Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Numberup AT worldnet.att.net]

yahua'sef wrote:

> I don't think this is all that accurate. Sunni Muslims actually *do*
> insist that "Allah"(alif, laam, laam, he) is in fact the conjugation of
> the definite article 'AL'(alif Lam) and "ilah"(alif lam he), and
> that "ilah" is the cognate word for "Eloh" in Hebrew. After the
> contraction, it no longer means "the god," but simply "God."

While it may be more accurate to say that not all Muslim scholars agree upon 
the derivation
of "Allah," the following comments of Maulana Muhammad Ali are typical.  The 
first is from
his book, "The Religion of Islam," (first published in 1936), page 118:

"Allah is the proper or personal name of the Divine Being...The word Alllah  
being a proper
name is "jamid," that is to say, it is not derived from any other word.  Nor 
has it any
connection with the word "ilah" (god or object of worship).  It is sometimes 
said that Allah
is a contracted form of al-ilah, but that is a mistake....The Arabs had 
numerous other ilahs
or gods but none of them was ever called Allah, while a Supreme Being called 
Allah was
recognized above them as the Creator of the universe."

From the Maulana's authoritative and well-recognized English translation of 
the Qur'an,
(First edition, 1917) note 2 to Surah 1 (Al-Fatihah):

"Allah, according to the more correct of the opinions respecting it, is a 
proper name
applied to the Being Who exists necessarily by Himself, comprising all the 
attributes of
perfection, the "al-" being inseperable from it, not derived.  Al-ilah is a 
different word,
and Allah is not a contraction of al-ilah."

Solomon Landers
Memra Institute for Biblical Research
http://www.memrain.org