The second word of verse (1:1) is a proper noun in the genitive case (مجرور). The proper noun's triliteral root is hamza lām hā (أ ل ه).
The analysis above refers to the first
verse of chapter 1 (sūrat
Sahih International: In the name of Allah , the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful.
7th September, 2017
I'm wondering what the basis is for this word being tagged as PN with one token instead of two tokens where first token is DET PREFIX|Al+?
Is it merely a matter of convention trumping grammatical parsing, or is there some other basis?
11th September, 2017
Contrary to popular belief, the word Allah is NOT a contraction of al-ilah (al meaning 'the', and ilah meaning 'god').
Had it been so, then the expression ya Allah ('O Allah!') would have been ungrammatical, because according to the Arabic language when you address someone by the vocative form ya followed by a title, the al ('the') must be dropped from the title. For example, you cannot say ya ar-rabb but must say ya rabb (for 'O Lord'). So if the word Allah was al-ilah ('the God'), we would not be able to say: ya Allah, which we do.
Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (which is based on classical Arabic dictionaries), says under the word From: http://www.muslim.org/islam/allah.htm
Allah, while citing many linguistical authorities:
"Allah ... is a proper name applied to the Being Who exists necessarily, by Himself, comprising all the attributes of perfection, a proper name denoting the true god ... the al being inseparable from it, not derived..."
Allah is thus a proper name, not derived from anything, and the Al is inseparable from it. The word al-ilah (the god) is a different word.
2nd October, 2017
PART 1 of 2
Thanks very much for you responses.
You said: So if the word Allah was al-ilah ('the God'), we would not be able to say: ya Allah, which we do.
Although we say "ya Allah", I’ve been wondering for the past couple of weeks whether this constitutes supporting evidence? And so today I did some more research.
The article you cited (http://www.muslim.org/islam/allah.htm) quotes Lane as saying "Allah ... is a proper name applied to the Being Who exists necessarily, by Himself, comprising all the attributes of perfection, a proper name denoting the true god ... the al being inseparable from it, not derived..."
Reading this excerpt, with emphasized text (see the article) and a reference to “many linguistical authorities” misled me into accepting that Lane presented this “definition” conclusively. But after examining Lane’s Lexicon today, I find the following:
• The emphases were not Lane’s
• Lane’s text says “…is a proper name (Msb, K,)…”: i.e. Lane cites 2 of the 100+ linguistical authorities for this statement
• Lane’s text says “…the ال being inseparable from it: (Msb:) not derived: (Lth, Msb, K:)…”: i.e. Lane cites one source re “inseparable” and three sources re: “not derived”
But Lane had much more to say on the matter. The author of the article truncated the rest of the sentence:
“…not derived: (Lth, Msb, K:) or it is originally إِلهٌ, or إِلَاهٌ, (Sb, A Heyth, S, Msb, K,) of the measure فِعَالٌ in the sense of the measure مَفْعُولٌ, meaning مَأْلُوهٌ, (S, K, *) with [the article] ال prefixed to it, (Sb, A Heyth, S, Msb,)…” where four reference were cited re: “prefixed” – AND, there is more Lane says on the topic.
This led me to examine the Quran where I find that "ya Allah" appears nowhere. If it had, I would certainly agree my question was conclusively resolved. I then examined all 361 instances of the prefixed vocative particle ya and found yārabbi ("O my Lord!").
PART 2 of 2
This struck me as odd -- verses where "My Lord" was invoked, but not "My God/Allah"? ... which led to further research:
As the author of the article points out, “according to the Arabic language when you address someone by the vocative form ya followed by a title, the al ('the') must be dropped from the title.”
I suppose this is why, within the Quran, the word 'اللَّهُمَّ' (l-lahuma) is used in five verses for "Oh God/Allah": because (as I understand now) you cannot prefix "ya" directly to a noun with the definite article. So I now wonder whether using "Ya Allah" as we do may not be grammatically correct (i.e. per the Quran)?
Which brings me back to my original question:
“I'm wondering what the basis is for this word being tagged as PN with one token instead of two…”
(And also, please point out anything I may have overlooked… I don’t speak Arabic)
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