What God Do Muslims Worship? by Rick Brown he rise of Islamist terrorism has enraged the moon is full tonight, I am using the word moon to people across the world. Muslims have identify an object I am talking about, known as the Tsuff ered the most from terrorists, and they “referent.” Th at is the word’s “referential meaning” have suff ered from the Western backlash as well, on that occasion. Th e reference is determined by so they are fearful and angry at the militants. my intention and by my expectation that you will Many Christians, on the other hand, have directed understand my intention. As for the conceptual their fear and anger towards all Muslims and meaning of a word, it is the cluster of properties towards their whole culture. Many have expressed commonly ascribed to the referents of that word, their anger by demonizing Islam, to the extent of bundled together in the mind as a concept. So the accusing Muslims of worshiping a demon. A key concept moon includes attributes typically ascribed element of this attack has been the claim that the to a moon, and it is evoked by using the word name Allah refers to a demon or pagan deity, usu- moon. In the case of the word Allah, we need to ally the “moon god,” examine both its usual referential meaning and its and that Muslims conceptual meaning. We also need to consider how The Kingdom of God, worship this pagan a word like Allah gets a meaning, and how that however, is never deity. Such claims are meaning changes over time. advanced by untruths, found in a multitude Meaning becomes associated with words as a social of books and websites. convention based on common usage. When people and so this matter Th ey have even been needs our careful in a society use the same word to refer to the same made by scholars who things and to describe those things in nearly the consideration. are otherwise reputable same way, then by social convention that becomes in their own fi elds, its lexical meaning. In English, for example, people but who are poorly normally use the word dog in reference to canines acquainted with the language, culture and history and the word cat in reference to felines. It is nor- of the Arab world. Th e Kingdom of God, however, mal, however, for lexical meanings to change over is never advanced by untruths, and so this matter time, especially when the society and its conven- needs our careful consideration. tions change. Recent examples in English include words like gay and wired. Th e word conversation has The Meaning of a Word changed over the centuries. It occurs twenty times Lexical meaning has at least two components, its in the King James Version, always in reference to referential meaning (often called “reference” or behavior (although Philippians 3:20 should have “denotation”) and its conceptual meaning (often meant citizenship), but today the word conversation called “sense” or “semantic meaning”). Reference means talking, not behavior. Since there is continual is the intentional act of using a word or expression change in the meanings of words, the meaning of a to identify a particular entity. When I say to you particular word must be determined by its contem- poraneous usage rather than by its previous or sub- Rick Brown is a Bible scholar and missiologist. Th is article sequent usage. So when people use the word conver- is derived in part from the article “Who is Allah?” in the sation in normal discourse today, it would be wrong 23:2 Summer 2006 issue of the International Journal of to claim they mean behavior, and it would be wrong Frontier Missiology. For supporting documentation see to interpret conversation in the King James Bible as that article and related ones at www.ijfm.com a reference to talking. Similarly for those today who 20 September-October 2008 Mission Frontiers USCWM•1605 E. Elizabeth St.•Pasadena, CA 91104•626-797-1111 call God Allah in their language: the meaning of the universe, and among Greek Christians it was a word is a function of its usage in their society today, convention to use theos with this same meaning. not its alleged usage in some ancient society. Th e words could have other meanings as well, but the Biblical authors used them with this mani- Consider the names of the days of the week in fest intention. Among the Jews, Christians and English. Most of them were named in honor of Muslims who speak Arabic, it is the convention to Anglo-Saxon gods. Wednesday, for example, use Allah to refer to the Creator, the Lord of the is named after the Anglo-Saxon god Woden (= universe, the God of Abraham and the prophets, Norse Odin), from whom most of the Anglo-Sax- and this is their intended reference when they use on kings claimed descent, while Monday is named it. However, unlike the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and after the moon god Mona (= Norse Mani). For that English words for God, which have pagan origins, reason there used to be pious English Christians, the word Allah has no other meaning in Arabic mostly Quakers, who refused to use these names than the one true God, and as we shall see, it has and instead named the days First day, Second day, no history in Arabic of ever having had a diff erent Th ird day, etc. Today, however, the word Wednes- referential meaning. day has lost it pagan meaning and is used without hesitation by all Christians, even Quakers. People The Referential Meaning of use it with no thought of referring to Woden. To claim otherwise, based on the origin of the word, the Name Allah is to commit the “etymological fallacy.” When speaking English, Muslims use both the words God and Allah to refer to the God they wor- To give another example, there were Christians in ship. By both conven- Holiness circles who avoided the word enthused, tion and intention, they because it originally meant to be inspired by pagan are referring to the one Unlike the gods. Its formerly pagan meaning, however, has true God, whom the long since disappeared, and when Christians today Hebrew, Greek, Qur’an affi rms to be Latin, and English talk about “enthusiasm” they are not referring to the Creator, the God spirit possession. of Abraham, the God words for God, Th e ancient Canaanites used the term El as the of the Bible, and the which have pagan name of the chief deity of their pantheon of gods. God of the Christians origins, the word His wife was Asherah and their son was Baal. (Qur’an 2:135; 6:73; Allah has no When Isaac, Jacob and their descendents adopted 29:46, 61). Th e thought the language of southern Canaan (which came to of Allah being the moon other meaning in be known as Hebrew), they used the term El to had never even entered Arabic than the refer to the God of Abraham, who was the Most the mind of a Muslim one true God. High God and the Creator of the universe. Th is until they heard of this was the intended reference of their usage, and it abhorrent claim being became a conventional reference among them. In made against them by “missionaries” (which is this way they shed the pagan meaning of El, and in their term for all anti-Muslim polemicists). Mus- the Bible this pagan meaning survives in only one lims regard this as slander against themselves and reference to a Canaanite temple (Judg 9:46). as blasphemy against God, leading them to doubt Prior to the coming of monotheism, the Greek the honesty, piety and good intentions of Chris- word theos and the Latin word deus were used in tian missionaries. Like all antagonistic approaches reference to pagan deities, but the inspired authors to Muslim society, this creates defensiveness and of the New Testament used theos quite intentional- resistance to the Gospel. ly to refer to the Most High God, the Creator, the Writing in the Christian Century (2004, issue 17), God of Abraham. Similarly in the Anglo-Saxon Dr. Umar E. Abd-Allah politely understates that language, prior to the coming of Christianity the “as a Muslim, I am naturally sensitive to attempts word god was used exclusively in reference to pagan by others to defi ne what I or my community be- gods. Now, however, God is used in English as the lieves.” As for the God Whom Muslims worship, very name of the Supreme Being. he writes (p. 36), Th e list could go on. Th e point is that the mean- From a Muslim’s perspective, the premise that Muslims, Jews and ings of a word are a matter of social convention Christians believe in the same God— the God of Abraham—is so and speaker’s intention, as revealed in context. central to Islamic theology that unqualifi ed rejection of it would, for Among the Hebrews it was the convention to use many, be tantamount to a repudiation of faith. El in reference to the Creator, the Lord of the Th e fact is, Arabic-speaking Jews, Christians, and www.missionfrontiers.org Mission Frontiers September-October 2008 21 Muslims all use the term Allah to refer to the one from worship of a moon god named “Allah,” and and only God, the creator of the universe, the sus- that the crescent moon symbol has been passed tainer of life, the bestower of blessings, the sender down from an ancient moon religion to a modern of prophets, the author of Scripture, and the judge moon religion called “Islam.” Muslim scholars of all nations.