 = Allah = 
 
 Allah ( / ˈælə , ˈɑːlə , əlˈlɑː / ; Arabic : الله , translit . Allāh , pronounced [ ɑɫ 'ɫɑh ] ) is the Arabic word referring to God in Abrahamic religions . The word is thought to be derived by contraction from al ilāh , which means " the God " , and has cognates in other Semitic languages , including Elah in Aramaic , ʾĒl in Canaanite and Elohim in Hebrew . 
 The word Allah has been used by Arabs of different religions since pre @-@ Islamic times . More specifically , it has been used as a term to refer to God by Muslims ( both Arab and non @-@ Arab ) and Arab Christians . It is now mainly used by Muslims and Arab Christians to refer to God . It is also often , albeit not exclusively , used in this way by Bábists , Bahá 'ís , Indonesian and Maltese Christians , and Mizrahi Jews . Similar usage by Christians and Sikhs in West Malaysia has recently led to political and legal controversies . 
 
 = = Etymology = = 
 
 The etymology of the word Allāh has been discussed extensively by classical Arab philologists . Grammarians of the Basra school regarded is as either formed " spontaneously " ( murtajal ) or as the definite form of lāh ( from the verbal root lyh with the meaning of " lofty " or " hidden " ) . Others held that it was borrowed from Syriac or Hebrew , but most considered it to be derived from a contraction of the Arabic definite article al- " the " and ilāh " deity , god " to al @-@ lāh meaning " the deity " , or " the God " . The majority of modern scholars subscribe to the latter theory , and view the loanword hypothesis with skepticism . 
 Cognates of the name " Allāh " exist in other Semitic languages , including Hebrew and Aramaic . The corresponding Aramaic form is Elah ( אלה ) , but its emphatic state is Elaha ( אלהא ) . It is written as ܐܠܗܐ ( ʼĔlāhā ) in Biblical Aramaic and ܐܲܠܵܗܵܐ ( ʼAlâhâ ) in Syriac as used by the Assyrian Church , both meaning simply " God " . Biblical Hebrew mostly uses the plural ( but functional singular ) form Elohim ( אלהים ) , but more rarely it also uses the singular form Eloah ( אלוהּ ) . In the Sikh scripture of Guru Granth Sahib , the term Allah ( Punjabi : ਅਲਹੁ , translit . ਅਲਾਹ ) is used 37 times . 
 
 = = Usage = = 
 
 
 = = = Pre @-@ Islamic Arabians = = = 
 
 Regional variants of the word Allah occur in both pagan and Christian pre @-@ Islamic inscriptions . Different theories have been proposed regarding the role of Allah in pre @-@ Islamic polytheistic cults . Some authors have suggested that polytheistic Arabs used the name as a reference to a creator god or a supreme deity of their pantheon . The term may have been vague in the Meccan religion . According to one hypothesis , which goes back to Julius Wellhausen , Allah ( the supreme deity of the tribal federation around Quraysh ) was a designation that consecrated the superiority of Hubal ( the supreme deity of Quraysh ) over the other gods . However , there is also evidence that Allah and Hubal were two distinct deities . According to that hypothesis , the Kaaba was first consecrated to a supreme deity named Allah and then hosted the pantheon of Quraysh after their conquest of Mecca , about a century before the time of Muhammad . Some inscriptions seem to indicate the use of Allah as a name of a polytheist deity centuries earlier , but we know nothing precise about this use . Some scholars have suggested that Allah may have represented a remote creator god who was gradually eclipsed by more particularized local deities . There is disagreement on whether Allah played a major role in the Meccan religious cult . No iconic representation of Allah is known to have existed . Muhammad 's father 's name was ʿAbd @-@ Allāh meaning " the slave of Allāh " . 
 
