الله

See also: اللە and اللہ

ﷲ U+FDF2, ﷲ ARABIC LIGATURE ALLAH ISOLATED FORM ← ﷱ [U+FDF1] Arabic Presentation Forms-A ﷳ → [U+FDF3]

Arabic

FWOTD – 17 October 2015

اللّٰه

Etymology

From the root ء ل ه (ʔ-l-h). Widely theorized to be a contraction of الٱِلٰه (al-ilāh, “God”), from الإلٰه (al-ʔilāh, “the deity”) with loss of initial hamza after the definite article ال (al-). Others suggest it is a variant spelling of the more ancient ألّٰه (allāh), the extra ل (l) serving as an emphatic marker to emphasize distinction, first attested in the Mecca and Taif region, and later in the Quran. Both proposed roots were current in pre-Islamic usage, particularly الإلٰه (al-ilāh) in Nabataean macaronic Arabic-Aramaic usage from which the singular use has presumably spread. Ultimately from Proto-Semitic *ʔil-. Cognate with Classical Syriac ܐܰܠܳܗܳܐ (ʾalāhā), Assyrian Neo-Aramaic ܐܲܠܵܗܵܐ (allāhā), Aramaic אֱלָהָא (ʾĕlāhā), Hebrew אֱלוֹהַּ (ʾelōah), and Old South Arabian 𐩱𐩡𐩠 (ʾlh).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aɫ.ɫaː(h)/ (in isolation)
• IPA^(key): /aɫ.ɫaːh/ (phonemic, in isolation or before a pausa)
• IPA^(key): /aɫ.ɫaː.hu/ (classical, nominative form)

  Egypt, Levant, Sudan: IPA^(key): [ɑɫˈɫɑː]

  Central Arabia: IPA^(key): [ɑɫˈɫɑː]

  Western Arabia: IPA^(key): [aɫˈɫaː]

  Eastern Arabia: IPA^(key): [ˈɑɫɫɐ]

  Morocco, Tunisia: IPA^(key): [ɑɫˈɫɑːh]

  Classical: IPA^(key): [ʔalˤlˤaːh], [ʔalːˤaːh]

• (after a or u): /ɫ.ɫaːh/

  Egypt, Levant, Sudan: IPA^(key): [ɫɫɑː]

  Central Arabia: IPA^(key): [ɫɫɑː]

  Eastern Arabia: IPA^(key): [ɫɫɐ]

  Morocco, Tunisia: IPA^(key): [ɫɫɑːh]

• (after i): /l.laːh/

  Egypt, central Arabia: IPA^(key): [llæː]

  Levant, Sudan, Western Arabia: IPA^(key): [llaː]

  Tunisia: IPA^(key): [llɛːh]

  Morocco: IPA^(key): [llæːh]

Proper noun

اللّٰه • (allāh) m

1. (monotheism) God
   • 609–632 CE, Qur'an, 112:1-4:

     قُلْ هُوَ ٱللّٰهُ أَحَدٌ ٱللّٰهُ ٱلصَّمَدُ لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ وَلَمْ يَكُنْ لَهُ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ

     qul huwa llāhu ʔaḥadun llāhu ṣ-ṣamadu lam yalid wa-lam yūlad wa-lam yakun lahu kufuwan ʔaḥadun

     Say, “He is God, [who is] One, God, the Eternal Refuge. He neither begets nor is born, nor is there to Him any equivalent.”

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 3:16:

     لِأَنَّهُ هٰكَذَا أَحَبَّ ٱللهُ ٱلْعَالَمَ حَتَّى بَذَلَ ٱبْنَهُ ٱلْوَحِيدَ، لِكَيْ لَا يَهْلِكَ كُلُّ مَنْ يُؤْمِنُ بِهِ، بَلْ يَكُونُ لَهُ الْحَيَاةُ ٱلْأَبَدِيَّةُ.

