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How then do we respond to the Bible translators who use "Allah" in Arabic translations?
[The angel told Muhammad to tell everyone to worship the one god, whose name is Allah. ‘Allah’ is the Arabic word for the English word “God”. So you see, Muslims worship the same God that Jewish people and Christians worship.]
Where do I begin?
How then do we respond to the Bible translators who use "Allah" in Arabic translations?
There is no other word for God in Arabic, so no response is needed. Those who work in contexts where it is one of several possible translations have a more difficult question, but in Arabic translations, there is no other word.
The term Allāh is derived from a contraction of the Arabic definite article al- "the" and ʾilāh "deity, god" to al-lāh meaning "the [sole] deity, God" (ὁ θεὸς μόνος, ho theos monos).[SUP][8][/SUP] Cognatesof the name "Allāh" exist in other Semitic languages, including Hebrew and Aramaic.[SUP][9][/SUP] Biblical Hebrew mostly uses the plural form (but functional singular) Elohim. The corresponding Aramaic form is ʼĔlāhā ܐܠܗܐ in Biblical Aramaic and ʼAlâhâ ܐܲܠܵܗܵܐ in Syriac as used by the Assyrian Church, both meaning simply "God".[SUP][10][/SUP]
How then do we respond to the Bible translators who use "Allah" in Arabic translations?
There is no other word for God in Arabic, so no response is needed. Those who work in contexts where it is one of several possible translations have a more difficult question, but in Arabic translations, there is no other word.
Eh, that's embarrassing. Couldn't you just transliterate? Come to think of it a large section of Daniel is in Arabic (Daniel 2.4–7.28) - what term did he use for God, I don't believe he used Allah?
[The angel told Muhammad to tell everyone to worship the one god, whose name is Allah. ‘Allah’ is the Arabic word for the English word “God”. So you see, Muslims worship the same God that Jewish people and Christians worship.]
Where do I begin?