Arabic-L:TRANS:allaah

[Dilworth B. Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Thu 01 Nov 2001
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject: allaah

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1)
Date:  01 Nov 2001
From: Haroon Shirwani <haroon.shirwani at st-johns.oxford.ac.uk>
Subject: allaah

Hi,

So far, I haven't noticed anybody mention the two main reasons why so
many Muslims are more comfortable using the word 'Allah' rather than
its English equivalent. Firstly, there is the need we feel to stay
close to the original texts. 'Allah' is the most important of several
Arabic terms retained by Muslims in other languages. Many have
perfectly fine English equivalents: 'iman' has 'faith', 'zahid' has
'ascetic', 'murshid' has 'guide','iftar'/'futoor' have 'breakfast',
and so on. Many Muslims simply feel more at ease using terms
particular to their faith. The second reason is the word's
sonorousness - if pronounced properly, its flowing near-symmetry just
seems to sound better, and perhaps even more fitting for The Divine.

Most of the people I've heard giving a meaning-related reason for not
using 'God' simply have a poor grasp of English.

Yours,

Haroon Shirwani
(St John's College, Oxford)

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End of Arabic-L:  01 Nov 2001