# For Allah so loved the world?



## MichaelNZ (Feb 6, 2015)

A KJV Onlyist has taken exception to the use of the word 'Allah' in an Arabic Bible translation.

Apologetica Christiana - Christian Apologetics: For Allah so loved the world?


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## Covenant Joel (Feb 6, 2015)

MichaelNZ said:


> A KJV Onlyist has taken exception to the use of the word 'Allah' in an Arabic Bible translation.
> 
> Apologetica Christiana - Christian Apologetics: For Allah so loved the world?



Sadly, it's not just KJV-O people who have taken that line. The simple reality is that there is no other word for God in Arabic, and Arab Christians have used it before the advent of Islam.

And oddly enough, the translation that he criticizes (the Van-Dyck), kind of has KJV-like status among Christian-background Arabs in the Middle East. Using anything else is almost completely taboo in many quarters. But every other translation has _allah_​ as well. This has nothing to do with the translations that remove "Son of God."


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## Pergamum (Feb 6, 2015)

Allah is a general word for God. It is not a personal name and its use predates Muhammad. Therefore, most folks see no problem with using it as a valid translation for God (generic).


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## Pergamum (Feb 6, 2015)

The word Allah and Islam


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## greenbaggins (Feb 6, 2015)

Word-concept fallacy going on here. A word is not the same thing as an idea. The word "Allah" does not inherently mean the Muslim conception of God, as has been pointed out. Arab Christians use "Allah" and mean something different. So the question should revolve around the term itself, but what is meant by the term.


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## SolaScriptura (Feb 6, 2015)

I confess that it makes my stomach churn and bile to climb to the back of my throat at the thought of accepting anything Muslimish. 

A trademark of Christianity is that the word for God as well as the pronunciation of the name of Jesus is always in the vernacular. We don't tell Spanish speakers to say the word "God." No, they say Dios. We certainly don't pronounce Jesus' name according to the Aramaic or Hebrew or even the Greek it would have been uttered in when he was on earth. 

Islam is not so. They have codified the Arabic culture and language into their religion. Again, in my context I've had the rather unique opportunity to witness MANY American Muslims. They'll say the word "god" every now and then - but almost always when they get out of evangelist mode and are speaking reverentially about their deity they say "Allah." 

I don't want to get into the question of whether or not Islam has irretrievably imbued the word "allah" with such meaning that Christians need to find another word.

But I will go ahead and grant this: If the entire sentence or conversation is taking place in Arabic, then fine. Use the word allah because it is the Arabic word for God. BUT. And I do mean BUT: to use the word "allah" in a conversation or sentence that is otherwise occurring in English is no longer an innocent use of a word, but is a reference to the deity of Islam.


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## MichaelNZ (Feb 6, 2015)

SolaScriptura said:


> Islam is not so. They have codified the Arabic culture and language into their religion. Again, in my context I've had the rather unique opportunity to witness MANY American Muslims. They'll say the word "god" every now and then - but almost always when they get out of evangelist mode and are speaking reverentially about their deity they say "Allah."
> 
> I don't want to get into the question of whether or not Islam has irretrievably imbued the word "allah" with such meaning that Christians need to find another word.
> 
> But I will go ahead and grant this: If the entire sentence or conversation is taking place in Arabic, then fine. Use the word allah because it is the Arabic word for God. BUT. And I do mean BUT: to use the word "allah" in a conversation or sentence that is otherwise occurring in English is no longer an innocent use of a word, but is a reference to the deity of Islam.



I've come across online fatwa sites that do just that - use the word Allah (one even spells it Allaah) when referring to God. I think the Muslims use it because the term 'God' for the Christians is loaded with Christian theology and assumptions. The court case I mentioned in the blog post in Malaysia over the use of the word 'Allah' in a Roman Catholic newspaper came about because the government thought that Christians using the word 'Allah' to refer to God would confuse Muslims. 

Another person who claims that Allah is the name of the Islamic god is Craig Winn, whose book Prophet of Doom puts forward that claim. Apart from that and his complete denial of predestination, his book is actually quite good because he puts the Qur'anic revelations in chronological order and pulls in sources from the Hadith, the _Sirat Rasul Allah_ (official biography of Muhammad) and the _History of the Prophets and Kings _by Ibn Jarir At-Tabari. By doing this he exposes Islam for the fraud that it is.


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## whirlingmerc (Feb 6, 2015)

If there is no other arab word, then what other word might you use?


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## Mephibosheth (Feb 7, 2015)

whirlingmerc said:


> If there is no other arab word, then what other word might you use?



I'll have to Google it, but I vaguely recall hearing somewhere the sometimes Muslim coverts to Christianity in the Middle East who are loathe to continue using "Allah" because of the connotation used a title starting with "K," like "Kohdah" or "Kohbah" or something...


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## SolaScriptura (Feb 7, 2015)

whirlingmerc said:


> If there is no other arab word, then what other word might you use?



Sigh... we act like people are simpletons. Trust me, they'll figure something out.
Even if it is just the Arabic pronunciation of YHWH. Or maybe they'll choose to use some of the Hebrew words for God, after all, I've heard it said that modern Arabic is closer to biblical Hebrew than is modern Hebrew.


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## Pergamum (Feb 7, 2015)

Ben, 

The problem is that YHWH or Jehovah is the proper name for God. And Allah is a generic. Unless you buy into the Moon God theory (that Allah is, in fact, a proper name), then you are advocating sloppy translation.


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## Covenant Joel (Feb 7, 2015)

Mephibosheth said:


> whirlingmerc said:
> 
> 
> > If there is no other arab word, then what other word might you use?
> ...



I have never met anyone _from an Arabic context_ who was loathe to use the word "allah." It is generally only Westerners who don't speak Arabic who have the hangup.

There are three points that are indisputable:
1) There is no other generic word for God in the Arabic language (there is of course Lord, Creator, YHWH, etc, but that's not the same word).
2) Arab Christians used "allah" for God long before Muhammad was even born. To tell them there's something wrong with the Lord would be like them coming to the US and saying that because "God" is so misused in the West (moral therapeutic deism, German origin of it, or whatever else), English-speaking believers shouldn't use it.
3) No matter what words are used, there will be misunderstanding, and we will have to explain what the Scriptures mean by any number of terms.


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