form.
- Some scholars say this is His greatest and most complete name.
- It has three possible meanings: the One who deserves to be worshipped, the One whose existence is a must (He has always been and always shall be), and the Unique One.

Many scholars have said this name is derived, but have differed on what it is derived from:

- some have said "ilaah", with the "alif-lam" replacing the "hamza". Seebawiyyah said similarly "Al-naas" comes from "Anaas".
- some have said "laah", with the "alif-lam" used for magnification.
- "al-ilaah", with the hamza being removed and then the two "laam"s being mixed together.
- "walah" = to lose one's wits, as in while contemplating Him, trying to understand Him, we become bewildered. And "ilaah" is then derived from "walaah".
- some have said that it is the object of when the creation "yata'alahoona" to Allaah for their needs, that is, we turn to Him as our deity and ask of Him.
- from being High, as the Arabs used to say about raising something: "laaha".
- from the letter "haa" which is the pronoun for He who is absent, and added to it is "laam" to indicate ownership ("laam al-milk") since He owns everything, and finally added to that is "alif-laam" to magnify Him.

A group of scholars have said it is not derived, and that the "alif-laam" is an integral part of the name, and not the definite article. They say that the proof is that we call upon Him with "yaa Allaah", and we do not drop the "alif-laam" and say "yaa laah". Note that, for His other names like "ar-ra7maan", we say "yaa ra7maan".

And Allaah knows best. (Source)

It is interesting to note that the Aramaic word "El", which is the word for God in the language that Jesus spoke, is certainly more similar in sound to the word "Allah" than the English word "God". This also holds true for the various Hebrew words for God, which are "El" and "Elah", and the plural form "Elohim". The reason for these similarities is that Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic are all Semitic languages with common origins. It should also be noted that in translating the Bible into English, the Hebrew word "El" is translated variously as "God", "god" and "angel"! This imprecise language allows different translators, based on their preconceived notions, to translate the word to fit their own views. The Arabic word "Allah" presents no such difficulty or ambiguity, since it is only used for Almighty God alone. Additionally, in English, the only difference between "god", meaning a false god, and "God", meaning the One True God, is the capital "G". In the Arabic alphabet, since it does not have capital letters, the word for God (i.e. Allah) is formed by adding the equivalent to the English word "the" (Al-) to the Arabic word for "god/God" (ilah). So the Arabic word "Allah" literally it means "The God" - the "Al-" in Arabic basically serving the same function as the capital "G" in English. Due to the above mentioned facts, a more accurate translation of the word "Allah" into English might be "The One -and-Only God" or "The One True God". (Squires, Who is Allah?: Source)

The foregoing information poses one of two problems for Abualrub’s theory.

First off, if Allah is in fact a contraction of two words, al and ilah, then Abualrub is wrong in saying that Allah is Arabic for elohim. Elohim is the plural form of eloah, and in neither case do we find the definite article forming part of the words themselves as we find with Allah. The definite article in Hebrew is ha, not al, and if one wanted to speak of THE God in Hebrew, he would have to attach the definite article to the words that are commonly used for God in the Hebrew Bible (i.e., el, eloah, elohim etc.). Notice the following examples:

"After that God said to Jacob: ‘Rise, go up to Beth´el and dwell there, and make an altar there to the God (ha el) who appeared to you when you were running away from E´sau your brother.’ … and let us rise and go up to Beth´el. And there I shall make an altar to the God (ha el) who answered me in the day of my distress in that he proved to be with me in the way that I have gone." Genesis 35:1, 3

"You—you have been shown, so as to know that Jehovah is the God (ha elohim); there is no other besides him… And you well know today, and you must call back to your heart that Jehovah is the God (ha elohim) in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. There is no other." Deuteronomy 4:35, 39

"Thus said God (ha el), Jehovah, preparing The heavens, and stretching them out, Spreading out the earth and its productions, Giving breath to the people on it, And spirit to those walking in it." Isaiah 42:5 YLT

Secondly, despite the fact that the word ilah comes from the same Semitic field of words from which we get eloah, el, il, etc., these words were never used exclusively for the true God, but could be used for any deity worshiped by any person or groups, as both the Bible and Quran show:

"Go and cry out to the gods (ha elohim) whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress." Judges 10:14

"God (elohim) has stood in the company of God (el), In the midst of the gods (elohim) he judges… I said, ‘You are gods (elohim), sons of the Most High, all of you;’" Psalm 82:1, 6

I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the god (el) of the heathen; he shall surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness. Ezekiel 31:11

And the king shall do as he wills. He shall exalt himself and magnify himself above EVERY god (el), and shall speak astonishing things against the God of gods (El elim). He shall prosper till the indignation is accomplished; for what is decreed shall be done. Daniel 11:36

"Know ye that Jehovah, he is God (elohim): It is he that hath made us, and we are his; We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture." Psalm 100:3 ASV

