Why It is Not Possible to Substitute Allah with Tuhan in Bible Translation
Muslims in other parts of the world (Arabs, Persians, North Africans, Pakistanis and Indonesians) have no objection and are not worried about getting confused when Christians use the word Allah. In contrast, some Malaysian Muslims claim to be confused; a strange phenomenon indeed. This observation lends credence to the suggestion that the Allah issue is an artificial Malay issue and not a genuine Muslim issue. The truth is that the current orchestrated protests against the recent High Court decision to allow the Catholic Herald (and Christians) to use the word Allah must be seen as cynical manipulations by Malay politicians to gain votes from their community.
See Malaysiakini 31/12/2009, “Court Declares Allah Ban Invalid” LINK or Malaysiakini 5/1/2010. “Allah Row: Dr. Mahathir Says Law Cannot Solve it” LINK
See Asia Sentinel 3/1/2010, “God and Allah in Malaysia” LINK
I am more interested in going beyond these political maneuvers. Politicians (including government bureaucrats) are happy just to stay at the level of vague suggestions since they have no competence nor care to address real issues of translation. In contrast, Christians must ensure their arguments for the right to use the word Allah are based on concrete evidence supported by a coherent linguistic philosophy of translation of Scripture.
One major demand from the Malay protestors is that Christians stop using the word Allah on grounds that Christians can find a simple alternative, that is, simply substitute the word Allah with the word Tuhan. Unfortunately, this demand only betrays the ignorance of the protestors. I would have thought that any Malay would know that the meanings of the words Allah (God) and Tuhan (Lord, Rabb) are not the same. How can they suggest that Christians simply use the word Tuhan to substitute the word Allah? To express the issue linguistically, Allah and Tuhan have different senses even though they have the same reference.
Both the terms Allah and Tuhan are used in the Malay Bible. Following the precedent set by Arab Christians, Allah is used to translate el/elohim and Tuhan(or TUHAN in caps) is used to translate Yahweh (YHWH). The two words are sometimes paired together as Yahweh-Elohim in 372 places in the Old Testament (14 times in Genesis 2-3; 4 times in Exodus;8 times in Joshua; 7 times in 2 Samuel; 22 times in Chronicles; 12 times in Psalms; 32 times in Isaiah; 16 times in Jeremiah and 210 times in Ezekiel etc.).
More importantly, the word Tuhan is also applied to Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Thus we read of the LORD Jesus as Tuhan Yesus (The word LORD was used to translate the word kurios 8400 times in the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament. It refers to human beings only 400 times and refers to God 8000 times. Of these 8000 times, 6700 are substitutes for the word YHWH). The transference of the title kurios LORD/YHWH to Jesus Christ is testimony to the belief in the deity of Christ right at the beginning of Christianity.
This simple statistical survey shows clearly that the demand by Muslim demonstrators that Christians simply substitute the word Allah with Tuhan is unreasonable since it renders many Biblical references to God and Jesus Christ incoherent. First, the substitution is incorrect since the meaning of Allah and Tuhan are different. Second, it creates an absurd situation when Christians try to translate the paired words Tuhan Allah (LORD God). Are Christians now required to call the LORD God, Tuhan Tuhan? This sounds like committing linguistic redundancy. Worse still, the repeated words Tuhan Tuhan come across to Malay readers as suggesting that Christians believe in a plurality of Lords/Gods (since the plural form in Malay is expressed by repeating the noun and setting them in apposition). Finally, Christians are unable to express the Lordship of Jesus Christ as one who is distinct from the Father and yet shares with the God of the Old Testament, the name that is above every other name – kurios /Tuhan (Philippians 2:9, cf. Isaiah 45:23). In other words, Christians are rendered unable to affirm the deity of Jesus Christ and teach the doctrine of Trinity without the foundational words that maintain the semantic relationship between the words Allah and Tuhan as they are applied distinctively in the Malay Bible.
