If you are talking to a Hindu or about greek mythology then you would know from context that they are talking about a god. If you are talking to a Muslim, Christian or Jew you know we are talking about the Supreme Omniscient Omnipotent Creator. This is both from living the American culture for a lifetime and from the definition of the word found in dictionaries.

The only word from a cultural and linguistic definition that is a problem is Lord which many Christians say to mean Jesus (PBUH).

That is fine in written text, but how about in speech where the capital letter is not articulated.

With all due respect to your Imam, the idea that God with a capital G can be conjugated goes against all English dictionaries. The word God with a capital G means the exact same things as Allah in Arabic.

The correct way to write those words would be with a lower case g as in god or goddess.

Just like the word Allah in Arabic has the definitive article “AL” before the word Ilah. The word Ilah can become Ilahah (goddess) or Aalihah(gods).

So the capital G in English serves the same function as the definitive article “Al” in Arabic.

This is a brilliant article and for someone who loves languages, it was great to read!
I often think about the fact that in Islam, Allah/God doesn’t have a gender and is beyond this, but language makes it necessary for us to refer to Him (SWT) as Him. Whether its referring to Allah as هو in the Quran or Him/He in English, it seems as though language itself opens up but also simultaneously closes the door to describing/understanding Allah.
So it was very interesting to read: “After long research and deep thought, I personally have come to the conclusion that God is exalted above a single proper noun or “name” derived from a terrestrial language. He is known by many descriptions which are in all languages by which He can be called upon.”

As for referring to Allah as God, my local Imam gave a lecture on this and says that God can be conjugated in various ways: Godhead, Goddess, Gods, but that Allah in Arabic remains as is.

WAS dear latifouro,

We really have to be intellectual spiritualists not literal simpletons if we expect to succeed in our mission.

The reason the Prophet called God Allah is because he was raised an Arab and that was the word his native tongue had to describe what we call in English God.

Hebrew predates Arabic and God revealed many scriptures to them. The known and agreed upon so called proper name for God to the Jews in Hebrew is Yahweh.

Why didn’t the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) call on Him by Yahweh. Ponder… Ahh!!! now you get it!

Salam bro Malik ,

Acording to all dictionaries i could find, the word God with a Capitol G cannot mean other than the genderless Supreme Creator of the universe. The word goddess with a lower case g falls under the anything that has been worshipped or deified which is known in the English lexicon as gods with a lower case g.

This is the same difference between Arabic the root word of الله which is إلاه.

Allah is only an English word because we insisted upon using it. If you look at the definition you see the redundance.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Allah?s=t&ld=1032
We have the same problem with other words like masjid too when you look them up.

well said!! subhanAllah – the brilliant points and counterpoints summarized in the Quran often do remind me of being far superior to any poetry slam