I've been giving some thought lately to the Allah vs God debate. Its not a new debate by any means. However, as it was brought up recently in this post on defining American Muslims, I thought I'd give my two cents.
I actually agree with both sides of the argument. I see the necessity in translating Allah to God in the context of interfaith discussions and media presentations. That view is presented very nicely in this article. That being said, I am staunchly against any attempts by the American Muslim community to anglicize Allah. I particularly like the point of reverse orientalism presented in the above Guardian article – here is the quote:
"…we have also seen the rise of another phenomenon which might be called "reverse orientalism", where Arabs and Muslims deliberately "other-ise" themselves in order (they hope) to better resist western influence."
And its in this spirit of 'other-ising' that I have decided to rant:
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We are not mere monotheists. We are absolute monotheists. We are monotheists extraordinaire. We are monotheistic crème de la crème. We are monotheistic supremacists. We have the market cornered on monotheism – a monotheistic monopoly.
And we are linguistic monotheists to boot. Allah is one. God is not. We believe in Allah whereas you believe in God (or his other monikers). We are defined by our belief in Allah, not our belief in god or God or G_d. While you have rendered unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and rendered unto God what is God’s (inferring some sort of scandalous equality between the two), we have rendered all unto Allah. That is true monotheism.
When we say Allah is our God we do not mean our God is Allah.
You may ask 'Who is Allah?'
We will defiantly reply 'Allah is Allah!'. There is no need for any clarification when using the divine designation, Allah. Allah is universally known while your god is busy fumbling with his identity. Allah has no definite or indefinite, whereas you have a god and the God. Allah has no plural, whereas you have gods. Allah* has no upper case or lower case, whereas you have god and God. Allah has no feminine, whereas you have goddess. Allah cannot be possessed, whereas you have my God, our god, his G_d. Allah has no prefix or suffix, while you have godly or godless. Allah has no compound, while you have godfather and godsend. Allah has no synonym, while you have Lord or deity.
Our linguistic monotheism is flawless. Allah. Full stop. He is a complete sentence. He is without need for a subject or a predicate or even a past plural subjunctive. He is a complete thought. He is the ultimate thought. He is the only thought.
I bow down to Allah while I dare not even stand for god. Allah has been blasphemed by the reaffirmation of His existence (‘Ana al-Haqq’) whereas God has been blasphemed by His extermination (‘God is dead’). There is none like unto Allah while You. Draw. God. (And if that is not repulsive enough, you have stooped even lower by portraying G_d in Hollywood movies!)
I am on a first name basis with my Creator, solely by virtue of His infinite Mercy. He has allowed me to call him Allah. No need for any formalities with the Most Sublime.
And if for no other reason, I shall solely refer to Him as Allah as that was the only articulation of the Divine ever having passed through the lips of my beloved, Muhammad (saw). He called on all to return to Allah. My beloved called upon his Beloved by the one glorious name. Allah and Muhammad are inseparable until the end of time and beyond; it will never be God and Muhammad.
My dear friend, you are my fellow citizen. You are my neighbor. You are my coworker. You are my confidante. Yet there is one path whereupon we shall never tread jointly. Allah and your social construct of divinity are two parallel lines and ‘never the twain shall meet’.
* Please forgive the irony of using the upper case A with Allah as that indignity is not of my choosing (for it implies that a lower case allah is a possibility), rather it is a constraint of the English language. In Arabic there is no such concept of capitalization
(inspired by this Shaykh Husain talk)
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15 comments:
Masha'Allah (sorry about the uppercase "A" :-)] very nice Naeem, your best commentary ever. I doubt you will be able to outdo yourself in the future so I shant read anything else you send my way!
:-) Jazaka Allahu khairan!
Good commentary. I also agree with both sides. However, I personally do not see how using the term "God" "otherizes" ourselves, nor do I see anything less monotheistic about the term God. You should listen to Dr. Umar's explication on the word "God" in "The Attributes of God" (CD). He basically says that it is probably the purest word in the English language.
In any case, I agree that it depends on the context and audience. I don't think we should avoid the word Allah at all, but basically we should not be ones who sun the word "God."
We hope to clarify that in our pamphlet. Thank you.
Thanks for the reference to the ‘Attributes of God' CD set – I had listened to it last year and should go back to it in light of this current discussion.
Regardless, I must say that my contention with the usage of God is not etymological. God may be the most pure word in the English language, but my arguments are with the social context in which the word is currently used. The irreverence shown to God in most English speaking nations can not be disassociated from the word itself.
My line of reasoning may not be valid in Latin America where ‘Dios’ may carry a more sacred significance. However, in most English speaking societies, the term God has been soiled beyond recognition and for us to equate the two (Allah and God) would only be inviting similar sacrilege to *our* expression of the Divine.
