Part
Three:
Haji Allah
To introduce Part Three,
see a graphic of the god
Shamash
and some dialogue, CLICK HERE.
CHAPTER NINE
Is Allah in the Bible?
"Our belief in a holy book, like the Quran, or in a holy prophet, such as Muhammed, must be preceded by our belief in Allah. A religious book is holy because it is introduced by a man whom we consider a prophet."
Words of-- Imam Mohamad
Jawad Chirri,
Islamic Center of America, Detroit, Michigan
Psalms 138:2, I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.
King David
II Timothy 3:16, All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
The Apostle Paul
Bible, Ezekiel 44:23-24, And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean. And in controversy they shall stand in judgment; and they shall judge it according to my judgments...
It is impossible for us to arrive at the truth regarding Islam and the Bible without controversy along the way. Imam Chirri above sounds deceptively like King David and the Apostle Paul. The problem is, Allah and Jehovah, as we saw in the last chapter, wrote mutually exclusive books.
To answer the chapter title question above, we must deal with Ahmed Deedat and the Mullahs who claim that Allah can be found in the Bible. If their claim is true, then we come to a grinding halt, and, as you will see later, Elohim is in big trouble if Allah is another name for the God of the Bible.
We are using Ahmed Deedat's booklet, What is His Name? (FOOTNOTE 1: What is His Name, Ahmed Deedat. Take note please. Each new Part of this book starts over with footnote numbering.) On page 25 of Deedat's book, he gives a list of the names of deities in Hebrew, English, and Arabic. It is a very clever list. He claims that Elah, a Hebrew Bible name, is the same as ILAH in Arabic. There is just one problem.
Page 90
For a comparison of the Muslim notion on sin and that of the Bible, CLICK HERE.
Nowhere in the Hebrew Bible is Elah the name of God. It is the name of a man and the name of an oak tree. (FOOTNOTE 2: Pictorial Ency. of the Bible, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, USA, Vol. 5.) The "EL" prefix may have been included in the name Elah by ungodly rebellious Jews because certain oak trees were used for worship of EL, which Elohim hated. Godly kings in Israel chopped these oak trees down to prevent their association with Elohim.
Deedat's claim would be like saying that "Isle," "aisle," and "I'LL" are all geographical terms because they sound like "isle." It makes a good story, but it won't work. However, we are grateful to Ahmed Deedat who has helped us identify Allah by admitting that "ILAH" is the root name for Allah. The complete name of Allah before it is contracted to the shorter form, is "AL-ILAH." (FOOTNOTE 3: 65 / 8 / 185) In Arabic, "ILAH" is the masculine root word for Allah, or "god." Also, on the famale side, "AL-ILAT" is the feminine resulting in Allat.
The "AL" on the front of Al-ILAH is simply the definite article "the." (FOOTNOTE 4: 163 / 5-6 / 1341, Islamic Propagation Center Int. Durban, S. Africa) AL-ILAH and AL-ILLAT are the root forms of the two names, Allah and Allat, from ancient Sumer where they were names of the god and goddess. Allat is the goddess referred to in the "Satanic Verses" in Al-Koran, Sura 53:19-23.
We will show the complete picture in a later chapter, but Deedat opened Islam's back door to ancient paganism for us, and we will follow this on into the inner pagan sanctuary of Allah and his origin. There is no contracted form of God's name in the Bible, as Deedat claims, in the Old Testament of the Hebrew Bible. EL, Elohim, or EL-Elyon are not found in any local pagan form along the path of ancient history outside of holy usage in the Bible and by pre-Islamic Semites. The God of the Bible is not found in epigraphic inscriptions along the trade routes as an alter to Allah. Nor is Elohim found in the cuneiform tablets of Sumer and Babylon as an alter for any other god of ancient times.
Also, this Allah of Islam is not Elah of the Bible unless Allah was a son of Esau named Duke Elah (Genesis 36:41) or was Allah one of the kings of Israel? (I King 16:6-8, 13-14) Poor old Deedat has wandered into myths and legends of his own invention, and they just don't work.
Page 91
We look next at Deedat's and the Mullahs' claims that "Alah" is used by Dr. C.I. Scofield to clarify the origin and meaning of Elohim. The note cited is in the footnote of the Scofield Reference Bible, King James Version, under Genesis 1:1. (FOOTNOTE 5: Deedat claims Alah and Elah are variations of the same Hebrew word. "Alah" is the word for an oath or vow, while Elah is the name of a man, a valley, or an oak. This is typical of the ethics of the Mullahs who try to destroy the Bible and its truths.)
We must note that Dr. Scofield is just as entitled to make mistakes as Ahmed Deedat or anyone else. That is why Scofield's comments are in the footnotes. They are not inspired. The Mullahs and Deedat are very selective with the Bible, in one breath attacking it, and in the next breath, quoting it as authoritative, as the occasion demands, even going to the footnotes for help. We do not play this game. You will never find this writer exalting Al-Koran, text or footnotes, to uphold the truth.
Dr. Scofield says that "EL" is combined with "ALAH" (sic) to give the name of God, which is bizarre, since the two words do not contract into Elohim, as any primary school student can see! "ALAH" supposedly gives the concept of an oath to the name of God.
First, "ALAH" is a plain Hebrew word, not a contraction as with "Allah" of Islam, which comes from "AL-ILah," and thus the double "LL." So, "ALAH" in Hebrew has no relationship linguistically to the Allah of Arabic and the Koran.
Second, there is no record in the history of the Hebrew language that "ALAH" is part of the concept of "EL" or "Elohim." This is why the revised edition of the Scofield Reference Bible omitted the note on "ALAH."
Dr. Charles Feinburg, who was on the committee to revise the second edition footnotes of the Schofield Reference Bible, was trained in Hebrew to be an Orthodox Rabbi. After his conversion to Christ, he attended Dallas Seminary, and it is rumored that he graduated with one of the highest scores ever seen in the seminary's history. His choice to omit the note on "ALAH" clearly sustains the obvious, that is, Dr. Scofield blundered.
Ahmed Deedat has been very helpful to use Schofield's erroneous note. He has shown that Muhammed was not the only one to blunder by listening to Satan in the Koran, Sura 53. Imam Deedat has built his house of cards on the errors of a mere man. Dr. Scofield was sincerely wrong, and so is Deedat (Or is he?), and so are those who follow these deformed reasonings of the Mullahs?
It is clear by this example of Islamic scholarship that Allah is not in the Bible, and Elohim is not in the Koran or Mecca. So what is the origin of Allah?
Back to HOME PAGE