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الله

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: اللە and اللہ
Languages (14)
Arabic • Chagatai • Egyptian Arabic • Hijazi Arabic • Khalaj • Kipchak • Malay • North Levantine Arabic • Ottoman Turkish • Pashto • Persian • Sindhi • South Levantine Arabic • Ushojo
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ﷲ U+FDF2, ﷲ
ARABIC LIGATURE ALLAH ISOLATED FORM
← ﷱ
[U+FDF1] 		Arabic Presentation Forms-A ﷳ →
[U+FDF3]

Arabic

FWOTD – 17 October 2015
Arabic Wikipedia has an article on:
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اللّٰه

Alternative forms

Etymology

From the root ء ل ه (ʔ l h). Widely theorized to be a contraction of الٱِلٰه (al-ilāh, “God”), from الإلٰه (al-ʔilāh, “the deity”) with loss of initial hamza after the definite article ال (al-). Others suggest it is a variant spelling of the more ancient ألّٰه (allāh), the extra ل (l) serving as an emphatic marker to emphasize distinction, first attested in the Mecca and Taif region, and later in the Quran. Both proposed roots were current in pre-Islamic usage, particularly الإلٰه (al-ilāh) in Nabataean macaronic Arabic-Aramaic usage from which the singular use has presumably spread. Ultimately from Proto-Semitic *ʔil-. Cognate with Classical Syriac ܐܰܠܳܗܳܐ (ʾalāhā), Assyrian Neo-Aramaic ܐܲܠܵܗܵܐ (allāhā), Aramaic אֱלָהָא (ʾĕlāhā), Hebrew אֱלוֹהַּ (ʾelōah), and Old South Arabian 𐩱𐩡𐩠 (ʾlh).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): (in isolation) /aɫ.ɫaː(h)/, (phonemic, in isolation or before a pausa) /alˤ.lˤaːh/, (classical, nominative form) /alˤ.lˤaː.hu/
    Egypt, Levant, Sudan: IPA(key): [ɑɫˈɫɑː]
    Central Arabia: IPA(key): [ɑɫˈɫɑː]
    Western Arabia: IPA(key): [aɫˈɫaː]
    Eastern Arabia: IPA(key): [ˈɑɫɫɐ]
    Morocco, Tunisia: IPA(key): [ɑɫˈɫɑːh]
    Classical: IPA(key): [ʔalˤlˤaːh], [ʔalːˤaːh]
  • (after a or u): /ɫ.ɫaːh/
    Egypt, Levant, Sudan: IPA(key): [ɫɫɑː]
    Central Arabia: IPA(key): [ɫɫɑː]
    Eastern Arabia: IPA(key): [ɫɫɐ]
    Morocco, Tunisia: IPA(key): [ɫɫɑːh]
  • (after i): /l.laːh/
    Egypt, central Arabia: IPA(key): [llæː]
    Levant, Sudan, Western Arabia: IPA(key): [llaː]
    Tunisia: IPA(key): [llɛːh]
    Morocco: IPA(key): [llæːh]
Request for audio pronunciation This entry needs an audio pronunciation. If you are a native speaker with a microphone, please record this word. The recorded pronunciation will appear here when it's ready.

Proper noun

اللّٰه • (allāh) m

  1. (monotheism) God
    • 609–632 CE, Qur'an, 112:1-4:
      قُلْ هُوَ ٱللّٰهُ أَحَدٌ ٱللّٰهُ ٱلصَّمَدُ لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ وَلَمْ يَكُنْ لَهُ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ
      qul huwa llāhu ʔaḥadun llāhu ṣ-ṣamadu lam yalid wa-lam yūlad wa-lam yakun lahu kufuwan ʔaḥadun
      Say, “He is God, [who is] One, God, the Eternal Refuge. He neither begets nor is born, nor is there to Him any equivalent.”
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 3:16:
      لِأَنَّهُ هٰكَذَا أَحَبَّ ٱللهُ ٱلْعَالَمَ حَتَّى بَذَلَ ٱبْنَهُ ٱلْوَحِيدَ، لِكَيْ لَا يَهْلِكَ كُلُّ مَنْ يُؤْمِنُ بِهِ، بَلْ يَكُونُ لَهُ الْحَيَاةُ ٱلْأَبَدِيَّةُ.
      For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
    • 1865 CE, Bible (SVD), Gospel of John, 11:4:
      فَلَمَّا سَمِعَ يَسُوعُ قَالَ: هٰذَا ٱلْمَرَضُ لَيْسَ لِلْمَوْتِ بَلْ لِأَجْلِ مَجْدِ اللّٰهِ لِيَتَمَجَّدَ ٱبْنُ اللّٰهِ بِهِ.
      fa-lammā samiʕa yasūʕu qāla: hāḏā l-maraḍu laysa li-l-mawti bal li-ʔajli majdi llāhi li-yatamajjada bnu llāhi bihi.
      When Jesus heard it, he said: This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.