Christians in Malaysia would do their utmost to maintain religious harmony in Malaysia. Indeed, the Christian community has made many concessions to accommodate the concerns of the Malay community. However, it cannot accept the demand that it abandons the use of the word Allah and adopts the word Tuhan as a substitute simply because some ill-informed Malays take offence at their practice – an offence which would not have arisen if only these people set aside emotions and prejudices and examine the historical and linguistic evidence in a calm and rational manner. At the very least, Malays (or rather Muslims) should understand that believers are not at liberty to change the meaning of their Scriptures, the Word of God, to satisfy the unfounded scruples of man.
Postscript
I refer readers to the accompanying post, “Translating the Names of God” LINK published in the learned journal (The Bible Translator) that gives more concrete examples of how the names of God are translated in the Malay Bible. The article also discusses the controversy among some scholars on how the words Allah and Tuhan should be used in the revision of Shellabear’s version of the Malay Bible. In any case, all the scholars in the controversy agree that Christians need to use both the words Allah and Tuhan in the Malay Bible.
Please note that the article is reproduced (partially) with permission from the author Dr. D Soesilo.
Dear Sir,
The Urdu Bible that Pakistani Christians use unfortunately does not translate the word God with Allah but with the word Khoda which would roughly correspond to Tuhan. That is the only exception that I have come across among Semitic language translations of the word for God. Bangladeshi Muslim believers in Christ use Allah and there is a separate Bengali translation available to those believers which employs words that Muslims are familiar with.
Yours faithfully,
L T Jeyachandran.
http://aljazeera.com/news/articles/39/Prophet-Muhammads-promise-to-Christians.html
“This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them.
Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by God! I hold out against anything that displeases them.
No compulsion is to be on them. Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries. No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims’ houses.
Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God’s covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate.
No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight. The Muslims are to fight for them. If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray. Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants.
No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day (end of the world).”
History has shown that whoever messes with God had a hard time after that.
The people who are pushing for this change in the BM bible are ultimately wanting to change the name of God now.
Surah al Imran ayat 3.64 of the Quran says: “O People of the Book [Muslims, Jews and Christians]! come to common terms as between us and you: That we worship none but Allah. That we associate no partners with Him; that we erect not, from among ourselves, Lords and patrons other than Allah.” If then they turn back, say ye: “Bear witness that we (at least) are Muslims (bowing to Allah’s Will).”
It is very simple analogy. God is in general term to all religion, but Allah is only one, The god for Muslim. Allah in the Quran is not allowing (Haram) the muslim to eat pork and consume alcohol. These are well known and accepted by the muslim in Malaysia. The non Muslim eat Pork, consume Alcohol and do many many things that “Muslim Allah” is not allowed. One Allah is allowed and the other is against it, so would it much confuses? This is a very simple comparison but we can do more. If you are interested to discuss further, drop me a line. thank you
You are sorely mistaken because your Malay language is very weak. For you, Allah = God and Tuhan = Lord and Rabb. First, you have confused Arabic with Malay. The words “Allah” and “Rabb” do not belong to the Malay Language, they are Arabic. The more accurate translation is Tuhan = God because Tuhan is the generic term for deity just as God is. And Lord = Tuan in Malay (notice the absent h). As for Rabb, and Allah, it gets complicated because there are other words that connote God in Arabic such as ilah. Suffice it to say here that Allah is not a generic term for deity like Tuhan or God., it is a proper name of God according to Islam. So, the closest translation to the word Allah would be “Yahweh” and “Yahweh” is not some generic god but a proper name of God in the Judaeo-Christian tradition. So you got it all wrong! Again, “Allah” is not “God” and “Lord” is not “Tuhan”… In fact in Chritsianity, God and Lord are used interchangeably but Tuhan and Tuan are not in Malay so even in that there is a great difference between Malay and English…
I think Protestants would be better not to follow the Catholic in claiming the word ‘Allah’ as god. Christianity is all about love and far from created hatred to anybody or any religion, don’t jeopardize the loving message of Christianity by this issue. For me ‘allah’ is god for Muslim and Christians have lived in Malaysia for more than 50 years without using this term as god in any of the ritual all this while but why only now this word is becoming so big deal for the church?
