Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Allah |
AllahNoun1. Muslim name for God. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "Allah" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1258. (references) |
Note: Allah \Al"lah\, noun. contr. from the article al the ilah God.]. (Websters 1913) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Satire | ALLAH, n. The Mahometan Supreme Being, as distinguished from the Christian, Jewish, and so forth. Allah's good laws I faithfully have kept, And ever for the sins of man have wept; And sometimes kneeling in the temple I Have reverently crossed my hands and slept. Junker Barlow. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Allah (الله) is the Arabic word for God. It is compounded of "Al" (أَل), the definite article 'the', and "ilah" (إِله), meaning "god". Therefore, Allah literally means "The God"--somewhat parallel to the capitalized "God" in English. It is used by Muslims world-wide, as well as Arabic-speaking Christians, Jews, and others.
From an Islamic point of view, Allah is the special name of God and is the most precious name because it is not a descriptive name like other Ninety-nine names of Allah, but the name of God's own presence. It is impossible to alter the word in Arabic; such as create a plural form (gods) or change the gender. The Islamic concept of mankind's place in the universe hinges on the notion that Allah, or God, is the only true [reality]. There is nothing permanent other than God. Allah is considered eternal and "uncreated", whereas everything else in the universe is "created."
Muslims, when referring to the name, add the words "Subhanna wa Ta'ala" after it, meaning "Glorified and Exalted is He" as a sign of reverence. The entire religion of Islam is based on the idea of getting closer to Allah. Muslims consider Him eternal and uncreated, as the rest of existence was His creation. Although commonly referred to as a "He", Allah is genderless, but it is considered disrespectful to refer to Him as an "It."
Allah is considered by Muslims to be omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. He is said to be in Heaven, though He constantly watches all that goes on in the world, and knows all things.
Although the name "Allah" is most commonly associated with Islam, it was also used in pre-Islamic times. The father of Muhammad, Islam's prophet, had the name "Abdullah"; which translates to servant of Allah. The Arab Jews referred to God as Allah, and the Hebrew form of this name, El (אל) or Eloh (אלוה), was used as an Old Testament synonym for Yahweh (יהוה). The Aramaic word for God is also "Allah", therefore it is believed that Jesus Christ also used this word in his teachings.
Muslims believe that the name of Allah has existed since the time of Adam. The God in al-Islam is believed by Muslims to be the same God worshipped by Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad. According to Islam, Allah is the God of Abraham, and thus the Muslims claim to be followers of the same God of Judaism and Christianity.
Before the rise of Islam, the Nomadic tribes of the Arabian peninsula adopted Allah as the "creator God" who had lesser gods as partners, similar to the way Hindus regard Brahma, in a form of henotheism or polytheism. In those times, Allah was considered to be the ancestor and leader of the other gods, and people chose other gods and even idols to function as intercessors. Up until the seventh century, people would devote their worship to Allah's "partners"; other gods such as the goddesses al-Laat (اللات), al-Uzza (العزى) and Man'at (منواة), who were considered "daughters of Allah."
Muslims do not try to draw or depict Allah in any way, according to Islamic belief it could lead to idol worship. Instead, they focus on His 99 "Attributes that are stated in the Qur'an, the holy book of the Muslims. Nearly one third of the book is used describing Allah's attributes and actions. Also, "hadith qudsi" are special recorded sayings of Muhammad to Muslims where he quotes what Allah says to him. The 99 "Attributes are frequently written in calligraphic Arabic as a permissible decoration, which adorns mosques and homes of Muslims.
There are many phrases with Allah's name in it:
Here is an example of the name "Allah" written in simple Calligraphic Arabic:
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Allah."