     For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

   • 1865 CE, Bible (SVD), Gospel of John, 11:4:

     فَلَمَّا سَمِعَ يَسُوعُ قَالَ: هٰذَا ٱلْمَرَضُ لَيْسَ لِلْمَوْتِ بَلْ لِأَجْلِ مَجْدِ اللّٰهِ لِيَتَمَجَّدَ ٱبْنُ اللّٰهِ بِهِ.

     fa-lammā samiʕa yasūʕu qāla: hāḏā l-maraḍu laysa li-l-mawti bal li-ʔajli majdi llāhi li-yatamajjada bnu llāhi bihi.

     When Jesus heard it, he said: This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.

Usage notes

• In Islamic contexts, this word may alternatively be translated into English as Allah. Note, however, that the Arabic word is just as neutral and general as English God, and does not express any particularly Islamic notion at all. الله (allāh) is the word used by Christians, Jews, and other monotheists to describe the God of their own religions, and is cognate to the words used in Hebrew and Syriac. The Jewish sage Saadia Gaon even used الله (allāh) to translate the Tetragrammaton in his translation of the Torah.

Declension

Declension of noun الله (allāh)

Singular	basic singular triptote
	Indefinite	Definite	Construct
Informal	—	الله allāh	—
Nominative	—	اللهُ allāhu	—
Accusative	—	اللهَ allāha	—
Genitive	—	اللهِ allāhi	—

Derived terms

• اللَّٰهُمَّ (allāhumma, “God; O God”)
• الله أبهى (allāhu ʔabhā, “God is most glorious”)
• اللّٰهُ أَكْبَرُ (allāhu ʔakbaru, “God is greater”)
• بِسْمِ ٱللّٰهِ (bi-smi llāhi, “in the name of God”)
  • بِسْمِ ٱللَّٰهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ (bismi llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīmi)
• إِنْ شَاءَ ٱللّٰهُ (ʔin šāʔa llāhu, “if God wills”)
• سُبْحَانَ ٱللّٰهِ (subḥāna llāhi, “glory be to God”)
• أَسْتَغْفِرُ ٱللّٰهَ (ʔastaḡfiru llāha, “I seek forgiveness from God”)
• ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّٰهِ (l-ḥamdu lillāhi, “all praise is for God”)
• آيَةُ الله (ʔāyatu llāh, “ayatollah, sign of God”)

Descendants

• Maltese: Alla, alla

Borrowings:

• → Adyghe: Алахь (Alaḥ)
• → Afrikaans: Allah
• → Albanian: Allah, Allahu
• → Amharic: አላህ (ʾälah)
• → Armenian: Ալլահ (Allah)
• → Assamese: আল্লাহ (allah)
• → Avar: Аллагь (Allah)
• → Azerbaijani: Allah
• → Bashkir: Алла (Alla)
• → Belarusian: Алах (Alax)
• → Bengali: আল্লাহ (allah)
• → Bulgarian: Аллах (Allah)
• → Burmese: အလ္လာဟ် (allah)
• → Catalan: Al·là
• → Central Kurdish: ئەڵڵا (elllla)
• → Chechen: Аллахӏ (Allah)
• → Chinese:
  • Cantonese: 阿拉 (aa³ laa¹), 安拉 (on¹ laai¹)
  • Hakka: 阿拉 (Â-lâ)
  • Mandarin: 安拉 (Ānlā), 阿拉 (Ālā)

    Dungan: Анла (Anla), Анлахў (Anlahw)

