Signs from the Torah: Allah as the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. **Quran 3:62 "Indeed, this is the true narration. And there is no deity except Allah. And indeed, Allah is the Exalted in Might, the Wise."** Hebrew is read from right to left, so if you tried to read "forward" that way, it'd be like "drawrof." Hebrew names such as: * Abba אבא, * Adam אדם, * Aharon אהרון, * Aleksander אלכסנדר, * Alter אלטר, * Arial אריא-ל, * Aryeh ארי'ה, * Asher אשר, * Avraham אברהם, * Avigdor אביגדור, * Avner אבנר, * Ahavah אהבה, * **and the name for the Creator of the heavens and the earth found in Genesis 1:1** all start with the Hebrew letter Aleph (א). Now, writing Hebrew words in English letters is called transliteration, and it's not an exact science. Different people spell things differently, which is why the Jewish festival of lights (חנוכה) can be written as Chanukkah, Hannukah, Hanukkah, and so on. Take note of the spelling of these Hebrew words: * challah (חלה), * Chanukkah (חנוכה), and * Chavvah (חוה). They begin with the letter Chet, which is the 8th letter and sounds like "ch" or "h." **If you take the word challah (חלה) and swap the first letter (Chet) with Aleph, you get "Allah (אלה)."** Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning Allahim (אלהים) created the heavens and the earth." In Hebrew, making a masculine word plural usually means adding "-im (ים)" at the end. For example: * shevet (tribe) -> Shevetim (שבטים, tribes), * Achim (אחים, brothers), * Etzim (עצים, trees), * benim (בנים, sons), * Ketuvim (כתובים, writings), * Nevi'im (נביאים, prophets), * Devarim (דְּבָרִים, words). **Deuteronomy 6:4: Hear, O Yisra'el (יִשׂרָאֵל): Yähwè (יָהוֶה) our Allahim (אלהים) is one Yähwè (יָהוֶה).** In the Torah scrolls, at Deuteronomy 6:4, it reads Allaheinu (אלהינו) without the nikkud (those little pronunciation marks). Hebrew adds suffixes to show possession. "Our" is a first person plural possessive, like "our sky, our ocean, our planet." Allaheinu (אלהינו) has the suffix (ינו) that means both plural and "our." **My understanding of Deuteronomy 6:4 is that the name in Genesis 1:1 should be the singular "Allah (אלה)," not the plural "Allahim (אלהים)" (see Quran 4:46).** **"Allah (אלה)" is used directly for the Creator of the heavens and the earth in these verses:** * Ezra 4:24; * Ezra 5:1, 2, 2, 5, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17; * Ezra 6:3, 5, 5, 7, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18; * Ezra 7:12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 19, 20, 21, 23, 23, 24, 25, 25, 26; * Daniel 2:18, 19, 20, 23, 28, 37, 44, 45, 47, 47; * Daniel 3:15, 17, 25, 26, 28, 28, 28, 29, 29; * Daniel 4:2, 8; 5:3, 18, 21, 23, 26; * Daniel 6:5, 7, 10, 11, 12, 16, 20, 20, 22, 23, 26, 26. According to the Hebrew Bible, Ezra was a descendant of Seraiah (Ezra 7:1), the last high priest in the first temple, and a relative of Joshua, the first high priest of the second temple. He came back from exile in Babylon and brought the Torah back to Jerusalem (Ezra 7–10 and Nehemiah 8). In some traditions, like 1 Esdras used in Eastern Orthodoxy, he was also a high priest. **My understanding: my Lord and your Lord is Allah (Allah אלה), the One Who created the heavens and the earth (Quran 7:54).** Jazakallahu khairan for reading.