zanaz
Algeria
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At the beginning, I feel a linguistic analysis of the origins and meanings of the two terms, God and Allah, would be most useful. According to most dictionary references, the majority of words currently in use today trace their source back to Latin, Greek or Old, Middle; German, French or Spanish, along even with reference sometimes to Hebrew or Sanskrit. Arabic is rarely referenced, which is another problem that needs to be tackled in a separate article. Attempting to find the origin for the term, God proved to be quite fruitless as I perused all major English dictionaries, old and new. I welcome anyone’s proofs to the contrary, and, until such time as any are brought forward, I invite all to read this answer, which is based on what I consider to be the supreme truth, found in the Arabic language. Taken as a given that the concept of the word God in most minds is that of strength and giving, fairness and capability, I offer the possibility that the root can be found in the Arabic term jude, which root is jawada – which is this meaning exactly. A related term in English would be the word “good”. Let us now look at the Arabic word Allah – we can immediately recognize the English word “all”, indeed we have herein one of the best characteristics of Allah’s attributes; The All-Knowing, All-Seeing, All-Hearing, All-Merciful etc. Every baby born anywhere in the world has, as his first utterance the short “a” sound. No new born ever cried out with an “s” or a “t” or a “d” or a “b” sound! All exclaim the “a” as an expression of the oneness of humanity, in relation to its Creator. Also, all final deathbed gasps exhale the “h”, the last letter of the name of Allah. This is because He is the First and the Last! When we scream in pain or cry out in fear, or grunt and groan during strenuous exercise or disgust, or exclaim in joy or surprise, it is the very same… “ahhh”, and not the “g” of the word God that we all emit. This reality is intrinsic in our innermost selves, something out of our control!! Why is this so, you may ask. It is because the word Allah refers to the concept of that which all turn to for refuge and repose. Without finding this state of rest and security, we are in a constant state of frustration and irritability. Our souls all yearn to reach the place of contentment, which can only be found by knowing Allah as He has revealed Himself to us, in the Qur’an. Another interesting facet of the two related languages is the relation of the words “man” and “woman”. The word “man” (mim, nun) in Arabic is the personal pronoun for the human being, as in the English word “man”. Both languages use the term also in the sense of “who”. Therefore, the usage of the term “man” is nearly identical in both languages!
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