What is the true meaning of Allah?

Question

I am a newb at Islam and Arabic, however, I have been learning Arabic and I have come across a question that can be said in Arabic:> مَنْ رَبُّكُمْ> > "Who is your God (to a bunch of guys)?" with a response of:> > رَبُّنَا الله> > "Our God is Allah".This confuses me a little bit because Muslims, and Google, all say that the only word for God in Arabic is Allah, with *al-lah* being its particles; a.k.a lah-un with a definite particle.So where has this *Rabbun* come from and is *lah-un* really the Arabic word for God or is it really meaning something else?

Answer 1

I can not add much to the clear answers that my colleagues offered . However I can use different question that might make cast some light. What is the name of your رب. The one you worship. The answer is Allah اللة This name is unique and has no origin or derivatives in Arabic language as Mohamed M explained, while Allah has 99 more names derived from descriptions : The Great , The Wise , The Merciful , The One ..etc as Hebah S. also mentioned. رب in addition to meaning God has many other meanings.

May Allah enlighten us all and guide us on his path.

Answer 2

The word for a god in Arabic is ilaah إله .

Rabb رب on the other hand means a lord. when you add ال to it = Ar-Rabb الرب then it refers to Allah as The Lord. otherwise, you can use the word Rabb in other ways. like رب الأُسْرَة Rabb-ul- Usrah lord of the family. Meaning the patriarch of the family, the one in charge and who takes care of it.

The same does NOT apply to ilah إله and Allah.

when you add ال to إله = al-ilah الإله the god or The God, depending on who uses it and what they refer to.

Whereas الله only refers to the One True God. it cannot be used for any other being. the great majority of linguists agree that it has no root word, it is not a derivative, nor can you add prefixes or suffixes to it. so you can't make it plural, feminine etc

but we can trace إله back to وَلَهَ walaha

in your example the question was من ربكم؟ who is your Lord? so you introduced the concept of Rabb in the question so naturally the answer has to be rabbuna ....... our Lord is...... then the answer is given الله

just llke if you were asked كم عمرك؟ kam 'umruk? How old are you? to give a full answer you'd say عمري كذا 'umri kadha. may age is such-and-such.

Hope that helps. بالتوفيق BitTwafeeq

Answer 3

The word "Allah" means God but its not the only word to for God , ربّis also means God, in Islam there is 99 names for Allah, each one express one of Gods character, رب is one of these names.

"Allah " is the name of the names that why some might say that its the only word for God.

i hope this was helpful.