Portal:Islam/Selected article/14

Allah (/ˈælə, ˈɑːlə, əˈlɑː/; Arabic: ﷲ IPA: [əɫ.ɫɑːh] ) is the Arabic word for God, particularly the God of Abraham. Outside of the Middle East, it is principally associated with Islam, but the term was used in pre-Islamic Arabia and continues to be used today by Arabic-speaking adherents of any of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism and Christianity. It is thought to be derived by contraction from al-ilāh (الاله, lit. 'the god') and is linguistically related to God's names in other Semitic languages, such as Aramaic (ܐܲܠܵܗܵܐ ʼAlāhā) and Hebrew (אֱלוֹהַּ ʾĔlōah).

The word "Allah" now implies the superiority or sole existence of one God, but among the pre-Islamic Arabs, Allah was a supreme deity and was worshipped alongside lesser deities in a pantheon. When Muhammad founded Islam, he used "Allah" to refer to the same unitary God who met Abraham, according to the Bible and the Quran. Many Jews, Christians, and early Muslims used "Allah" and "al-ilah" interchangeably in Classical Arabic. The word is also frequently, albeit not exclusively, used by Bábists, Baháʼís, Mandaeans, Indonesian Christians, Maltese Christians, and Sephardic Jews, as well as by the Gagauz people.

While it is an Arabic word and has historically been used by Muslims and non-Muslims alike in the Arab world, the usage of "Allah" by non-Muslims has been controversial in non-Arab parts of the Muslim world, especially Malaysia, where it became illegal for non-Muslims to use "Allah" after the country experienced a social and political upheaval in the face of the word being used by Malaysian Christians and Sikhs. (Full article...)