"Then E·li´jah approached all the people and said: ‘How long will YOU be limping upon two different opinions? If Jehovah is the [true] God (ha elohim), go following him; but if Ba´al is, go following him.’ And the people did not say a word in answer to him. And E·li´jah went on to say to the people: ‘I myself have been left as a prophet of Jehovah, I alone, while the prophets of Ba´al are four hundred and fifty men. Now let them give us two young bulls, and let them choose for themselves one young bull and cut it in pieces and put it upon the wood, but they should not put fire to it. And I myself shall dress the other young bull, and I must place it upon the wood, but I shall not put fire to it. And YOU must call upon the name of YOUR god (elohehkhem, plural of eloah), and I, for my part, shall call upon the name of Jehovah; and it must occur that the [true] God (ha elohim) that answers by fire is the [true] God (ha elohim).’ To this all the people answered and said: ‘The thing is good.’ E·li´jah now said to the prophets of Ba´al: ‘Choose for yourselves one young bull and dress it first, because YOU are the majority; and call upon the name of YOUR god (elohim), but YOU must not put fire to it.’ Accordingly they took the young bull that he gave them. Then they dressed it, and they kept calling upon the name of Ba´al from morning till noon, saying: "O Ba´al, answer us!" But there was no voice, and there was no one answering. And they kept limping around the altar that they had made. And it came about at noon that E·li´jah began to mock them and say: "Call at the top of YOUR voice, for he is a god (elohim); for he must be concerned with a matter, and he has excrement and has to go to the privy. Or maybe he is asleep and ought to wake up!’ And they began calling at the top of their voice and cutting themselves according to their custom with daggers and with lances, until they caused blood to flow out upon them. And it came about that, as soon as noon was past and they continued behaving as prophets until the going up of the grain offering, there was no voice, and there was no one answering, and there was no paying of attention… And it came about at the time that the grain offering goes up that E·li´jah the prophet began to approach and say: ‘O Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, today let it be known that you are God (elohim) in Israel and I am your servant and it is by your word that I have done all these things. Answer me, O Jehovah, answer me, that this people may know that you, Jehovah, are the [true] God (ha elohim) and you yourself have turned their heart back.’ At that the fire of Jehovah came falling and went eating up the burnt offering and the pieces of wood and the stones and the dust, and the water that was in the trench it licked up. When all the people saw it, they immediately fell upon their faces and said: ‘Jehovah is the [true] God (ha elohim)! Jehovah is the [true] God (ha elohim)!’" 1 Kings 18:21-29, 36-39

"The house that I am to build will be great, for our God is greater than all gods (ha elohim)." 2 Chronicles 2:5

"There is none like you among the gods (ha elohim), O Lord, nor are there any works like yours." Psalm 86:8

In the Aramaic portions of Ezra, Jeremiah, and Daniel, the word used for God or the gods is elah, which corresponds to the Hebrew eloah:

"Thus you shall say to them, ‘The gods (elahaiya) that did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.’" Jeremiah 10:11

"Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, and told them to seek mercy from the God (elah) of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his companions might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. Then Daniel blessed the God (elah) of heaven. Daniel answered and said: ‘Blessed be the name of God (elaha) forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might.’" Daniel 2:18-20

Note how the biblical authors used elohim, eloah, el, elim (plural of el), Aramaic elah etc., for the true God, but also for any god, gods, goddesses, and/or even human beings that the peoples worshiped. These words are also used for God’s agents, whether angels or humans such as prophets, priests etc. The above passages, therefore, indicate that none of these words were considered to be exclusive names of the true God, but served as generic nouns or descriptions of anyone or anything which was taken as an object of worship or considered mighty and strong.

God there is no god (la ilaha) but He, the Living, the Everlasting. Slumber seizes Him not, neither sleep; to Him belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth. Who is there that shall intercede with Him save by His leave? He knows what lies before them and what is after them, and they comprehend not anything of His knowledge save such as He wills. His Throne comprises the heavens and earth; the preserving of them oppresses Him not; He is the All-high, the All-glorious. S. 2:255

They have taken as lords beside Allah their rabbis and their monks and the Messiah son of Mary, when they were bidden to worship only One God (ilahan wahidan). There is no God (ilaha) save Him. Be He Glorified from all that they ascribe as partner (unto Him)! S. 9:31

Your God is One God (Ilahukum ilahun wahidan). But as for those who believe not in the Hereafter their hearts refuse to know, for they are proud. S. 16:22

Allah hath said: Choose not two gods (ilahayni). There is only One God (ilahun wahidun). So of Me, Me only, be in awe. S. 16:51

If there were therein gods (alihatun) beside Allah, then verily both (the heavens and the earth) had been disordered. Glorified be Allah, the Lord of the Throne, from all that they ascribe (unto Him). S. 21:22

Say: It is only inspired in me that your God is One God (ilahukum ilahun wahidun). Will ye then surrender (unto Him)? S. 21:108

And argue not with the People of the Scripture unless it be in (a way) that is better, save with such of them as do wrong; and say: We believe in that which hath been revealed unto us and revealed unto you; our God and your God is One (wa-ilahuna wa-ilahukum wahidun), and unto Him we surrender. S. 29:46

Most surely your God (ilahakum) is One: S. 37:4

And He it is Who in the heaven is God (ilahun), and in the earth God (ilahun). He is the Wise, the Knower. S. 43:84

In the above examples, the author uses the word ilah when speaking either of the false gods of the pagans, or when affirming that Allah is the one and only God or ilah. He doesn’t use the word Allah, implying that the author didn’t view Allah as a generic noun applicable for any deity. These passages seem to presuppose that Allah functions as the proper name of the deity preached by Muhammad.

