God's sublime name: A comparative study of Judaism and Islam

Abstract

God's sublime name: A comparative study of Judaism and Islam

Summary: This study examines

the topic of the greatest name of God in both Judaism and Islam, in terms of : a) determining the superlative name for each of the adherents of the two religions, and b) identifying the most important attributes of this name and its characteristics for the two faiths. The study relies on both the inductive method by seeking to trace as much as possible of the Jewish and Islamic sacred texts that refer to the sublime name of God in each of the two religions. It also adopts the descriptive and analytical methods in addition to the comparative approach. The study concludes that there is a belief in the sublime name of God in both Judaism and Islam. It also finds that this name is agreed upon among the Jews, which is “Jehovah”, while the views of Muslims tended to differ in defining it. The majority of Muslim scholars have stated that: it is the term of Majesty “Allah”

As for the rulings and characteristics related to the name, the two religions differ fundamentally, in spite of  some similarities noted in the research between Jews and some mystics of Islam, in some instances..Thus,  the study recommends the need to study the history of ideas and perceptions about this problematic  to understand  aspects of influence in the specific usage of the name of God by the two religions.