The grammatical analysis of the phrase "La ilaha illa Allah" and its meaning
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
One of the brothers would like to know the grammatical parsing of this word: does its meaning change if its diacritical marks are changed?
The Shaykh:
Yes.
The questioner:
One of the brothers wishes to know the grammatical analysis of this phrase; does its meaning change if its diacritics change?
The Shaykh:
"La ilaha illa Allah" means. The grammatical analysis of "La ilaha illa Allah" is clear. "La" is a negation particle, and "ilaha" is its subject, with the fathah in the position of a nominative subject, and its predicate is omitted, estimated to be "haqq" (truth) according to the most correct view, meaning "There is no true god." "Illa" is a particle of exception, and "Allah" is a substitute for "haqq." A substitute has no grammatical case of its own; the first is nominative, and this is nominative like it. This is the correct grammatical analysis. Some people said its meaning is "There is no existing god except Allah," but this is not correct, because there are idols existing other than Allah. The Bedouin has an existing god, and al-Husayn is an existing god for his followers, and the slave al-Bazi is an existing god for his followers, and so on. There are idols in India, and other than India, and in every place, and in China, and in the other lands, and in many places. Idols of clay are considered gods alongside Allah, but they are false. So, "There is no true god except Allah." As for the one who says "There is no existing god," that is an error. But if it were "There is no existing god by truth," the phrase would be correct. However, "There is no true god except Allah" encompasses the existing and the non-existing. There is no truth here at all, neither existing nor counted. There is no true god except Allah alone, Glorified and Exalted is He. There are no true idols that were found and then vanished. No, there is no true god except Allah alone, Glorified and Exalted is He. Yes.
One of the brothers would like to know the grammatical parsing of this word: does its meaning change if its diacritical marks are changed?
The Shaykh:
Yes.
The questioner:
One of the brothers wishes to know the grammatical analysis of this phrase; does its meaning change if its diacritics change?
The Shaykh:
"La ilaha illa Allah" means. The grammatical analysis of "La ilaha illa Allah" is clear. "La" is a negation particle, and "ilaha" is its subject, with the fathah in the position of a nominative subject, and its predicate is omitted, estimated to be "haqq" (truth) according to the most correct view, meaning "There is no true god." "Illa" is a particle of exception, and "Allah" is a substitute for "haqq." A substitute has no grammatical case of its own; the first is nominative, and this is nominative like it. This is the correct grammatical analysis. Some people said its meaning is "There is no existing god except Allah," but this is not correct, because there are idols existing other than Allah. The Bedouin has an existing god, and al-Husayn is an existing god for his followers, and the slave al-Bazi is an existing god for his followers, and so on. There are idols in India, and other than India, and in every place, and in China, and in the other lands, and in many places. Idols of clay are considered gods alongside Allah, but they are false. So, "There is no true god except Allah." As for the one who says "There is no existing god," that is an error. But if it were "There is no existing god by truth," the phrase would be correct. However, "There is no true god except Allah" encompasses the existing and the non-existing. There is no truth here at all, neither existing nor counted. There is no true god except Allah alone, Glorified and Exalted is He. There are no true idols that were found and then vanished. No, there is no true god except Allah alone, Glorified and Exalted is He. Yes.
Source
ندوات الجامع الكبير مع الأسئلة - 51 — archive.org (56:56)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.