We earlier had cited some Muslim sources which agreed that Allah was a proper name. Dr. Jamal Badawi is another Muslim who essentially argues that Allah is the proper name of the god of Muhammad. In his debate with Dr. Robert Morey, which took place on November 9, 1996 in Columbia at the University of South Carolina, titled, "Is the 'Allah' of the Qur'an the one true and universal God?," he approvingly cited some scholarly sources to prove that Allah was the God of the Bible, or at least an applicable term denoting the true God of all. One of his sources, The Shorter Encyclopedia of Islam (1965), says that Allah,

"... was and is the proper name of God among Muslims ..." (underline emphasis ours)

Some other references that he cited regarding Allah being a proper name include the following:

Presented in Islam as the proper name of God. (Encyclopedia of Religion, 1987, p. 27; underline emphasis ours)

The proper name of God among Muslims ... (Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, 1962, Volume 1, p. 326; underline emphasis ours)

What this basically comes down to is that if the word Allah is derived from ilah, then there is nothing special in the Muslim god being called Allah. Allah, much like the English word God, just so happens to be a generic noun that can be used for any deity, not just for the true God of the Holy Bible. Thus, just because Muslims call their god Allah doesn’t mean that they are worshiping the same true God as revealed in the Holy Bible. In other words, even though Arab speaking Jews and Arabic Christians use the word Allah when speaking of the God they believe in, this doesn’t mean that they have the same God in mind as the Muslims.

If, on the other hand, Muslims claim that Allah is not derived from ilah, but is the eternal, unchangeable name of their god, then this only proves that the god revealed in Islam cannot be the true God revealed in Holy Scripture. The everlasting name of the true God of the Holy Bible is not Allah, nor is it el, elohim, eloah, elah etc. The proper name of the God of Abraham is Yahweh (Jehovah):

"God also said to Moses, ‘Say this to the people of Israel, "Yahweh [YHWH], the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you." This is my name FOREVER, and thus I am to be remembered throughout ALL GENERATIONS.’" Exodus 3:15

"God spoke to Moses and said to him, ‘I am Yahweh. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by MY NAME Yahweh I did not make myself known to them.’" Exodus 6:2-3

"Yahweh is a man of war; Yahweh is his name. Exodus 15:3

"that they may know that you alone, whose name is Yahweh, are the Most High over all the earth." Psalm 83:18

"I am Yahweh; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols." Isaiah 42:8

"And Yahweh will be king over all the earth; in that day Yahweh will be the only one, and His NAME the only one." Zechariah 14:9

As the following Bible dictionary puts it:

Strictly speaking, Yahweh, is the only ‘name’ of God. In Genesis wherever the word sem (‘name’) is associated with the divine being that name is Yahweh. When Abraham or Isaac built an altar ‘he called on the name of Yahweh’ (Gn. xii. 8, xxvi. 25).

... Yahweh, therefore, in contrast with Elohim, is a proper noun, the name of a Person, though that Person is divine. As such, it has its own ideological setting; it presents God as a Person, and so brings Him in to relationship with other, human, personalities. It brings God near to man, and He speaks to the Patriarchs as one friend to another. (The New Bible Dictionary, J.D. Douglas, organizing editor [William B. Erdmans Publsihing Company, Grand Rapids, MI; reprinted, April 1967], p. 478)

It is truly astonishing that the name Yahweh does not appear even once in the entire Quran, despite its repeated claim that it comes from the same true God of Abraham! The Quran in several places claims to be complete. If the Quran is a book complete in and of itself, why does it nowhere contain the name of God as revealed to His previous prophets?

The late James Hastings beautifully summed up the Muslim dilemma in his monumental Encyclopedia:

ALLAH is the proper name of God among Muslims, corresponding in usage to Jehovah (Jahweh) among the Hebrews. Thus it is NOT to be regarded as a common noun meaning 'God' (or 'god') and the Muslim MUST USE ANOTHER WORD OR FORM if he wishes to indicate any other than his own peculiar deity. Similarly, no plural can be formed from it, and though the liberal Muslim may admit that Christians or Jews call upon Allah, he could never speak of the Allah of the Christians or the Allah of the Jews. Among current Arabic Bible versions, 'God' ... [Elohim] is uniformly rendered Allah, but when 'the Lord God' ... [YHVH Elohim] occurs, it is rendered ar-rabbu-l-ilahu, 'the Lord, the Ilah,' where 'the Ilah' is an uncontracted form retaining its force of a common noun with the article, from which Allah has been shortened through usage. The Muslim, too, who usually derives and explains Ilah as meaning 'worshipped,' uses it and its plural Alihai in the broadest way, of any god, explaining that such is possible because worshippers believe that their god has a claim to worship, and 'names follow beliefs, not what the thing is in itself' (Lisan, xvii. 358). But more ordinarily, in referring to the gods of the heathen, a Muslim speaks simply of their images or idols, asnam, authan.

