The Literary Transcendence of God

We are now living in post 9/11world with unprecedented fusion of different culture, colors, faith, and civilization. Never in the history of mankind was the need to have a better understanding among different cultures, faiths and civilizations – felt so greatly. The reasons and realities are so obvious.

Due to a lack of understanding, knowledge and consciousness, both Muslim and non–Muslims are continuing to mis–construct different aspects of another’s faith. And it is happening in the west right at this moment. We often hear that Muslims are complaining about lack of understanding from the non–Muslims. But it is the Muslims who also share a great deal of responsibilities. They need to see deep into the problem, why they are so badly misunderstood.

In order to do that Muslims need better knowledge when they involve into dialogue. Knowledge can help clear out a lot of misunderstanding, which even can happen in a casual coffee talk style conversation.

In the west, there is a gross misconception regarding the faith of Islam and it starts with the discrimination on the subject of God. There is this idea often preached that. Muslims pray to a different God other than the God of Abraham, Moses and Jesus.

And it is very easy for a non–Muslim to be carried away by such statement because of the fact that Muslims use the word, “Allah“ to mean God which is unknown to many westerners. In the media all they hear is the word “Allah“, “Allahu Akbar“ when it comes to Islam.

But this very idea that Muslims pray to a different God is such a gross misconception that can have very broader impact. From psychological and social point of view, the ripple effect is not only limited to making Muslims alienated in a western society but also make them victim to negative thoughts.

Now when answering a curious Christian friend in the west, a Muslim can educate him or her by pointing to the fact that the Arabic word Allah used for God is indeed the word which Jesus Christ (peace be upon him) also used in his Aramaic Language, with a slight difference in tone.

Lets analyze, what word Jesus Christ (peace be upon him) used exactly to mean God?

In the Semitic language of Aramaic that Jesus spoke, the Aramaic name that is translated as God in the European bible was actually Alaha. Indeed, Allah of the Qur’an and Alaha of Jesus are the same One. The name God is a relatively new, and perhaps unfortunate, European invention that has been the source of much misunderstanding, fear and hatred.

The English word “God“ was, of course, unknown to Jesus. The word “God“ comes from the German word “goot“ which means the “good one.“ When Jesus spoke of “God“ he employed the word “ALAHA,“ just as the Hebrew speaking people spoke of ALOHIM and Aramaic speakers call the Good One ALLAH.
All three of these Semitic Names for the One God share the root “AL.“ Unfortunately, there is no exact translation for “AL.“ The closest would be to “refer to one’s very breath, to one’s very heartbeat.“ This is the reason for the famous verse in the Koran (Qur’an):

Allah is near to each of us: closer than the very jugular vein.

And Muslims prefer to use the word Allah because it is the most pure word that can be given to the Divine Being since it can not be made plural and don’t have any gender bias. Etymologically you can not find a more suitable word in all human language that can be used to call One True God.

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