Old Testament is originally written in Hebrew, Yahweh/Elohim are the devine names in it and New Testament is in Greek and the word of devine is simply ‘Theos’ and ‘allah’ is not contains in both of the books, whereas quran is written in Arabic, and ‘allah’ is clearly stated as the name of god in it so who has right on that name? don’t hijack that devine name from muslims and even without the word ‘allah’ Catholic has win a large number of followers all over the world, so what the use of that word then? And why created unrest situation in our country?
For those of you who think christians are “hijacking” the name, please look at yourselves in the mirror and slap your faces. Do not try to flatter yourselves, you already look stupid as it is.
Here’s a timeline for you history-challenged low IQ ppl:
Hundreds/thousands of years BC- The use of Hebrew, Aramaic and Ancient Arabic used the NOUN Allah to describe their gods, whoever they were. Idols that were worshipped were also called Allah, for heaven’s sakes.
10AD – Islam was founded. They were speaking Ancient Arabic, hence, they used that NOUN. Nobody said anything because people had more sense then.
Pre-Merdeka – Christian Sabahans/Sarawakians who spoke Malay adopted the NOUN Allah in their Bibles. Nobody caused any ruckus.
2010 – Suddenly certain ppl are insecure (as if there are no laws that forbids them to convert OUT of their religion).
I think there are just too many jokers in M’sia who think Allah is a copyrighted NAME. Wake up morons, it’s NOT.
Who died and made you fanatics the Islam authority of the world? Even Mecca allows it, so who are you to bark up the wrong tree?
If they wanna pick on idiotic things like these, then the Jews should have picked on them using the words “assalamualaikum/ walaikumsalam” because THOSE came from the Hebrew words “shalom aleichem/aleichem shalom”.
But of course the Jews knew better. They succeeded in business, finance, media and entertainment. What do the fanatical Muslim Malays do? They drag around cow heads, burn churches down and insist that they’re being ostrasized.
Now look at yourselves in the mirror again and give it another go.
There are none so blind as those who won’t see!
There are none so deaf as those who won’t hear!
There are none so dumb as those who won’t speak!
To cassie don’t too emotional, most of the Muslims are not agree with the churches attackers, this is not from the teaching of Islam, but did it happen before? no, before this we are living in peacefully without thinking of these incidents would happened or can be happened in our country. We should asking our self why would these happened? Who has interrupted our peaceful living in this beloved country and turn it up like this? Who has started the fire first? When there is no respect to each other (religion) these are the results.
We should consider everything locally and don’t compare with any other country on this issue because our environment is quite different from them. For example in Malaysia, church is aloud to build it minaret whereas in Swisszeland the mosque are not aloud to have it minaret, is it in the Christian country and Muslims there have to abide by the local law in that country. In France, a Christian country, Muslim women are prohibited to wear the veil, so they also have to follow the rule which set locally in that country even though it is against the Islamic teaching. In Singapore, our neighbor in the south, the mosques are prohibited to proclaim the ‘azan’ (call for prayer) publicly, so Muslim over there should follow the local rule. And why in Malaysia non-Muslim are refused to respect to Islam as an official religion of Malaysia? In our Rukun Negara, stated ‘Kepercayaan kepada Tuhan’ why ‘Tuhan’ in general? Because this statement is giving respect to all other religions – they might have their own proper noun for their own god and Muslim can’t force everybody to accept an Islamic proper noun of God that is ‘Allah’ to be their god – even though Islam is an official religion for this country. If we Muslims can tolerate for the goodness of every other religion why not the non-Muslims? At that time everybody seems to understand about this matter no issue no nothing!
And from the very beginning when this Rukun Negara has been formulated, neither Catholic nor Protestant are protested to put ‘Allah’ instead of ‘Tuhan’, why? And why only now – when more than a half of century we merdeka then you try to vanish off what has been understood from the beginning among the religions? Try to play with the fire? Once again, we Muslims are not supported the bombing of the churches but ‘Allah’ issue is so sensitive and should not be rise up by anybody or any religion.
