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Muhammad's Revision of the Name of God

No religion on earth requires its followers to flatly deny history as much as Islam, which stands entirely on the testimony of one man from the 7th century, over a 23-year period. The name that he chose for God is a great example of the historical chasm between Muhammad and the traditions that he claimed to affirm.

The Name of God in the Bible

In the Quran, Muhammad constantly claimed to be continuing in the revelation given to the Biblical authors, given by the very same God. For example:

Surah 3:3

3 He has revealed to you ˹O Prophet˺ the Book in truth, confirming what came before it, as He revealed the Torah and the Gospel

This is how he attempted to get around the fact that all new religions are false, because God has never left mankind without a witness. And, without this historical link, Muhammad was just another Arabian cult leader.

However, in the Bible which he claimed to affirm, God's proper name is given, and it's represented by the Hebrew word "יְהֹוָה", transliterated into English in a consonantal form as the letters YHWH. This has historically been rendered in English as "Jehovah", though the more popular modern rendition is "Yahweh":

Exodus 3:13-15 (LSB)

13 Then Moses said to God, "Behold, I am about to come to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' And they will say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?"
14 And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
15 And God furthermore said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name from generation to generation.

In the above, God reveals His eternal name to Moses. And, it is not a generic name for "God" in Hebrew, or any language. That would be "Elohim", in Hebrew, "God" in English, and so on. Instead, it's a proper name.

Critically, this name has the historical foundation of being embedded in the names of many people in the Bible, including many prophets.

For example:

  • Elijah (אֵלִיָּהוּ): "My God is Yahweh" or "Yahweh is God."
  • Jeremiah (יִרְמְיָהוּ): "Yahweh will exalt" or "Yahweh will uplift."
  • Isaiah (יְשַׁעְיָהוּ): "Yahweh is salvation" or "Salvation of Yahweh."
  • Hezekiah (חִזְקִיָּהוּ): "Yahweh strengthens" or "Strength of Yahweh."
  • Abijah (אֲבִיָּה): "My father is Yahweh" or "Yahweh is my father."
  • Azariah (עֲזַרְיָה): "Yahweh has helped" or "Yahweh is my helper."
  • Jehoiachin (יְהוֹיָכִין): "Yahweh establishes" or "Yahweh will fortify."
  • Tobiah (טוֹבִיָּה): "Yahweh is good" or "Yahweh is my goodness."
  • Zechariah (זְכַרְיָה): "Yahweh remembers" or "Yahweh has remembered."
  • Zephaniah (צְפַנְיָה): "Yahweh has hidden" or "Hidden by Yahweh."
  • Uriah (אוּרִיָּה): "Yahweh is my light" or "Yahweh is my fire."
  • Obadiah (עֹבַדְיָה): "Servant of Yahweh" or "Worshiper of Yahweh."
  • Nehemiah (נְחֶמְיָה): "Comforted by Yahweh" or "Yahweh has comforted."
  • Jonathan (יְהוֹנָתָן): "Yahweh has given" or "Gift of Yahweh."
  • Joel (יוֹאֵל): "Yahweh is God" or "Yahweh is the Lord."
  • Josiah (יֹאשִׁיָּהוּ): "Yahweh supports" or "Yahweh heals."
  • Joshua (יְהוֹשֻׁעַ): "Yahweh is salvation" or "Yahweh saves."

Above, even in their English renditions, we can still see "Yah" (יָהּ), or "Jah", a shortened form of "Yahweh" used by God over 40 times in Scripture (Psalm 68:4, Exodus 15:2, Isaiah 12:2, etc.), and the basis for words like "Hallelujah" (Psalm 104:35 [הַלְלוּיָהּ], Revelation 19:1-6 [ἀλληλούΐα], etc.), in many of these names.

And, the last name in the list above, "Joshua", when transliterated into Greek, is Iēsous. That Greek name brought into English is Jesus. So, the name "Jesus" contains this name of God, and means "Yahweh saves". The angel that gives His name to Joseph references this in the New Testament:

Matthew 1:21

21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.

There are also other people in the New Testament with names derived from Yahweh, such as "John", derived from יְהוֹחָנָן, meaning "Yahweh is gracious", or "Yahweh is merciful". Similar to Jesus, this name was given to John the Baptist directly by God (Luke 1:13). However, Jesus is of course the most significant example, both in Christianity and Islam.

Therefore, the name of God in Christianity is consistent in both the Old and New Testament, in a prominent, obvious way. It has a clear, certain historical testimony.

The Name of God in Islam

Because Muhammad was continuing in the tradition of all the Biblical authors, we can count on him to, at the very least, get God's name right, can't we?

The answer is absolutely not. The name Yahweh is never used for God anywhere in the Quran, or the Hadith, by Muhammad. Instead, he exclusively used the Arabic word Allah (ﷲ), which means "The God", as the proper name of God. In this way, it is generic in the same sense that Elohim (Hebrew), or Theós (Greek) is generic. And, it has nothing whatsoever to say about Yahweh.

The reason Muhammad didn't have anything to say about Yahweh is because he was entirely ignorant of the Biblical tradition, and so when inventing his new religion, he foolishly borrowed names and characters from other religions, whose names make absolutely no sense in the context of what he taught about God.

Conclusion

In the Old Testament, the divine name of God is revealed, and used thousands of times thereafter. In the New Testament, new characters are introduced to us, who were both named directly by God, and have that divine name embedded in their name. Therefore, the name is referenced hundreds of times in the New Testament, too, in new, and meaningful ways. It's utterly unknown in Islam, except on accident, because Muhammad usurped characters from Christianity.

Muhammad thought he could make a history grab by affirming Jesus (Surah 2:87, etc.), Elijah (Surah 6:85, etc.), and so on, but since he didn't know the actual history, he fell on his face. He demonstrated complete ignorance of the only name he was supposed to speak in, according to God (Deuteronomy 18:20).

That is modus operandi of Islam. Affirm the Bible to get some pseudo-historical lineage to deceive ignorant Arabian Pagans from the 7th century, but be completely ignorant of the Bible, so that instead of confirming it, it entirely contradicts every meaningful point of doctrine, so that Muslim liars centuries later have to claim that the entire historical record before the 7th century has been redacted or eliminated.