The below is an article by Farish A. Noor. I have asked my church elders to provide me (the inquisitive, curious, ignorant, new Catholic convert) something which can explain why The Herald has issues with our Malaysian Government over the use of the term ‘Allah’. The below is one of the recommended reading article. Beside this, I am now reflecting on the Word of God from the AlKitab (the Bahasa Melayu Bible) to find out how the word ‘Allah’ is used. Bahasa Malaysia was my main language because I studied all my school subjects in Bahasa Malaysia from Std. One to Form Five. Therefore, I personally find the Bible much easier to understand when I read it in Bahasa Melayu than reading it in English.
I also need to repeat this again and again that the word Allah has been used in the year 1700 to 1800 in the High Malay Bible (the Bahasa Malaysia during that century) when the Christian missionaries were in our land. As someone who is involved in the cyberworld, I have seen enough wrong accusations that we are now ‘grabbing’ the name for the sake of it. It is not. It has been around for centuries.
So, I hope the article by Farish Noor which I am copying in whole will be enlightening.
Dec 28, 2007
RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS IN MALAYSIA
The origins of the word ‘Allah’
By Farish A. Noor
CAIRO – I’M WRITING this in the company of my Egyptian friends who are Muslims, Catholics and Copts.Eid al-Adha has come and gone, and I’ve been to several events which saw Muslims and Copts celebrating together, visiting each others’ homes and feasting on copious amounts of food.
Now in the midst of Christmas, Muslims, Catholics and Copts are once again heading for the communal table and there will be much licking of chops, breaking of bread and merry making for everyone.
It is all simply too pleasant to believe, yet it is real and this is what life is like for many in Cairo, the ‘Mother of civilisation’ and home to more than 20 million Egyptians from all walks of life.
What is most striking to an outside observer like myself – though rather banal for the Egyptians – is the fact that in all these celebrations, the same word ‘Allah’ is used to denote that supreme and singular divinity, God.
Catholics and Copts alike exclaim Masha-allah, Wallahi, ya-Rabbi, Wallah-u allam, and of course Allahuakbar day in, day out, everywhere they go. The Coptic taxi driver blares out ‘By Allah, can’t you see where you are parking?’ as he dodges the obstacle ahead.
The Catholic shopkeeper bemoans: ‘Ya Allah, ya Allah! You can only offer me two pounds for the scarf? Wallahi, my mother would die if she heard that! Ya-Rabbi, ya-Rabbi!’
Yet Malaysia is now embroiled in another non-issue: the Malaysian Catholic Herald, a publication by and for Catholics in the country, has been told that it can no longer publish its Malay-language edition if it continues to use the word ‘Allah’ for God. Worse still, the country’s Deputy Internal Security Minister Johari Baharum recently stated that ‘only Muslims can use the word Allah’, ostensibly on the grounds that it is a Muslim word.
The mind boggles at the confounding logic of such a non-argument, which speaks volumes about the individual’s ignorance of Muslim culture, history and the fundamental tenets of Islam itself.
For a start, the word ‘Allah’ predates the revelation to the Prophet Muhammad and goes back to the pre-Islamic era. Christians had been using the word long before there were any Muslims. It is an Arabic word and thus common to all the peoples, cultures and societies where Arabic, in all its dialects, is spoken. It is also understood by millions of Arabic speakers to mean God, and little else.
One could add that as it is an Arabic word, it therefore has more to do with the development and evolution of Arabic language and culture and less to do with Islam.
It is hard to understand how any religion can have a language to call its own, for languages emerge from a societal context and not a belief system. If one were to abide by the skewered logic of the Malaysian minister, then presumably the language of Christianity (if it had one) would be Aramaic, or perhaps Latin.
The minister’s remark not only shows his shallow understanding of Muslim culture and the clear distinction between Arab culture and Muslim theology, but also demonstrates his own lack of understanding of the history of the Malays, who, like many non- Arabs, only converted to Islam from the 13th century on.
Among the earliest pieces of evidence to indicate Islam’s arrival to the Malay archipelago are the stone inscriptions found in Malay states like Pahang where the idea of God is described in the sanskrit words Dewata Mulia Raya.