Before claiming ‘Allah’ as the righteous God, Christians are hurt Muslims feeling by claiming that Allah is the false pagan god. Dr. Robert Morey’s book ‘The Moon-God Allah In The Archeology Of The Middle East’ (1994, Research And Education Foundation: Newport (PA)) claimed that the word ‘Allah’ was using by pagan for moon god and Islam is worshipping the pagan god. Some more, Jack T. Chick, who drew a fictionalised racially stereotyped story entitled “Allah Had No Son” (1994 by Jack T. Chick LLC) also claimed that the word ‘Allah’ was using by pagan for moon god and Islam is worshipping the pagan god. So why you are not consistent on what is the name of your God?
Demanding ‘Allah’ as the name of divine by Christians should not be happened because Christians must know the name of their god according to Isaiah 52:6. What a pity, this verse has been revealed more than 2000 years ago and up to now Christians are still searching for the name of God, why? And why chosen ‘the pagan God’ this time?
Hi Abdullah Ali
What if you found out that Christians in Arab and Nusantara have been calling God “Allah” centuries before the Rukun Negara? Centuries before Islam arrived on the scene. Cassie put Islam coming abt 10 AD, but actually that’s putting it earlier by more than 600 years!
How would that historical fact change your view on his issue?
You are puzzled that Christians try hard to call God Allah now because you are not aware of this. Jack Chick’s cartoon tracts can hardly represent all Christians esp those Msian Christians in Sabah & Sarawak.
Alfred Tais (of NECF) while compiling documents for the SIB Allah cases came across some documents that shows the Bible in Bahasa Malaysia / Bahasa Indonesia were published earlier than 1950. For example, Matthew’s Gospel was first published by Dutchman AC Ruyl in 1629. The Perjanjian Baru was published in 1668 while the Alkitab was published in 1733
The negeri Selangor song contains the word Allah, as MB Khalid Ibrahim highlighted, as no one protested… so why now that non Muslims prevented from using the word? Does that mean we can’t sing the state song?
Abdullah Ali, who is demanding ‘allah’ now? Which came first? Christianity or Islam? If years ago, christians use ‘allah’ why can’t it be used now? Just because now there is Islam, Christians cannot use it anymore? I wonder who is the demanding one here.
You made a mistake. Jesus Christ is the savior prophesied to come and save us (in different parts of the Old Testament). I always have peace decending upon me whenever I thank and pray to God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Life is meaningful and enjoyable because of Christ who sends us His Holy Spirit from our loving Heavenly Father.
As I said before, don’t compare our local environment with the Christians who are living in the Arabic countries. We have our own constitution so that we can live in peace and harmony here. If you are living here in Malaysia, don’t use the Arabic countries’ constitution as the guide, if you do so see what are happening now?. Or may be you wish to migrate (again) somewhere in the Arabic country? I buy the ticket for you!
In Indonesia itself not every Christian is happy to use ‘Allah’ as god no! some of them prefer to use ‘Yahweh’ as the name of the god and some are prefer to use ‘Yehovah’ as the divine name and some even use ‘Elohim’, for me at least there are some traces from the original language of Hebrew for these names (‘Yahweh’, ‘Yehovah’ Elohim and etc. etc.). Which is which – confuse isn’t it? In the ‘lord’s prayer’ stated ‘our father in heaven, hallowed be thy name’…(Matthew 6), what is the name? Christians do not know and they are still looking for the truth and what their god has promised in Isaiah 52:6 is still not known – the divine name is still mystery till today! If you are confused by the mentioned names, so actually they are not from the lord your god because your god is not the author of confusion (I Corinthians 14:33), so who is your god then? I live you to think..
Let us back to the issue, we have formulated our own rules and regulations in Malaysia from the beginning to make justice to everybody here so that every religion should respect to each other. All the while we are living in peace and harmony because we are following this local constitution- even though there some problems every now and then, but still we can tolerate to each other and live in peaceful life here.
