By Dr. J. Scott Bridger, Associate Professor of Global Studies & World Religions
A slightly different version of this blog post originally appeared on the site of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary here.
One of the questions I frequently encounter by Christians in the West is whether or not the Arabic word Allah can be used to refer to the God of the Bible. Many well-meaning Western Christians have sought to disassociate the God of Islam from the God of the Christianity. In doing so they’ve focused their efforts on driving a wedge between the Allah of the Qur’an and the God of the Bible. “The Allah of Islam is not the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” is a slogan that encapsulates this concern. While on the face of it this is a true statement, unfortunately, the linguistic question surrounding the legitimacy of using Allah in Arabic (or in other “Muslim” majority language contexts) oftentimes gets entangled with the broader theological discussion related to the identity of God in Islam versus Christianity. In order to clarify some of the issues involved in this discussion, it is important to understand something of the history of Arabic-speaking Christianity. It is also important to separate the linguistic question related to the legitimacy of using Allah to refer to God in Arabic from the theological question pertaining to the nature and character of the word’s referent.
Historically, Arabic-speaking Christianity begins in the New Testament. On the day of Pentecost when the Spirit falls on those present and they begin proclaiming “the mighty works of God” in different languages the final people group listed is the Arabs (Acts 2:11). Arabic Christianity eventually took root among many of the Arab tribes in Syria-Palestine and flourished throughout most of Mesopotamia. Even after Islam emerged, many Arabs held tenaciously to their Christian faith and continue to do so today. However, prior to the Islamization and Arabization that took place under Islam, Arabic-speaking Christians in the region would have used languages other than Arabic in their liturgies. This is due to the unfortunate absence of an Arabic translation of the Scriptures until well into the Muslim era.[1] Thus, these Arabic-speaking Christians would have prayed primarily using Greek, Coptic, or Syriac (i.e., a dialect of Aramaic). But like their Arabic-speaking Jewish neighbors, they would have referred to God as Allah in their native language. Pre-Islamic inscriptions testify to this fact as does the continued use of Allah by all Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews to this day.
When it comes to linguistics, it is important to remember that Arabic is a Semitic language closely related to biblical Hebrew and biblical Aramaic. The Arabic word for God, Allah, is closely related to its Semitic cognates El and Elohim in Hebrew and the definite form Elaha in Aramaic. Indeed, Christians need only to look to the original languages of the Scriptures themselves for evidence of this. In Daniel 2:28 one can see that the indefinite form of “God” in Aramaic (אלה) is closely related to El in Hebrew and Allah in Arabic. The connection to the Arabic cognate is even more apparent when looking at the definite form of the “God” as in Daniel 6:26 (אלהא). Indeed, the Arabic form of God (الله) is oftentimes understood literally as referring to “the deity” (al-ilah). Understanding these linguistic connections should allay any fears among Western Christians over using Allah in Arabic to refer to the God of the Bible.[2]
Where Christians can and should focus their energies is on distinguishing the character of the Allah of the (Arabic) Bible from the Allah of the Qur’an. Theologically, when an Arabic-speaking Christian talks about Allah there is a difference in the nature and attributes of the one to whom he is referring compared to his Arabic-speaking Muslim neighbor. Both affirm belief in one God, and both use the same word to refer to God; however, Christians affirm trinitarian monotheism while Muslims advocate unitarian monotheism. The situation is analogous in the English-speaking world to Christians who rightly differentiate their understanding of God from how Jews, Mormons, or Jehovah’s Witnesses (or even liberal Christians) understand the identity of God. For English speakers, we don’t use a different word to refer to God, but obviously the nature of the one to whom we refer is very different than the nature of the one to whom these other groups refer.
Thus, Christians can and indeed should use Allah when speaking in Arabic to refer to the God of Bible.[3] However, if we’re speaking in Arabic, we must work hard to make our audience understand that the Allah we’re referring to is revealed to us preeminently in Jesus Christ and that revelation of him is found solely in God’s Word, the Bible.
Notes:
[1] Some scholars have disputed this point, but thus far the evidence points unfortunately to the absence of an Arabic translation of the Bible until after the emergence of Islam.
[2] It is important in discussions like this one for Western Christians to guard themselves against dictating to non-English speaking people groups what word or words they should use in their languages to refer to God, particularly if the Western Christians weighing in on such issues have no knowledge of the languages or cultures they’re critiquing.
[3] Generally speaking, I do not advocate referring to God as Allah when speaking in majority English-speaking contexts since Christians and others would understand this as a direct reference to the identity of God in Islam and not the Bible.
For Christ and Culture 
Perhaps a better way to distinguish between the two is to refer to the God of the Bible by His Hebrew name given in the O.T. — Yahweh or Jehovah. God, Theos, or Allah are all generic names that could be applied to any god. In the O.T., if I’m not mistaken, the distinction is almost always made (the Lord God), if not directly, then withing the context. Even in Genesis where, “In the beginning God created,” Elohim shortly becomes identified as the “LORD God” – Yahweh Elohim (Genesis 2:4). So, rather than going into long explanations to identify to which god one is referring, why not just call Him by His name – Yahweh or Jehovah? Because, as has been clearly pointed out, the God of the Bible is not the god of the Qu’ran. Or, how about calling Him by His N.T. name – Jesus Christ?
Excellent points. Cross-culturally and cross-linguistically, you’d want to use the normal term for God, so Dios in Spanish, Jumala in Finnish, Atua in Maori, Mungu in Swahili, etc. It’s true that people often don’t have an accurate idea of the character of God, and you need to fill this in (as in modern America for many as well!). In my own experience in northern Ghana with the Koma people, they had a word for God (Nmung) and he was the good and supreme Creator. But man had offended him long ago and he is now distant (and Jesus provides the way to restore the relationship). When speaking in Koma, yes, we say Nmung. When speaking in English, we say “God.” If I were speaking Arabic (which unfortunately I don’t), I’d use “Allah” with no problem. The question I would like more discussion on is, when we’re speaking of God to a Muslim in English, and they insist on using Allah, do we roll with that, insist on their using “God” since we’re speaking English, or (my gut preference) talk of “God” ourselves and not make a big deal over what term they’re using, and only discuss it if they make a big deal over it.