 = = = Christianity = = = 
 
 The Aramaic word for " God " in the language of Assyrian Christians is ʼĔlāhā , or Alaha . Arabic @-@ speakers of all Abrahamic faiths , including Christians and Jews , use the word " Allah " to mean " God " . The Christian Arabs of today have no other word for " God " than " Allah " . ( Even the Arabic @-@ descended Maltese language of Malta , whose population is almost entirely Roman Catholic , uses Alla for " God " . ) Arab Christians , for example , use the terms Allāh al @-@ ab ( الله الأب ) for God the Father , Allāh al @-@ ibn ( الله الابن ) for God the Son , and Allāh al @-@ rūḥ al @-@ quds ( الله الروح القدس ) for God the Holy Spirit . ( See God in Christianity for the Christian concept of God . ) 
 Arab Christians have used two forms of invocations that were affixed to the beginning of their written works . They adopted the Muslim bismillāh , and also created their own Trinitized bismillāh as early as the 8th century . The Muslim bismillāh reads : " In the name of God , the Compassionate , the Merciful . " The Trinitized bismillāh reads : " In the name of Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit , One God . " The Syriac , Latin and Greek invocations do not have the words " One God " at the end . This addition was made to emphasize the monotheistic aspect of Trinitarian belief and also to make it more palatable to Muslims . 
 According to Marshall Hodgson , it seems that in the pre @-@ Islamic times , some Arab Christians made pilgrimage to the Kaaba , a pagan temple at that time , honoring Allah there as God the Creator . 
 Some archaeological excavation quests have led to the discovery of ancient pre @-@ Islamic inscriptions and tombs made by Arab Christians in the ruins of a church at Umm el @-@ Jimal in Northern Jordan , which contained references to Allah as the proper name of God , and some of the graves contained names such as " Abd Allah " which means " the servant / slave of Allah " . 
 The name Allah can be found countless times in the reports and the lists of names of Christian martyrs in South Arabia , as reported by antique Syriac documents of the names of those martyrs from the era of the Himyarite and Aksumite kingdoms . 
 A Christian leader named Abd Allah ibn Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad was martyred in Najran in 523 , as he had worn a ring that said " Allah is my lord " . 
 In an inscription of Christian martyrion dated back to 512 , references to Allah can be found in both Arabic and Aramaic , which called him " Allah " and " Alaha " , and the inscription starts with the statement " By the Help of Allah " . 
 In pre @-@ Islamic Gospels , the name used for God was " Allah " , as evidenced by some discovered Arabic versions of the New Testament written by Arab Christians during the pre @-@ Islamic era in Northern and Southern Arabia . 
 Pre @-@ Islamic Arab Christians have been reported to have raised the battle cry " Ya La Ibad Allah " ( O slaves of Allah ) to invoke each other into battle . 
 " Allah " was also mentioned in pre @-@ Islamic Christian poems by some Ghassanid and Tanukhid poets in Syria and Northern Arabia . 
 
