aboesmael

To the forum administration: thanks for managing this forum, and allowing the free discussion of ideas among us. I generally do not discuss politics, and intend to avoid questions of a political nature. My interest here, is to provide answers regarding the Islamic faith, and the relationship between Islam and Christianity. Please do not send me messages political in nature, or seeking argument, as this is not my interest.

The true name of “God�?, according to The Bible

Much gets lost in translations. The English compilers and translators of the modern Biblical texts have, for some reason, translated the actual Name of God out of the original manuscripts. Additionally, they have Anglicized the Germanized leftovers of Latinized inflections of the already distorted Modern-Hebrew versions of the names of the Angels, Prophets, and other Scriptural figures. This fact is apparently meaningless to modern Christians, who are perfectly happy to believe that God, Moses, and Jesus spoke English. When asked the whereabouts of the original “Word of God�?, in the language which God actually spoke in, to determine what was ACTUALLY said, and show them how translation has had a catastrophic impact on Christian doctrine, the usual response is to dodge the question and jump to a new subject, e.g. “It’s the spirit of the Bible that counts, not the actual words.�? ! ???
The Name "Allah" used by Muslims and Arab Christians is the original form of His Name, the remnants of which can still be found throughout ancient Judaic and Christian writing in the form "Elohim" , which is the agreed-upon name of God used by Jews in the earliest manuscripts of the Torah. That His name is or ever was “Yhwh�? is a gross mistake. “Yhwh�? is just a way of avoiding saying God’s Name by simply saying “Him�? or “He�?, which are the closest translations of “Yhwh�?. It became the habit of some Israelites to avoid printing God’s name, in compliance with some later Rabbis’ ill-founded condemnation of it.
In understanding the closeness between the Arabic/Qur’anic and Hebrew/Biblical names, begin by removing the vowels. Neither language uses letters for vowels other than “alif�? similar to the letter “a�?. So, in Arabic you have alif-lam-ha(Alh), and Hebrew alif-lam-ha-mim(Alhm). There is not a great difference between the two, especially when you consider these 2 facts:
Arabs and Muslims also have a derivation of “Allah�? that is used when one is calling on God, as in prayer. It is “Allahumma�?. Remove the vowel sounds again, and you get alif-lam-ha-mim(Alhm), which is exactly the same as the Hebrew alif-lam-ha-mim(Alhm) for “Elohim�?. It is probable that Elohim is itself a derivation of “Allah�? that the Israelites used in prayer and song.
Whereas Hebrew has undergone much change throughout its history, Arabic has remained pristine. There are 3 major factors contributing to the purity of the Arabic language; the relative isolation of the ancient Arabs to the Arabian Peninsula, the tradition of intra-ethnic marriage (limiting the mixing of Arabs and non-Arabs), and the revelation of the Qur’an which has preserved Classical Arabic. Thus, the name “Allah�? has been preserved by the Arabs from the time of Ismai’l and Ibrahim(transmuted to Ishmael and Abraham in the Bible).
Gabri-el, Micha-el, Nathana-el, Rapha-el, Isra-el, Dani-el, Ishma-el, Abd-eel, Samu-el, Ezeki-el: These names all contain shortened (and widely mispronounced) remnants of the Arabic and Ancient Hebrew word "ilah", which means god or deity.
I will translate the meaning of 3 of the names I mentioned based on their meaning in Arabic, which would be hardly distinguishable from Ancient Hebrew. But first, I want to show the correct pronunciation of the ending syllable. The "el" used should be pronounced "eel". Thus, Gabriel should be pronounced "Jibra-eel"(there was no hard “G�? sound in ancient Hebrew), Michael (this one is really bad): properly it is "Meekaa-eel". Nathanael(sometimes Nathaniel or Nathanial) : this one is interesting. The pronunciation is "Na-thana eel". The meaning in Arabic or Hebrew is "We praise Allah�?.
Raphael: This is actually not used in the Biblical text, to my knowledge, but the name is used among the Catholics and Coptics, based on writings that pre-date the modern Bible. Raphael is an extremely Latinized movement of "Israf-eel". To the Catholics and others, Raphael is the representation of one of the Arch-Angels. In Islam, Israf-eel is the Arch-Angel who holds a tremendous sounding-horn over the entire universe, which will be blown once signaling the end of all life on earth, and a second time to begin the Resurrection. I have a book of compiled narratives authored by an Islamic scholar that dates back about 600 years. He went through the Islamic texts and ancient Judaic texts, and put together a summary describing the Beginning of God's Creation, including the creation and designated duties of the Arch-Angels. The compilation is very interesting in that it draws together the history of Creation from Judaic, Christian, and Islamic texts. It mentions that the Angel Israf-eel is so enormous that the entire universe would fit on his head like a drop of water.
Ishmael: heavenly name, lousy English pronunciation. The name in its proper form and pronunciation is "Is-ma'eel" (no “sh�? sound, which was a Yiddish mutation), meaning in Arabic "Allah has heard". In Genesis 16:11 we read: "And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction."
Abdeel (Jeremiah 36:26): sound familiar? It means "servant of Allah". "'Abd" is found in many Muslim names; "Abdullah" meaning "servant of Allah", "Abd-el-ilah" meaning "servant of THE God", "Abdur-Rahman" meaning "servant of The Merciful", and “Abdel-Khaliq�? meaning “servant of The Creator�?.