Only two countries in Christendom that are using the word ‘Allah’ as god, Arabic countries and Indonesia (including a Kalimantan’s Christians) the rest are using the word ‘god’, shown that to use the word ‘Allah’ as god in Christianity is not a must but it is ‘good to have’ staff otherwise every version of the Bible should also use ‘Allah’ as god not only in Arabic and Indonesian Bible.
If this is only ‘good to have’ staff, why we should sacrifice our peaceful and harmony living in this country? Why we should sacrifice the toleration which we are practicing for more than 50 years?
Mohd Keelani
We as muslims believe and very happy all human being to believe in Allah as the One creator who has the beutiful names or attributes such as Merciful,Strong,Gracious,… and this found in the bible and even in vedas of Hindusim,
The problem here with the christians ,They confuse themselves before they confuse the ignorant muslims.The bible declared that God is One ,He is the First and the Last and non is simlar to Him.Jesus in the bible is just a man even a weak man who says I am not good God is good.I am with the christians 20 years asking them prove for me or explain the trinity we foollow you because we as muslims asking Allah 5 times to guide us to the right way.
how Allh or God “neither the heavens nor the earth can contain God-from the bible) but he change himself to be a baby inside the womb of Mary whom Allah created?
They cant explain the meaning of Son.More than 100 mention in the bible sons of God.This doctrine let many Pastors convert to Islam as Estes who made http://www.islamtomorrow,com or the pastor who wrote http://www.evilbible.com and shoed that the bible is full of cotradictions and vices.
Muslims in Malaysia and Indonesia are having shallow knowledge,poor and weak faith.therefore the christians use their ignorance and weakness to deceive them that our religion the same as yours then they convert them.
I am asking the knowledgable muslims to visit such churches and pastors and explain for them about Islam.To be honest with you bad muslims and secular governments who are practicing bad conduct are plotting the worst exapmles of muslims.besides that christians are active in humanitirian activities practicing “Actions speak louder than words” made them acceptable.
I hope Muslims and christians to understand and respect each other if they really belive in their books.the Holy Quran declaresthat Muslims shouldnt urgue with the people of the book but kindly .Christians taught in the biblr Like your enemies more than you like your friends.
I hope all human being live in peace and harmony.
I totally agreed what Mr Abdullah Ali said. We should follow the local constitution, respect and be tolerance to other faith believers.
I’ve seen the contents of the Bible, they use the word ‘God’. Why should Christians take or borrow other religion terms ? Why only Allah ? How about ‘solat’ for praying ? That doesn’t seem to be an issue. It seems to me there’s something not right here in this issue, something that was done on purpose as a mean of provocating the Muslims. Please………I’m a peace loving man who grew up and studied with friends of multi races and religions and we respect one another……………
I read through the thread and realized a few things. I am not religious as the rest of you are so this is me giving my two cents worth:
Abdullah: I agree with everything you’ve said
Baron: I agree with you too
Lawrence: Totally agree
Cassie: You’re mental!
Hedonese & CC: I don’t see why you you’re arguing about who’s first! The fact is, whoever used it first, Islam still sticks to one almighty God we call Allah. Islam has always used the name Allah. Why have the other religions been changing theirs? What’s with the confusion? If Christianity came before Islam, why has Allah not been used. WHY has NO CHRISTIAN spoken the name ALLAH in their normal conversations for thousands of years? WHY HAS EVERY SINGLE CHRISTIAN THAT HAS TRIED TO IMPOSE THE FAITH OF CHRISTIANITY ON ME NOT USED THE TERM ALLAH??? So why are you arguing over ALLAH now? It’s easy for Cassie to say that some people are making it an issue, but is she seeing it from another point of view? I personally don’t care what Christians want to call their GOD (I’ve had many Christian Girlfriends and we’ve always discussed religions) or the fact that the religion sounds like a sachet of 3-in-1 Milo but what I do care is that as a Muslim, I only have ALLAH. Leave ALLAH to Muslims. You’ve already picked so many names, why pick ALLAH now? To me it looks like the Christians have a hidden agenda. Why are the Christians picking on Islam? Why do Christians make fun of Islam? You make cartoons, burn Al-Qurans, smear campaigns, ridicule islam on tv and the movies and such. What the *&^% for? You preach forgiveness and understanding and yet this is what you do!!! Muslims don’t do that! Wake UP people of all faiths!
