Nomenclature

So, regarding the matter on the usage of the word "Allah", I'll just link you to two great views I happened to come upon. Just two opinions and it covers most of what you may ever wanted to argue about, in regards to this issue.

1)  From a Muslim's perspective, our dear Marina Mahathir takes the example of  "Prophet Muhammad’s Promise to Christians" to show how easily people get confused with the word. The article also pointes out how are Muslims to relate with Christians.

Now, when that delegation from St Catherine's monastery came to meet with Prophet Mohamad (pbuh), I suppose it's fair to assume that they spoke Arabic to one another. And when they were conversing, surely the word 'God' must have come up. As in "May God Be With You" and such like. What word did the Prophet (pbuh) use for 'God' I wonder? And what did the St Catherinians use in return? For monotheists like them, was there a 'your God' and 'my God' type of situation, or did they understand that they were both talking about the same One?

While some idiots are mourning over the 'loss' of the word 'Allah' and therefore basically telling the world that they are people easily confused by nomenclature, and others are predicting riots over  what is basically a 'copyright' issue, let me define what I think a confident Muslim should be:

Please read the full article here.

* Commercial break... refresh your eyes *

2)  From a Christian's perspective, Dr Ng Kam Weng discusses the significance of the word "Allah" in Christianity, backed with some doctrinal references. He focuses more on the 'technical' details.

One major demand from the Malay protestors is that Christians stop using the word Allah on grounds that Christians can find a simple alternative, that is, simply substitute the word Allah with the word Tuhan. Unfortunately, this demand only betrays the ignorance of the protestors. I would have thought that any Malay would know that the meaning of the words Allah (God) and Tuhan (Lord, Rabb) are not the same. How can they suggest that Christians simply use the word Tuhan to substitute the word Allah? To express the issue linguistically, Allah and Tuhan have different senses even though they have the same reference.

Both the terms Allah and Tuhan are used in the Malay Bible. Following the precedent set by Arab Christians, Allah is used to translate el/elohim and Tuhan(or TUHAN in caps) is used to translate Yahweh (YHWH). The two words are sometimes paired together as Yahweh-Elohim in 372 places in the Old Testament (14 times in Genesis 2-3; 4 times in Exodus;8 times in Joshua; 7 times in 2 Samuel; 22 times in Chronicles; 12 times in Psalms; 32 times in Isaiah; 16 times in Jeremiah and 210 times in Ezekiel etc.).

More importantly, the word Tuhan is also applied to Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Thus we read of the LORD Jesus as Tuhan Yesus (The word LORD was used to translate the word kurios 8400 times in the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament. It refers to human beings in only 400 times and refers to God 8000 times. Of these 8000 times, 6700 are substitute for the word YHWH). The transference of the title kurios LORD/YHWH to Jesus Christ is testimony to the belief in the deity of Christ right at the beginning of Christianity.

Please read the full article here.


So, what can I say? In the end, it's all about politics, and people fall for it.


ADD: Another interesting read, from a Sabahan. Please read. It'll widen your mind.
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