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We Muslims say “La Ilaha Ilalah” which translates to “There is no God but Allah”. However, in Arabic, Allah means God. Some also say, “There is no God but God”. Would it be better to say “There is no God But Allah” to signify the name Allah applying to the name of God? Because saying the latter doesn’t really make much sense. If the former, that doesn’t make that much sense either because it ultimately translates to “There is no God but God.”

Does the word Allah mean God but does it also mean the name of God? Which is why it’s said: “There is no God but Allah.”

Perhaps the Arabic phrase would get a better context?

AcidicProgrammer
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3 Answers3

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Does Allah mean God?

Yes (if one intends to refer to "Allah") and no (because it strictly means more than "God" expresses).

Allah الله is a word that describes a deity and its uniqueness in one word.

God or deity in Arabic means Ilaah it is written

إلاه or with an article: الإلاه (al-Ilaah)

or

إله (In the qur'an often written with a pending letter "alif" between the "laam" and "haa" (last two letters). Or written with an article: الإله

Usually to make this God or deity determined and ideally unique an article -in Arabic "ال"- is required.
This usually is sufficient enough with almost all of Allah's names: such as ar-Rahmaan الرحمن vs. Rahmaan رحمن, ar-Raheem الرحيم vs. Raheem رحيم, al-Baasit الباسط vs. Baasit باسط etc..
See also:
Can a human be given the name Barr or Al-Barr?
Tawheed asma was siffat

But in case of the word Allah some specification of the Arabic language apply: As you may read above "the deity" is "al-Ilaah", but this is not determined enough to show and fix the issue of the uniqueness therefore the word Allah is more expressive, accurate and explicit to express the uniqueness.

Therefore the shahadah or part of the adh'an is:

"La ilaaha illa Allah"
There's no God (deity), but Allah
لا اله الا الله

If God was 100% equal to Allah one couldn't differentiate between Ilaah and Allah in this sentence, but this is not the case.

Medi1Saif
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Brother God is not the proper English translation of 'Allah'. Allah is a word which can't be described using any language that's why we call 'Allah' not 'God'.

Clarification in this video; https://youtu.be/tp9uT0TCrTg

Sadiqur
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There is no God. Word God in Hebree , greek or Aramaic all derived from name of Allah. Is there any doubt about Allah, the creator of heaven and earth? . ..(surah 14:10) ALLAH created heavens and earth in 6 days.-(Quran-10:3)

Proof of evidence from Bible, Etymology ,ancient Hebrew root, Theology ,Lexicon , Early bible Commentaries, Biblical Cyclopedia ,Internatonal Standard of Bible Encyclopedia standard of  Palestinian targum, Palestinian talmud etc. all these sources proves ALLAH is true word. Word of God Elohim is derived from name of Allah אלח in ancient hebrew lexicon Compressive etymological dictionary state that etmyos means "that which is true sense"  is the only true word in Hebrew. Means truth can be found using etymology. So there is no God no elohim but Allah That is why we say There is no God but "Allah". https://youtu.be/ezMkJgllzvo In the First Chapter of Bible , God finish the creation in 6 days. There is no other name when God finish his creation in 6 day.  NO jesus no Yahweh but that the True word which is ALLAH.Word Yahweh is forgeries. And one can never find in New testament or jesus teaching as well Abraham did not know any God name Yahweh.neither he teach this God name but Allah.

Say, "Have you considered that which you invoke besides Allah ? Show me what they have created of the earth; or did they have partnership in [creation of] the heavens? Bring me a scripture [revealed] before this or a [remaining] trace of knowledge, if you should be truthful." – (Quran 46:4) See you not Allah created heaven and earth...(quran 14:19)

All sources are non Muslim in video..Jewish and christian sources for better understanding

janu desai
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