Imagine a person that only speaks Arabic. Imagine he's a Christian.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

How does he say "Thank God"? How does he say "Praise God"?

This musing was inspired by this: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4743808

[Davis_X_Machina]

1. There are tens of thousands...

...of Arabic-speaking Christians in the Boston area where I grew up.

Never crossed my mind, going to funerals and weddings, that there was anything the least bit odd about hearing 'Allah' in a church, instead of a mosque.

[eallen]

2. Both Christianity and Islam pulled a dirty rhetorical trick...

They named their god "God." The easy way to expose this trick is to refer to those gods descriptively. That way, it is easy to distinguish the Christian god from the Islamic god from a mythical but non-existent universal conception of god.

No, it is not the case that everyone believes in the same god. It is the case that most everyone believes in the superstition in which they were raised.

:hippie:

[Teaser]

4. Not quite a dirty trick

in that Islam put the definite article in front of the word "god".

Properly, Allah is "The God", as in, the only one.

And furthermore, the Greeks did it too: Zeus is likely related to the sanskrit Dyaus (Deus-god) and the Romans as well:

Jupiter is a contraction "Deus Pater", God Father.

[eallen]

9. Well, see, it's that "the" which is the rhetorical trick.

It presumes as an act of grammar to declare what is clearly false. There are more gods than Carter has liver pills. The Abrahamic religions each like to declare that their god is real, while all the others are mere creation of man. They have no basis for so declaring, and in fact it contradicts the history of those religions. But it's a good talking point for the religion.

[kiki]

11. I thought one of them's name was Y*wh*h.

Or is it both of them? Or more?

[Teaser]

3. "Al -lah"

most people don't realize that the arabic word for a "god", ilah, is related to (cognate with) the hebrew el/elohim.

Al-ilah-> Allah

would be very similar to saying
ha-eloah in hebrew

(My hebrew is beyond bad, so forgive any transliteration errors).

[tocqueville]

5. "There is no god but Allah"

mmmm

there is no Allah but Allah ?

they must have a word...

[Teaser]

10. Correct translation:

There is no god but "The God".

[ikri]

6. hmm, would they not say...

Allahu Ackbar?

A loose translation of Allahu Ackbar is God is great so that'd probably work.

[thereismore]

7. Arabic translation of the Bible has "Allah" for "God". n/t

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

8. Thought so. (nt)

[PsychoDad]

12. In arabic

Arabic Christians say Hamdulilah. Praise God
Shukraan Allah. Thank God.

And God is Allah. The God.