I have read that in ancient arab mythology Al ilāh is the idol of the moon. He married the sun and the stars are the children of this marriage. Three of the most important children are Al-Uzza, Menat and A-Lat.
Later the Arabs changed the name from Al ilāh to Allah. But this was in a time, when Mohammed wasn't born.
Even Ibn Ishaq is mentioning that Mohammeds father has the name Abd-Allah with relation to the moongod.
But it is true too, that Al-lah is the Arabic synonym to Gott, G-d, Elohim.
Difficult
I guess,
The arabs were pagan and had no concept of 1 all powerful G-d..
Muslims say it is a general name..
But I don`t see any evidence of Allah or Al-Ilah being a general name for G-d.. Translations are imperfect, and Allah is used in translations of the bible to arabic, and in general conversation, to refer to the one all powerful G-d. Muslims are happy about that, because the islamized view, that the G-d that gave words to moses and jesus, is the G-d that gave them their Quran. That is probably why it got used. To please muslims, and also, remember that you are limited by the language , so Allah was best fit. It is not proof that allah is a general name..
More likely, it is not a general name. One G-d the central one, wth the crescent, was called Al Ilah, and the 2 others were given different names. And even now, I am sure arab/muslims would object to idols being called Allah. (they object enough to idols, e.g. blowing up the budda in afghanistan, can you imagine if an idol had the word ALLAH written over it!!! It doesn`t seem like a general term to me). That is probably a good proof that it is not a general name.
The arabic language was used to refer to their new G-d, the all powerful one.
Or their evolved moon G-d, whose name is now Allah a contraction of Al ilah, and whose associated sign is the crescent !
Muslims consider it one of G-d`s holy names
http://www.faizani.com/articles/names.htmlNot just an arabic word to refer to the all powerful G-d. Or an arabic word to refer to any G-d.
So if you want an argument against them, it may be that it could be problematic for them, if one of G-d`s holy names was originally the name of a moon G-d.
They would probably claim - without evidence - that before then it was the one all powerful G-d.. but it got corrupted!
q_q
Is this right?
"The arabic word Allah means in Hebrew oath or curse"
Do you know what Allah means in Aramaic?
Regarding the aramaic
Don`t know
According to google, I don`t think it is Allah, some sites are saying it is Elaw
I don`t know what letters and vowels that involves. But the vowels are not Ah Ah like Allah.
It could involve an aleph and lamed, like in the bible, Aleph Lamed, is a name of G-d.
Maybe in aramaic, aleph lamed heh, maybe. But with different vowels.
If they want to play with vowels.. the fact is, sometimes a word can be related when you change the vowels, other times it can be quite different.. And if you are saying words in one language and expecting the meaning in another language to be the true meaning, then you could run into trouble. Especially if you change vowels.. Like muslims are doing.
I don`t know much hebrew, but it seems to me
If challal is spelt with a Chet, then if you say it in hebrew, it means slay. And if you change the vowels, Chilayl, it means profane.
I don`t think any of that is relevant..
I think it`s nitpicking.
I am sure if there is evidence that the quran was originally aramaic, it would be better than that.
BUT..
if they want to play games, and say that Allah is in the bible... then yeah, he is, letter for letter, vowel for vowel, perfectly. But it means curse.