Allah is the personal name of God, when you translate that word into English, God is the nearest equivalent to Allah. Now meaning is always attributed to a derivative noun. A noun which is not derivative is supposed to be just a name, a noun, without any meaning. Or if there are meanings, they don’t mean as far as that name is concerned. That is the name of a person, and that only indicates a personality. So whatever are the attributes of that personality, they are acquired gradually by the name, which is applied to that personality.
So ultimately, although the name may mean a completely different thing, but it acquires something of the personality of the person to which it is attached. So in this way, the word Allah could be meaningful because the word Allah has been described by various attributes. For instance, when you say Muhammad Abdul Rashid, although Abdul Rashid means quite a different thing altogether, but here, those people who have been coming here, when I say Muhammad Abdul Rashid, they will immediately begin to smile, while there is nothing in the word Abdul Rashid to make them smile, because the word Abdul Rashid has acquired a certain characteristic which belongs to you.
And by Abdul Rashid, the meaning Rashid or the meaning up does not come into picture at all. What comes into picture is the character, the person, the charming bearing of Mr. Muhammad Abdul Rashid and his innocence, which is reminded to everybody, so he begins to smile in love, of course. The same thing happens to Mr. Bashir Hayat, of course, to some degree, maybe some less or more degree, but because you have been posing yourself, I mean, you have been posing certain questions with certain bearing and attitude, which is very popular with everybody here, so Bashir Hayat has neither any meaning of Hayat in it now, nor that of Bashir. Sometimes this word acquires the connotation of a Nazir instead, to those who want to ask a question.
He works like a Nazir, he settles them, they look here, I have come into the arena and no room for you anymore. So that word Bashir Hayat, although it has some meaning of its own, yet the acquired meaning are those who are being attached to the personality. So those people whom you love, their name become also lovable and they acquire a certain personality. This is why the styles of names change with the generations, because the younger generation begins to feel that these names, Allah Rakhee for instance, are of old hats, you know, people of old age, of that bearing, so they think that we are young, we must have some young name. And when they become old, the generation which follows, if that thinks that this name, you know, is slightly oldish, so we must have a new name and they may like Allah Rakhee much more than Bashir, than Zahida or Lubna or things like that.
So this is because personality gives characteristic to the name. So the word Allah has acquired whatever attributes it has acquired, not in itself, but by its application on a personality which has been described by the Holy Quran so lovingly, so beautifully, that the word Allah becomes very dear to us. So if the word God has not been described as beautifully in other books or by other people, naturally a Muslim would prefer the word Allah to be used for Allah. So that is only the preference, otherwise if you speak of God and mean by meaning there by Allah, there is no harm.
