Allah and God are not the same

Submitted by Chris Chrisman (United States), Jun 28, 2005 at 11:50

Thank you for your contribution to the on-going discussion of possible common bonds between Allah and God. Your citation of Surah 29:46 as proof that Allah and God are the same in the Koran needs to be balanced with Surah 109:1-6: Say: Unbelievers, I do not worship what you worship, nor do you worship what I worship. I shall never worship what you worship, nor will you ever worship what I worship. You have your own religion, and I have mine."

Your article lists scriptural, historical, and linguistic reasons for saying Allah and God are the same, but you failed to discuss the most important distinguishing category -- concepts of the Supreme Being. The characters of the Bible's God and the Koran's Allah are vastly different. God is loving, approachable, and unconditionally forgiving. Allah loves only those who do what he says, he is unknowable, and if he ever forgives it is only on strict conditions. As Alvin J. Schmidt says in The Great Divide, "When an informed Muslim uses the name God, he most likely does so deliberately to give the impression that God and Allah are the same, and therby he deceives non-Muslims, especially Christians, so that they would not see Islam as a radically different religion. The names of God and Allah are not synonymous or interchangeable." (pp. 26-27)

I have challenged many Judeo-Christian-Islamic scholars to show me any passage in the Koran which closely reflects a passage in the Bible. If those two religious documents reflect the words or inspiration of the same god, there would naturally be similarities. (The Torah and the Gospel have many similar passages.) The only commonality I have found between the Koran and Christianity is the popular Christian hymn, "The Love of God." The third verse of this song seems to have been inspired by Surah 31:27, with significant differences.

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