Another reference that remains of the ancient Name of God can be found in Matthew 27:46 "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani". The usage of "Eli" would probably be a mis-transliteration of "Elahi", which means "my god", whereas “Eli�? has no meaning in Hebrew or Arabic. Notice how close it gets to the "Elohim" mentioned before. Reading the English-transliterated verse in Arabic, you get literally “my god, my god, why have you run away from me?�? Tyndale translated it as “Lord, Lord, why hast thou forsaken me?�? This verse is often cited as supporting Biblical evidence of the Islamic beliefs that;
Jesus is not God; combined with the prayers in Gethsemene, in which Jesus reportedly prayed to his Lord, and dozens of other references in the Gospels, Jesus has clearly displayed his faith in and worship of The God in heaven, not himself. Qur’anic verse:
5:116 And behold! Allah will say: "O Jesus the son of Mary! Didst thou say unto men, worship me and my mother as gods in derogation of Allah.?" He will say: "Glory to Thee! never could I say what I had no right (to say). Had I said such a thing, thou wouldst indeed have known it. Thou knowest what is in my heart, Thou I know not what is in Thine. For Thou knowest in full all that is hidden.
It was not Jesus that was crucified by Pilate. No believer would ever utter the words “Eli, Eli, lama sabachtani�?, “my god, my god, why hast thou forsaken me�?. Qur’anic verse:
5:110 Then(before all people on the Day of Judgment) will Allah say: "O Jesus the son of Mary! Recount My favour to thee and to thy mother. Behold! I strengthened thee with the holy spirit, so that thou didst speak to the people in childhood and in maturity. Behold! I taught thee the Book and Wisdom, the Law and the Gospel and behold! thou makest out of clay, as it were, the figure of a bird, by My Will, and thou breathest into it and it becometh a bird by My Will, and thou healest those born blind, and the lepers, by My Will. And behold! thou bringest forth the dead by My Will. And behold! I did restrain the Children of Israel from (violence to) thee when thou didst show them the clear Signs, and the unbelievers among them said: 'This is nothing but evident magic.'
4:157 That they (the Israelites) said (in boast), "We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah.;- but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not:
In conclusion, Allah, Whom the Muslims have been calling upon for 1400 years, dubbed as “the false god�? by the likes of Franklin Graham, Gary Bauer, Jerry Falwell, and countless others with big mouths and little knowledge, is actually the God of the Jews, the Christians, and the average unknowing “American�?. Convincing Americans to use His proper Name, however, is unlikely. Laziness, ignorance, and arrogance have contributed to the terrible habit of changing names that are “hard�? to pronounce. Hence, Muhammad becomes “Mo-homid�? or better yet “Moe�?, the sports announcer Ahmad Rashad becomes “Aaahhh-mod Ra-shod�?, Abd-ul-lah becomes “Abdoool�?, etc. How they will excuse themselves in front of The Almighty, I don’t know; His real Name is not that difficult.