 = = = Islam = = = 
 
 In Islam , Allah is the unique , omnipotent and only deity and creator of the universe and is equivalent to God in other Abrahamic religions . 
 According to Islamic belief , Allah is the most common word to represent God , and humble submission to his will , divine ordinances and commandments is the pivot of the Muslim faith . " He is the only God , creator of the universe , and the judge of humankind . " " He is unique ( wāḥid ) and inherently one ( aḥad ) , all @-@ merciful and omnipotent . " The Qur 'an declares " the reality of Allah , His inaccessible mystery , His various names , and His actions on behalf of His creatures . " 
 In Islamic tradition , there are 99 Names of God ( al @-@ asmā ’ al @-@ ḥusná lit. meaning : ' the best names ' or ' the most beautiful names ' ) , each of which evoke a distinct characteristic of Allah . All these names refer to Allah , the supreme and all @-@ comprehensive divine name . Among the 99 names of God , the most famous and most frequent of these names are " the Merciful " ( al @-@ Raḥmān ) and " the Compassionate " ( al @-@ Raḥīm ) . 
 Most Muslims use the untranslated Arabic phrase in shā ’ Allāh ( meaning ' if God wills ' ) after references to future events . Muslim discursive piety encourages beginning things with the invocation of bismillāh ( meaning ' in the name of God ' ) . 
 There are certain phrases in praise of God that are favored by Muslims , including " Subḥān Allāh " ( Holiness be to God ) , " al @-@ ḥamdu lillāh " ( Praise be to God ) , " lā ilāha illā Allāh " ( There is no deity but God ) and " Allāhu akbar " ( God is greater ) as a devotional exercise of remembering God ( dhikr ) . In a Sufi practice known as dhikr Allah ( lit. remembrance of God ) , the Sufi repeats and contemplates on the name Allah or other divine names while controlling his or her breath . 
 Some scholars have suggested that Muḥammad used the term Allah in addressing both pagan Arabs and Jews or Christians in order to establish a common ground for the understanding of the name for God , a claim Gerhard Böwering says is doubtful . According to Böwering , in contrast with pre @-@ Islamic Arabian polytheism , God in Islam does not have associates and companions , nor is there any kinship between God and jinn . Pre @-@ Islamic pagan Arabs believed in a blind , powerful , inexorable and insensible fate over which man had no control . This was replaced with the Islamic notion of a powerful but provident and merciful God . 
 According to Francis Edwards Peters , " The Qur ’ ān insists , Muslims believe , and historians affirm that Muhammad and his followers worship the same God as the Jews ( 29 : 46 ) . The Qur ’ an 's Allah is the same Creator God who covenanted with Abraham " . Peters states that the Qur 'an portrays Allah as both more powerful and more remote than Yahweh , and as a universal deity , unlike Yahweh who closely follows Israelites . 
 
 = = As a loanword = = 
 
 
 = = = English and other European languages = = = 
 
 The history of the name Allāh in English was probably influenced by the study of comparative religion in the 19th century ; for example , Thomas Carlyle ( 1840 ) sometimes used the term Allah but without any implication that Allah was anything different from God . However , in his biography of Muḥammad ( 1934 ) , Tor Andræ always used the term Allah , though he allows that this " conception of God " seems to imply that it is different from that of the Jewish and Christian theologies . 
 Languages which may not commonly use the term Allah to denote God may still contain popular expressions which use the word . For example , because of the centuries long Muslim presence in the Iberian Peninsula , the word ojalá in the Spanish language and oxalá in the Portuguese language exist today , borrowed from Arabic ( Arabic : إن شاء الله ) . This phrase literally means ' if God wills ' ( in the sense of " I hope so " ) . The German poet Mahlmann used the form " Allah " as the title of a poem about the ultimate deity , though it is unclear how much Islamic thought he intended to convey . 
 Some Muslims leave the name " Allāh " untranslated in English . The word has also been applied to certain living human beings as personifications of the term and concept . 
 