Cassie: Stop slapping yourself already. You’re already ugly as it is and looking in the mirror too much isn’t gonna change anything cause you’re ugly INSIDE!
The last thing I wanna say is, there’s the RUKUN NEGARA. There are laws. If you don’t like the fact that things are the way they are, if you think that other countries are better, GET THE *&^% OUT OF MY COUNTRY THEN!!!
One question for those who say Allah can only refer to the God of the Muslims:
Who is the God of Abraham (or Ibrahim)?
Your probable answer: Allah.
Next question:
Do not the Christians pray to the God of Abraham?
Despite your anger and confusion, the answer has to be, “Yes.” (Assuming you are intelligent and well-informed, of course.)
So is it wrong then that Christians refer to the same God by the same name?
While your answer has to be, “No,” for those who have been arguing against the grain of the original post’s message, your selfish and unreasonable minds and with your “peace-loving” facade about to be exposed as true trouble seekers, with quivering voices will exclaim, “Yes!”
The truth of the matter is while “Allah” may have been attributed as a proper name for God, the meaning of the word “Allah” is not “The God of Muslims”, but “The God”. And Allah is the only God, who is the God of Abraham who is also the God of the Christians and thereby, the logical deduction should be that whether it is measured by the meaning of the word in a language, or by meaning gained through exploration of the history and etymology or meaning gained by cultural practices, there is nothing wrong with Christians referring to their God as Allah.
This is not about just about language any more, is it? Neither is it about laws and constitutions, is it? Come clean. Just a bunch of trouble seekers… or I’ll give you this much concession: Just uninformed.
And yes, Cassie has also been vindicated.
Oh, and please don’t bother responding. I won’t be reading the posts here, after this, whatever you may have to say. When something has been argued so well, there cannot possibly be any way anyone could out argue this. Even if you show yourself to have “out argued” my assertions, you will know that I had won. Yes, I am arrogant 😛 What to do? I have a functional brain. Wahahahahaha.
But of course if you had changed your mind, peace be with you and I apologise for any discomfort caused 🙂
Allah is NOT the generic name for God in Arabic, or other languages. Allah is the name of a particular god among many deities. Allah is NOT the God of the Bible. His very character and characteristics are the very opposite of God’s nature and being.
To substitute “Allah” for God is not just confusing to Muslims, it is propagating a LIE for the TRUTH.
PLEASE STOP defending the use of “Allah” in any Biblical/Christian translations or literature.
the solution is quite simple:
the true creator’s name restored to Yahuah
his imparted spirit residing in the son restored to Yahushuah
and the rock hiding inside the kabbah can keep the name allah
Isaiah 14:12-14
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
ascend – hebrew lexicon all’ah
lucifer – hebrew lexicon hal’al
the problem we have is the involvement of academic and religious christians as opposed to devout spiritual and charismatic ones who believe the simple life changing message as jesus himself would have us believe. what it comes down to is whether u believe muslims and christians share the same god. there are fundamental differences as im sure you are aware of. to us simplistically allah the muslim god is a deceiver and a liar and from a christian perspective therefore the devil himself. as such i for one am perfectly happy for the muslims to keep their precious term. i mean for pitys sakes when an english speaker converts to islam he carries the term across. no issues with translation there! so do us a favour and stop (mis)representing us!
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@Ashrul Annuar Mohamed said “Why only Allah ? How about ‘solat’ for praying ?”
Too late,they already banned non muslims from using Solat already.
So you need to find a different excuse now because that one doesn’t hold water anymore.
“Allah” refers to a god or being which bares no resemblance to the God of Abraham, Issac, Jacob and Jesus Christ. Allah and the book that he inspired inspire hate and murderous behavior, rather than love, joy and peace. So, any translation of the Bible should never, ever use “Allah” in referring to God.