... Muhammad found the Meccans believing in a supreme God whom they called Allah, thus already contracted. With Allah, however, they associated other minor deities, some evidently tribal, others called daughters of Allah. Muhammad's reform was to assert the solitary existence of Allah...

Naturally, this precise historical origin is not clear to the Muslim exegetes and theologians. But that Allah is a proper name, applicable only to their peculiar God, they are certain, and they mostly recognize that its force as a proper name has arisen through contraction in form and limited in usage. (Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, p. 326; underline emphasis and comments within brackets are ours)

Hastings knew that Allah functioned as the proper name of the god worshiped by Muslims, much like Jehovah, and wasn't simply a common generic noun denoting any deity.

Now Abualrub may argue that the exact pronunciation of Yahweh has been lost, thereby proving that this name is not the one eternal name which God wanted to be known by. This is irrelevant for at least two reasons. First, the Hebrew Scriptures still retain the consonants of the name Yahweh, i.e. Yodh He Waw He, and therefore haven’t been lost. Second, there is plenty of evidence showing that the proper way of pronouncing the four consonants (also known as the Tetragrammaton) is by adding a and e to them, whereby we get Yahweh:

Overwhelming scholarly opinion holds that [YHVH] was in Moses' time pronounced ... (Yahveh). There is also a shorter form of the Name, Yah ... which may represent the original from which Yahveh was expanded or may, contrariwise, be a contraction of the longer ascription..." (The Torah: A Modern Commentary, edited by W. Gunther Plaut [Union of American Hebrew Congregations, New York, 1981], p. 426; words in brackets ours)

The judicious reader will perceive that the Samaritan pronunciation Jabe probably approaches the real sound of the Divine name closest; the other early writers transmit only abbreviations or corruptions of the sacred name. Inserting the vowels of Jabe into the original Hebrew consonant text, we obtain the form Jahveh (Yahweh), which has been generally accepted by modern scholars as the true pronunciation of the Divine name. It is not merely closely connected with the pronunciation of the ancient synagogue by means of the Samaritan tradition, but it also allows the legitimate derivation of all the abbreviations of the sacred name in the Old Testament. (Source; bold emphasis ours)

Based on philology and representations in ancient languages such as Greek (see below), most scholars consider this [Yahweh] the original pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton. This form has been used in Christian translations such as the Jerusalem Bible. (Source)

Church Fathers and Magic Papyri.

The cures, or the exorcisms, of demons in the name of Jesus which are mentioned in the New Testament and the Talmud (see Exorcism) imply that Jesus was regarded as a god and that his name was considered as efficacious as the Tetragrammaton itself, for which it was even substituted. It was in connection with magic that the Tetragrammaton was introduced into the magic papyri and, in all probability, into the writings of the Church Fathers, these two sources containing the following forms, written in Greek letters: (1) "Iaoouee," "Iaoue," "Iabe,"; (2) "Iao," "Iaho," "Iae"; (3) "Aia"; (4) "Ia." It is evident that (1) represents , (2) , (3) , and (4) . The three forms quoted under (1) are merely three ways of writing the same word, though "Iabe" is designated as the Samaritan pronunciation. There are external and internal grounds for this assumption; for the very agreement of the Jewish, Christian, heathen, and Gnostic statements proves that they undoubtedly give the actual pronunciation (Stade's "Zeitschrift," iii. 298; Dalman, l.c. p. 41; Deissmann, "Bibelstudien," pp. 1-20; Blau, l.c. p. 133). The "mystic quadriliteral name" (Clement, "Stromata," ed. Dindorf, iii. 25, 27) was well known to the Gnostics, as is shown by the fact that the third of the eight eons of one of their systems of creation was called "the unpronounced," the fourth "the invisible," and the seventh "the unnamed," terms which are merely designations of the Tetragrammaton (Blau, l.c. p. 127). Even the Palestinian Jews had inscribed the letters of the Name on amulets (Shab. 115b; Blau, l.c. pp. 93-96); and, in view of the frequency with which the appellations of foreign deities were employed in magic, it was but natural that heathen magicians should show an especial preference for this "great and holy name," knowing its pronunciation as they knew the names of their own deities.

Meaning and Etymology.

