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Allah
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=== Present day === ==== Islam ==== [[File:Istanbul, Hagia Sophia, Allah.jpg|thumb|Medallion showing "Allah [[Jalla Jalaluhu]]" in the [[Hagia Sophia]], [[Istanbul]], Turkey]] [[File:Dcp7323-Edirne-Eski Camii Allah.jpg|thumb|Allah script outside the [[Old Mosque, Edirne|Old Mosque]] in [[Edirne]], Turkey]] The Islamic tradition to use ''Allah'' as the personal name of God became contested in contemporary scholarship, including the question, whether or not the word ''Allah'' should be translated as ''God''.<ref>Andreas Görke and Johanna Pink Tafsir and Islamic Intellectual History Exploring the Boundaries of a Genre Oxford University Press in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies London {{ISBN|978-0-19-870206-1}} p. 478</ref> [[Umar Faruq Abd-Allah]] encouraged English-speaking Muslims to use God instead of Allah for the sake of finding "extensive middle ground we share with other Abrahamic and universal traditions".<ref name="auto2"/> Most Muslims use the Arabic phrase ''[[Insha'Allah|{{transliteration|ar|ALA|in shā'a llāh}}]]'' (meaning 'if God wills') untranslated after references to future events.<ref>Gary S. Gregg, ''The Middle East: A Cultural Psychology'', Oxford University Press, p.30</ref> Muslim devotional practices encourage beginning things with the invocation of ''[[Basmala|{{transliteration|ar|ALA|bi-smi llāh}}]]'' (meaning 'In the name of God').<ref>Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, ''Islamic Society in Practice'', University Press of Florida, p. 24</ref> There are certain other phrases in praise of God that are commonly used by Muslims and left untranslated, including "[[subhan'allah|{{transliteration|ar|ALA|Subḥāna llāh}}]]" (Glory be to God), "[[Alhamdulillah|{{transliteration|ar|ALA|al-ḥamdu li-llāh}}]]" (Praise be to God), "[[Shahada|{{transliteration|ar|ALA|lā ilāha illā llāh}}]]" (There is no deity but God) or sometimes "{{Transliteration|ar|lā ilāha illā inta/ huwa}}" (There is no deity but ''You''/ ''Him'') and "[[Takbir|{{transliteration|ar|ALA|Allāhu Akbar}}]]" (God is the Most Great) as a devotional exercise of remembering God ([[dhikr]]).<ref>M. Mukarram Ahmed, Muzaffar Husain Syed, ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'', Anmol Publications PVT. LTD, p. 144</ref> ==== Christianity ==== The [[Arab Christians|Christian Arabs]] of today have no other word for "God" than "Allah".<ref name="Cambridge">{{cite book|author1=Lewis, Bernard|author2=Holt, P. M.|author3=Holt, Peter R.|author4=Lambton, Ann Katherine Swynford|title=The Cambridge history of Islam|publisher=University Press|location=Cambridge, Eng|year=1977|page=32|isbn=978-0-521-29135-4}}</ref> Similarly, the [[Aramaic]] word for "God" in the language of [[Assyrian Christians]] is {{Transliteration|am|ʼĔlāhā}}, or ''{{Transliteration|am|Alaha}}''. (Even the Arabic-descended [[Maltese language]] of [[Malta]], whose population is almost entirely [[Catholic Church|Catholic]], uses ''Alla'' for "God".) [[Arab Christians]] have used two forms of invocations that were [[affix]]ed to the beginning of their written works. They adopted the Muslim ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|bismillāh}}'', and also created their own [[Trinity|Trinitarian]] ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|bismillāh}}'' as early as the 8th century.<ref name="Thomas"/> The Muslim ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|bismillāh}}'' reads: "In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful." The Trinitized ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|bismillāh}}'' reads: "In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God." The [[Syriac language|Syriac]], [[Latin]] and [[Greek language|Greek]] invocations do not have the words "One God" at the end. This addition was made to emphasize the [[monotheism|monotheistic]] aspect of Trinitarian belief and also to make it more palatable to Muslims.<ref name="Thomas">Thomas E. Burman, ''Religious Polemic and the Intellectual History of the Mozarabs'', [[Brill Publishers|Brill]], 1994, p. 103</ref>
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