As no Malay spoke or even understood Arabic then, it was natural for the earliest Malay-Muslims to continue using the Sanskrit-inspired language they spoke.
Surely this does not mean they were lesser Muslims?
The ensuing ruckus over the ban facing the Christian Herald in Malaysia forces observers to ask the simple question: Why has this issue erupted all of a sudden, when the word ‘Allah’ has been used for so long with nary a protest in sight?
Coming at a time when the Malaysian government is already getting flak from the protests by Malaysian Hindus who insist that they remain at the bottom of the economic ladder after 50 years of independence, it would appear as if the administration cannot get enough bad publicity.
The administration of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi came to power on the promise that it would promote its own brand of moderate Islam – one that was pluralist and respectful of other cultures and religions.
But time and again, the Malaysian public – first Hindus and now Christians – have felt necessary to protest over what they regard as unfair, biased treatment and the furthering of an exclusive brand of Islam that is communitarian and divisive.
This latest fiasco over the name of God would suggest that Prime Minister Badawi’s grand vision of a moderate Islam has hit the rocks, and is now floundering.
Just how the government is to regain its course is open to question, but what is clear is that some leaders should get their knowledge of their own religion in order first.
The writer is a Malaysian political scientist and historian based at the Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin; and one of the founders of the www.othermalaysia.org research site, where this article first appeared.
You may also want to read this blog post ‘Apabila orang Kristian pun menggunakan nama Allah‘ by U-start.
June 19th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
who is farish noor that u believe every word he said.?,
Allah is Almighty God who has no sons as he is the Creator. How can you equate tim to your god who you believe has a son in Jesus, a mortal being?
June 19th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
masrul – It is not Farish Noor who said Jesus is the Son of God. Farish merely shared the historical origin of the word Allah and how in the Middle East, Catholics and Muslims shared the same term for the Divine Being. And yes, what I believe in, i.e. Jesus is the Son of God is something that no one can change my mind.
June 20th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Malaysia is a democratic country, each of us has our right to choose what we wanna be and who we wanna be. Same goes as religion, this is our christian’s right to pray and use what ever name we wanna call our God. For those who are non- Christians, if you really have faith in your God and religion, surely you won’t easily sell it and buy a new faith because someone ask to. That won’t happen for those who are true to their God. So why disagreeing when christians using Allah as their God???? What ever the answers given, we christians will not bother about it because we have faith and we will continue using the word “Allah”.
As for lilian, thanks for giving the info which explain the usage of “Allah” word among the christians.
June 24th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Can somebody enlighten me here….I have read somewhere that the origin of the word “Allah”is a actually a reference to the moon god/goddess which have been used by the Arabs during pagan worshipping before the coming of Islam. Is there any truth in this because I would not want to call my god “Allah” if it is true.
Personally, as a Catholic I am not comfortable to refer God as “Allah”. It is not even a God’s name. Why can we just use the word “Tuhan” which is the same meaning as “God” ?
June 24th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Lilian, I feel so at peace reading this. I pray that the Muslims of our country Malaysia would read the article by Farish A Noor to widen their knowledge as to the history of the use of the word Allah.
Reminds me of the late Arafat who used to attend his wife’s church. That’s love. Doncha think?
July 5th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
The word “allaa” in Sanskrit (and a number of other Indian languages) means mother and or Goddes Kali. Hindus use thousands of names for God each to denote a particular conception. This word has been in use in India long before the advent of Christianity or Islam, perhaps coming from a time in the very dawn of human history.
Perhaps the Arabs learnt it from the Indians like the many other things that they did in the old days such as Mathematics, Medicine and Astronomy. One should remember that the world’s first universities were started in ancient India. And learning is a good thing. We do that even today, learning from people all over the world.
It is fighting over the name of God as if it were a registered brand name for the purpose of conducting a self-owned business, that does not seem very respectful to God.
July 6th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
sathia – Thank you for your comment. I am glad to learn about it from you, so much I didn’t know….
jane – We can only pray…
Amen – Sathia has one explanation.
July 10th, 2008 at 7:47 am
The Origin Words of Allah* Hardly I want to put it here, cause it’s very imflaming indeed to be read both by the Christian and Non Christian alike. However, as an individuall who was brought up in the Catholic Seminary during my Secondary School Days, till I just make a way to the normal life after my F5, to which I was given a chance to do so by my Seminary priest to further my studies in my current chosen field.