  • Min Nan: 阿拉 (A-la)
• → Crimean Tatar: Alla
• → Czech: Alláh
• → Danish: Allah
• → Dhivehi: އައްލާހު (allāhu)
• → English: Allah
• → Estonian: Allah
• → Finnish: Allah
• → Galician: Alá
• → Georgian: ალაჰი (alahi)
• → German: Allah
• → German Low German: Allah
• → Greek: Αλλάχ (Allách)
• → Gujarati: અલ્લાહ (allāh)
• → Hausa: Allah
• → Hebrew: אללה (allá)
• → Hindi: अल्लाह (allāh)
• → Hungarian: Allah
• → Indonesian: Allah
• → Irish: Allah
• → Japanese: アッラーフ (Arrāfu)
• → Javanese: ꦄꦭ꧀ꦭꦃ (allah)
• → Kannada: ಅಲ್ಲಾಹ (allāha)
• → Karaim: аллахъ (allax)
• → Kazakh: Аллаһ (Allah)
• → Khmer: អាឡា (ʼaalaa)
• → Korean: 알라 (Alla)
• → Kumyk: Аллагь (Allah)
• → Kyrgyz: Алла (Alla), Аллах (Allah)
• → Lao: ອັນເລາະ (ʼan lǫ)
• → Latvian: Allāhs
• → Lezgi: Аллагь (Allah)
• → Lithuanian: Alachas
• → Macedonian: Алах (Alah)
• → Malay: Allah
• → Malayalam: അല്ലാഹു (allāhu)
• → Marathi: अल्लाह (allāh)
• → Mongolian: Аллах (Allax)
• → Northern Kurdish: Ellah
• → Norwegian: Allah
• → Odia: ଅଲ୍ଲାହ (allāha)
• → Ottoman Turkish: الله (Allâh)
  • Turkish: Allah
• → Pashto: الله (əllɑ)
• → Persian: الله (allâh)
• → Polish: Allach, Allah, Ałłach
• → Portuguese: Alá
• Punjabi:

  → Western Panjabi: اللہ (allāh)

  → Punjabi: ਅੱਲਾਹ (allāh)

• → Romanian: Allah
• → Russian: Аллах (Allax)
• → Sanskrit: अल्लाह् (allāh)
• → Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic script: Аллах, Алах

  Latin script: Allah, Alah

• → Sinhalese: අල්ලාහ් (allāh)
• → Slovak: Alah
• → Slovene: Alah
• → Somali: Allaah
• → Spanish: Alá
• → Classical Syriac: ܐܠܠܐ / ܐܠܠܘ (allāh / allā) (chiefly Garshuni)
• → Tajik: Оллоҳ (Olloh)
• → Tamil: அல்லாஹ் (allāh)
• → Tatar: Аллах (Allax)
• → Telugu: అల్లాహ్ (allāh)
• → Thai: อัลลอฮ์ (an-lɔɔ)
• → Tibetan: ཨ་ལ (a la)
• → Tigrinya: አላህ (ʾälah)
• → Turkmen: Allah
• → Ukrainian: Аллах (Allax)
• → Urdu: اللہ (allāh)
• → Urum: аллах (allah)
• → Uyghur: ئاللاھ (allah)
• → Uzbek: Alloh
• → Vietnamese: A-la
• → Yakut: Аллаах (Allaaq)
• → Yiddish: אַלאַ (ala)
• → Yoruba: Allah
• → Zazaki: Allah, Alla

From يَا اللّٰه (yā llāh, “O God”): (see also the descendants at يَاٱللَّٰه (yāllāh))

• → Afar: Yálla
• → Saho: Yalla
• → Wolof: Yàlla

See also

• أَلَّهَ (ʔallaha, “to deify”)
• إلٰه (ʔilāh, “god, deity”)
• الرَّبّ (ar-rabb, “the Lord”)

References

• Jeffery, Arthur (1938) “اَللّٰه”, in The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qurʾān (Gaekwad’s Oriental Series; 79), Baroda: Oriental Institute, page 66
• Nehmé, Laïla (2017) “New dated inscriptions (Nabataean and pre-Islamic Arabic) from a site near al-Jawf, ancient Dūmah, Saudi Arabia”, in Arabian Epigraphic Notes‎^[1], volume 3, pages 121–164
• Wehr, Hans (1979) “ءله”, in J. Milton Cowan, editor, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th edition, Ithaca, NY: Spoken Language Services, →ISBN

Further reading

• Allah on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• هلال

Hijazi Arabic

Etymology

Inherited from Arabic الله (allāh).

