Many scholars I know trace the word "Allah" back to "ilah", meaning god. Al-ilah, The God, the One God, the One God whom we all know in our hearts. Some scholars insist that the word Allah is a proper noun, and not derived from other names. But here is the other meaning I read about, which touched my heart. May it touch yours as well: A few scholars come up with a different etymology for Allah: Walah, bewilderment. They say that when the human being comes before God, God's majesty bewilders the human intellect, and we're left dazzled and bewildered. Some of these books attribute that opinion to Qurtubi and others. I am not so invested in the debates over etymology, but over the various interpretation and meanings that the seekers detect in this beautiful name. One of the aspects I love about researching is to find minority opinions that seem to open a beautiful door you didn't know was there.











