إِلَٰهٌ god in Arabic
إِلَٰهٌ is how you say “god” in Arabic.
Root ا ل ه ʾ-l-h. noun. ilāh.
Arabic
English
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Meaning of god in Arabic
- a god, deity literally 'that which is worshipped', from the same pattern as maktūb 'written'
- the sun, or the moon used by some pre-Islamic Arabs for what they venerated
Example sentence
فقال أشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وأنك رسوله
Then he said: I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah, and that you are His messenger.
لَا إِلَٰهَ there is no deity
la = 'no' (absolute); ilah = 'deity, god' — together 'there is no god' (the opening of the testimony of faith).
The English is machine-translated.
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How it is used
With the definite article, الإله is properly equivalent to الله itself, though polytheists used it for their own objects of worship to the exclusion of Allah. Its plural, آلهة, means "gods" or "idols".
Words from the same root
- اللّٰهُ God, the one true God
- إِلَاهَةٌ godhood, divinity
- تَأَلَّهَ to devote oneself to worship
- إِلهِىٌّ divine, relating to God
- الإِلٰهِيَّةُ theology
More example sentences
﴿فَتَعَالَى اللَّهُ الْمَلِكُ الْحَقُّ لا إِلَهَ إِلا هُوَ رَبُّ الْعَرْشِ الْكَرِيمِ﴾
Exalted is Allah, the True Sovereign; there is no deity except Him, Lord of the Noble Throne.
إِلَٰهَ deity
This noun, deity, is the thing being categorically denied, and it takes a bare accusative ending with no nunation because the total-denial construction demands exactly that shape. So its form itself signals that not a single such thing exists.
Common questions
- How do you say "god" in Arabic?
- إِلَٰهٌ (ilāh).
- How is إله related to الله (Allah)?
- Lane records that اللّٰه is widely held to derive from إلٰه/إلاه (ilāh), "a god", with the article fused in.
Related words
Definitions summarised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).