الله

See also: اللہ

Arabic

FWOTD – 17 October 2015

اللّٰه

Etymology

Contraction of الْإِلَٰه (al-ʔilāh, “the god”), itself a contraction of الْإِلَاه (al-ʔilāh, “the god”), from الـ (al-, “the”) +‎ إلاه (ʾilāh, “god”), from the root ء ل ه (ʔ-l-h), both current in pre-Islamic usage, particularly in Nabataean macaronic Arabic-Aramaic usage from which the singular use has presumably spread, ultimately from Proto-Semitic *ʾil-. Compare Classical Syriac ܐܰܠܳܗܳܐ (ʾalāhā), Aramaic אֱלָהָא (ʾĕlāhā), אֱלוֹהַּ / אֱלֹהַּ (ʾĕlōah), Old South Arabian 𐩱𐩡𐩠 (ʾlh).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aɫˈɫaː(h)/ (in isolation)
• IPA^(key): /aɫ.ɫaːh/ (phonemic, in isolation or before a pausa)
• IPA^(key): /aɫ.ɫaː.hu/ (classical, nominative form)

  • Audio:

    noicon

    (file)

    pronunciation in isolation

  Egypt, Levant, Sudan: IPA^(key): [ɑlˈlɑː]

  Central Arabia, Tunisia: IPA^(key): [ɑɫˈɫɑː]

  Western Arabia: IPA^(key): [aɫˈɫaː]

  Eastern Arabia: IPA^(key): [ˈɑɫɫɐ]

  Morocco: IPA^(key): [ˈɑɫˈɫɑːh]

• (after a or u): /ɫˈɫɑː/

  Egypt, Levant, Sudan: IPA^(key): [lˈlɑː]

  Central Arabia, Tunisia: IPA^(key): [ɫˈɫɑː]

  Eastern Arabia:

  Morocco: IPA^(key): [ɫˈɫɑːh]

• (after i): /lˈlaːh/

  Egypt, central Arabia: IPA^(key): [lˈlæː]

  Levant, Sudan, Western Arabia: IPA^(key): [lˈlaː]

  Tunisia: IPA^(key): [lˈlɛːh]

  Morocco: IPA^(key): [lˈlæːh]

Proper noun

اللّٰه • (allāh) m

1. (monotheism) God
   • 609–632 CE, Qur'an, 112:1-4:

     قُلْ هُوَ ٱللّٰهُ أَحَدٌ ۝ ٱللّٰهُ الصَّمَدُ ۝ لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ ۝ وَلَمْ يَكُنْ لَهُ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ ۝

     qul huwa llāhu ʾaḥadun ۝ allāhu ṣ-ṣamadu ۝ lam yalid walam yūlad ۝ walam yakun lahū kufuwan ʾaḥadun ۝

     Say, “He is Allah, [who is] One, ۝ Allah, the Eternal Refuge. ۝ He neither begets nor is born, ۝ Nor is there to Him any equivalent.” ۝

   • 1865 CE, Bible (SVD), Gospel of John, 11:4:
     :

     فَلَمَّا سَمِعَ يَسُوعُ قَالَ: هٰذَا الْمَرَضُ لَيْسَ لِلْمَوْتِ بَلْ لِأَجْلِ مَجْدِ اللّٰهِ لِيَتَمَجَّدَ ابْنُ اللّٰهِ بِهِ.

     fa-lammā samiʿa yasūʿu qāla: hāḏā l-maraḍu laysa li-l-mawti bal li-ʾajli 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 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.

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

• اللَّٰهُمَّ (allāhumma, “God; O God”)
• اللّٰهُ أَكْبَرُ (allāhu ʔakbaru, “God is greater”)
• بِسْمِ ٱللّٰهِ (bi-smi llāhi, “in the name of God”)
  • بِسْمِ ٱللَّٰهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ (bismi llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīmi)
• إِنْ شَاءَ ٱللّٰهُ (ʔin šāʔa llāhu, “if God wills”)
• سُبْحَانَ ٱللّٰهِ (subḥāna llāhi, “glory be to God”)
• أَسْتَغْفِرُ ٱللّٰهَ (ʔastaḡfiru llāha, “I seek forgiveness from God”)
• ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّٰهِ (l-ḥamdu lillāhi, “all praise is for God”)
• آيَةُ الله (ʔāyatu llāh, “Ayatollah, sign of God”)

Descendants

• Judeo-Arabic: אללה (allāhu)
• Maltese: alla, Alla

Borrowings:

• → Adyghe: Алахь (Alaḥ)
• → Afrikaans: Allah
• → Albanian: Allah, Allahu
• → Amharic: አላህ (ʾälah)
• → Armenian: Ալլահ (Allah)
• → Assamese: আল্লাহ (allah)
• → Avar: Аллагь (Allah)
• → Azerbaijani: Allah
• → Bashkir: Алла (Alla)
• → Belarusian: Алах (Alax)
• → Bengali: আল্লাহ (allah)
• → Bulgarian: Аллах (Allah)
• → Burmese: အလ္လာဟ် (allah)
• → Catalan: Al·là
• → Central Kurdish: ئەڵڵا‎‎ (elllla)
• → Chechen: Аллахӏ (Allah)
• → Chinese:
  • Cantonese: 阿拉 (aa³ laa¹), 安拉 (on¹ laai¹)
  • Hakka: 阿拉 (Â-lâ)
  • Mandarin: 安拉 (Ānlā), 阿拉 (Ālā)

