Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Welcome to the Judaism community on Codidact!

Will you help us build our community of learners? Drop into our study hall, ask questions, help others with answers to their questions, share a d'var torah if you're so inclined, invite your friends, and join us in building this community together. Not an ask-the-rabbi service, just people at all levels learning together.

Comments on Is according to any major Judaic sect, naming god Allah is idolatry?

Post

Is according to any major Judaic sect, naming god Allah is idolatry?

+0
−2

A fundamental Muslim practice is naming the god of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Ishmael in Arabic Allah (ٱللَّٰه) while not necessarily denying that the name of god in Hebrew is Yahwah (יהוה).

This may or might not be considered idolatry within Judaism; if Arabic has any liturgical significance in Judaism, or if Quranic or even pre Islamic Arabic (in which the word Allah also exists) is considered a sacred language in Judaism, than there is an even smaller chance that this would be idolatry by any major Judaic sect.

History
Why does this post require attention from curators or moderators?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

1 comment thread

General comments (8 comments)
General comments
manassehkatz‭ wrote over 3 years ago

Not sure how this is even a question - there are many names of God in Hebrew as well as in other languages (e.g., English: God, Lord, Almighty, etc.). Why should Arabic be any different?

deleted user wrote over 3 years ago · edited over 3 years ago

Because Arabic might be considered an essentially sacred language within some Judaic ideologies, or have a status similar to that of any sacred language (Hebrew/Aramaic) and it might be that Judaism can recognize that the Ishmaelites had their own traditions about El/Yahwah; this question is tediously bonded with the question "are god's names in Hebrew essentialist or eternal in all reality"?

robev‭ wrote over 3 years ago · edited over 3 years ago

The answer is simply no. Would you upvote such an answer? All Allah means is The God...

deleted user wrote over 3 years ago · edited over 3 years ago

robev, I am not sure your argument is correct because as far as I know "LA ILA ILLA ALLAH" means there is no god but the (named "Allah") god.

sabbahillel‭ wrote over 3 years ago · edited over 3 years ago

Just because some other religion pretends to make up a different name for a deity has no meaning for Judaism. It is just like xianity calling god jesus or greek making the chief deity zeus.

manassehkatz‭ wrote over 3 years ago

@sabbahillel It is both more and less than your examples. Your examples are "not God" in Judaism, by any definition. Whereas a single monotheistic deity by another name might be the same as what Judaism considers God. On the other hand, I posit that it wouldn't matter even if that is the case, because every language, including Hebrew has multiple names for God.

Yehuda‭ wrote over 3 years ago

While I'm not familiar with Arabic dialects or the etymological origin of "Allah," I would imagine that the Hebrew equivalent actually does exist: א-לוה.

deleted user wrote over 3 years ago · edited over 3 years ago

@Yehuda, as a word to describe אל or ala-we or alo-ha (אלוה) yes, it complies ; it even further complies with the arabic generic word for god "illa" (إِلٰهَ) but Allah is a name according to Islam.