Last night I finally came to the realization that Allah is God. It was in my Arabic class. I asked how you say “gods and goddesses.” Turns out it’s “illah” and “illaha,” the non-definite masculine and feminine forms of Allah. The “Al” at the beginning of Allah is pretty much the same thing as our capital “G,” it shows you’re talking about a specific god, not just any god. So “Allah” really is “God,” the exact same word as our word for God. In fact, when Arab speakers use the word “Allah” they’re actually talking about the exact same invisible deity as when people in this country say “God,” the God of Moses and Abraham, Jesus’ dad, etc. So “Allah” is “God;” they represent the exact same concept in every sense of the meaning.
My teacher said that when Bush said something about a war between God and Allah it was pretty much impossible for Arabic newscasters to translate into Arabic. They just stumbled over it. There’s no way to say it, they are the same word, a war between God and God? Even if they tried to explain it, it wouldn’t make any sense because they are the same god. When English is translated into Arabic, “God” is translated to “Allah.” When it’s translated back into English, Allah stays. When you read the Bible in Arabic it says Allah. Allah is God.
So why do we not translate the Arabic word for God into English like we do for every other language? We don’t talk about how Mexicans are shifty cause they don’t believe in God, they believe in “el Dios.” The word “Allah” should not even exist in English. It’s not an English word, we have our own word for that. We don’t talk about how silly it is to believe in illah’s and illaha’s, and that true Christians believe in the one true Allah.
Think of the incredible social consequences of not translating that one word. Instead of all the religious people in this country viewing Muslims as brothers, they view them as enemies. All because of one mis-translated word. Honestly I think it’s just ignorance. Nobody knows that it’s just a mistaken translation. How the fuck can that be? How is it that no one has corrected some news announcer and MSNBC? Seems like it would only take once or twice before people realize they sound like an idiot when they say that.
A similar thing was attempted recently with “madrasa,” the Arabic word for “school.” Absolutely every educated person in this world went to a “madrasa,” but Fox News tried to make it out like Barack Obama was at a terrorist training camp or something, just by using the Arabic word for school instead of the English one.
Anyway, I guess I kind of knew this before, but I never really thought about it being a translation issue, and that we don’t do it with any other language.
So will everyone please not use the word Allah unless you’re speaking in Arabic. If you’re speaking in English, the word is “God”, not Allah. Any differences between the Christian and Muslim renditions of God are no different than between the Catholic or Jewish versions of God, and the English language is fully equipped to discuss the differences.
I thought I would post this as a comment. I found a site that claimed that there’s no plural of the word for god in Arabic, so I asked my Arabic teacher about it. Here’s his response.