Allah is the standard Arabic term for God. For Muslims, regardless of their home language, this name holds special meaning and importance.
There are many different names for God in Islam. However, Allah is the most common and significant. For Muslims, Allah is all-powerful, all-merciful, unique, and never makes mistakes.
Many Arabic-speaking Christians also refer to God as Allah. However, it is debated whether they are talking about the same god.
This photo shows a qibla compass (for finding the direction of Mecca for prayer) with the name “Allah” written in Arabic calligraphy.
Text adapted from Simple English Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0.
18th- or 19th-century Qibla compass from the Khalili Collection of Hajj and the Arts of Pilgrimage, SCI 471.