For example, I have no problem with Arab Xians using the term Allah. For although they are referring to an unacceptable concept (by us) of the Divine (Trinity), they are using a term that *we* are defining. They are using a word that has been and will always be exclusively associated with the sole Creator of the universe. They are using the term on *our terms*. Allah in the Arab Xian community is not treated with the same disdain as God in the Western Xian community. Why is that?
Which leads me to one final point on language and power – I would have no problem with using God if it were done in the proper balance of power. If this discussion were taking place a thousand years ago, my condemnation would be less applicable. Who is defining God? We are not throwing our hats into this ring as equals. We are clearly entering this conversation as passive participants. We are not in a position to dictate the direction of this discourse and so we will be forced to accept the societal characterization of the Divine. This stands in stark contrast to how WE should be defining God as WE have the clearest understanding of Him. By sticking to Allah, we are at least differentiating our sacred understanding of the Divine from the secular understanding that dominates.
I am reading lot about Islam religion these days. I appreciate your concept of monotheism. But I have a sincere question, Why Islam denies Polytheism? Actually Polytheism is where it is believed that "GOD" ,(Forget about capital,plural etc..etc.),exists in different forms. Please reply
Salaam Viv000,
Why does Islam reject Polytheism?
Besides the most explicit reason that Allah Himself made this the single most essential foundation in ALL the messages of the messengers since Adam ('Worship none other than Me'), I have personally found there to be many reasons.
First it provides a central pole around which the universe revolves. This gives existence a sense of purpose. There are no competing deities or purposes to life. The most important fact of life is also the most simple - God is one, worship Him.
Second, the greatest emotion of man, which I believe to be Love, is focused towards the Ultimate Beloved. True love cannot be shared. It cannot have partners.
When the heart feels this true love, to the extent that it needs to, then worship is the only reaction, the only possible way to actualize this love.
Logic also dictates worshipping the One. If I acknowledge that my existence and my sustenance is coming from the one God, then how dare I turn around and create partners with the one God?
Other reasons abound and you may get a different answer from each beleiving person you ask, but since you asked me, this is my short answer.
Hope it helps...
Asalaamu alikum wa rahmatullah,
I've considered the following-
Al-lah, The-God.
The (one, eternal and absolute, none is born of him or is he born and there is none coequal to him) God.
This differers significantly from "God" or any of its related forms.
Dont be sad
VERY VERY Inappropriate title...don't care what the point of the blog is....
where does allah stand on the issue of a young girl of 9 years being molested by an old man?
Anon,
Normally I wouldn't bother responding to such garbage, but since it seems you're new to the 'Internets' (where your infantile question has been answered countless number of times), I'll give you a bit of advice:
Your line of attack on a Prophet of God is tired and weak. Its been overdone and your resorting to such a tactic really reflects poorly on you.
Grow up.
On the contrary, it's valid question. Doesn't allah say "ask"?
Jazak Allahu Khairan for this post. Nicely done. I am also a american born muslim living in ksa. Found your blog today and i have to say: nice job. Mashallah.
Masha'Allah Masha'Allah Masha'Allah Masha'Allah Masha'Allah Masha'Allah Masha'Allah, i ask Allah subhanahu wata'alaa to bless you for this true sincere reaction of a true believer and I ask Allah to make this commentary a Testimonial for you in the day of hisab {judgment}, but don't you think it is a bit inappropriate to write the title in such a way???, because I was took by confusion when I saw it on your blog bro naeem, but I had to make sure.
AS for the anonymous geek . . . . . GROW UP!!!
Anon, your fallacy is that you're presuming a 9 year old girl in that scenario is exactly as mature as a 9 year old girl in 21st century North America/ Western Europe.
This is hardly the case; the 9 year olds of today are immature emotionally, physcially, intellectually and in just about every other way. Indeed, they're not fit for marriage.
In other cultures/ climates, kids grow up much faster - not just emotionally, but also physically. Given this fact, why should they be subject to the same norms and values prevalent in a completely different society?
This is the question YOU need to answer.
Lastly, to Naeem - the title is incredibly blasphemous. I know what you're trying to say; but it would grammatically correct if you put the word 'god' in quotations. This implies that you're referring to the term itself, and not the noun behind the term.
Your prophet Isa(remember him?) said give unto Caesar what is Caesars, and to God what is his. In other words give to Caesar taxs, which was the law of the land(obey the law of the land) and give unto God what is his..(set your belief in God) it was not a comparison to mean both were the same.
And while some Christians belief god is three or Jesus(isa) was god, not all of them do. Also there are many who believe in one GOD.
You don't have to like it, but Allah and God are the same word ..Read your Quran,it talks about those that are not Muslim that believe in One God.
Before speaking about the bible,maybe you should read it and understand it!
To hell with God??? Maybe you should write to hell with allah.
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