Skeptic Pete

providing answers is ok........but I don't see anyone asking you any questions about Islam.


In other words you aren't really here to answer questions at all.......and you have no interest in opposing views?

Skeptic Pete

I will ask you this question however...............

what does it matter what name people give to an non-existent entity?

This silly little word game you are playing shows how irrelevant your faith really is. names for god are just words mate, they don't matter one way or the other in reality.

And if your god/allah were actually true then he's a sanctimonious little git for worrying about what someone calls him. Petty. Pathetic.

lpetrich

That's because Allah's name started out as a generic word for "god", a word shared by several Semitic languages and likely a relic of common ancestry -- something like French dieu, Spanish dios, and Italian dio being descended from Latin deus. Or English god, German Gott, and Swedish gud being descended from some unrecorded ancestral-Germanic word.

It does NOT indicate that the writes of the Bible were proto-Muslims, which is what the OP seems to be implying.

Corwin

Yeah, that IS what the OP is saying. It's also bullshit.

'Allah' has nothing to do with 'Elohim' lingusitically speaking. (By the way... you're aware that 'Elohim' is a plural noun, right? Just checking.)

In simple terms: 'Allah' is arabic for 'The Only.' (The implication being 'the only God.')

Mughal

Aboesmael,

greetings and welcome to the forum.

I do not think that anyone is in any doubt as regard the connection between islam, christianity and judaism.

The problematic point however is that is any of them actually divine? Since none of them can be proven actually divine in its own right so the whole argument that islamic god is the same as jewish god is somewhat meaningless in this context.

In time of muhammad there were many jews and christians living in makkah and madinah and round about, even muhammad's first wife khadijah herself was a christian so muhammad could have learned all about these other religions from their followers and so coporate everything in his compilation of the book.

So there is nothing much we can argue about when it comes to similarities between religions, for they all come from each other. The main question remains, is any of them true?

Allah is same god as jewish and christian is importanty for muslims to prove due to the claim that islam is continuation of what went before but not for jews and christians who do not believe in what comes after. However, muslims cannot prove conclusively that Allah is same god as jewish god or christian god. Likewise all you are doing is throwing up some clues and hoping that some hit the target but you cannot actually prove what you are trying to. If you could, you would not have sought the help of hopeless clues. So think about it.

You can claim all you like that jews and christians have changed their books but again you cannot produce the original you claim existed. It only shows failure and more failure on part of muslims.

If your purpose is to unite people under one purpose then the best thing to do would be to help educate people about secular democracy, amongst muslims in particular.

You do not want to discuss politics yet that is what islam is all about hence the problems with islam and muslims.

Anyways, welcome to the forum and I hope we all mutually benefit of each other.

regards and all the best.

TySixtus

Oooh!! Don't bring that up! Then they have to start explaining away polytheism in a supposedly monotheistic religion!


Ty

premjan

I believe "ilaha" is similar in meaning to the hebrew "el" (God)?

Tuvar Ane Ingolenen

I've heard that Allah is derived from the pre-submission arabian moon goddess Al-Lat (and that the spelling of the word Allah is one usual for female plural). Al-Lat was one of a triple goddess Al-Lat, Al-Uzza and Menat. Al-Uzza, associated with the morning star, was the main goddess of Mohammad's tribe, who were the keepers of the Ka'aba. This could also explain explain the origin of the symbol for Submission, the crescent moon and star. Anybody know if there is any truth to this?

Mughal

According to Arabic rules, words ending with letter round TA are pronounced with letter HA eg ZAKAAT= ZAKAH or SALAAT= SLAH and likewise AL-LAAT would become ALLAH.

In Arabia there were tribes long before islam that were matriarchates. So it is very likely that it was mother goddess here on the earth rather than father god there in the heavens in those days.

The origin of word Allah therefore may well be pagan even if used by jews and christians because these religions themselves have been derived from ancient forms of paganism eg parsi-ism and even hinduism etc etc. God mithra of ancient iranians has much in common with jesus of christians for example.