The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (135 page)

see
MA‘R
F AL-KARKH
.

 
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al-Kursi
(the footstool/throne of God)
:

see
KURS
;
THRONE OF GOD
.

 
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All
h
.

Arab. for God: if from earlier Semitic languages (e.g. Aram.,
al
h
), perhaps
the
God (Arab.
al
= ‘the’). Before the birth of
Mu
ammad
, Allah was known as a supreme, but not the sole, God. Mu
ammad became aware, early in his life, of conflict between religions and of contest, therefore, between ‘gods’. From his experience in the cave on Mount
ir
’ (with possible influence from
an
fs
), Mu
ammad saw that if God is God, it is God that God must be: there cannot be division of God into separate or competing beings. From this absolute realization of
taw
d
(oneness of God), the whole of Islam is derived—as indeed is the whole of the created order. Hence the fundamental mark of
isl
m
(allegiance to God) is the
shah
da
,
l
il
ha ill
All
h