I would like to say and request from our non Christian Brothers and Sisters, that we are sharing the true Lord God and it would be very interesting and happy indeed to be in that way, no doubt we are perceiving the approached in a different way, for the Christian he’s the Father to all Human Being and he send Jesus Christ, his son to world who died and was raised on the 3rd day after his death. For the non Christian, I just can’t explained it to you. Hopefully you can do it for us. But whatever the difference, the Basic is there for us to understand.
The real fact is that Allah was name given to the Lord God of Abraham, Issac, Jacob, Ishmael and if I am not mistaken, it is for sure there is some mentioning about that 4 names of the Bible people. So don’t fight for over the name of the true Lord God -which we are comfortable with as Allah. Non of us will be a good winner and neither will be a bad loser if we need a Court to decide that name for each and every one of us. Why we have to? We hope we are not imitating the Babylon Culture here, perhap?.
TQ – Alleluia-Puji Tuhan
July 29th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
The origins of the word ‘Allah’ is a continious debate amongst Muslims and Chrisitian theologians. However if you look into the history of Islam and observe the pre-Islamic context in which it was formed, you get to deduct a reasonable conclusion.
It is a historical fact that the kabbah in the time of the prophet (pbh) the Kabbah was filled with 300 deity’s. This was the case in the time of the prophet Muhammad who was part of the Quryash tribe. It is also a fact that Allah was a highly respected moon god in Islam (especially the Quraynish tribe) with three daughters: al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat. The other deitys were later removed from the Kabbah. There is archealogy and historical documents which varify this and it is agreed on by many theologians. It is important to note that Islam was formed around countries that were strongly monotheistic and Muhammad himself was often in contact with Christians and Jews. The other interpretation is that it is derived from the Hebrew word ‘Elochim’ and that the routes are found in biblical refrences (Old testament).
I am not making any statements that are unbalanced or historically inaccurate. As i say there is no real unanimous agreement on the origins of the word Allah. Thus we are ultimatly left to speculation.
January 8th, 2009 at 5:27 am
salam.. Bro Nicholas, that’s very funny. where did you get all this myths about the Allah being the moon God. That’s very funny. You need to do more research before making any statement regarding it.That’s so funny brother.
As far as i know, the problem of people accuse Allah as moon God arise when muslim use the crescent as symbol to represent Islam.
This symbol was used during the time of Turks Otthamaniyyah government.Before this, moon is not being use to represent Islam. there’s no explaination of why the symbol being used. One of the theory is that They use it to symbolize Islam as in high rank just like the moon is high. and the message that Islam is like the moon. Bright and not hot as sun(dangerous).
Even Islam forbid the worship of moon. so, how can we have the moon God??
“And from among His Signs are the night and the day, and the sun and the moon. Do not bow down (prostrate) to the sun nor to the moon, but only bow down (prostrate) to “Allah” Who created them, if you (really) worship Him.“ [Holy Quran 41:37]
January 8th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
Obviously the Muslim in Malaysia had been threatened in their faith by the Christian who had call the Lord God the Father – Allah in Bahasa Malaysia ( Malaysian Language). What they perceived is that the Muslim will leave Islam and embrace Christianity after reading the truth in the Bible. There is no other reason behind the disagreement in using the word Allah by the Christian from the Muslim in Malaysia.
The Malaysian Mullah are not sleeping well anymore and due to that they are pressuring the ruling Barisan Nasional ruling Government(National Front) for that to happen.
I am of an opinion, that the Muslim who read the Bible will never and will not embrace the Christianity faith at will. And by reading alone and without practicing the real requirement will not make one a real and true Christian after embracing the religion from other faith.
So to the Muslim in Malaysia, don’t be scared of your own shadows. Obviously, a Muslim who read the Bible will make a better and more informed Muslim and I had been reading a lot of Islamic books and still I am devoted Christian with my faith that Jesus Christ was the Son of God who were born of a Virgin Mary because God want the human being to understand and to fulfill all the prophecies made by all the Great Prophets in the past, that there will be a Savior send to the Earthly World for all mankind.