 = = = Malaysian and Indonesian language = = = 
 
 Christians in Malaysia and Indonesia use Allah to refer to God in the Malaysian and Indonesian languages ( both of which are standardized forms of the Malay language . ) Mainstream Bible translations in the language use Allah as the translation of Hebrew Elohim ( translated in English Bibles as " God " ) . This goes back to early translation work by Francis Xavier in the 16th century . The first dictionary of Dutch @-@ Malay by Albert Cornelius Ruyl , Justus Heurnius , and Caspar Wiltens in 1650 ( revised edition from 1623 edition and 1631 Latin @-@ edition ) recorded " Allah " as the translation of the Dutch word " Godt " . Ruyl also translated Matthew in 1612 to Malay language ( first Bible translation to non @-@ European language , only a year after King James Version was published ) , which was printed in the Netherlands in 1629 . Then he translated Mark which was published in 1638 . 
 The government of Malaysia in 2007 outlawed usage of the term Allah in any other but Muslim contexts , but the Malayan High Court in 2009 revoked the law , ruling that it was unconstitutional . While Allah had been used for the Christian God in Malay for more than four centuries , the contemporary controversy was triggered by usage of Allah by the Roman Catholic newspaper The Herald . The government appealed the court ruling , and the High Court suspended implementation of its verdict until the appeal was heard . In October 2013 , the court ruled in favor of the government 's ban . In early 2014 , the Malaysian government confiscated more than 300 bibles for using the word to refer to the Christian God in Peninsular Malaysia . However , the use of Allah is not prohibited in the two Malaysian state of Sabah and Sarawak . The main reason it is not prohibited in these two states is that usage has been long @-@ established and local Alkitab ( Bibles ) have been widely distributed freely in East Malaysia without restrictions for years . Both states also do not have similar Islamic state laws as those in West Malaysia . 
 As a reaction to some media criticism , the Malaysian government has introduced a " 10 @-@ point solution " to avoid confusion and misleading information . The 10 @-@ point solution is in line with the spirit of the 18- and 20 @-@ point agreements of Sarawak and Sabah . 
 
 = = = In other scripts and languages = = = 
 
 Allāh in other languages that use Arabic script is spelled in the same way . This includes Urdu , Persian / Dari , Uyghur among others . 
 Assamese , Bengali : আল ্ লাহ Allah 
 Bosnian : Allah 
 Chinese ( Mandarin ) : 阿拉 Ālā , 安拉 Ānlā ; 真主 Zhēnzhǔ ( semantic translation as " the true master " ) , 胡大 Huda ( Khoda , from Persian language ) 
 Czech , Slovak : Alláh 
 Greek : Αλλάχ Allách 
 Filipino : Alā or Allah 
 Hebrew : אללה Allah 
 Hindi : अल ् लाह Allāh 
 Malayalam : അള ് ളാഹ ് Aḷḷāh 
 Japanese : アラー Arā , アッラー Arrā , アッラーフ Arrāfu 
 Latvian : Allāhs 
 Maltese : Alla 
 Korean : 알라 Alla 
 Polish : Allah , also archaic Allach or Ałłach 
 Russian , Ukrainian , Bulgarian : Алла ́ х Allakh 
 Serbian , Belarusian , Macedonian : Алах Alah 
 Spanish , Portuguese : Alá 
 Thai : อัลลอฮ ์ Anláw 
 Punjabi ( Gurmukhi ) : ਅੱਲਾਹ Allāh , archaic ਅਲਹੁ Alahu ( in Sikh scriptures ) 
 Turkish : Allah 
 
 = = Typography = = 
 
 The word Allāh is always written without an alif to spell the ā vowel . This is because the spelling was settled before Arabic spelling started habitually using alif to spell ā . However , in vocalized spelling , a small diacritic alif is added on top of the shaddah to indicate the pronunciation . 
 One exception may be in the pre @-@ Islamic Zabad inscription , where it ends with an ambiguous sign that may be a lone @-@ standing h with a lengthened start , or may be a non @-@ standard conjoined l @-@ h : - 
 الاه : This reading would be Allāh spelled phonetically with alif for the ā . 
 الإله : This reading would be al @-@ Ilāh = ' the god ' ( an older form , without contraction ) , by older spelling practice without alif for ā . 
 Many Arabic type fonts feature special ligatures for Allah . 
 
 = = = Unicode = = = 
 
 Unicode has a codepoint reserved for Allāh , ﷲ = U + FDF2 , in the Arabic Presentation Forms @-@ A block , which exists solely for " compatibility with some older , legacy character sets that encoded presentation forms directly " ; this is discouraged for new text . Instead , the word Allāh should be represented by its individual Arabic letters , while modern font technologies will render the desired ligature . 
 The calligraphic variant of the word used as the Coat of arms of Iran is encoded in Unicode , in the Miscellaneous Symbols range , at codepoint U + 262B ( ☫ ) . 
 
 