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Deity | God, Lord, Jehovah, Jahweh, Allah; The Almighty, The Supreme Being, The First Cause, the Prime Mover; Ens Entium; Author of all things, Creator of all things; Author of our being; Cosmoplast; El; The Infinite, The Eternal; The All-powerful, The All-wise, The All-merciful, The All-holy. |
Jupiter | Allah, Bathala, Brahm, Brahma, Brahma, cloud-compeller, Devi, Durga, Kali, oread, the Great Spirit, Ushas; water nymph, wood nymph; Yama, Varuna, Zeus; Vishnu, Siva, Shiva, Krishna, Juggernath, Buddha; Isis, Osiris, Ra; Belus, Bel, Baal, Asteroth; Thor, Odin; Mumbo Jumbo; good genius, tutelary genius; demiurge, familiar; sibyl; fairy, fay; sylph, sylphid; Ariel, peri, nymph, nereid, dryad, seamaid, banshee, benshie, Ormuzd; Oberon, Mab, hamadryad, naiad, mermaid, kelpie, Ondine, nixie, sprite; denizens of the air; pixy; (bad spirit). |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Allah |
| English words defined with "Allah": kismat, kismet. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "Allah": Alla, Alla Akbar, Allah ♦ Dying Sayings ♦ HICHENS ♦ Orotalt ♦ Seven Churches of Asia ♦ ultimatum ♦ Veiled Prophet of Khorassan. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Allah" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Afrikaan (Allah), Albanian (Allah), Danish (Allah), Dutch (Allah), French (Allah), German (Allah), Hungarian (Allah), Indonesian (deity), Italian (Allah), Malay (God), Swahili (God), Swedish (Allah), Turkish (Allah, father, God, heaven, king of kings, Lord, the almighty, the creator, the eternal, the godhead, the infinite, the providence, the supreme). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Trust in Allah, but tie up your camel! (The Golden Voyage of Sinbad; writing credit: Brian Clemens; Ray Harryhausen) Well, since I don't have old Allah watching over my sweet ass, I'd feel a lot better if I knew we were heading for dry land. (Predatori di Atlantide, I; writing credit: Tito Carpi; Vincenzo Mannino) Yeah. Well, would allah nail Darcy if he had the chance? (Varsity Blues; writing credit: W. Peter Iliff) | |
Lyrics | La elaha ela allah, (Put Your Lights On; performing artist: Everlast) She says, la elaha ela allah, (Put Your Lights On; performing artist: Everlast) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Onu allah affetsin (1970) Evvel Allah sonra ben (1969) Le Verdi bandiere di Allah (1964) Allah seviniz dedi (1962) Ressallah illa Allah (1961) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Allah -- Allah -- Allah.Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Now, praised be Allah! : If yon vision be real it looks as though my long ride ...Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Earthquake victims in Tehran, Iran, praying to Allah for protection as they camp with their belongings in the open air northwest of Tehran.Credit: Library of Congress. | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Economic History | Iran | Flag: Three equal horizontal bands of green (top), white, and red, with the national emblem, a stylized representation of the word Allah, is centered in the white band;. (references) |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | ULTIMATUM, n. In diplomacy, a last demand before resorting to concessions. Having received an ultimatum from Austria, the Turkish Ministry met to consider it. "O servant of the Prophet," said the Sheik of the Imperial Chibouk to the Mamoosh of the Invincible Army, "how many unconquerable soldiers have we in arms?" "Upholder of the Faith," that dignitary replied after examining his memoranda, "they are in numbers as the leaves of the forest!" "And how many impenetrable battleships strike terror to the hearts of all Christian swine?" he asked the Imaum of the Ever Victorious Navy. "Uncle of the Full Moon," was the reply, "deign to know that they are as the waves of the ocean, the sands of the desert and the stars of Heaven!" For eight hours the broad brow of the Sheik of the Imperial Chibouk was corrugated with evidences of deep thought: he was calculating the chances of war. Then, "Sons of angels," he said, "the die is cast! I shall suggest to the Ulema of the Imperial Ear that he advise inaction. In the name of Allah, the council is adjourned." |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Allah" is generally used as a noun (proper) -- approximately 85.15% of the time. "Allah" is used about 101 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (proper) | 85.15% | 86 | 35,638 |
| Interjection | 11.88% | 12 | 101,599 |
| Noun (singular) | 2.97% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Total | 100.00% | 101 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "Allah" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Allah | Last name | 300 | 29,387 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "Allah": Allah-o-akbar. | |
Ending with "Allah": resul-allah. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
allah | 1,660 | allah wallpaper | 6 |