Jesus Christ born and lived in a ordinary human live, suffer and died as an ordinary human as well, but were resurrected on the third days, where no human being had ever experienced before and after him. After sometime manifesting to all his disciples, he was raised to Heaven and that was proven in the Bible. He had promised that to all of his believers and followers, who believed in him will be raised and save at the end of time (End of the World)
We hope our Muslim brothers are not to be deceived by those radical(Mullahs)thinkers who are only good in creating disharmony amongst the populace and claiming to be a Hero of himself, whereas Malaysia that was formed on 16th September 1963, were made of various races and faiths who were happy with each other existence ever since then and why now the objection to such. If they feel that they are not comfortable with we the East Malaysian (Sabah & Sarawak) WHO ARE USING THE WORD ALLAH, SO LET US GET OUT OF THE MALAYSIAN FEDERATION TO WHICH WE ARE MORE THAN HAPPY ENOUGH TO PARTED AWAY FROM THE CHAUVINISTIC MALAYAN MULLAH FOREVER AND EVER.
January 31st, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Being a practising catholic in Malaysia is hard enough and this latest so called “feud” for the right to use the word “ALLAH” is being blown out of proportion
Since this issue was brought up, I have spent some time researching books and the internet like most of you have done and almost every text in every page points to the word “ALLAH” as pre-Islamic.
Rightfully, as what Masrul Hadi has described, it is an Arabic word and ALLAH is a “descriptive” of the word GOD. ALLAH is not a name like JEHOVAH or JESUS etc.
I hope that these imbeciles do come to their senses before they start blabbing away nonsense.
PEACE BE WITH YOU ALL
January 31st, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Oops! Sorry, hehehe
It should read Farish Noor and not Masrul Hadi….
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:38 pm
I am a Muslim myself and is doing classical arabic grammar research for over 30 years now. Just a bit of comment on the word “Allah”. In Malaysia there are Muslims who claim themseleves to be scholars but actually they are silly and ignorant people. They do not even understand the arabic Qur’an. The proof is so clear in the Qur’an itself that Christians call the Almighty God as “Allah” is verses [Al-Qur'an 5:72-73]. How can those ulama at JAKIM and IKIM deny this ? As though they are saying that the Qur’an is wrong ? Or otherwise they are unaware that the Qur’an itself has verses which explicitly says that the Christians say “Allah” as God ?
April 3rd, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Allah is not a malay word for God.Malay word for god is Tuhan.The Herald should use this word to indicate God in its Malay Publication.
It is unfair for using Allah in Malay publication but use God or so in English puiblication.
If Herald still want to use Allah in its Malay Publication,then they shall do the same in English publication.
TQ
December 19th, 2009 at 12:31 am
But the Arab Christians have been calling their God ‘Allah’ centuries before so if word ‘monopoly’ is in force here, Christians should be the ones who dictate how others should do their translations (thankfully this is not the case!) instead of the other way round
For the reasons behind the English and bahasa translations check out
http://www.krisispraxis.com
January 3rd, 2010 at 2:13 pm
As the UMNO Muslim interpretation of the World Allah, is that it’s never fathered and give birth to any Child. The Catholic Christian, never told them to become a Christian in the first place. If their interpretation is in the Christian way of believing at the Trinity of the Lord, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, then the Muslim way of looking at word Allah in the Muslim way is wrong.
But as a Christian, that is right. So my advise to the UMNO Muslim, don’t look at it in a Christian way of reading and understanding it, do continue the way the Muslim way of looking at it.Least you must be a Christian then, if it is right for you.?
No Muslim will be less Muslim in Malaysia, just because the Christian is using the word Allah. Allah is Universal in all context and understanding, especially to the young Malaysian whose education and medium of instruction are those in Bahasa Malaysia. Should we continue to talk this about, that will lead to all of us Malaysian, become more sulking by the day. That leads us to the Dark Age and become less civilize and with a moron inclined idea and brain.
So that it, I am pleading to all fellow Malaysian, please share and be fair to your fellow Country Man, we are the most privilege human being to live on this earth with a multi and plural society, so why not share what we are suppose to share, it won’t make you less human and become a simian family of Monkey, perhap the UMNO Muslim, may be.