It thus becomes possible to determine with a fair degree of certainty the historical pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton, the results agreeing with the statement of Ex. iii. 14, in which Yhwh terms Himself "I will be," a phrase which is immediately preceded by the fuller term "I will be that I will be," or, as in the English versions, "I am" and "I am that I am." The name is accordingly derived from the root (= ), and is regarded as an imperfect. This passage is decisive for the pronunciation "Yahweh"; for the etymology was undoubtedly based on the known word. The oldest exegetes, such as Onkelos, and the Targumim of Jerusalem and pseudo-Jonathan regard "Ehyeh" and "Ehyeh asher Ehyeh" as the name of the Divinity, and accept the etymology of "hayah" = "to be" (comp. Samuel b. Meïr, commentary on Ex. iii. 14). Modern critics, some of whom, after the lapse of centuries, correct the Hebrew texts without regard to the entire change of point of view and mode of thought, are dissatisfied with this etymology; and their various hypotheses have resulted in offering the following definitions: (1) he who calls into being, or he who gives promises; (2) the creator of life; (3) he who makes events, or history; (4) the falling one, the feller, i.e., the stormgod who hurls the lightning; (5) he who sends down the rain (W. R. Smith, "The Old Testament," p. 123); (6) the hurler; (7) the destroyer; (8) the breather, the weather-god (Wellhausen). All these meanings are obtained by doing violence to the Hebrew text (Herzog-Hauck, "Real-Encyc." viii. 536 et seq.). (Source; bold emphasis ours)

It is very likely that the name was actually pronounced very much like "Yahweh." Comparisons with transliterations of the name into other alphabets from very ancient times confirm this. The best argument for this spelling is that it is probably historically accurate. However, it is less familiar than Jehovah, and it seems to many to be an unnecessary striving to try and change to the form which is probably more correct. Actually, all the names which begin with "J" in our English Bibles were pronounced in their original language with a "Y" sound, as in "hallelu-Yah." (World's Bible Dictionary, Katherine Harris ed. [Word Publishing, Nashville TN, 2004], p. 444)

One line of evidence supporting this rendering and pronunciation comes from the NT itself:

"After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, ‘Hallelujah (‘Allelouia)!’ Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, … Once more they cried out, ‘Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.’ And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, ‘Amen. Hallelujah!’ … Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.’" Revelation 19:1, 3-4, 6

The word ‘Allelouia is Greek for Hebrew Hallelujah (Halleluyah), meaning "praise to Yah," Yah being an abbreviation for Yahweh. Greek, unlike biblical Hebrew, does include vowels, showing that the Yodh He of the divine name should be pronounced Yah.

More importantly, this argument would actually discredit Muhammad, since the claim of Muslims is that Muhammad came to restore the faith. If Muhammad was a prophet of God sent to restore the true religion of God, why did God not reveal to him the correct way to pronounce His name, of which Yahweh Himself said "This is my name FOREVER"? That Muhammad did not acknowledge Yahweh as the name of God, which even other non-Israelites acknowledged as being His name (i.e., Job is an example), is further evidence that his witness is not in accord with that of the prophets of God.

There are other reasons proving that Allah of Islam is not the true God of the Holy Bible, Yahweh, some of which we include here:

Yahweh is Father and has children, whereas Allah is not a father to anyone:

Allah says in the Quran:

The Jews say, 'Ezra is the Son of God'; the Christians say, 'The Messiah is the Son of God.' That is the utterance of their mouths, conforming with the unbelievers before them. God assail them! How they are perverted! S. 9:30

And they say, 'The All-merciful has taken unto Himself a son. You have indeed advanced something hideous! The heavens are wellnigh rent of it and the earth split asunder, and the mountains wellnigh fall down crashing for that they have attributed to the All-merciful a son; and it behoves not the All-merciful to take a son. None is there in the heavens and earth but he comes to the All-merciful as a servant; He has indeed counted them, and He has numbered them exactly. Every one of them shall come to Him upon the Day of Resurrection, all alone. S. 19:88-93

Contrast this with what the true God says:

"You neglected the Rock who begot you, And forgot the God who gave you birth." Deuteronomy 32:18

"I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, 'You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.’" Psalm 2:7

"He will cry to Me, 'You are my Father, My God, and the rock of my salvation.' I also shall make him My firstborn, The highest of the kings of the earth." Psalm 89:26-27

"Who has ascended into heaven and descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has wrapped the waters in His garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name or His Son's name? Surely you know!" Proverbs 30:4

"For You are our Father, though Abraham does not know us And Israel does not recognize us You, O LORD, are our Father, Our Redeemer from of old is Your name." Isaiah 63:16, cf. 64:8

"Do we not all have one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously each against his brother so as to profane the covenant of our fathers?" Malachi 2:10

"For this reason seeing the greatness of this plan by which you are built together in Christ], I bow my knees before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, For Whom every family in heaven and on earth is named [that Father from Whom all fatherhood takes its title and derives its name]." Ephesians 3:14-15 Amplified Bible

"Immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him; and a voice came out of the heavens: ‘You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.’" Mark 1:10-11

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." John 3:16-18

According to the Holy Bible, Allah of the Quran is the spirit of Antichrist since he denies both the Fatherhood of God and the Sonship of Christ:

"Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also." 1 John 2:22-23

Abualrub may wish to say that the reason why the Quran never applies the word father to Allah is because of the pagan environment which Muhammad found himself in. Abualrub may reason that the Quran was trying to prevent people from picturing Allah as the pagans did, namely, as a male deity who has a female consort, a goddess, with whom he has sex. The problem with this reasoning is that the Israelites also found themselves surrounded by pagans and pagan conceptions of gods having sex with goddesses or humans. But this still didn’t stop the true God from calling himself Father or of speaking of his people as his children. Yahweh made sure to inform his people that he wasn’t Israel’s father in the way the pagans understood it, since he isn’t a material being who engages in sexual relations with anyone. He was their father in a very real and spiritual way.