    Dungan: Анла (Anla), Анлахў (Anlahw)

  • Min Nan: 阿拉 (A-la)
• → Crimean Tatar: Alla
• → Czech: Alláh
• → Danish: Allah
• → Dhivehi: އައްލާހު‎‎ (allāhu‎‎)
• → English: Allah
• → Estonian: Allah
• → Finnish: Allah
• → Galician: Alá
• → Georgian: ალაჰი (alahi)
• → German: Allah
• → German Low German: Allah
• → Greek: Αλλάχ (Allách)
• → Gujarati: અલ્લાહ (allāh)
• → Hausa: Allah
• → Hebrew: אללה (allá)
• → Hindi: अल्लाह (allāh)
• → Hungarian: Allah
• → Indonesian: Allah
• → Irish: Allah
• → Japanese: アッラーフ (Arrāfu)
• → Javanese: ꦄꦭ꧀ꦭꦃ (allah)
• → Kannada: ಅಲ್ಲಾಹ (allāha)
• → Kazakh: Аллаһ (Allah)
• → Khmer: អាឡា (ʼaalaa)
• → Korean: 알라 (Alla)
• → Kumyk: Аллагь (Allah)
• → Kyrgyz: Алла (Alla), Аллах (Allah)
• → Lao: ອັນເລາະ (ʼan lǫ)
• → Latvian: Allāhs
• → Lezgi: Аллагь (Allah)
• → Lithuanian: Alachas
• → Macedonian: Алах (Alah)
• → Malay: Allah
• → Malayalam: അല്ലാഹു (allāhu)
• → Marathi: अल्लाह (allāh)
• → Mongolian: Аллах (Allax)
• → Northern Kurdish: Ellah
• → Norwegian: Allah
• → Odia: ଅଲ୍ଲାହ (ôllahô)
• → Ottoman Turkish: الله (Allâh)
  • Turkish: Allah
• → Pashto: الله (əllɑ)
• → Persian: الله (allâh)
• → Polish: Allah, Allach
• → Portuguese: Alá
• → Punjabi: ਅੱਲਾਹ (allāh) / اللہ (allāh)
• → Romanian: Allah
• → Russian: Аллах (Allax)
• → Sanskrit: अल्लाह् (allāh)
• → Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic script: Аллах, Алах

  Latin script: Allah, Alah

• → Sinhalese: අල්ලාහ් (allāh)
• → Slovak: Alah
• → Slovene: Alah
• → Somali: Allaah
• → Spanish: Alá
• → Tajik: Оллоҳ (Olloh)
• → Tamil: அல்லா (allā)
• → Tatar: Аллах (Allax)
• → Telugu: అల్లాహ్ (allāh)
• → Thai: อัลลอฮ์ (an-lɔɔ)
• → Tibetan: ཨ་ལ (a la)
• → Tigrinya: አላህ (ʾälah)
• → Turkmen: Allah
• → Ukrainian: Аллах (Allax)
• → Urdu: اللہ (allāh)
• → Uyghur: ئاللاھ (allah)
• → Uzbek: Alloh
• → Vietnamese: A-la
• → Yakut: Аллаах (Allaaq)
• → Yiddish: אַלאַ‎‎ (ala‎‎)
• → Yoruba: Allah
• → Zazaki: Allah, Alla

See also

• أَلَّهَ (ʔallaha, “to deify”)
• إلٰه (ʔilāh, “god, deity”)
• الرَّبّ (ar-rabb, “the Lord”)

Further reading

• Allah on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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

Anagrams

• هلال

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Malay

Alternative forms

• Allah

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /allah/, [allah], [ɔllɔh]

Proper noun

الله (Rumi spelling Allah)

1. (Islam) Allah

See also

• Tuhan / توهن

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North Levantine Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic الله (allāh).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʔɑlˤlˤɑ/

Proper noun

الله • (ʾAlla) m

1. (monotheism) God

   هوه ملحد، ما بيآمن بشي اسمو الله

   Huwi mulḥid, ma biʾāmin bi-ši ismu Alla.

   He’s an atheist, he doesn’t believe in such a thing as God.

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Ottoman Turkish

Etymology

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

Noun

الله • (Allâh)

1. (Islam) Allah, God

Descendants

• Turkish: Allah

See also

• تڭری (tañrı)

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Pashto

Etymology

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

Proper noun

الله • (əllɑ)

1. Allah

See also

• خدای

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Persian

Dari	الله
Iranian Persian
Tajik	Оллоҳ

Etymology

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

Noun

الله • (allâh)

1. God, Allah

See also

• خدا (xodâ)