To the UMNO Muslim, be fair to all of us, we are human being as that of you as well. We pay taxes and earned our living in a honest way as that of you as well.
January 4th, 2010 at 9:36 pm
“Allah” comes from the Arabic word “elah”,a god or something worshiped. -This word (elah) can be made plural (gods), as in “aleha” and it can be male or female just as the word in English can be “goddess. When the word “elah” reached a perfective state as in “Allah”, this mean:
1. Allah = Has no gender (not male and not female). “He” is used only out of respect and dignity – not for gender.
2. Allah = Always singular – Never plural. “We” is used only as the “Royal WE” just as in English for royalty.
3. Allah = Means “The Only One to be Worshipped” which Islam don’t recognized any other form of Allah, hence the reason to contradict with the doctrine of trinity.
I see this as more confusion to christians rather to Muslim. “Allah” is the most suitable word for “The Almighty God” in the consept of pure monotheism, and off course, “Allah” is the same word used by Christian Arabs and Jewish Arabs in their Bible, centuries before Islam came. I believe the banned of the word is mere political subject.
January 5th, 2010 at 9:30 am
Some Arabs are already saying that the Muslims in Malaysia are trying to portray themselves as more Islamic than those in the Middle East where the cradle of Islam was born.
January 6th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
Why it must be based on the origin?
The real and true issue here is the using of ALLAH by other than Muslims in Malaysia will give more advantage to missionaries of Christian to expand their preach especially among Malays and Muslims, which in breach of our Federal Constitution, 1957. That is the real issue.
After 53 years of our independent, why now must the said Church apply this in our honorable court where Malaysian especially non-Muslims can accept and adopt the term of O’ Lord or Al-Mighty as references to their God.
January 8th, 2010 at 10:24 pm
@ pemuda kuala langat
“Why it must be based on the origin? ”
Because the Muslim extremists claim that term ‘Allah’ can only apply and is only exclusive to their God, based on their ’so-called’ origin of the word. So, what is wrong with going back down to the origin of the word in Arab? These are facts.
“The real and true issue here is the using of ALLAH by other than Muslims in Malaysia will give more advantage to missionaries of Christian to expand their preach especially among Malays and Muslims, which in breach of our Federal Constitution, 1957.”
I don’t see how the translation of the word ‘God’ would give more advantage to the Christian missionaries. How should it? Muslims make up about more than 60% of Malaysia’s population. Christians are obviously the minority, about less than 10% of the population. How is a ‘threat’?
Are you implying that the usage of the word Allah by The Herald newsletter would cause a number of Muslims to turn away from their original belief and convert to Chritsians?
*snort*
January 8th, 2010 at 11:17 pm
Mahathir’s perspective on his blog:
http://chedet.co.cc/chedetblog…html#more
“5.Sebenarnya kalimah “Allah” tidak terdapat dalam kitab Taurat atau Talmud Hebrew atau kitab Injil Kristian dalam bahasa Latin, Greek atau bahasa-bahasa Eropah. Nama bagi Tuhan dalam bahasa yahudi ialah “Yahweh”, yang diterjemahkan kepada bahasa Inggeris sebagai “Jehovah”.
6.Dalam kitab Injil, Jesus (Isa) dan God adalah sama. Tidak ada kalimah Allah dalam kitab Injil dalam bahasa-bahasa yang disebut di atas.
7.Dalam usaha menerangkan agama Kristian di kalangan orang Islam atau masyarakat yang mahir dengan agama Islam, perkataan God diterjemah kepada “Allah” supaya mudah difaham oleh pendengar.”
He refuses to acknowledge that the term “Allah” was used by Arabs since pre-Islamic times. He makes no reference that the Arab Christians refer to Allah as God. Why is he doing so?
January 10th, 2010 at 9:15 am
HAVE FAITH – BY AIDIL RUSLI
Allah. If you’re Malaysian, or have been following Malaysian news (mainstream or otherwise) for the past two weeks, you’d have known that the High Court has ruled against making the use of the word “Allah” exclusive only for Muslims, or at the very
least you’d have noticed that right now everyone’s giving their two-sen’s on the matter.
