Last year I authored a Letter to the
Editor of LNP (the Lancaster, PA, daily paper) in which I stated that Allah is simply the Arabic word for god
and is used as such by Arabic-speaking members of all three Abrahamic
faiths. Some months later I was
challenged on this by an acquaintance who insisted that Allah refers only to
the god of Islam, who is not the same as the god of Christians and Jews. Despite my best efforts in a rather lengthy
conversation, I was unable to explain adequately the difference between a word
for something and the name of something.
My letter made a statement about language usage; my interlocutor was
making a statement about faith.
This exchange has set me to
reflecting on how people of faith use language in reference to their deity or
deities. The subject has proven to be
much more complicated than one might first imagine. To begin, in English the word “god” functions
as both a common and a proper noun, that is, as a general reference to any
deity and as the name of a particular deity.
We recognize the difference depending on context and usage, and in print
on whether or not the word is capitalized.
Determining what god is referenced when God is used as a form of address
requires knowing the faith of the speaker or writer.
