# Get your kicks, Allah 66 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [November 10, 2007, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-your-kicks-allah-66/425948 "2007-11-10T19:11:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-your-kicks-allah-66/425948/1 "2007-11-10T19:11:35Z")
I’m afraid the phrase “66, the number of Allah” would not scan for any Ïrön Mäïdën songs. But Nat King Cole could swing it. [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/m666.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/m666.html) > [@CK Dexter Haven](#): > > (the name Allah has the numeric value 666) Nope! Dex, where did you get that from? Arabic gematria of the name Allah makes only sixty-six. Only two decimal places. _Allah_ is spelled in Arabic اللّه _alif lam lam ha’_. ا\* alif\* = 1 ل _lam_ = 30 ّه _ha’_ = 5 So 1+30+30+5=66. The hundreds place doesn’t enter into it at all. For those who know Hebrew gematria, note that the Arabic version is copied directly from the Hebrew alphabetical order. My favorite variant is 668: The Neighbor of the Beast. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-your-kicks-allah-66/425948/2 "2007-11-10T20:49:59Z")
[QUOTE=Johanna] I’m afraid the phrase “66, the number of Allah” would not scan for any Ïrön Mäïdën songs. But Nat King Cole could swing it. [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/m666.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/m666.html) Nope! Dex, where did you get that from? Arabic gematria of the name Allah makes only sixty-six. Only two decimal places. _Allah_ is spelled in Arabic اللّه _alif lam lam ha’_. ا\* alif\* = 1 ل _lam_ = 30 ّه _ha’_ = 5 So 1+30+30+5=66. The hundreds place doesn’t enter into it at all. For those who know Hebrew gematria, note that the Arabic version is copied directly from the Hebrew alphabetical order. My favorite variant is 668: The Neighbor of the Beast. 😃 [/QUOTE] I wonder if he got that confused with the fact that a Greek variation of Mohammed (I think “Maometis”, in which o is omicron, not omega) does add up to 666. Still, two-thirds there! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-your-kicks-allah-66/425948/3 "2007-11-10T21:38:26Z")
[QUOTE=FriarTed] Still, two-thirds there! 😃 [/QUOTE] …“Two out of Three Ain’t Bad.” ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-your-kicks-allah-66/425948/4 "2007-11-10T23:04:43Z")
[QUOTE=Johanna] I’m afraid the phrase “66, the number of Allah” would not scan for any Ïrön Mäïdën songs. But Nat King Cole could swing it. [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/m666.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/m666.html) Nope! Dex, where did you get that from? Arabic gematria of the name Allah makes only sixty-six. Only two decimal places. _Allah_ is spelled in Arabic اللّه _alif lam lam ha’_. ا\* alif\* = 1 ل _lam_ = 30 ّه _ha’_ = 5 So 1+30+30+5=66. The hundreds place doesn’t enter into it at all. For those who know Hebrew gematria, note that the Arabic version is copied directly from the Hebrew alphabetical order. My favorite variant is 668: The Neighbor of the Beast. 😃 [/QUOTE] Nitpick: Maiden never used umlauts. That was Motley Crue, who told us to shout at the Devil. My favorite is 6x6, the Lumber of the Beast. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-your-kicks-allah-66/425948/5 "2007-11-11T05:39:59Z")
[QUOTE=Johanna] For those who know Hebrew gematria, note that the Arabic version is copied directly from the Hebrew alphabetical order. [/QUOTE] Both, rather, are versions of the West Semitic alphabet. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-your-kicks-allah-66/425948/6 "2007-11-11T17:01:26Z")
[QUOTE=BMax] Nitpick: Maiden never used umlauts. That was Motley Crue, who told us to shout at the Devil. [/quote] Ï knöw, büt ït’s fün tö töss thëm ïn wïth äbändön whën thë sübjëct ïs hëävÿ mëtäl. > [@](#): > > My favorite is 6x6, the Lumber of the Beast. That is a really good one! 😃 > [@John W. Kennedy](#): > > Both, rather, are versions of the West Semitic alphabet. According to Wikipedia, you are right: the article implies that the [_abjadi_ order](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_alphabet#Abjad.C4.AB_order), the same as in Aramaic and Hebrew, is the original Arabic alphabetic order, while the regular _hija’i_ order used in dictionaries, based on similarity of letter shapes, was a later development. The _abjadi_ arrangement is in numerical order and is used wherever letters replace numbers, as in gematria, algebra, or list headings. It’s also used to paginate the front matter of books, where we would use lowercase roman numerals. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-your-kicks-allah-66/425948/7 "2007-11-11T18:24:03Z")
That Staff Report was published 18 months ago, and was written a few months before that. I don’t remember where/how it came from, only that it was in the list of “fanciful” (not to say “idiotic”) interpretations. Assuming eeryone’s statements above are correct, I’d guess at this point would be that it was tied to Mohammad being 666 in Greek (as per **Friar Ted** ’s comments, but I frankly don’t have the time to monkey with it, and won’t for several more weeks, if it all. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-your-kicks-allah-66/425948/8 "2007-11-11T21:53:39Z")
When my company released version 6.6.6 of our software, we referred to it as “the software release of the beast”. ---
**Author:** ![Rico](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rico/32/3582_2.png) [@Rico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rico)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-your-kicks-allah-66/425948/9 "2007-11-12T00:49:30Z")
In the same vein, there is the Intel 666SX, the Processor of the Beast, running at 6.66GHz, and operating with 6.66GB of RAM. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/get-your-kicks-allah-66/425948/10 "2007-11-12T03:38:43Z")
[QUOTE=BMax] Nitpick: Maiden never used umlauts. That was Motley Crue, who told us to shout at the Devil. My favorite is 6x6, the Lumber of the Beast. [/QUOTE] Ah yes, the gratuitous [heavy metal umlaut](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_metal_umlaut).