“Allah” any copyright control for this word?

“Allah”
According to Wikipedia,Allah is the standard Arabic word for God.While the term is best known in the West for its use by Muslims as a reference to God, it is used by Arabic-speakers of all Abrahamic faiths, including Christians and Jews, in reference to “God”.The term was also used by pagan Meccans as a reference to the creator-god, possibly the supreme deity in pre-Islamic Arabia.

The concepts associated with the term Allah (as a deity) differ among the traditions. In pre-Islamic Arabia amongst pagan Arabs, Allah was not considered the sole divinity, having associates and companions, sons and daughters – a concept which Islam thoroughly and resolutely abrogated. In Islam, the name Allah is the supreme and all-comprehensive divine name. All other divine names are believed to refer back to Allah.Allah is unique, the only Deity, creator of the universe and omnipotent.Arab Christians today use terms such as Allāh al-ʼAb “God the Father” to distinguish their usage from Muslim usage.There are both similarities and differences between the concept of God as portrayed in the Qur’an and the Hebrew Bible.

“Muslims”
According to Islamic belief, Allah is the proper name of God,and humble submission to His Will, Divine Ordinances and Commandments is the pivot of the Muslim faith.”He is the only God, creator of the universe, and the judge of humankind”.”He is unique (wahid) and inherently one (ahad), all-merciful and omnipotent.”The Qur’an declares “the reality of Allah, His inaccessible mystery, His various names, and His actions on behalf of His creatures.”

In Islamic tradition, there are 99 Names of God (al-asma al-husna lit. meaning: “The best names”) each of which evoke a distinct characteristic of Allah.All these names refer to Allah, the supreme and all-comprehensive divine name.[Among the 99 names of God, the most famous and most frequent of these names are “the Merciful” (al-rahman) and “the Compassionate” (al-rahim).

Most Muslims use the untranslated Arabic phrase “insha’ Allah” (meaning “God willing”) after references to future events.Muslim discursive piety encourages beginning things with the invocation of “bismillah”(meaning “In the name of God”).

There are certain phrases in praise of God that are favored by Muslims, including “Subhan-Allah” (Holiness be to God), “Alhamdulillah” (Praise be to God), “La-il-la-ha-illa-Allah” (There is no deity but God) and “Allāhu Akbar” (God is great) as a devotional exercise of remembering God (zikr).In a Sufi practice known as zikr Allah (lit. remembrance of God), the Sufi repeats and contemplates on the name Allah or other divine names while controlling his or her breath.

“Others”
Arabic-speakers of all Abrahamic faiths, including Christians and Jews, use the word “Allah” to mean “God”.The Christian Arabs of today have no other word for ‘God’ than ‘Allah’.Even the Arabic-descended Maltese language of Malta, whose population is almost entirely Roman Catholic, uses Alla for ‘God’.Arab Christians for example use terms Allāh al-ʼab,meaning God the father, Allāh al-ibn mean God the son, and Allāh al-rūḥ al-quds,meaning God the Holy Spirit

Arab Christians have used two forms of invocations that were affixed to the beginning of their written works. They adopted the Muslim basm-Allah, and also created their own Trinitized basm-Allah as early as the eight century CE.The Muslim basm-Allah reads: “In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.” The Trinitized basm-Allah reads: “In the name of Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God.” The Syriac, Latin and Greek invocations do not have the words “One God” at the end. This addition was made to emphasize the monotheistic aspect of Trinitian belief and also to make it more palatable to Muslims.

According to Marshall Hodgson, it seems that in the pre-Islamic times, some Arab Christians made pilgrimage to the Kaaba, a pagan temple at that time, honoring Allah there as God the Creator.

“English and other European languages”

The history of the word “Allāh” in English was probably influenced by the study of comparative religion in 19th century; for example, Thomas Carlyle (1840) sometimes used the term Allah but without any implication that Allah was anything different from God. However, in his biography of Muhammad (1934), Tor Andræ always used the term Allah, though he allows that this ‘conception of God’ seems to imply that it is different from that of the Jewish and Christian theologies. By this time Christians were also becoming accustomed to retaining the Hebrew term “Yahweh” untranslated (it was previously translated as ‘the Lord’).

Languages which may not commonly use the term Allah to denote a deity may still contain popular expressions which use the word. For example, because of the centuries long Muslim presence in the Iberian Peninsula, the word ojalá in the Spanish language and oxalá in the Portuguese language exist today, borrowed from Arabic.This word literally means “God willing” (in the sense of “I hope so”).

Some Muslims leave the name “Allāh” untranslated in English.Sometimes this comes from a zeal for the Arabic text of the Qur’an and sometimes with a more or less conscious implication that the Jewish and Christian concept of God is not completely true in its details.Conversely, the usage of the term Allah by English speaking non-Muslims in reference to the God in Islam, Marshall G. S. Hodgson says, can imply that Muslims are worshiping a mythical god named ‘Allah’ rather than God, the creator. This usage is therefore appropriate, Hodgson says, only for those who are prepared to accept its theological implications.

