Who is Allah?

Who is Allah? Allah is the Arabic word for God: the One who created the heavens and the earth, the God of Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad ﷺ. Muslims did not invent a new deity. They worship the God whom the prophets worshipped, and they call Him by the name Arabic speakers of every Abrahamic faith have always used.

What does the word Allah mean?

Many classical Arab philologists explained the word Allah (الله) as a contraction of al-ilāh, “the God.” Its relatives in neighboring languages are familiar: the Aramaic ʾĔlāhā, the word Jesus (peace be upon him) would have used, and the Hebrew Eloah and Elohim of the Torah.

The word has no plural and no feminine form in Arabic. Ilāh means “a god,” and can be made plural (āliha, gods); Allah is the proper name of the one true God and can never be counted. Why the Quran uses “He” for Allah, and what that does and does not mean, is explained in Does Allah have a gender?

Is Allah the same as God?

Yes. Arabic-speaking Christians have no other word for God. The Arabic Bible opens, “In the beginning Allah created the heavens and the earth,” and Christians in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Palestine pray to Allah every Sunday. In Malta, whose language descends from Arabic, Catholics call God Alla. Arabic-speaking Jews have used the same word for centuries.

The Quran itself tells Muslims what to say to Jews and Christians:

وَإِلَٰهُنَا وَإِلَٰهُكُمۡ وَٰحِدٞ وَنَحۡنُ لَهُۥ مُسۡلِمُونَ

“Our God and your God is one, and to Him we have surrendered.”

Quran 29:46

Muslims and Christians understand God differently on important points, above all the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus. These differences are discussed in Do Muslims and Christians worship the same God?, and they are differences about the same God.

How does the Quran describe Allah?

The Prophet ﷺ said that one short chapter of the Quran equals a third of the whole (Sahih al-Bukhari 5013). It is Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ, the chapter of sincerity:

قُلۡ هُوَ ٱللَّهُ أَحَدٌ ٱللَّهُ ٱلصَّمَدُ لَمۡ يَلِدۡ وَلَمۡ يُولَدۡ وَلَمۡ يَكُن لَّهُۥ كُفُوًا أَحَدُۢ

“Say: He is Allah, the One. Allah, the Eternal, on whom all depend. He does not beget, and He was not begotten, and there is nothing comparable to Him.”

Quran 112:1-4

The word al-Ṣamad (الصمد) has a rich range of meaning in the classical commentaries: the One to whom all creatures turn in their need, who Himself needs nothing. Elsewhere the Quran says, “There is nothing like Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing” (42:11). The oneness of Allah (tawḥīd, توحيد) is the heart of Islam, explained further in What is tawhid?.

What are the 99 names of Allah?

“To Allah belong the most beautiful names, so call on Him by them,” says the Quran (Quran 7:180). The Prophet ﷺ said:

«إِنَّ لِلَّهِ تِسْعَةً وَتِسْعِينَ اسْمًا مِائَةً إِلاَّ وَاحِدًا، مَنْ أَحْصَاهَا دَخَلَ الْجَنَّةَ»

“Allah has ninety-nine names, one hundred less one. Whoever takes them to heart will enter Paradise.”

Sahih al-Bukhari 7392

The familiar recited list of ninety-nine names comes from a narration in Jamiʿ al-Tirmidhi (3507) whose chain the hadith scholars graded weak; many held that the list was added by a narrator. The names themselves come from the Quran and the Sunnah, which contain more than ninety-nine.

The two names Muslims say most often open every chapter of the Quran but one: al-Raḥmān and al-Raḥīm, the All-Merciful and the Ever-Merciful, both from the root of raḥma, mercy, which is also the root of raḥim, the womb. Other names include al-Wadūd (the Loving), al-Ghafūr (the All-Forgiving), al-Salām (Peace), al-Laṭīf (the Subtle and Gentle), and al-Nūr (the Light). Imam al-Ghazali (d. 1111) wrote a whole book, al-Maqṣad al-Asnā, explaining each name and how a believer can reflect it in their own character. See Does Allah love everyone?

Is Allah near or far?

Allah is beyond everything He created, and He is closer to each person than anything else:

وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي فَإِنِّي قَرِيبٌۖ أُجِيبُ دَعۡوَةَ ٱلدَّاعِ إِذَا دَعَانِ

“When My servants ask you about Me, I am near. I answer the call of the one who calls, whenever he calls Me.”

Quran 2:186

In another verse He says He is “nearer to him than his jugular vein” (50:16). No intermediary is needed. Any person may speak to Allah in any language, at any hour, and be heard.

What does Allahu akbar mean?

Allāhu akbar (الله أكبر) means “Allah is greater.” The phrase has no object, because nothing can complete the comparison: Allah is greater than anything we can imagine, fear or desire. Muslims say it to begin each prayer, whisper it into the ear of a newborn child in the call to prayer, call it from the minaret, and say it in moments of joy and wonder. It is an act of praise and of release: whatever weighs on you, Allah is greater.

Coming to know Allah

The scholars said that knowledge of Allah (maʿrifat Allāh) is the purpose of life and the source of every other good (see Why did Allah create us?). We come to know Him through His names, through the Quran, through the beauty and order of creation, and through the mercy He shows us in our own lives. Whoever wants to begin that relationship can do so today, with a single sincere sentence: How to become Muslim explains how.