Yahweh manifested in human form and took on a human nature. Allah did neither:

"So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, 'Let me go, for it is daybreak.' But Jacob replied, 'I will not let you go unless you bless me.' The man asked him, 'What is your name?' 'Jacob,' he answered. Then the man said, 'Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.' Jacob said, 'Please tell me your name.' But he replied, 'Why do you ask my name?' Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, 'It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.’" Genesis 32:24-30

"Micaiah said, 'Therefore, hear the word of the LORD. I saw the LORD sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right and on His left. The LORD said, "Who will entice Ahab to go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?" And one said this while another said that. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD and said, "I will entice him." The LORD said to him, "How?" And he said, "I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all his prophets." Then He said, "You are to entice him and also prevail. Go and do so." Now therefore, behold, the LORD has put a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; and the LORD has proclaimed disaster against you.'" 1 Kings 22:19-23

"In the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, 'Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.' And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, 'Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.'" Isaiah 6:1-5

"And above the firmament over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne WAS A LIKENESS AS IT WERE OF A HUMAN FORM. And upward from what had the appearance OF HIS LOINS I saw as it were gleaming bronze, like the appearance of fire enclosed round about; and downward from what had the appearance OF HIS LOINS I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness round about him. Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking. AND HE SAID TO ME, ‘Son of man, stand upon your feet, and I will speak with you.’ And when he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me upon my feet; and I heard him speaking to me. AND HE SAID TO ME, ‘Son of man, I SEND YOU TO THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL, to a nation of rebels, WHO HAVE REBELLED AGAINST ME; they and their fathers HAVE TRANSGRESSED AGAINST ME to this very day. The people also are impudent and stubborn: I send you to them; and you shall say to them, "THUS SAYS THE LORD GOD." And whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that there has been a prophet among them. And you, son of man, be not afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you and you sit upon scorpions; be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. And you shall speak MY WORDS TO THEM, whether they hear or refuse to hear; for they are a rebellious house. But you, son of man, hear what I say to you; be not rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth, and eat what I give you.’ And when I looked, behold, A HAND WAS STRETCHED OUT TO ME, and, lo, a written scroll was in it; AND HE SPREAD IT BEFORE ME; and it had writing on the front and on the back, and there were written on it words of lamentation and mourning and woe." Ezekiel 1:26-28, 2:1-10

Ezekiel clearly sees a human figure that he identifies as the glory of the Lord coming to speak to him. The man proceeds to speak to Ezekiel and identifies himself as the sovereign Yahweh. Thus, here is another instance where an OT prophet sees God appearing as a man.

"I kept looking Until thrones were set up, And the Ancient of Days took His seat; His vesture was like white snow And the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, Its wheels were a burning fire. A river of fire was flowing And coming out from before Him; Thousands upon thousands were attending Him, And myriads upon myriads were standing before Him; The court sat, And the books were opened." Daniel 7:9-10

"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 without him was not any thing made that was made… He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him… And the Word BECAME flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:1-3, 10, 14

"For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form," Colossians 2:9

Yahweh is Spirit, and also has an eternal Spirit, whereas Allah is not a spirit:

The following Muslim scholar, while grossly distorting the Bible’s teaching, has this to say about Allah being a spirit:

3. In the third aspect of Tawheed al-Asmaa was-Sifaat Allaah is referred to without giving Him the attributes of His creation. For example, it is claimed in the Bible and Torah that Allaah spent the first six days creating the universe then slept on the seventh.23 For this reason, Jews and Christians take either Saturday or Sunday as a day of rest in which work is looked at as a sin. Such a claim assigns to God the attributes of His creation. It is man who tires after heavy work and needs sleep to recuperate.24 Elsewhere in the Bible and Torah, God is portrayed as repenting for His bad thoughts in the same way that humans do when they realize their errors.25 Similarly the claim that God is a spirit or has a spirit completely ruins this area of Tawheed. Allaah does not refer to Himself as a spirit anywhere in the Qur'aan nor does His Prophet (saws) express anything of that nature in Hadeeth. In fact, Allaah refers to the spirit as part of His creation.26 (Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips, The Fundamentals of Tawheed (Islamic Monotheism), Chapter 1, Tawheed al-Asmaa was-Sifaat (Maintaining the Unity of Allaah's Names and Attributes): Source)

Another website writes:

The spirit or soul is not one of the attributes of Allaah, rather it is one of the things that have been created by Allaah. It is mentioned in conjunction with Allaah in some texts by way of honouring, for Allaah is its Creator and Sovereign, He takes it (in death) whenever He wills and He sends it whenever He wills.