“Comparative religion”

Some scholars have suggested that Muhammad used the term Allah in addressing both pagan Arabs and Jews or Christians in order to establish a common ground for the understanding of the name for God, a claim Gerhard Böwering says is doubtful.According to Böwering, in contrast with Pre-Islamic Arabian polytheism, God in Islam does not have associates and companions nor is there any kinship between God and jinn.Pre-Islamic pagan Arabs believed in a blind, powerful, inexorable and insensible fate over which man had no control. This was replaced with the Islamic notion of a powerful but provident and merciful God.

According to Francis Edwards Peters, “The Qur’an insists, Muslims believe, and historians affirm that Muhammad and his followers worship the same God as the Jews.The Quran’s Allah is the same Creator God who covenanted with Abraham”. Peters states that the Qur’an portrays Allah as both more powerful and more remote than Yahweh, and as a universal deity, unlike Yahweh who closely follows Israelites.

And the question is why here in Malaysia we need to made a Big Fuss out of nothing?Christians,Islam and Jews is sharing ONE COMMON believe that there is only ONE GOD regardless what names that we called IT.When we use the word “ALLAH” does it only subjected to the GOD in Islam?Does Allah or even GOD is subjected to Islam only?I believe the issue here is the Usage of the word “Allah” by Christians which in my point of view is harmless and there is nothing with it.If there is any other words in Malay,Chinesse,Tamil,Iban,Kadazan,Dusun or any other ethnic language that equivalent to the word “Allah” well,we might consider of using it instead of “Allah”.But there is none.But that issue shouldnt arise at all because the word “Allah” it self is an Arabic words which mean “GOD”.that is the basis of arguement..

Recently,the Home Minister had rejected the renewal of Permit for publication for “The Herald” for 2010.”The Herald” is the weekly Catholics magazine publish by the Catholics Church and only for distribution among more than 900,000 Catholics in Malaysia.

The weekly’s priest-editor, Reverend Father Lawrence Andrew, explained that the Catholic Church which publishes the multi-lingual weekly, had first applied for the annual licence in late July.

The Home Ministry had replied on Aug 5 and approved their application to publish in four languages: Bahasa Malaysia, English, Mandarin and Tamil, but rejected their request to add a new language, Kadazandusun.The church received a second letter from the Home Ministry on Sept 3, which promptly retracted the approval given a month earlier even though the RM800 publishing fee had been paid up.

The permit is being annualy and it should be ended in 31 December 2009.In the latest chain of event,The Home Ministry is renewing The Herald’s permit for publication and says that it was not revoked and that the renewal of its permit for 2010 is being processed.

A ministry official was quoted as saying that “there was never an issue of revoking the permit for The Herald.”
He told news portal Malaysiakini that the last letter sent to The Herald in September was a notification that the application to publish in the Kadazandusun language was not approved, and that a refund of the permit fee could be made.

He said that the reason for the directive for the refund was that The Herald had paid its fees too early.
He said that the ministry will only process the permit three months before the old permit expires, as in this case it is in January 2010.

In July,Reverend Father Lawrence Andrew has apply for the renewal of the Permit for Publication.From that time onwards,there has been a lots of controversies regardings the usage of the word “Allah”.there are several Muftis who against the usage of “Allah” word by Non Islam and giving a stupid excuses such as “Penggunaan perkataan “Allah” di kalangan bukan Islam boleh menimbulkan kekeliruan di kalangan orang2 Islam,oleh itu kami membantah keras penggunaan perkataan “Allah” selain daripada orang2 Islam”.It did not stops there,they has re-acted untill certain extent that one Officer from JAIS publicly challenged anyone who can show him if there is any words in the Bible which refer to “Allah”

Personally to me,that was insulting to my religion.We live in a multi-racial and multi-religious country,such act was is insulting to the Federal Constitution which clearly stated:

“Though Islam is the religion of the Federation, Article 11 provides that every person has the right to profess and practice his own religion. Every person has the right to propagate his religion, but state law and, in respect of the Federal Territory, federal law may control or restrict the propagation of any religion, doctrine or belief among persons professing the Muslim religion. There is, however, freedom to carry on missionary work among non-Muslims.”

I was wondering,why there is no action taken against that Officer??In my understandings,it can cause Racial tension.It can posesed potential security threat to the country.And there is where ISA(Internal Security Act) should be used.But there is nothing that been done,no action being taken.WHY?????and to make things worse,none of our Christian Ministers,MPs or even YBs dare to speak out in this issue.As if the Catholics Church were fighting in his own cause and not for the sake of Christians????

I bet if it was the Christians,Budhist or Hindus who gave such statement in the public,i believe things were gonna be different?WHY??
Di manakah Kebebasan Beragama??1MALAYSIA kah ini??