What is the difference between the words Allah and God?

[Sunnie Ameena]

I'm sorry the best I can do is to be polite to non Muslims as told to us by our beloved Prophet s.a.w, but as to appeasing them or liking them no way.

I am sorry you feel that way.

Except for those I feel truly believe, even then I would reffer to their belief as God and mine as Allah S.W.T.

I may be confusing myself reading your post, but I just can not understand that statement. If they truly believe, then why would you want to say God for them, and Allah for yourself.

 

[Muwaahid]

I think the primary disagreement is how that individual translated our kalimah shahadah (laa ilaaha illa Allaah) because it is wrong to translate laa ilaaha illa Allaah as there is no god but Allaah because there are other gods besides Allaah, Jesus (alaihi salam) uzair , allat, and uzza, nasra, Zeus, ra, but none of them are worthy of worship,they can't benefit nor harm you. So the correct meaning of our shahadah is there is no deity worthy of being worshipped in truth and by right except Allaah. Allaah is the One who.created us, and provided for us and He is the One who gives life and causes death,His sovereignty and dominion is His alone,He disposes of all the affairs for His creation, He enriched this one,He withholds sustenance from that one, He guides this one and causes that one to go.astray, because of His power and abilities and knowledge only He is deserving and worthy of worship. So the Muslim submits himself wholeheartedly to Allaah alone,obeying Him in that which He commands and staying away from what He forbids while directing all aspects of worship to.Allaah alone from that which He legislated in His book and that which the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam) legislated. And we all know that we were command to.worship Allaah upon the way of Muhammad (sallalaahu alayhi wa sallam ) worshipped Allaah for more info on this read usoolu thalaatha under the meaning of muhammadar-rasoolullah but in summary it says, Taw'awttahu feemaa amar obey him int that which He (alayhi salam) wa tasdeeqahu feemaa akhbar believe in everything he informed us about, wajtinaabu maa nahaa anhu wa zajr and to turn completely away from everything he forbade or prohibited wa laa yubaddu Allaah illa bimaa sharaa3 and that Allaah should not be worshipped except with what Allaah has legislated.
Wa Billaahi at-tawfeeq

 

[Muwaahid]

Correction it should read taw'awtahu feemaa amar to obey him (sallallaahu alayhi wa salam) in that which He commands .
Wa Billaahi at-tawfeeq

 

[ripamaru]

I was under the impression that God was the english word for Allah.

I appreciate this thread very much. I am trying to learn Islam as Allah has been leading me here for quite some time. I am on the verge of reverting. I am a bit overwhelmed by the language barrier and the sheer volume of info to digest but I have my whole life to get there.

If there are any American reverts out there willing to help me please contact me.

 

[NjmYqlb]

I agree with the Islamic party of Malaysia's stand on the issue. If I understand it correctly they say, God/god is a word and Allah is a name. There shouldn't be a translation from words to names vice versa. However, everyone should be allowed to use names of God (Allah, Eli, Jehovah etc.) as long as it isn't translated.

- ripamaru
My brother's friend reverted and felt overwhelmed by how much he needed to learn. He opened the Quran and he said somehow he opened right at the page where it is written in the Quran that Islam was brought down in stages. He understood that he didn't need to know them all at once. Also, knowledge does not equate to eeman (faith). Practicing whatever little you know is more important than knowing what you don't practice. Peace

 

[greenhill]

Salaam to all,

A simple concept but varying opinions. Many things are a direct result of the progress of human civilisation where definitions change over the generations. Here's my take :-

As the prophets were sent to remind people of Allah, these messages were forgotten over time and Allah faded from memory. But they were aware that there is a supreme Being, however, they only lost sight of Who He Is. As a result made up a 'replacement'. All these replacements are false deities but needed a 'generic' name to classify them for human understanding, hence the term 'god', which loosely translates as the divine and binds them to their beliefs which were of shoots from the religious messages given by the prophets.

So over thousands of years and countless religions, all had a supreme being at the top. All of them were given specific names but who were they? They were the 'gods' of that particular faith/belief or whatever. We, in Islam know that they are NOT, but that is only us, in Islam, but what about the rest of the world? They had their beliefs too, and they believe that the 'Being' is their god.

So now there is a division on the term 'god'. Not so much for muslims as it is quite clear from the shahada that there is not other god but Allah... but not the whole world is a muslim and they still have their 'being' at the top of their faith.

So every faith has their 'god' or 'God' and for muslims, it is Allah, the One! As what has been said above, I agree 100% that Allah Is His Name. To know him we have to study his 99 names (asma ul husna) and when we refer to Him, we should call Him by His name - Allah (or any other of His 99 names). Like us, humans, we do not expect people to call us 'Hey, human!' but by our names. That is who we are.

Of course there is also a question of human etiquette where we do not want to cause offense by denying others of their god by constantly calling Allah as God. Hence, personally I would accept that god is used to to denote the 'being' at the top of the other respective faiths but Allah as the owner of the 99 beautiful names and Is THE Supreme Being of Islam.

Qul Yaa Ayyuhal Kafiruun as translated by Yusuf Ali

Say : O ye that reject Faith! [1] I worship not that which ye worship, [2] Nor will ye worship that which I worship. [3] And I will not worship that which ye have been wont to worship, [4] Nor will ye worship that which I worship. [5] To you be your Way, and to me mine. [6]

Peace