Checked
Myth
or fact?
Ten things people say about the word “Allah”, checked against the evidence.
The Word · Myth or fact?
Myth
“Allah was a moon god.”
The idea began with a German writer in 1901 and was popularised in the 1990s. Specialists reject it. In pre-Islamic poetry the moon is something Allāh made.
Myth
“Hallelujah contains Allah.”
Hallelujah is Hebrew hallelu-Yah, “praise Yah”, a short form of God's name in Hebrew. A different name, praising the same God.
Overstated
“Jesus said ‘Allah’.”
Jesus (peace be upon him) spoke Aramaic. His word for God was Alaha: a close cousin of Allah, not the Arabic word itself.
Misleading
“Allah is a name unrelated to God.”
Muslims treat Allah as God's proper name, and it is also simply the Arabic word for God, used by Christians and Jews.
Myth
“The Allah Upanishad proves the Vedas foretold Allah.”
The text is real but not ancient: it was written in the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar in the 16th century.
Myth
“Allah appears over 1,000 times in the Sikh scripture.”
It appears 38 times, which is remarkable enough.
Fact
“Arabic-speaking Jews and Christians call God Allah.”
Saadia Gaon's Torah, Arabic Bibles, Maltese Catholics and churches across the Middle East.
Fact, as a family
“Allah is Akkadian ilum.”
Akkadian ilum, Hebrew El, Aramaic Alaha and Arabic Allāh share one ancient root.
Myth
“Before Islam, Allah was unknown.”
Desert inscriptions invoke Allāh before Islam (41 times in one corpus), and poets spoke of Him as Creator.
Myth
“Muslims worship the Kaaba.”
Muslims face the Kaaba in prayer, as one direction for everyone. They pray to God alone.
Sources: Sinai 2019; Al-Jallad 2022; Monier-Williams; Raghavan 1966; BaniDB count of the Guru Granth Sahib.
Keep going
Watch and listen
Documentaries and short films on the word and its story.
