Interesting letter to the editor. Does anyone know enough Arabic to verify its accuracy?

He mentions that Saddam had added "Allahu Akbar" to Iraq's flag. The problem here is that this translation (the same one almost always used throughout the news media) of the well-known Islamist rallying cry is misleading. "Allah akbar" literally means "Allah is (the) greater/greatest" (there is no distinction in Arabic between "greater" and "greatest"). The word for "great" is "kebir" (not "akbar") in Arabic.

The importance of this is that the "Allah akbar" cry is meant to convey the meaning that Allah is greater than the objects of worship of the infidels; in other words, for example, greater than the gods of the Hindus or the God of Jews and Christians.

La ilaha illa Allah says it all, and leaves no room, or need, for discussion of akbar or kebir.

as Arabic and Muslem I can say:

"Allah"which is Arabic Word means "The God" and "Akbar" measns the Greatest. So, "Allah Akbar" means God is The Greatest.

also, in Islam there is one God
and "Allah Akbar" means "The God" has the absolute power. and "The God" is greater than any thing else becuse we believe that "The God" is The only creator.

and Muslems believe that Jews,Christians nad Muslems has one God. and they "Muslems" believe in other God like Hindus's God for example.

Hope I give an acceptable answer.

The phrase 'allāhu 'akbar is called the Takbir in Arabic. Semitic languages, like Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, or Syriac, have tri-consonantal roots. 'Big, great' is KBR in Arabic. The form kabīr has an elative form (roughly like our comparative and superlative together) 'akbar. The Takbir is said to be short for 'allāhu 'akbar min kulli shay 'God is greater than everything'. The word 'allah is from 'al 'ilāh 'the God'; 'ilāh is cognate with Hebrew 'elohim, one of the words used to designate God.

If the muslim god is the greatest and there is nothing greater, and the christian and jewish god is the greatest and there is nothing greater, aren't we all talking about the same thing:One supreme being who created everything. The trouble is not with god, because by definition there can be only one. The trouble is with people who have picked a name for god and are fighting about the name. That's a bit silly, isn't it? It's a little like the two sons of John Jones fighting, one insisting his father's name is John and the other insisting his father's name is Mr. Jones.
I hope you will continue to communicate. We non-muslims need to hear a muslim voice that is not hyped by the media.

quote:

It's a little like the two sons of John Jones fighting, one insisting his father's name is John and the other insisting his father's name is Mr. Jones.

That's actually rather a good analogy. Of course, it falls down if you want to use it to explain the arguments when you introduce atheism

"Allaho Akbar" means "God is the greatest". Arabs say Allah, Jews say Jehovah, Zoroastrians say Ahura Mazda, etc. but all of them suggest the supreme God. They just use different words for the same thing.

For example, Darius says in his inscriptions:
"the great God is Ahura Mazda, who created this earth, who created that sky, who created man, who created happiness for man..."

When Muslims say "Allaho Akbar" they don't mean that their God is greater than that of Christians or other religions.

The 'one true God of Islam' is the God of Abraham, the monotheistic God of Jews, Christians and Muslims. The three religions do not have separate gods: merely, each chronoligically newer faith claims an additional prophet not recognised by the predecessor(s).

Allahuacbar does indeed mean God is great, or so say my Muslim friends, and Islam provides lots of different pious sayings just as all other religions do.

Some more information on Sayyid Qutb (link) and his book Milestones (link).