2And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I
am the LORD:
3And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by
the name of God Almighty,
but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.
the name "GOD" is also not a semetic name, it is just a translation into english,
i tend to agree with brother Mustafa MC somewhat, in that the word Allah has a meaning, and when you are talking in a different language, it can be useful to use terms that explain the meaning rather than give them arabic words which take on a whole different meaning in their minds - they tend to think of it as an arabic word therefore foreign - and forget that the word God is an english word and can be found nowhere in the original texts, i can also give you Quranic verses to support my argument:
110. Say: "Call upon Allah, or call upon Rahman: by whatever name ye call upon Him, (it is well):
for to Him belong the Most Beautiful Names.
Neither speak thy Prayer aloud, nor speak it in a low tone, but seek a middle course between."
Quran 17:110
Yes - the Quran uses the word Allah, and the Quran was revealed in the Arabic language, and the term Allah was used by arabs before Islam, so in order to translate - it can be rendered into different languages - though the term Allah is quite unique and without ambiguity in meaning. it can become clouded to some who see it as alien to what they know, and imagine all these stereotypical ideas rather than simply imagine the creator when you speak of Him, so the term Almighty God imho is a valid one, when speaking in English.
i remember debating with someone once and he was telling me that he believed in God and i was telling him about Allah or something, despite the fact that i wasn't, i had explained to him that it was an Arabic term which had the same meaning of Almighty God, he didn't believe me and i had to pull out the verse from exodus 6:3 to prove that the prophets before Moses had used the term Almighty God in their respective languages, and Jehovah was new to Moses, and that even the word "God" was not a Hebrew or Aramaic word - but a meaning which described something.
however, the person on the cross (mistaken to be Prophet Jesus (pbuh) ) is recorded to have said: Eli, Eli, Lamasabachthani? meaning: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
the term Eli is of importance here, as the Arabs would use the term Ilahi, to mean "my God", ilah meaning god, "i" at the end refers to oneself, and the term "EL" describes divinity in the Hebrew tongue, so it was a term used :
here's a breakdown:
ʾĒl (written
aleph-lamed, e.g. Λ, ऀऋ, ܐܠ, אל, إل or إله etc.) is a
Northwest Semitic word meaning "
deity", cognate to Akkadian
‘ilu and then to Hebrew עֵלִי:
Eli and Arabic الله:
Allah).
In the
Canaanite religion, or
Levantine religion as a whole,
Eli or
Il was the supreme god,[SUP]
[2][/SUP] the father of humankind and all creatures and the husband of the goddess
Asherah as recorded in the
clay tablets of
Ugarit (modern
Rās Shamrā-
Arabic: رأس شمرا,
Syria).[SUP]
[2][/SUP]
The noun
ʾēl was found at the top of a list of gods as the Ancient of gods or the Father of all gods, in the ruins of the
royal archive of the
Ebla civilization, in the archaeological site of
Tell Mardikh in Syria dated to 2300 BC.
so again, it comes down to the fact that Almighty God used human terms to communicate with humans, and the term itself has a meaning, and is not just a name without meaning,
the reason why many names are not translated is because many names don't have any meaning whatsoever. the term barrington, i don't think can be translated into any language, but the term Allah can, and if the meaning is more clear to the listener than the word, then i'd say it's useful to use the meaning.
and finally:
We sent not a messenger except (to teach) in the language of his (own) people,
in order to make (things) clear to them.
Now Allah leaves straying those whom He pleases and guides whom He pleases: and He is Exalted in power, full of Wisdom.
Quran 14:4
i won't argue against the fact that Allah is a unique term, but then the whole Quran is unique and can be lost in translation, as the words have many meanings.
peace