99 name of allah | 79 | acbar allah | 6 |
allah authority palestinian ram | 49 | allah prayer | 6 |
allah soldier | 42 | allah pendant | 5 |
allah miracle | 40 | allah lyrics soldier | 5 |
name of allah | 37 | blues for allah | 5 |
allah akbar | 16 | allah calligraphy | 5 |
allah kebesaran | 14 | allah attribute | 5 |
allah picture | 12 | allah gambar kebesaran | 5 |
allah jew | 11 | allah zikr | 4 |
garden of allah | 11 | allah dua | 4 |
islam allah | 10 | allah miracle new | 4 |
allah who | 9 | 99 allah | 4 |
allah jus | 9 | allah team | 4 |
allah god moon | 7 | allah keajaiban | 4 |
99 allah arabic in name | 7 | allah wali | 4 |
allah sign | 7 | allah name nine ninety | 4 |
allah pearl | 7 | allah muhammad | 4 |
allah in name | 7 | allah inch | 4 |
allah doa | 6 | allah islam quran | 4 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "Allah"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Afrikaan | Allah. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | Allah. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | الله (father, god, maker, the creator). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | Аллах. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | Alláh. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | Allah. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | Allah. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | Alaho. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | Allah. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Allah. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | Αλλάχ. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | ְלל". (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | Allah. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | alhamdulillah (Praise be Allah), innalillah (All belong to Allah), bismillah (in the Name of Allah). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | Allah. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | アモルファス半導" (a la carte, alarm, alert, alignment, alliance, amorphous semiconductor, around, Ayatollah). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | アラー . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | Jee (deity, God, godhead; to her, The Almighty, The Creator, The Deity). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | allahay Alá. (various references) Аллах. (various references) alah. (various references) Alá. (various references) Allah. (various references) Allah (father, God, heaven, king of kings, Lord, the almighty, the creator, the eternal, the godhead, the infinite, the providence, the supreme). (various references) hudaя (God). (various references) Аллах. (various references) đức A-la. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words ending with "Allah": challah, hallah, wallah. (additional references) | |
Words containing "Allah": challahs, hallahs, wallahs. (additional references) | |
| |
"Allah" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: alah, Alayh, alih, Allab, Allaf, Allaghi, Allahu, Allnat, Alvah, Balah, Ballagh, Dallachy, Elah, Falah, Ilahi, illah, Kalalah, kallah, Mallah, Olah, Sallah, Salleh, Vlah, Zablah. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| Words rhyming with "Allah" (pronounced 'Al"lah'): Bablah, Bismillah, Delilah, Fellah, Kholah, Kiblah, Mollah, Moplah, mullah, Nullah, pallah, Selah, Wallah, Yalah, Zillah. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-h-l-l" | |
-1 letter: hall. | |
-2 letters: aah, aal, aha, ala, all. | |
-3 letters: aa, ah, al, ha, la. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-h-l-l" | |
+1 letter: challa, halala, hallah, halloa, wallah. | |
+2 letters: allheal, ashfall, challah, challas, halalah, halalas, hallahs, halloas, hallway, wallahs. | |
+3 letters: achillea, agalloch, allheals, allopath, ashfalls, ballhawk, caliphal, catchall, chalazal, challahs, hairball, halalahs, halliard, hallmark, halloaed, hallways, handball, hardball, healable, heliacal, marshall, rachilla, shillala. | |
+4 letters: achilleas, agallochs, allograph, allopaths, allophane, ayatollah, ballhawks, catchalls, djellabah, echolalia, flashlamp, hairballs, halliards, hallmarks, halloaing, handballs, hardballs, haustella, headstall, hypallage, lachrymal, laughable, laughably, leachable, marshalls, melphalan, phrasally, rachillae, shillalah, shillalas. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)41 6C 6C 61 68 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).- .-.. .-.. .- .... |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000001 01101100 01101100 01100001 01101000 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)A l l a h |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0041 006C 006C 0061 0068 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)3578786774 |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Photo Album 6. Quotations: Non-fiction 7. Usage Frequency 8. Names: Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Derivations | 13. Rhymes 14. Anagrams 15. Orthography 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
