Allah (Islam)
Allah is the standard Arabic word for a "god".[1] While the term is best known in the West for its use by Muslims as a reference to their god, it is used by Arabic-speakers of all Abrahamic faiths, including Christians and Jews in reference to the muslim god.[2][1][3] The term was also used by pagan Meccans as a reference to the creator-god, possibly the supreme deity in pre-Islamic Arabia.[4]
History
The concepts associated with the term Allah (as a deity) though differed from tradition to tradition. In pre-Islamic Arabia, Allah was not the sole divinity, he had associates and companions, sons and daughters. There was also a kind of kinship of between Allah and the jinn. In Islam, Allah is the pivot of the Muslim faith who is the "only god", all-merciful and omnipotent, transcendent creator of the universe, and the judge of humankind.[2][1]
As the Arab Christians today have no other word for 'god' than 'Allah', they for example use terms Allāh al-ab (الله الآب) meaning "God the father", Allāh al-ibn (الله الابن) mean "God the son", and Allāh al-rūḥ al-qudus (الله الروح القدس) meaning "God the Holy Spirit". There are both similarities and differences between the concept of a god as portrayed in the Qur'an and the Hebrew Bible. The Qur'an also rejects the Trinitarian conception of the muslim god as three persons in one substance.
