Allahumma

Allāhumma (Arabic: ٱللَّٰهُمَّ) is an arabic term of address for Allah, in Islam. The word is not Arabic, but is one of the words that was Arabized from a foreign language. Ibn Ashur, in his explanation of Sūrat ʾĀl ʿImrān, suggests that the word Allāhumma is of Hebrew or of Qaḥṭāni derivation.^[1] It is possible, as Margoliouth notes that it is the Heb. word Elohim which had become known to the Arabs through their contacts with Jewish tribes.^[2]

Elohim (Hebrew: אֱלֹהִים, romanized: ʾĔlōhīm [(ʔ)eloˈ(h)im]) is a Hebrew word meaning "gods" or "godhood". Although the word is plural (eg.majestic plural) in form, in the Hebrew Bible it most often takes singular verbal or pronominal agreement and refers to a single deity, particularly but not always the God of Judaism. In other verses it takes plural agreement and refers to gods in the plural.

It is translated as "O Allāh" and is seen as the equivalent of "Yā Allāh". Some grammarians (such as Sibawayh) argue that it is an abbreviation of يا ألله أمّنا بخير (yā ʾallāhu ʾummanā bi-khayr)^[3] (with the meaning of "O God, lead us in goodness");^[4] others have argued without explanation that the suffix ـ مَّ (-mma) takes the place of yā (O).^[5]

Christian usage

Hafs ibn Albar, a 9th-10th—century Christian Visigothic author in Al-Andalus, translated the Biblical Psalms into Arabic. Rather than using the standard word for God, "Allah", he used Lahumma or Allahumma inspired by the Hebrew word Elohim.^[6]

See also

• List of Islamic terms in Arabic
• Dua Allahumma kun li-waliyyik
• Elohim

References

1. tafsīr of ibn ʿĀshūr quran.ksu.edu.sa (in Arabic)
2. https://archive.org/details/foreignvocabular030753mbp/page/n83/mode/2up?q=allahumma
3. ʿImād Zakī al-Bārūdī, ʾAsmāʾ allāh al-ḥusnā: dirāsa taṭbīqīya wa naẓarīya. Cairo (1999): al-Maktaba at-tawfiqiya. (page 106)(Arabic)
4. "Al M'ani, entry for 'أمّ'". Retrieved 2014-11-04.
5. Sibawayh et al islamweb.net (in Arabic)
6. Schippers, Arie "Hafs al-Quti's Psalms in Arabic rajaz metre (9th Century): a Discussion of Translations from Three Psalms (ps. 50, 1 and 2)." Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 86 (1998), page 139.