One of the logical criteria of the true religion is that the religion should start from the very first human being. Because, everyone have the right to know the truth. We can’t say a religion is true religion from God our creator if it started 1000 years ago because there are people before them who have the right to know the truth as well. At this point, a question may rise “If Islam is the truth and were since the first human being how come the word “Allah” not used before Islam”. Another question will follow “If Islam is the continuation of Abrahamic religion (Judaism & Christian religions) why the word “Allah” is not there in those religions”.
And sometimes we see some people call Prophet Mohammed as “Founder of Islam” which is wrong. Infact, prophet Mohammed is last messenger of God and the word Allah is not new.
To answer that, lets try to understand what “Allah” means. Allah is Arabic word and it means God, the one who created everything. The word “Allahu Akbar” means litterally “God is Great” which is used by muslims and non muslims. But unfortunately, the media has ruined its meaning. Many people would be afraid if someone says “Allahu Akbar” because they think he is about to do some act of terrorism.
If you have read the post which says “Process of Verifying A Religion & The True Religion” its mentioned that for any religion to be right it should begin from the first human being. Because everyone has the right to know God.
The word Allah means “God (our creator)”. So, if Quran was revealed in english, the word “Allah” would probably be replaced by the word “God”. And when translated to Arabic version, the Arabs would use the word “Allah”. For example, the Christians in Egypt call Jesus as Allah, because it means God.
And another good example is, the prophet Mohammed’s own father’s name is Abd-Allah – It means Allah’s servant) God’s Servant. Notice the word Allah was there in prophet Mohammed’s father name which means before Prophet Mohammed existed. If the word “Allah” was new term which came with Islam it wouldn’t be found in the names of Arabs who existed before prophet Mohammed was born. And there were many similar names at that time (no only prophet Mohammed’s father).
This concludes that the word Allah is not came with Islam, its not new word, it was there already. And the prophets of God all of them was teaching people that God exists, but not necessarily by the name of Allah. For example, Maryam (prophet Jesus’s mother) was calling God by Al-Rahman – Means that “The Merciful”.
The verse of Quran 17:110 says:
Say, O Prophet, “Call upon Allah or call upon the Most Merciful. Whichever you call upon, so to Him (belong) the Fairest [Best] Names.”
In Islam, there are 99 names (Attributes) for Allah. And you can call God by those names. These names only belong to him. Click here to view them.