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From: fade@midway.uchicago.edu (mohammad h fadel)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: Why Allah?
Message-ID: <1991May20.170145.23911@wpi.WPI.EDU>
Date: 20 May 91 17:01:45 GMT
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As a matter of philology, the word "Allah" is simply "Ilah" (god) plus the
definite article "al", which produces "al-Ilah."  Hence, in Arabic we have
the two names "'Abd Allah," and "'Abd al-Ilah," which are synonomous.  As
for Allah not having any linguistic roots, this is entirely spurious.  The
root of Allah is hamza (alif), lam, and ha.  From this root other verbs and
other nouns are derived.

Moreover, if "Allah" is taken to be the special name of God, how do we under-
stand "Ilah an-nas," in Surat al-Nas?  Is it a different Ilah? (Astaghfir
Allah!)

	Was-salam,
	Mohammad Fadel