Abrahamic religions--a misnomer

The general public refers to Abrahamic religions and means Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and apparently sometimes even Baha'i. This is nonsense on stilts.

Islam cannot trace its origins to Abraham and neither can the smaller Baha'i. Abraham knew nothing about these two man-made religions and monotheism is not a common denominator in any example. Any attempt to construct genealogies showing Muhammad to be a descendant of Ishmael except in a general sense fails for lack of evidence. Ishmael did not accept Judaism, was expelled from Israel, and therefore is not an heir of Abraham. Baha'i, a little over a century old, is like Islam in a lack of a connection.

Personally, I think the idea that Islam is an Abrahamic religion should be dismissed as a misleading term. As Milton noted, Allah is just another name for Satan.

 

Right, Muhammad had no direct genealogy to show his exact relationship to Abraham some 2,500 years later.

It is clear that the Allah of Islam is not the same as Jesus or the same as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It may be unfortunate that the man you mention speaks Arabic as his native language to the extent that Allah in Arab history would refer to some idol. But if by Allah one means the god of Islam, then the Christian can agree that Allah is just another name for Satan. Sounds like the Arabic language is limited, doesn't it? I have heard that Palestinian Christians also are trapped by the shortcomings of the Arab language.

 

Thanks! Although I had read about Arab Christians who call God The Father as Allah, I never realized that Allah had spread into African languages. I am hoping that someone will find another word to clarify that people are not referring to the god of Islam.

Yes, English has heavily borrowed from languages all over the world. I have read that we have a half million words in English, making it the largest language.

I recently saw a tv show confirming that languages do not all have a common ancestor--as I was taught years ago--but there are at least 20 or more families of languages with no relationship to each other. The tv lecturer also noted that languages tend to go downhill, losing their complexity and innovation except for borrowing. This confirms the fact that God confounded human language at the Tower of Babel. I posted a summary of the written statement of the tv show on the Baptist Board under the title "Language confounded at Tower of Babel":

http://www.baptistboard.com/showthread.php?t=85363&highlight=tower+babel

Best wishes!