I am a christain, but reading the Qur'an for knowledge purposes, why is the translation not complete?

Question

While reading the Qur'an, everything is translated into english except for Allah. I know Allah is arabic for God, but in my translated text it still refers to God as Allah. Just curious.

Answer 1

I did the same and found out that the divinity of God is best described by the various objectives used. God who is the omnipotent and creator of humans and universe and Christ and moses were his chosen prophets, is "rub" in chapter: 1. Where it is said that He is the "rub ul alameen" (the provider of all the universe) and he knows. This to me is about knowledge. Like we humans have limitations. We can't know what is happening in the hearts of even our closest loved ones. We cant see if somebody is standing behind us. Our senses cheat us so frequently. We see mirages which are not there. But if we want to believe then there is this one being who is God (and it is said in Quran that he by virtue of The creator doesn't need anything and has any name) was Allah as in Arabic those people 1400 years ago could understand it.
Similarly to understand the divinity associated with His being I would suggest Chapter: 112 (akhlas) verses 1 - 4. "He is God, The One and Only, The eternal, absolute, He begetteth not, Nor is He begotten; And there is none Like unto Him". His qualities are those which can be comprehended in human life to understand His presence and authority. His nature is sublime and beyond our conceptions and that is the best way for us to conceptualize Him as otherwise we end up imagining God as some idol or with a shape. He has to be above these things. Oui:)?

Answer 2

Most consider it God's personal name. Different from his title.
Some here use Yahweh or Jehovah as where the bible uses his personal name.
Some will not use it at all and prefer Just Lord or Almighty.
The Jews although they acknowledge the personal name of Jehovah (English)do not use it-feeling it was not to be said out loud or they would be cursed, the tenragrammaion is made up of 4 letters,-English would be YHWH or JHVH, we added vowels using the same vowels used in translating other words, like we see in puzzles. Some feel their is no importance to the name itself. The Jews believe all have personal names besides titles-the angels had names we have names including titles (human, man,farmer,ect)
Some believe it is not a personal name at all just a title.

In the text you are reading it is his personal name by most. But many debate it,and it means a title even among their own believers-

Makes it difficult doesn't it?

A common ground you have is a belief in one God and the problems that befall all. They do accept the bible to a point. They believe their Qur'an (some say Koran is same )to be the principle book.
You will get many answers-best wishes to you.

Answer 3

I have talked to a number of individuals who converted to Islam,and when I asked them about it, I discovered that Allah is not a name but a title, like God is a title, not a name. So the word Allah can be translated as god. It the same problem in Bible translations of the tetnagramaton the 4 Hebrew letters of the name of God. YHWH or JHVH, the name is replaced with the non discrupt title of God. Basically it superstition, and a fear of actually saying Gods name. And many think Allah is a proper name and that one reason it's not translated.

Answer 4

First of all, I commend you for reading the Qu'ran; however, if you are doing it to understand terrorists you can save yourself some time. I think when you get finished you will realize that the terrorist go against much of what the Qu'ran preaches. Terrorism, or to put it more bluntly "Islamofascism" is about power and control. They are as big a threat to true Muslims as they are to Christians.

To answer your question it is probably not necessary since they are interchangeable, and saying Allah is more true to the text.

Answer 5

the people who translated the Qur'an may have done this purposely to make sure that there is no confusion between Christian sacred texts and Islam. As there are alot of "intellectally challenged" people out there, they probably wanted to make sure people were aware that this is an Islamic text, not a Christian one

Answer 6

Yes Allah is God, maybe people reading it might get confused as Christians refer to Jesus as God.

Answer 7

The translation is not complete because they are too busy running around as terrorists trying to convert the world and blowing up buldings ... and killing in the name of Allah..

Answer 8

i'm not exactly sure how to answer your question. Please write to an islamic scholar at:

[e-mail]

he should be able to answer your question.

or you can go to listen to a LIVE lecture today and get your question answered LIVE:

GO TO: http://www.chatislam.com

monitors in the room will help you.

and please visit this site, you can download a free translation of the Qur'an (good reading)
and also Hadith (examples of the prophet (saws)

a related site w/in this site for articles and more information on the Qur'an: http://www.islamtomorrow.com

and you can listen to lectures about Islam, many subjects at:
http://www.hearislam.com

Answer 9

some thing are specific, and specific things cannot be changed.for example in Urdu we use word "masiha" for Christ.that literally mean "doctor".so if we called Christ "doctor" it isn't right.u can say "ALLAH" as GOD but with a believe that there is only one GOD who we called ALLAH. think the answer is quite satisfactory.

Answer 10

before islam...'allah' was an arabian PAGAN moon God!!...hence the the muslim flag w/ the moon...allah is not the real God of the Bible..think about how RADICALLY different as hostile he is to his chosen people--The JEWS and the Christains....