# Do Arabic speakers use allah when referring to non-Abrahamic gods? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 30, 2016, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-arabic-speakers-use-allah-when-referring-to-non-abrahamic-gods/770168 "2016-10-30T19:28:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-arabic-speakers-use-allah-when-referring-to-non-abrahamic-gods/770168/1 "2016-10-30T19:28:30Z")
Do Arabic speakers typically use allah when referring to a god other than the god of Abraham? Let’s say an Arabic speaker is discussing Zeus, Quetzalcoatl, Thor, or Vishnu. Would the word allah be used to describe those deities? ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-arabic-speakers-use-allah-when-referring-to-non-abrahamic-gods/770168/2 "2016-10-30T19:53:11Z")
No. Allah refers to the One God. It is the definite form. The Jewish expression is basically identical. The word ilah is used (lah), as in the shahada, lā ʾilāha ʾillā-allāh - لا إله إلا الله. The relationship between the words is clear enough even in the latin characters. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-arabic-speakers-use-allah-when-referring-to-non-abrahamic-gods/770168/3 "2016-10-30T20:05:16Z")
So what is the arabic word for god (not The One True God)? Are you saying it’s “la”? (Not everyone here is going to know what “the shahada” is.) ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-arabic-speakers-use-allah-when-referring-to-non-abrahamic-gods/770168/4 "2016-10-30T20:19:07Z")
> [@john mace](#): > > so what is the arabic word for god (not the one true god)? Are you saying it’s “la”? > [@ramira](#): > > The word **ilah** is used ( **lah** ), It is clear? Allah is more or less clearly the definite contraction of Al-ilaha although theologically it is sometimes claimed otherwise by the certain types of exaggerated piety. I note I did not use “one true god” ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-arabic-speakers-use-allah-when-referring-to-non-abrahamic-gods/770168/5 "2016-10-30T20:25:12Z")
It wasn’t clear, which is why I asked. BTW, spell check changed my “lah” to “la”. What is the difference between “ilah” and “lah”? If we were to write, in arabic, “They worshipped a god called Kali”, what specific word would be used for “god” in that sentence? ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-arabic-speakers-use-allah-when-referring-to-non-abrahamic-gods/770168/6 "2016-10-30T20:48:57Z")
Ilah. (ʾilāha / إله) The opening of the shahada is literally if I write it in the English, “There is no god but God” ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-arabic-speakers-use-allah-when-referring-to-non-abrahamic-gods/770168/7 "2016-10-30T21:10:06Z")
Got it. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-arabic-speakers-use-allah-when-referring-to-non-abrahamic-gods/770168/8 "2016-10-30T22:23:43Z")
> [@Ramira](#): > > Ilah. (ʾilāha / إله) > > The opening of the shahada is literally if I write it in the English, “There is no god but God” Thank you for the replies 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-arabic-speakers-use-allah-when-referring-to-non-abrahamic-gods/770168/9 "2016-10-30T22:23:57Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > What is the difference between “ilah” and “lah”? While my guess is that these are the same word and the difference is grammatical, I’d love an authoritative answer. ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-arabic-speakers-use-allah-when-referring-to-non-abrahamic-gods/770168/10 "2016-10-30T22:35:00Z")
The “i” which is the kasrah for me, in the Ilah is carried by the hamzah, I was just showing the related roots of the word. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-arabic-speakers-use-allah-when-referring-to-non-abrahamic-gods/770168/11 "2016-10-30T22:46:08Z")
Yeah, but does it rock the Kasbah? 😉 BTW, **Ramira** , I doubt that more than a handful of people here know what “kasrah” or “hamzah” means. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-arabic-speakers-use-allah-when-referring-to-non-abrahamic-gods/770168/12 "2016-10-31T07:08:51Z")
> [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](#): > > While my guess is that these are the same word and the difference is grammatical, I’d love an authoritative answer. Its difficult to convert Arabic (or Urdu, Persian or Turkish) spelling into Latin, but here is how the words are written. Ilah: in Arabic. :إله Allah in Arabic: الله Suffice to say, they are spelt and pronounced differently and misunderstanding is unlikely for anyone with anything resembling fluency. ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-arabic-speakers-use-allah-when-referring-to-non-abrahamic-gods/770168/13 "2016-10-31T09:14:45Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Yeah, but does it rock the Kasbah? 😉 > > BTW, **Ramira** , I doubt that more than a handful of people here know what “kasrah” or “hamzah” means. The hamzah is a character in the writing representing a pause sound, but we do not think of it as a real letter of the alphabet. It is ‘weak’ and tends to be assimilated. Kasrah is just the vowel sound that is like “i” although in some of the dialects more like “e” ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-arabic-speakers-use-allah-when-referring-to-non-abrahamic-gods/770168/14 "2016-10-31T11:30:33Z")
For those of you following at home;[Arabic Diacritics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_diacritics). If you are wondering; [Diacritic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diacritic) ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-arabic-speakers-use-allah-when-referring-to-non-abrahamic-gods/770168/15 "2016-10-31T13:02:32Z")
> [@Ramira](#): > > The hamzah is a character in the writing representing a pause sound, but we do not think of it as a real letter of the alphabet. It is ‘weak’ and tends to be assimilated. > > Kasrah is just the vowel sound that is like “i” although in some of the dialects more like “e” Thanks! As one who had no idea what the terms mean, I am glad I learned something today. Are there multiple possible characters for the hamzah? ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-arabic-speakers-use-allah-when-referring-to-non-abrahamic-gods/770168/16 "2016-11-02T10:30:54Z")
the hamzah is a character, I don’t understand the question. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-arabic-speakers-use-allah-when-referring-to-non-abrahamic-gods/770168/17 "2016-11-02T16:15:34Z")
> [@Ramira](#): > > The hamzah is a character in the writing representing a pause sound, but we do not think of it as a real letter of the alphabet. It is ‘weak’ and tends to be assimilated. > [@rbroome](#): > > Thanks! > As one who had no idea what the terms mean, I am glad I learned something today. > Are there multiple possible characters for the hamzah? The hamzah is a glottal stop and usually transliterated in English as an apostrophe. I am not an Arabic speaker (my wife is) but it is one character used as a diacritic which can appear above or below a letter. It can appear anywhere in a word, including before the first letter or after the last. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-arabic-speakers-use-allah-when-referring-to-non-abrahamic-gods/770168/18 "2016-11-02T16:24:48Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > The hamzah is a glottal stop and usually transliterated in English as an apostrophe. I am not an Arabic speaker (my wife is) but it is one character used as a diacritic which can appear above or below a letter. It can appear anywhere in a word, including before the first letter or after the last. In Urdu (which also has the _hamza_) we were always taught that it is not a letter,rather a character which changes the sound of a letter. Which of course has the added complication that half the time, a _hamza_ is silent in Urdu. ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-arabic-speakers-use-allah-when-referring-to-non-abrahamic-gods/770168/19 "2016-11-02T20:39:07Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > In Urdu (which also has the _hamza_) we were always taught that it is not a letter,rather a character which changes the sound of a letter. Which of course has the added complication that half the time, a _hamza_ is silent in Urdu. Yes. It is how I think of it. It is a character but not a real letter. And it is weak so even in many of the spoken dialects it often disappears or gets swallowed… so I guess that the Urdu is not treating it so differently from the actual modern speech.