Question: What does the word ‘Allah’ mean? Is Allah only for muslims or Arab God? And Who is He ?
Answer: :- Allah is an Arabic word, which means same as Parmeshwar(परमेश्वर) in Sanskrit and God in English.
One of the most common misconceptions is that ‘Allah’ is the God of Muslims only, however, it’s not right.
As Allah says in the Holy Quran:
“Praise belongs to *Allah, the Lord of all the worlds.* The All-Merciful, the Very Merciful.” [Quran 1:2-3]
As mentioned above, *Allah is the God of entire universe(all the worlds), he is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe*, and it’s not specific to Muslims or Arab countries.
The majority of entire mankind believes in presence of a Supreme being who is controlling all the affairs, *people might use different names (Parmeshwar, God, Elah, Allah) to call him* but, all believe in his omnipotent existence. Such a Creator is called Allah in the Arabic language.
But due to ignorance, often people abuse and show disrespect towards Allah, thus they end up doing wrong to themselves as they are just unknowingly disrespecting the Supreme Being in which even they have faith
As we have seen above The God who is the creator and sustainer of the entire universe and whatever exists is known as Allah in Arabic.
Now let’s see who is He?
Allah himself has given us very clear, simple, and concise guidance about these questions in the Qur’an so that no one remains misguided and gets to know who he is without a doubt.
Chapter 112 of the Quran:
Qul huwal laahu ahad,
Allah hus-samad,
Lam yalid wa lam yoolad,
Wa lam yakul-lahoo/kufuwan ahad
Which means:
“Say: He is Allah,
The One and Only
Allah, the Eternal, Absolute
” He begets not, nor is He begotten.
And there is none like unto Him.”
The word ‘Assamad’ is difficult to translate. It means ‘absolute existence’, which can be attributed only to Allah (SWT), all other existence being temporal or conditional. It also means that Allah (SWT) is not dependent on any person or thing, but all persons and things are dependent on Him.
There are many more verses in the glorious Qur’an which say about the attributes of Allah. But there is no such concise, unique and perfect definition present anywhere else in the world that describes The God in such a perfect and detailed way.
The creator and sustainer of the entire universe (and whatever exists), who is as described in the definition given above, is being called and worshiped by Muslims as Allah.
Anyone who believes in God described above and is calling upon him, is actually calling Allah no matter by whichever name he is doing so.
As it’s mentioned in the Qur’an:
” Say to them (O Prophet!): “Call upon Him as Allah or call upon Him as al-Rahman; call Him by whichever name you will, all His names are beautiful…”
(Quran 17:110)
