Is Allah the Same God Referred to in the Bible?

Q: Is Allah the same God referred to in the Bible by Moses, Jesus, and the other prophets?

Etymologically the name is the same root across Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic. Islam and Judaism share the same concept of God as one absolute being; Christianity's Trinitarian concept of God differs from both.

Some non-Muslims claim that Allah (may He be glorified and exalted) is not the same God referred to in the Bible by Moses, Jesus, and the other prophets (peace be upon them).

QuestionIs the above statement true?

Answer

Assalamu ‘Alaikum! (peace be upon you) Alhamdulillah! (praise be to God)

Historically, Islam builds its foundation on the previous revelations — the Torah and the Gospel (see Qur’anic Abrogation) — so it should be straightforward for Muslims to believe the God referred to by Moses and Jesus in those revelations is the same God referred to in the Qur’an.

However, we Muslims have reservations about how authentic the Bible’s text is today — we don’t know with certainty which verses are genuine revelation. What we are sure of is that the religion preached by Moses (see Deuteronomy 6:4) and by Jesus (see Matthew 5:17-19 and John 17:3) refers to one absolute supreme being: the Almighty God, Allah. Any Bible verse affirming the absolute oneness of God is welcome to Muslim ears.

Let’s investigate how Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon them all) referred to God etymologically — starting with the name in Arabic, then Hebrew, then Aramaic — before turning to the concept of God in each of the three faiths.

The concept of God in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Sharing a name is not the same as sharing a concept. Among the three faiths, only Islam and Judaism pray to the same one absolute being (pure monotheism), while Christianity prays to a triune God to accommodate the divinity of Jesus.

We understand if Christian readers object and point to Jewish evidence for a triune God — we are genuinely interested in seeing it. For now, it’s worth hearing directly from Jewish voices on this question: several rabbis have spoken publicly about the closeness between the Jewish and Muslim concept of God — one has said he can freely recite the Muslim declaration of faith, “there is no god but Allah,” because the underlying concept of God is exactly the Jewish one; another has noted that Muslims took Judaism as a second subject of study in school precisely because both religions share the same core belief in one God, unlike Trinitarian Christianity; a third has said a Jew is permitted to pray in a mosque but not in a Trinitarian church, since Islam is unambiguously monotheistic. Jews have prayed in mosques historically for exactly this reason.

Jesus himself was a practicing Jew, and the Qur’an addresses the “People of the Scripture” (Jews and Christians) directly on this point:

قُلْ يَٰٓأَهْلَ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ تَعَالَوْا۟ إِلَىٰ كَلِمَةٍ سَوَآءٍۭ بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَكُمْ أَلَّا نَعْبُدَ إِلَّا ٱللَّهَ

“Say, 'O People of the Scripture, come to a word that is equitable between us and you — that we will not worship except Allah and not associate anything with Him and not take one another as lords instead of Allah.' But if they turn away, then say, 'Bear witness that we are Muslims.'”

Al-'Imran (The Family of Imran) 3:64 Saheeh International

By “People of the Scripture” the Qur’an means Jews and Christians who received the Torah and the Gospel respectively — referring to the original scriptures containing their original message, which, unfortunately, is nowhere to be found in full today (a point Christian scholarship itself acknowledges). Where the New Testament as it stands today says God has taken a son, the Qur’an rejects this directly:

يَٰٓأَهْلَ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ لَا تَغْلُوا۟ فِى دِينِكُمْ وَلَا تَقُولُوا۟ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ إِلَّا ٱلْحَقَّ إِنَّمَا ٱلْمَسِيحُ عِيسَى ٱبْنُ مَرْيَمَ رَسُولُ ٱللَّهِ

“O People of the Scripture, do not commit excess in your religion or say about Allah except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, was but a messenger of Allah... And do not say, 'Three'; desist — it is better for you. Indeed, Allah is but one God. Exalted is He above having a son.”

An-Nisa (The Women) 4:171 Saheeh International