Allah, Arabic name of the
supreme being. The term is a contraction of the Arabic al-llah, “the
God.” Both the idea and the word existed in pre-Islamic Arabian tradition, in
which some evidence of a primitive monotheism can also be found. Although they
recognized other, lesser gods, the pre-Islamic Arabs recognized Allah as the
supreme God.
The Qur'an (Koran), the holy book of Islam, asserts that
Allah is the creator and the one who rewards and punishes; that he is unique and
can only be one; that he is eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, and all-merciful.
The core of the religion is submission to the will of Allah; people must abandon
themselves entirely to God's sovereignty.
Although as creator Allah is utterly transcendent and not
to be compared to any of his creatures, he is nevertheless a personal god, a
fair judge, merciful and benevolent. Each chapter of the Qur'an begins with
“Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate,” and before fulfilling religious
obligations the Muslim recites, “In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the
Compassionate.”
Islam does not admit of any mediator between Allah and
humans; a person approaches Allah directly in personal prayer and in reciting
the Qur'an, which is considered literally the speech of Allah. The prophets, who
conveyed the word of Allah, are not considered in any way divine.
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