What we say about the spirit is the same as what we say about the "House of Allaah", the "she-camel of Allaah", the "slaves of Allaah" and the "Messenger of Allaah". All of these created things are mentioned in conjunction with Allaah by way of honouring. (Question #50774: He is debating with a Christian and is asking: Does God has a spirit?)

Contrast this, again, with God’s true Word:

"Now the Egyptians are men and not God, And their horses are flesh and not spirit; So the LORD will stretch out His hand, And he who helps will stumble And he who is helped will fall, And all of them will come to an end together." Isaiah 31:3

"But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." John 4:23-24

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." 2 Corinthians 3:17-18

"how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the ETERNAL Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God." Hebrews 9:14

Related to this point is the belief of Salafi Muslims like Abualrub that Allah actually has hands, feet, shins, a face etc., even though these things are unlike anything in creation. In other words, Abualrub believes that Allah has a body of some kind which is unlike any other body in all creation!

[1] All that has been revealed in Allah's Book [the Qur'an] as regards the [Sifat…] Qualities of Allah…, the Most High,- like His Face, Eyes, Hands, Shins, (Legs), His Coming, His Istawa (rising over) His Throne and others; His Qualities or all that Allah's Messenger... qualified Him in the true authentic Prophet's Ahadith (narrations) as regards His Qualities like [Nuzul… His Descent or His laughing and others etc. The religious scholars of the Qur'an and the Sunna believe in these Qualities of Allah and they confirm that these are really His Qualities, without Ta'wil… (interpreting their meanings into different things etc.) or Tashbih… (giving resemblance or similarity to any of the creatures) or Ta'til… (i.e. completely ignoring or denying them i.e. there is no Face, or Eyes or Hands, or Shins etc. for Allah). These Qualities befit or suit only Allah Alone, and He does not resemble any of (His) creatures. As Allah's Statements (in the Qur'an): (1) "There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the All-Hearer, the All-Seer" (V.42:11). (2) There is none comparable unto Him (V.112:4). (Al-Imam Zain-ud-Din Ahmad bin Abdul Lateef Az-Zubaidi, The Translation of the Meanings of Summarized Sahih Al-Bukhari Arabic-English, Translated by: Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan [Maktaba Dar-us-Salam Publishers & Distributors, Riyadh Saudi Arabia], p. 842)

The next Muslim author, after mentioning those who seek the face of Allah, writes:

… Meaning they want to see Allah's face (because that is the greatest pleasure for the people of Paradise). The Qur'an and the Sunnah affirm that Allah has a face, two hands, fingers, and two eyes. Some people deny these attributes because they incorrectly suppose that by affirming them they are humanizing Allah. Such an argument is only valid for those who would say, for example, "Allah has hands like ours (?)" Such a statement is not allowed because it qualifies Allah's attributes without evidence from the Qur'an or the Sunnah. It would also be in contradiction to the Qur'anic verse: <There is nothing that is like Him, and He is The Ever-Hearing, The Ever-Seeing>. Thus we must affirm the attributes that Allah, and/or his Messenger have affirmed; we must believe that these attributes befit the Magnificence, and Glory of Allah; and we are not allowed to qualify these attributes unless Allah, and/or his Messenger have done so for us. (Waleed K.S. Al-Essa, Authentic Supplications Of the Prophet [A Daar of Islamic Heritage Publication, P.O. Box 831415, Miami, FL. 33283, 1993], p. 59, n. 145; bold emphasis ours)

The late Iranian Islamic scholar Dashti also mentioned a few Muslims who took the above descriptions from the Quran quite literally:

Many Moslems, however, have had rigid minds. Such men only accepted interpretations which are confirmed by Hadiths, and they considered any use of reason in religious matters to be misleading and impermissible. They took the above quoted Qur'anic phrases literally and believed that God possesses a head, mouth, eyes, ears, hands, and feet just like those of a human being. In the opinion of Abu Ma'mar al-Hodhali (d. 236/850), a preacher in Baghdad, anyone who denied this belief was an infidel. Adherents of the school of the famous traditionist and lawyer Ahmad b. Hanbal (164/780-241/855) have stuck to the same unthinking literalism ever since. The school's chief later exponent, Ahmad b. Taymiya, was so fanatical that he called the Mo'tazelites infidels and Ghazali a heretic; on one celebrated occasion, after quoting the Qor'an in a sermon, he said to the congregation as he stepped down from the pulpit of the Great Mosque at Damascus, "God will step down from His throne in the same way as I am stepping down from this pulpit."

