Names of Allah ( 99 name ) Names of GOD

The word Allah, according to several Arabic lexicons, means "the Being Who comprises all the attributes of perfection", i.e. the Being Who is perfect in every way (in His knowledge, power etc.), and possesses the best and the noblest qualities imaginable in the highest degree. This meaning is supported by the Holy Quran when it says: "His are the best (or most beautiful) names." (17:110; 20:8; and 7:180)

Contrary to popular belief, the word Allah is NOT a contraction of al-ilah (al meaning 'the', and ilah meaning 'god').

Had it been so, then the expression ya Allah ('O Allah!') would have been ungrammatical, because according to the Arabic language when you address someone by the vocative form ya followed by a title, the al ('the') must be dropped from the title. For example, you cannot say ya ar-rabb but must say ya rabb (for 'O Lord'). So if the word Allah was al-ilah ('the God'), we would not be able to say: ya Allah, which we do.

Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (which is based on classical Arabic dictionaries), says under the word Allah, while citing many linguistical authorities: "Allah ... is a proper name applied to the Being Who exists necessarily, by Himself, comprising all the attributes of perfection, a proper name denoting the true god ... the al being inseparable from it, not derived..."

Allah is thus a proper name, not derived from anything, and the Al is inseparable from it. The word al-ilah (the god) is a different word.

The word Allah is unique among the names of God in all the languages of mankind, in that it was never applied to any being other than God. The pre-Islamic Arabs used it to refer to the Supreme Being, and never applied it to any of the other things they worshipped. Other names of God used by mankind, such as "lord", "god", "khuda", etc. have all also been used for beings other than God. They have meanings which refer to some particular attribute of God, but "Allah" is the name which refers to the Being Himself as His personal name.

The Holy Quran itself refers to the uniqueness of the name Allah when it says: "Do you know anyone who can be named along with Him?" (19:65)

Arabic is the only language, and Islam is the only religion, that has given the personal name of God (as distinct from attributive names such as lord, god, the most high, etc.) There are clear prophecies in previous scriptures (the Bible, the Vedas etc.) about the man who will come and give the name of God, which in previous religions was regarded as a secret. 1. David prophesied: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord" (Psalms 118:26). This is also repeated in the Gospels (Matt. 21:9, etc.), and was fulfilled by the Holy Prophet Muhammad whose first revelation was "Read in the name of thy Lord" (the Quran, 96:1). 2. Zechariah prophesied: "And the Lord shall be king over all the earth, in that day there shall be one Lord, and his name one." (Zech. 14:9) All Muslims, anywhere on the earth, speaking totally different languages, recognise the name "Allah", thus fulfilling this prophecy, "his name one". (All Christians, to take an example, do not recognise a single name of God, and therefore do not fulfil this prophecy.) 3. Isaiah prophesied: "And in that day shall you say, Praise the Lord, call upon His name." (Isaiah 12:4) So Muslims say repeatedly exactly this: al-hamdu li-llah, and call upon His name Allah.

Nouns – Types of Nouns

Types of Nouns

There are many different types of nouns. We capitalise some of them, like London, Tuesday or Elizabeth while we do not capitalise others unless they appear at the start of a sentence. There is a whole series of noun types and a noun will belong to more than one type: it will be proper or common, abstract or concrete, and countable or uncountable or collective. Let us take a look at 4 other types of nouns first, then we will deal with the rest by the pairs.

Noun Gender
Most common nouns like teacher, accountant, lawyer can refer to both men or women. In the old days, some nouns would change form depending on their gender but this use of gender-specific nouns is not so common today.

Those still in use tend to refer to occupational categories for example, author/authoress, actor/actress, waiter/waitress.

Noun Plurals
Most nouns change their form to indicate number by adding “-s”. Nouns that end with a “hissing” sound or end in “o” form the plural by adding “-es”. Nouns ending in “f” or “fe” form the plural by deleting the “f” or “fe” and adding “ves”. Words ending in “y” form the plural by deleting the “y” and adding “ies” unless the “y” ending is preceded by a vowel. For examples: cat/cats, match/matches, leaf/leaves, wife/wives, pony/ponies, boy/boys, toy/toys.

Irregular Noun
Other nouns form the plural irregularly. For example: man/men, child/children, foot/feet, mouse/mice, ox/oxen, sheep/sheep, person/people. Since there is no “s” at the ending of such plural nouns, you will have to add apostrophe “s” (‘s) to make it possessive.

So you can say there is no fixed rule in this category of nouns. Have a good dictionary at hand to help you when in doubt.

Possessive NounsTruefriend4
In the possessive case, a noun or pronoun changes its form to show that it owns or closely related to something else. You usually form the possessive case of a singular noun by adding apostrophe and the letter “s” (‘s) and for singular noun ending in “s” to add an apostrophe (‘) or apostrophe and “s” (‘s). For example: the boy’s ball, the bus’s seats, Ross’ shirt.

You can form the possessive case of a plural noun that does not end in “s” by adding apostrophe and “s” (‘s) as: children’s toys, people’s home.

You can form the possessive case of a plural noun that does end in “s” by adding an apostrophe(‘) : wives’ dresses, waitresses’ lunch boxes.

Note: Although we can use “of” to show possession, it is more usual to use possessive apostrophe and “s” (‘s). For example; the friend of my father / my father’s friend. The second example is more natural.

Collective Nouns
A collective noun is a noun naming a group of things, places, animals, or people. You could count the individual members of the group, but you usually think of the group as one unit. You need to be able to recognise collective nouns in order to maintain subject-verb agreement. A collective noun is similar to an uncountable noun, and is roughly the opposite of a countable noun.

For example: A herd of cattle crosses the river (“herd” is a collective noun in a singular form even though we are talking about many, therefore the word “crosses” (verb) has to be in singular form as well.

Nouns – What is a Noun?

Understanding Nouns

A noun is a word used to name a person, animal, place, thing, and abstract idea. It is a name of anything! The bold words in the following sentences are nouns:

The cat is out of the bag.
My father works in the bank.
The train checker checks the passengers’ tickets.

The problem with this simple definition is that it does not explain why “love” is a noun but can also be a verb.

A clearer way of looking at nouns is by its ending, its position and its function.

Noun words ending in

    ity} sensitivity, creativity, nationality
    ment} judgement, appointment, contentment
    ness} greatness, gentleness, kindness
    ation} plantation, temptation, orientation
    hood} knighthood, boyhood, livelihood
    ful} spoonful, plateful, cupful (this is not a fixed rules as some words ending in -ful can be adjectives for example careful, beautiful, pitiful, powerful

Noun position in a sentence

We can easily recognise nouns in the position of a sentence which often comes after a determiner word like a, an, the, this, my, such etc:

    a cat
    an appointment
    the condominium
    this plantation
    my handbag
    such creativity

Nouns also often comes after one or more adjectives:

    a black cat
    a business appointment
    the 5-star condominium
    this rubber plantation
    my pink beaded handbag
    such intelligent creativity

Noun function in a sentence

Nouns have specific function in a sentence, for example:

    subject of verb: Children play quietly.
    object of verb: She loves cats.
    subject and object of verb: Tellers dispense money.

Not all subjects or objects of a sentence is always a noun. It could be a pronoun or a phrase. His children play quietly – “children” is the noun but “His children” is the subject.