I’m definitely not a religious expert, that’s for sure. But I think I’ve read enough to
know that it is an undeniable fact that Christianity and Islam more or less sprouted
from the same tree. We share prophets, and even the Bible (which version of it though
is open for debate, I know) is recognised in Islam as one of the “big four” books,
alongside the Torah, the Zabur and our very own Quran. Somewhere along the way these
faiths branched out and went their separate ways, that’s true, but still one must never
forget that what started it all was that one God.
I’m not here to debate the correctness or validity of this or that religion, or who
gets to call their God this or that. I’m just saying that this is not something new,
Christians referring to God as Allah. It is not uncommon at all for Christians in Sabah
and Sarawak to have their Mass in Bahasa Malaysia, and this has gone on for a long time
already, and they’ve been referring to God as Allah for a long time already. In case I
still haven’t made myself clear:
1. Christianity is not a new faith in Malaysia.
2. Christians use Bahasa Malaysia too.
From what I’ve been hearing and reading, most people who are against the use of the
word “Allah” by Christians have one main crux in their argument — that it can or will
confuse people. And that “confusion” can or will lead to the weakening of our faith
here (i.e. the Muslim faith — because this is, unfortunately for you, OUR country). The
fragile little minds of Muslim children here might easily confuse the Muslim version of
Allah and the Christian version of Allah, so we might as well just not let them
Christians use the word Allah to avoid that potentially catastrophic confusion from
happening. This is after all, OUR country and Allah is OUR word.
I’m not going to debate the whole “OUR country” thing here, because that sort of debate
will never end and will involve more than the 1,000-word limit I have for this article.
But what really irks me about this whole “confusion” argument is that it insults not
just my intelligence, but also the intelligence of all Muslim Malaysians.
It makes the assumption that, after 11 years of learning Agama Islam as a subject in
the national school system (not to mention the kind of bigoted tall tales we all hear
from friends and family about other faiths), we will all be stupidly moronic enough to
not see the difference between the Christian version of God and the Muslim version of
God, even if they both refer to their God as Allah. Would you let someone insult you
like that?
And not only do they insult our intelligence, they even assume that we, Muslim
Malaysians, have such paper-thin faith that we will be easily drawn to the “other side”
just because the Christians refer to their God as Allah?
The funniest thing about this whole argument is actually how impractical it is when you
apply it to real-life situations.
If I were to apply the reasoning used by people who are against Christians using Allah
to refer to their God, then by now EVERYONE in Sabah and Sarawak should already be
Christians, because every Muslim kid would have heard endlessly Christians referring to
God as Allah, and surely they must at least be confused by now, if not already
converted to Christianity.
Is that the case though now? It obviously isn’t, right? Why? Because they’re not that
weak, that’s why. And they’re obviously not that stupid either, despite what these
so-called “saviours” of our faith might think or say.
Besides, if you actually sit down and think about it, you’re unlikely to encounter the
word Allah used by Christians outside of the usual places you might normally find it
used in — like churches that use Bahasa Malaysia during mass or in Christian magazines
or newspapers. Let’s face it, would the average Muslim Malaysian even go to a church
anyway? Would he or she even buy Christian magazines or newspapers? I think not,
because why would they?
If they’re not even exposed to these mediums, then what’s all the worry about? If by
any chance the fragile little mind of a Muslim child did encounter the word Allah in a
Christian newspaper or leaflet, all our years of conditioning to be aware of other
faiths’ conspiracies to convert us righteous Muslims would send alarm bells ringing in
our heads anyway. It is after all, a Christian publication, which we’re taught to never
take seriously anyway. And would the Muslim child even read it in the first place?
Inverting the whole issue, we Muslims use God to refer to Allah as well, but do we see
the Christian faith crumbling because of that? Do we see Christian children get
confused and convert en masse just because they hear Muslim preachers use the word God
or encounter a Muslim publication using the word God to refer to god? Or are we
implying that Christian kids are smarter and have stronger faith than Muslim kids? From
the looks of it, we sure do.
So ask yourself my dear Muslim brothers and sisters, and ask your friends to ask
themselves too, do we let other people openly insult our faith and intelligence like
what’s been happening now, or should we have more faith in each other?