What's In A Name? "Allah"
HELLO PEOPLE!
Article Title: What's in a name? ( Refer to The Sunday Times, Think Pg 31)
Summary:
In lieu of the recent ruckus over the "blatant" use of the word "Allah by a Roman Catholic Church In Malaysia, the writer discusses with us the background over the term "Allah" and its rightful owner or owners.
A Little Background & My Thoughts:
Disparity among religion, in general, is rather a very sensitive and deep rooted subject which is often tagged with severe ramifications if the approach taken to solve such disparity is not critically examined. Such a vivid example where disparity between religions has gone wrong, in general, would be Malaysia.
Malaysia records a history filled with either outward or discreet racial and religious tensions among her supposed secular society. Being a predominantly Muslim society, scores of tensions in the past, initially over religious issues with the Hindus, makes it no surprise that the controversial use of the word "Allah" would raise no opposition as a religious attack on Islam as a whole.
Author does an excellent job in pointing out the origins of the word "Allah".
“To begin with most of those who insist Allah is uniquely Muslim or Arabic seem unaware that the words for God in arabic, hebrew and Aramaic are so closely related as to be virtually indistinguishable". Undeniably, the abrahmic faiths- Judaism, Christianity and Islam have different conceptions of God, but etymologically speaking, the Arabic "Allah" shares the same rot as the Hebrew "Elohim" and Aramaic "Alaha".
So are the Christians wrong in using "Allah"? The author describes-"It is difficult to say Christians cannot say "Allah" when Arab Christians have been doing so for thousands of years and when Christ, who spoke Aramaic, would have said Alah.Both Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34 tells us that at the ninth hour on the cross, Christ cried out"My God, My God,why hast thou forsaken me?"- Eloi being the personal possesive of ellah, which should have been spelt Elah-i or Alah-i". Nevertheless, it would be meaningless to say Christians have a better claim on the distant common root of Elohim, Elah or Allah, because Christ came before the prophet, as it would be to say Jew or Muslims do.
Keeping that in mind, its no longer an issue about who owns the term " Allah" ,neither does the issue take a twist as what the media quotes as an "evangelical onslaught" by the Roman Catholics. Instead, it points out the religious intolerance Malaysian society has developed or rather overlooked. For decades, communal policies have been in aid for the Malay community. Though governed via secular means, Malays in Malaysia have seen their racial dominance as religious dominance- clearly two distinctly different issues. As such in my point of view, the uproar over the usage of the word “Allah" is not really about who has the right to use it, rather its more about the stakes of Muslim prestige in Malaysia and its overlooked history of scores of religious tensions.
Article Title: What's in a name? ( Refer to The Sunday Times, Think Pg 31)
Summary:
In lieu of the recent ruckus over the "blatant" use of the word "Allah by a Roman Catholic Church In Malaysia, the writer discusses with us the background over the term "Allah" and its rightful owner or owners.
A Little Background & My Thoughts:
Disparity among religion, in general, is rather a very sensitive and deep rooted subject which is often tagged with severe ramifications if the approach taken to solve such disparity is not critically examined. Such a vivid example where disparity between religions has gone wrong, in general, would be Malaysia.
Malaysia records a history filled with either outward or discreet racial and religious tensions among her supposed secular society. Being a predominantly Muslim society, scores of tensions in the past, initially over religious issues with the Hindus, makes it no surprise that the controversial use of the word "Allah" would raise no opposition as a religious attack on Islam as a whole.
Author does an excellent job in pointing out the origins of the word "Allah".
“To begin with most of those who insist Allah is uniquely Muslim or Arabic seem unaware that the words for God in arabic, hebrew and Aramaic are so closely related as to be virtually indistinguishable". Undeniably, the abrahmic faiths- Judaism, Christianity and Islam have different conceptions of God, but etymologically speaking, the Arabic "Allah" shares the same rot as the Hebrew "Elohim" and Aramaic "Alaha".
So are the Christians wrong in using "Allah"? The author describes-"It is difficult to say Christians cannot say "Allah" when Arab Christians have been doing so for thousands of years and when Christ, who spoke Aramaic, would have said Alah.Both Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34 tells us that at the ninth hour on the cross, Christ cried out"My God, My God,why hast thou forsaken me?"- Eloi being the personal possesive of ellah, which should have been spelt Elah-i or Alah-i". Nevertheless, it would be meaningless to say Christians have a better claim on the distant common root of Elohim, Elah or Allah, because Christ came before the prophet, as it would be to say Jew or Muslims do.
Keeping that in mind, its no longer an issue about who owns the term " Allah" ,neither does the issue take a twist as what the media quotes as an "evangelical onslaught" by the Roman Catholics. Instead, it points out the religious intolerance Malaysian society has developed or rather overlooked. For decades, communal policies have been in aid for the Malay community. Though governed via secular means, Malays in Malaysia have seen their racial dominance as religious dominance- clearly two distinctly different issues. As such in my point of view, the uproar over the usage of the word “Allah" is not really about who has the right to use it, rather its more about the stakes of Muslim prestige in Malaysia and its overlooked history of scores of religious tensions.
posted by P Skandan @ 2:18 PM
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