These narrow-minded bigots considered not only the Mo'tazelite but even the Ash'arite theologians to be un-Islamic and condemned any sort of divergence from their own crudely simplistic views as pernicious innovation. Abu 'Amer ol-Qorashi, a Moor from Majorca who died at Baghdad in 524/1130, declared that it was heretical to understand the sentence "There is nothing similar to Him" in verse 9 of sura 42 (osh-Showra) as meaning what it says; it meant, in his opinion, that nothing resembles God in respect of His divinity, because "God possesses limbs and organs like yours and mine." As proof of God's possession of such limbs and organs, Abu 'Amer ol-Qorashi cited the description of the last judgement in verse 42 of sura 68 (ol-Qalam) "On the day when the leg will be bared and they will be bidden to kneel but cannot," and then slapped his thigh and said, "God has legs just like mine." (Dashti, 23 Years: A Study of the Prophetic Career of Muhammad [Costa Mesa, Ca. 1994; Mazda Publishers], pp. 157-158; bold and underline emphasis ours)

This belief clearly contradicts the biblical teaching regarding God being an invisible, immaterial, omnipresent entity:

"Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night, Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You." Psalm 139:7-12

"'Am I a God who is near, declares the LORD, 'And not a God far off? Can a man hide himself in hiding places so I do not see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?' declares the LORD." Jeremiah 23:23-24

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation." Colossians 1:15

"Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen." 1 Timothy 1:17

"which He will bring about at the proper time - He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen." 1 Timothy 6:15-16

Now, this doesn’t mean that God cannot assume a visible form, since he can, as the above passages from the Old Testament clearly show. In fact, God can, if he so chooses, assume any creaturely form he wants as the following passages demonstrate:

"Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, ‘I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.’ When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ Then he said, ‘Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ And he said, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God." Exodus 3:1-6

"Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, ‘You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.’" Luke 3:21-22

The biblical teaching regarding God being an immaterial, invisible, omnipresent Being is only logical in light of the theistic position that he is the Creator of time, space and matter. Thus, if God exists before time, space, and matter, then he must be immaterial, eternal, and spaceless (i.e., omnipresent). To believe that God has always existed with a body of some kind leads to the inevitable conclusion that space and matter are also eternal, since God must occupy some spatial dimensions if he has a body, and must exist in a material form of some kind if he has eyes, legs, shins, a face etc.

Therefore, Abualrub’s position is not only contrary to the true Word of God, the Holy Bible, but it is also illogical since it leads to the view that Allah eternally exists in space and matter.

Finally, Abualrub’s comments regarding Arabs being the children of Ishmael seems to assume that ALL Arabs are from Ishmael’s line. This is blatantly false since not all Arab tribes descend from Ishmael, as even some Muslim scholars realized:

It has been said that all Arabs trace their origins to Ishmael, the son of Abraham; upon them both be peace, salutation and homage. However, what is well known to be true is that ‘arab al-‘Ariba (the original Arabs) came before Ishmael. Among them were the peoples of Ad, Thamud, Tasm, Jadis, Umaym, Jurhum, and then ‘Amaliq, as well as others known only to God. Also these peoples both came before and were contemporaries of al-Khalil. Yet the ‘arab al-musta‘riba (Arabized Arabs), the Arabs of the Hijaz, were descendants of Ishmael, son of Abraham; upon both of them be peace. (Ibn Kathir, The Life of the Prophet Muhammad (Al-Sira al-Nabawiyya), translated by professor Trevor Le Gassick, reviewed by Dr. Ahmed Fareed [Garnet Publishing Limited, 8 Southern Court, south Street Reading RG1 4QS, UK; The Center for Muslim Contribution to Civilization, 1998], Volume 1, p. 1)

In fact, Ishmael wasn’t even an Arab since neither his father Abraham (a Hebrew) nor his mother Hagar (an Egyptian) were Arabs! To make matters worse for Abualrub, Ishmael didn’t even marry an Arab, but an Egyptian:

"While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt." Genesis 21:21

There is also much doubt whether Muhammad was truly from the line of Ishmael, as the following sources show (1, 2, 3).

Besides, even if the Arabs and Muhammad were descendants of Ishmael this wouldn’t prove that they were worshiping the same true God of the Israelites. The Bible itself testifies that Ishmael’s descendants eventually abandoned the worship of the true God of their father:

http://answering-islam.org/Shamoun/ishmael-baal.htm

To conclude, Abualrub’s claim that Allah is somehow closer to the biblical names for God than the English proves absolutely nothing. Either Abualrub will have to say that Allah functions much like the English word God, as a generic noun which can be used for any deity, i.e. Jesus, Vishnu, etc., which then means that he has no case at all. After all, just because someone uses the same word for God that someone else uses doesn’t mean that they both have the same God in view. Or Abualrub may wish to say that Allah is the eternal name of his deity, the proper name of the god proclaimed by the Quran, and if so, then this further proves that Allah of Islam is not the true God of the Holy Bible, Yahweh Elohim. In either case, Abualrub must contend with the fact that the Holy Bible conclusively proves that the Allah proclaimed by Muhammad is a false god.

Recommended reading

http://answering-islam.org/Shamoun/god.htm
http://answering-islam.org/Authors/Perez/name_of_god1.html
http://answering-islam.org/Authors/Perez/name_of_god2.html
http://answering-islam.org/Authors/Perez/name_of_god3.html
http://answering-islam.org/Authors/Perez/name_of_god4.html
http://answer-islam.org/ShowLetter.htm

Responses to Jalal Abualrub
Articles by Sam Shamoun
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