Pronunciation 1

• IPA^(key): /aɫ.ɫaː(h)/

Proper noun

الله • (aḷḷā) m

1. (monotheism) God

Interjection

الله • (aḷḷā)

1. oh my God (to something beautiful and exciting)

Pronunciation 2

• IPA^(key): /aɫ.ɫa(h)/

Interjection

الله • (aḷḷa)

1. oh my God (to something shocking)

Usage notes

The pronunciation with the final long vowel is used as an interjection to something beautiful and exciting, while the pronunciation with the short vowel is used as an interjection to something shocking.

See also

• إله (ilāh, “deity”)

Khalaj

Noun

اَللّٰه (Allâh) (definite accusative اَللّٰه‌ؽ)

1. Arabic spelling of Allâh (“God”)

Declension

    Declension of الله

	singular
nominative	الله
genitive	الله‌ؽݧ
dative	الله‌قا
definite accusative	الله‌ؽ
locative	الله‌چا
ablative	الله‌دا
instrumental	الله‌لا
equative	الله‌وارا

Malay

Proper noun

الله

1. Jawi spelling of Allah‎

North Levantine Arabic

Etymology

Inherited from Arabic الله (allāh).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʔɑlˤlˤɑ/

Proper noun

الله • (ʾAlla) m

1. (monotheism) God

   هوه ملحد، ما بيآمن بشي اسمو الله

   Huwi mulḥid, ma biʾāmin bi-ši ismu Alla.

   He’s an atheist, he doesn’t believe in such a thing as God.

Ottoman Turkish

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic اللّٰه (allāh); ultimately from Proto-Semitic *ʾil-.

Noun

الله • (Allah)

1. (Islam) Allah, God

Descendants

• Turkish: Allah

See also

• تكری (tañrı)

Pashto

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic اللّٰه (allāh); ultimately from Proto-Semitic *ʾil-.

Proper noun

الله • (allāh)

1. Allah

See also

• خدای

Persian

Dari	الله
Iranian Persian
Tajik	Аллоҳ

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic اَللّٰه (allāh); ultimately from Proto-Semitic *ʾil-.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Persian) IPA^(key): [ʔal.ˈlɑːh]

 

• (Dari, formal) IPA^(key): [ʔäl.lɑ́ːʱ]

• (Dari, formal) IPA^(key): [ʔäl.lɑ́ːʱ]
  • (Kabuli) IPA^(key): [ʔäl.lɑ́ː]
  • (Hazaragi) IPA^(key): [ʔäl.lɔ́ː]

• (Iran, formal) IPA^(key): [ʔæl.lɒ́ːʰ]

• (Tajik, formal) IPA^(key): [ʔäl.lɔ́ʱ]

Readings
Classical reading?	allāh
Dari reading?	allāh
Iranian reading?	allâh
Tajik reading?	alloh

Noun

اَلله • (allâh)

1. God, Allah

See also

• خُدا (xodâ)

South Levantine Arabic

Etymology

Inherited from Arabic الله (allāh).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʔalˤ.lˤa/, [ˈʔɑlˤ.lˤɑ]
• IPA^(key): /ʔalˤ.lˤaːh/, [ʔɑlˤˈlˤɑːh]

• Audio (Ramallah):

  (file)

Proper noun

الله • (ʔaḷḷa, ʔaḷḷāh) m

1. (monotheism) God, Allah

Derived terms

• يلا (yaḷḷa)
• والله (waḷḷa)
• لألله (laʔaḷḷa)

Ushojo

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic الله (ʔaḷḷāh).

Noun

الله (allāh)

1. (Islam) Allah, God