Why Allah And Not Tuhan?
NH Chan, Loyarburok
Q: Why do Christians use the word ‘Allah’ in their Malay language Bible and not ‘Tuhan’?
A: It is because Christians, Jews and Muslims worship the same God as the God of Abraham.
Before we all get confused, it is necessary to point out at the outset that the word which is spelt ‘Allah’ is an English word because it is written in English. The word which bears the same spelling in the National Language is a copy of that word which was first spelt in English in the sixteenth century. The English word ‘Allah’ is the phonetic spelling of the Arabic word for God.
We all know that the Malay word for god is tuhan. We also know that the God of the Muslims is Allah which is actually what this word sounds like in Arabic. Since most of us do not read or write Arabic, we tend to take the phonetic spelling of the Arabic word for God as used in English dictionaries. However, from the point of view of Christians, Christians worship the same God as Muslims do. The God of Christians and the God of Muslims is the same God as the God of Abraham. So that if you are a Christian, the choice of using the word ‘Allah’ in their Malay language Bible is obvious since Christians also worship Allah which is the Malay language equivalent, since Malay uses the same English phonetic spelling – of the God of Muslims. In this country to be Malay is to be a Muslim.
Christians will not use the word ‘God’ in their Malay language Bible because God is an English word and therefore it is an inappropriate word if it is used in a Malay language Bible. In a Malay language Bible only Malay words should be used. But ‘tuhan’, although it is a Malay word for god, is not an appropriate word to use in the context and sense of the Bible. Christians who use Malay in their Bible will never use ‘tuhan’ for their God because ‘tuhan’ is other people’s god; it is not the God intended in the Bible. Just as Malay Muslims will never use ‘tuhan’ for their God even though it is a Malay word for god because their God as well as the Christians’ God is the same God that Abraham (Ibrahim) worshipped – no one really knows exactly when Abraham lived – a traditional view is 1750 to 1500 BC.