Usage notes

  • In Islamic contexts, this word may alternatively be translated into English as Allah. Note, however, that the Arabic word is just as neutral and general as English God, and does not express any particularly Islamic notion at all. الله (allāh) is the Arabic word used by Christians, Jews, and other monotheists to describe the God of their own religions, and is cognate to the words used in Hebrew and Syriac. The Jewish sage Saadia Gaon even used الله (allāh) to translate the Tetragrammaton in his Arabic translation of the Torah.

Declension

Declension of noun الله (allāh)
singular basic singular triptote
indefinite definite construct
informal — الله
allāh 		—
nominative — اللهُ
allāhu 		—
accusative — اللهَ
allāha 		—
genitive — اللهِ
allāhi 		—

Derived terms

Descendants

  • Maltese: Alla, alla

Borrowings:

From يَا اللّٰه (yā llāh, “O God”): (see also the descendants at يَاٱللَّٰه (yāllāh))

See also

References

  • Jeffery, Arthur (1938), “اَللّٰه”, in The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qurʾān (Gaekwad’s Oriental Series; 79), Baroda: Oriental Institute, page 66
  • Nehmé, Laïla (2017), “New dated inscriptions (Nabataean and pre-Islamic Arabic) from a site near al-Jawf, ancient Dūmah, Saudi Arabia”, in Arabian Epigraphic Notes‎[1], volume 3, pages 121–164
  • Wehr, Hans (1979), “ءله”, in J. Milton Cowan, editor, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th edition, Ithaca, NY: Spoken Language Services, →ISBN

Further reading

Anagrams

Chagatai

Etymology

Borrowed from Classical Persian اَللّٰه (allāh), from Arabic اللّٰه (allāh).

Noun

الله • (allāh) (no plural)

  1. (religion) God
    Synonyms: خدا (xüdā), تینگری (teŋri)
  2. (Islam) Allah, God in Islam

Declension

Declension of الله (allāh)
singular plural
nominative الله
allāh 		—
—
genitive اللهنینگ
allāhnıng 		—
—
definite accusative اللهنی
allāhnı 		—
—
dative اللهکە
allāhqa 		—
—
ablative اللهتین
allāhtın 		—
—
locative اللهتە
allāhta 		—
—

Derived terms

Descendants

Egyptian Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic الله (allāh).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [(ʔ)ɑɫˈɫɑː(h)]

Proper noun

الله • (allā) m

  1. (monotheism) God
    Synonym: ربّنا (rabbina)

Derived terms

Interjection

الله • (allā)

  1. Signals amazement, approval, or admiration: wow, amazing!

Hijazi Arabic

Etymology

Inherited from Arabic الله (allāh).

Pronunciation 1

Proper noun

الله • (aḷḷā) m

  1. (monotheism) God

Interjection

الله • (aḷḷā)

  1. oh my God (to something beautiful and exciting)

Pronunciation 2

Interjection

الله • (aḷḷa)

  1. oh my God (to something shocking)
Usage notes

The pronunciation with the final long vowel is used as an interjection to something beautiful and exciting, while the pronunciation with the short vowel is used as an interjection to something shocking.

See also

Khalaj

Noun

اَللّٰه (Allâh) (definite accusative اَللّٰه‌ؽ)

  1. Arabic spelling of Allâh (“God”)

Declension

Declension of الله
singular
nominative الله
genitive الله‌ؽݧ
dative الله‌قا
definite accusative الله‌ؽ
locative الله‌چا
ablative الله‌دا
instrumental الله‌لا
equative الله‌وارا

Kipchak

Etymology

From Arabic اللّٰه (allāh).

Noun

الله (allāh) (no plural)

  1. (religion) God
  2. (Islam) Allah, God in Islam

Malay

Proper noun

الله

  1. Jawi spelling of Allah.‎

North Levantine Arabic

Etymology

Inherited from Arabic الله (allāh).

