Chxta's World
As a rule, I tend to avoid making comments on religious issues since by my very nature I tend to inspire provocative debate which as some of you who have met me (online or in real life) would have known by now. You see, religious issues much more than sports, ethnic or national issues tend to inspire some of the most irrational and passionate reactions from people, and I'd rather avoid those since I was involved in a particularly violent fight with a Jehovah's witness (would you believe that?) some 14 years ago. I think it is reasonable to fight over Milan-Juve, or over Nigeria-Cameroon, or over Igbo-Yoruba, such fights no matter how violent they become cannot match up to what people are capable of doing in God's name.
This would be my first post about religion on my blog, and hopefully my last. I believe that this thread came about as a Christian's reaction to what is happening as a result of the recent comments made by the Pope. On that issue, I think it is ignorance that is causing the over-reaction of not a few Muslims, and I would leave this one to be handled by other writers. I will try my possible best to ignore whatever outburst what I am about to say will provoke.
The subject under discussion is whether Yahweh or Jehovah is the same as Allah. My answer to that is yes. You see, this is a matter of lingua, not a matter of religion (which is why I am posting in the first place). I once read a cute little book titled Who is This Allah written by some fellow who had converted to Christianity from Islam. His prognosis prompted me to do some research into the matter, and what I came up with closely matched what you are about to see:
The word Allah is derived from a contraction of the Arabic words al- (the) and ilah (deity, masculine form) — al-ilah meaning "the god". Cognates of the name "Allah" exist in other Semitic languages, including Hebrew and Aramaic.
Both Muslim and non-Muslim scholars often translate "Allah" directly into English as "God"; and Arabic-speaking Jews and Christians refer to Allah as God. However, some Muslim scholars feel that "Allah" should not be translated, because they perceive the Arabic word to express the uniqueness of "Allah" more accurately than the word "god", which can take a plural "gods", whereas the word "Allah" has no plural form. This is a significant issue in translation of the Qur'an.
Centuries before the time of Muhammad, the word "Allah" was used by Jews (they also used the cognant Eloah) and pagan tribes in the Arabian peninsula to signify the chief deity. Much in the same way as Chukwu was used in Igbo to signify the chief deity (I wonder why then Chukwu and Allah are so different since they both transmutated from chief deity to only deity?)
The Hebrew word for deity, El or Eloah, was used as an Old Testament synonym for Yahweh, which is the proper name for God according to the Tanakh. The Aramaic word for God is Elaha and Alaha (Syriac), which comes from the same Proto-Semitic word (*ʾilah-) as the Arabic and Hebrew terms; Jesus is described in Mark 15:34 as having used the word on the cross, with the ending meaning "my", when saying, "My God (Eli), my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"
What I am trying to point out here is this: Hebrew and Arabic belong to the same class of languages (Semitic languages), so they would always have similarities in almost all apects (Read: Mein haus ist braun in German and My house is brown in English which are both Teutonic languages).
As a rule, I tend to avoid making comments on religious issues since by my very nature I tend to inspire provocative debate which as some of you who have met me (online or in real life) would have known by now. You see, religious issues much more than sports, ethnic or national issues tend to inspire some of the most irrational and passionate reactions from people, and I'd rather avoid those since I was involved in a particularly violent fight with a Jehovah's witness (would you believe that?) some 14 years ago. I think it is reasonable to fight over Milan-Juve, or over Nigeria-Cameroon, or over Igbo-Yoruba, such fights no matter how violent they become cannot match up to what people are capable of doing in God's name.
This would be my first post about religion on my blog, and hopefully my last. I believe that this thread came about as a Christian's reaction to what is happening as a result of the recent comments made by the Pope. On that issue, I think it is ignorance that is causing the over-reaction of not a few Muslims, and I would leave this one to be handled by other writers. I will try my possible best to ignore whatever outburst what I am about to say will provoke.
The subject under discussion is whether Yahweh or Jehovah is the same as Allah. My answer to that is yes. You see, this is a matter of lingua, not a matter of religion (which is why I am posting in the first place). I once read a cute little book titled Who is This Allah written by some fellow who had converted to Christianity from Islam. His prognosis prompted me to do some research into the matter, and what I came up with closely matched what you are about to see:
The word Allah is derived from a contraction of the Arabic words al- (the) and ilah (deity, masculine form) — al-ilah meaning "the god". Cognates of the name "Allah" exist in other Semitic languages, including Hebrew and Aramaic.
Both Muslim and non-Muslim scholars often translate "Allah" directly into English as "God"; and Arabic-speaking Jews and Christians refer to Allah as God. However, some Muslim scholars feel that "Allah" should not be translated, because they perceive the Arabic word to express the uniqueness of "Allah" more accurately than the word "god", which can take a plural "gods", whereas the word "Allah" has no plural form. This is a significant issue in translation of the Qur'an.
Centuries before the time of Muhammad, the word "Allah" was used by Jews (they also used the cognant Eloah) and pagan tribes in the Arabian peninsula to signify the chief deity. Much in the same way as Chukwu was used in Igbo to signify the chief deity (I wonder why then Chukwu and Allah are so different since they both transmutated from chief deity to only deity?)
The Hebrew word for deity, El or Eloah, was used as an Old Testament synonym for Yahweh, which is the proper name for God according to the Tanakh. The Aramaic word for God is Elaha and Alaha (Syriac), which comes from the same Proto-Semitic word (*ʾilah-) as the Arabic and Hebrew terms; Jesus is described in Mark 15:34 as having used the word on the cross, with the ending meaning "my", when saying, "My God (Eli), my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"
What I am trying to point out here is this: Hebrew and Arabic belong to the same class of languages (Semitic languages), so they would always have similarities in almost all apects (Read: Mein haus ist braun in German and My house is brown in English which are both Teutonic languages).
Buy on AliExpress.com
