You’re wrong on Allah, as well, arguing from prejudice without any knowledge of Arabic linguistics.
To be clear, the notion that Christians, Jews and Muslims all worship ‘the same God’ is nonsense. I would even dispute that Jews, who deny the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the Incarnation worship the same God as Christians, if we use terms strictly. But, of charity I will allow they worship a misconception of the same God, since they base their ideas on what we Christians know to be a fragment of the Scriptures, to wit, a part of the Old Covenant Scriptures maintained by the Christ-denying Council of Jamnia in 90 A.D.
I will even argue that the Christian gnostics did not worship the same God as Orthodox Christians, though if you insist they did, I’m afraid you must allow the same extention of ‘sameness’ to the misconception of God presented by Mohammed.
Now, having made my theological commitments clear, back to Arabic linguistics.
In Arabic, as in Greek, monotheists indicate the uniquely existing God, not by capitalizing the word corresponding to ‘god’, but by appending the definite article. Thus “ ‘o theos” = “the god” in Greek is God, just as ‘al illah’ = ‘the god’ in Arabic translates as God.
In Arabic words often elide, so that ‘al illah’ becomes ‘allah’. The fact that ‘allah’ is an elision of ‘al illah’ can be seen from the fact that every Sura of the Koran begins ‘Bismillah’ (usually translated ‘in the name of God’). The article here is absent, the words ‘bism’ and ‘illah’ being run together.
Pre-Mohammedan Christian texts follow the linguistic usage I have set out. The Trisagion Hymn, which runs in English, “Holy God! Holy Mighty! Holy Immortal! Have mercy on us!” and in Greek “Hagios ‘o theos! hagios iscaros! hagios athanatos! Eleison imas!” has been sung as “Quddouson Allah! Quddouson ul-qawee! Quddouson ulladhee la yamout! Irhamna!”
by Arabic speakers from before ever the false prophet Mohammed darkened the world with his demonic teachings, yes, back in the days when the pagans of the Arabian peninsula called their chief moon deity ‘Allah’.
Why? Were the Christians of Damascus identifying the All-Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the second person of which became incarnate for us, and died on the Cross, with the chief pagan deity being worshipped by idolaters a few hundred miles away? No. It’s because Allah is the Arabic word for God, and Arabic speaking Christians have always used it for the All-Holy Trinity, without thought about how others, be it pagans or Mohammedans were or are misusing it.
No I'm not, and speak for yourself.
Try studing Islam for as long as I have before you start accusing me of being in error.
Allah as I explained, is a contraction of Al -ilah. But it wasn't contracted to mean "god" it was contracted to mean the NAME of the god. You will also find in Islamic scripture phrases such as "Allah, al-ilah t' ala" (Allah, the god most high) Which clearly shows that these pagans arabs used Allah as a name, not as a word meaning god. Otherwise, these phrases wouldn't make sense: "God, the god most high".
Ilah is still used to mean 'god' in arabic today, and "allah is his name, just as the koran says in clear terms over 52 times.
It is true that "Allah' is being used to mean "god" today, but it is in error, and that error is being propagated by the media as well as the eastern Church, and you yourself.
"The fact that ‘allah’ is an elision of ‘al illah’ can be seen from the fact that every Sura of the Koran begins ‘Bismillah’ (usually translated ‘in the name of God’)."
No, translatted PROPERLY, it means "In the name of Allah". You are just repeating the error.
Wow. how charitable of you. LOL.
Reminds me of Romans 11:25
For I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: A partial hardening has happened to Israel until the full number19 of the Gentiles has come in.
Ok What ever you say;
Qur'an 20:8 "Allah God! There is no Ilah God save Him. His are the most beautiful [non-]Names. To Him belong the most beautiful attributes."
Qur'an 20:96 {allah siad:] "Now look at your ilah god, of whom you have become devoted. We will (burn) it and scatter it in the sea! But your Ilah God is Allah God: there is no ilah God but He. Thus do We relate to you some stories of what happened before from Our own Remembrance."
makes perfect sense now.