Salam Sister Fatma and Salam to all Brothers and Sister, Interesting proposition you have brought to us.
I also would like to throw some of my vague ideas. :P Somehow I have this awkward feeling about that all kinds of words/concepts can be derived from one of the so many ways of interepreting the broken down version of the aya mutaqaatiah. Somehow maybe that the word Allah currently denoted as alif double lam tashdeed ha might be represented differently with this brokendown version of the aya mutaqaatiah. Okay, may be there are elemental concepts that can be mapped to this broken down version of aya mutaqaatiah. concepts such as i (ana), ownership/relationship(li), and he/she/it (hu/ha) might be some of the elemental concepts. in a way, when we look at the word ilaah, we can see that we could associate each word to the concepts just mentioned and could derive a big picture meaning, i.e. being ilaah(deity) is equivalent in having ana (since i = alif with kasroh, i am), li/la (lam, owned by), ha/hu/hi (her/it/him), and this breakdown of the word more or less describe what the big picture term ilaah(deity) means. wallahualam, Johan On Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 8:20 PM, Fatma Said <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello to all on the list, and for those of us fasting a great Eid Mubarak! > > I hope it is not too late to contribute to the discussion on the origins of > the name of Allah. As far as I am aware this issue has two strong and > opposite opinions (which I think most people in the discussion below have > alluded to): > > 1. Allah is the grand name of God and therefore *cannot be derived*, it is > the origin in and of itself (suggesting that it is derived is not a good > idea since God/Allah is the origin of all things). It is mentioned in Qur’an > about 6,000 times and each time it is a word in its own right. > > > 2. Allah is the grand name of God but *is derived* (without violating any > creed (aqeedah) related issues in reference to the nature of Allah the Most > High, and acknowledging also that nothing can be compared to Him). > > > If we take the second opinion then according to Ibn Mandhur (*Lisaan al > Arab, the copy I am quoting from is the 2003 edition volume 1, printed in > Beirut, pp. 139-141*) 'Allah' is derived, like any other noun (in line > with the Islamic creed though) and yields four possible meanings: [to > translate this into English is a challenge so please bear with me, I will > try to make it make sense and summarise for our purposes here] > > 1. Allah is derived from /i-laa-hun/ إلاه) and has the meaning of 'an > object of worship' i.e: Allah is worshiped and is the only object worthy of > worship > > 2. It can be derived from /a-li-ha/ أله) which means to 'seek protection > in' Allah is the one whom people seek protection in > > 3. It can be derived from /wa-li-ha/ وله past tense verb ----/yaw-la-hu/ > يوله present tense verb--- /wa-la-han/ وله ---verbal noun: meaning- a > very strong and devotional love, a type of love that is given to greater > being i.e: god/ Allah > > 4. It can be derived from /a-li-ha/ أله past tense---- /ya'-la-hu/ > يألهpresent tense--- /a-la-han/ > ألها verbal noun: meaning- an object to which all minds are attracted to > and are left in awe by it, i.e god/Allah. The action of being awed or left > bamboozled at something so great that your mind cannot fathom it. > > In addition to that there is a theory that the name Allah means 'The God' > i.e. the only one worthy of being worshiped and by extension making any > other gods not worthy of the same devotion, love, trust and belief. In > reference to the words from Lisaan al Arab, one could say that they are all > connected and ultimately derived from word 1, and that all can refer to > Allah, as Ibn Mandhuur always says. Allah knows best. > > I am not an etymologist, I just read on the subject so I am not sure if > etymology implies man-made versus created words; I believe the issue is much > simpler than that. It is a matter of what is the origin of this word? How > was it derived and in the case of Arabic we need such a stringent style in > accounting for words because then the language is appreciated more, and we > begin to see how the words connect in both form and meaning (Semantic > fields). It doesn't mean that what I have written here is perfect so if > anybody wants to add anything or correct what I have put up please feel free > to do so. > > I hope I have added something beneficial to the discussion but ultimately > it is a matter of choosing what people feel is correct and in keeping with > the intentions and goals of the Qur’an corpus. Allah knows best. > > best wishes, > > Fatma > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > *From:* Kais Dukes <[email protected]> > *To:* [email protected] > *Sent:* Fri, September 3, 2010 3:23:02 AM > *Subject:* Etymology and origins for the most used name of God in Quranic > Arabic ("Allah") > > Hi comp-quran mailing list members, > > I would be interested to know people's thoughts on this. Here is an > interesting thread I have copied and pasted from the Quran Arabic Corpus > message board (see: > http://corpus.quran.com/wordmorphology.jsp?location=2:163:2) > > What do you all think of this? Any good information / references on the > etymology for this? > > --------------------------------------- > Original Thread: > > Idris > 7th December, 2009 > Isn't the root of Allah, alif-lam-ha, the same root as in: 2:163:2? > http://corpus.quran.com/wordmorphology.jsp?location=(2:163:2<http://corpus.quran.com/wordmorphology.jsp?location=%282:163:2> > ) > Mourad Diouri > 7th April, 2010 > Kais - I'd appreciate to know your thoughts and any credible research about > the etymology of the word Allah. > As far as I know there are two opinions: > 1. It's derived from أله > 2. It is not a contraction of الاله and is non-derivated word. > tufail ahmed > 2nd September, 2010 > salam,If ALLAH is not constraction of AL- ILAH then why most of translators > have translated as THE GOD? > Kais > 2nd September, 2010 > w/salam, > Also interesting when discussion the etymology here is the name of the > false pre-Islamic goddess "Al-lat"... > See: > http://corpus.quran.com/concept.jsp?id=allat > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-lat > > >