Pronunciation

Proper noun

الله • (ʔaḷḷa) m

  1. (monotheism) God
    Coordinate terms: رب (rabb, “Lord”), (Christian) الرب (r-rabb, literally “the Lord”)
    هو ملحد، ما بيآمن بشي إسمو الله
    huwwe mulḥid, ma biʔāmin bi šī ʔismo ʔaḷḷa.
    He’s an atheist, he doesn’t believe in such a thing as God.
  2. (Islam) Allah

Usage notes

  • Used for God by all or almost all religions of the Levant, including Islam, Christianity, Druzism, Alawism, and (inasmuch as Jews continue to speak Levantine Judeo-Arabic dialects) Judaism, as well as other minority religions. Some religions have additional terms for God specific to their traditions.

Derived terms

See also

Ottoman Turkish

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic اللّٰه (allāh); ultimately from Proto-Semitic *ʾil-.

Noun

الله • (Allah)

  1. (Islam) Allah, God

Descendants

See also

Pashto

Pashto Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia ps

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic اللّٰه (allāh); ultimately from Proto-Semitic *ʾil-.

Proper noun

الله • (allāh)

  1. Allah

See also

Persian

Persian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia fa

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic اَللّٰه (allāh); ultimately from Proto-Semitic *ʾil-.

Pronunciation

 

Readings
Classical reading? allāh
Dari reading? allāh
Iranian reading? allâh
Tajik reading? alloh

Proper noun

الله • (allāh / allâh) (Tajik spelling Аллоҳ)

  1. (usually Islam) God, Allah
    Synonym: خدا (xudā / xodâ)
    • c. 1520, Selim I of the Ottoman Empire, edited by Benedek Péri, The Persian Dīvān of Yavuz Sulṭān Selīm, Budapest, Hungary: Research Centre for the Humanities, Eötvös Loránd Research Network, →ISBN, page 122:
      ای دل از غیر مجو یاری واز خصم مترس
      دولت و سلطنت آنست که الله دهد
      ay dil az ġayr majō yārī w-az xasm matars
      dawlat u saltanat ān ast ki allāh dihad
      O heart, seek no support from others and fear not the adversary;
      Sovereignty and kingship are what is given by Allah.
      (Classical Persian transliteration)

Descendants

Further reading

Sindhi

Etymology

Borrowed from Classical Persian اَللّٰه (allāh), from Arabic اللّٰه (allāh).

Proper noun

ﷲُ • (allāhu) m (Devanagari अल्लाहु)

  1. (Islam) Allah, God
    • (Can we date this quote?), “Al-Fatiha 1.1”, in Taj Mahmood Amroti, transl., Quran‎[2]:
      الله ٻاجھاري جي نالي سان (شروع)
      [translit?]
      In the Name of Allah—the Most Compassionate, Most Merciful.
    • c. 1689 – 1752, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Shah Jo Risalo 1.1:
      اَوَلِ اللهُ عَلِيمُ، اَعلیٰ عالَمَ جو ڌَڻِي
      avali alāhu 'alīmu, ālā ālama jo dhaṇī
      • 2018 translation by Christopher Shackle
        First there is Allah, the all-knowing, the highest, the lord of the world.

Declension

Declension of ﷲُ (sg-only masc u-stem)
singular
nominative ﷲُ
allāhu
oblique ﷲَ
allāha
vocative ﷲَ
allāha

References

  • Khānu, Balocu (1960–1988), “اَللهُ”, in Jāmiʻ Sindhī lughāta (in Sindhi), Hyderabad, Sindh: Sindhī Adabī Borḍ
  • Parmanand, Mewaram (1910), “اَللهُ”, in Sindhi-English Dictionary, Hyderabad, Sindh: The Sind Juvenile Co-operative Society

South Levantine Arabic

Etymology

Inherited from Arabic الله (allāh).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ʔalˤ.lˤa/, [ˈʔɑlˤ.lˤɑ]
  • IPA(key): /ʔalˤ.lˤaːh/, [ʔɑlˤˈlˤɑːh]
  • Audio (Ramallah):(file)

Proper noun

الله • (ʔaḷḷa, ʔaḷḷāh) m

  1. (monotheism) God, Allah

Derived terms

Ushojo

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic الله (ʔaḷḷāh).

Noun

الله (allāh)

  1. (Islam) Allah, God
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