How should we correct that!!?? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYqcCwNkpUo&feature=related

Also a Jewish person one day told me: “If you think that in day of judgment the whole universe and earth will explode and only the sky will remain for heaven, you need to think it again – is it necessarily that heaven will be in the sky?

All praise be to Allah and may His blessings and peace be on His last messenger, Muhammad,

I would first like to advise you that you should not expose yourselves to misconceptions unless you have the knowledge required to repel and refute them, and then you will do it for that cause. It is not prudent to go to the battlefield unarmed and unshielded.

Then, as for the second question, the Jewish person you spoke with has no knowledge of the Day of Judgment, Paradise or Hellfire, or the world of unseen all together. He thinks within his limited scope, and judges the acts of God according to his own observations and thoughts. God is the creator of the universe and the laws that govern it, so it is only expected that those laws (His creation) will not control, bind or limit Him (the Creator). One thousand years ago, human beings would have not been able to imagine that someone would walk on the moon one day. They would have never imagined what the internet does nowadays, and there may be much more to happen. All of this is the work of man, so what about the work of his creator?

Heaven is not in the sky that you think of, but it is a pinnacle elevated, and it is ranks, one above the other, with the highest being under the throne of the Most Merciful. Between the ranks of some of its dwellers and others would be a distance like that between us and the far planets.

As for the first concern, which is about the names of Angels ending with el, and using this as a proof that the God of the Bible “el” is the real god, not “Allah”, here is the answer:

Firstly, not all angels end with “el” as that individual aimed to make you feel. The following are Biblical names of angels: Malachim, Seraphim, Malach HaMavet, HaSatan, Chayot HaKodesh, Ophanim, HaMerkavah.

Secondly, if the angels were called after the name of God, then that name must have been a description or name, and if it is a name, then God may have one or more names, and if it is only one that he has, then the Christians will say that Yahweh, not El would be the more specific personal name for Him, and thus that should have been used in the names of the angels. El is described by them as a generic name of God.

In the Bible, the name Elohim (im being plural of respect here) is mentioned, and according to the Britannica, it is a common noun, meaning “god” and the Britannica also claims that the Jews used it “to demonstrate the universal sovereignty of Israel’s God over all others.” ["Yahweh." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 25 Feb. 2010 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/651183/Yahweh>.]

The word “Elohim” after removing the “im”, which is the plural of respect, would be “Eloh” which is very close to Elah in Arabic, which means god.

Here is what Wikipedia says about El: ʾĒl is the Northwest Semitic word for “deity”, cognate to Arabic ʾilāh and Akkadian ilum.

Also, according to Wikipedia, “The word El was found at the top of a list of gods as the Ancient of Gods or the Father of all Gods, in the ruins of the Royal Library of the Ebla civilization, in the archaeological site of Tell Mardikh in Syria dated to 2300 BC.” This means before Abraham.

Therefore, its presence as a suffix, in the names of some angels, not all, wouldn’t be a proof for Christianity over Islam. In fact, it was Muslims who continued to use the Elah, and the name Abul-Elah is not uncommon amongst us Muslims.

Now, it is us who should say that the word “Allah” is derived from Elah after you add the definite article Al (The) to it, and remove the “e” as customarily done in Arabic for ease of pronunciation. Then, who is committed to the name of God? Where do you see Christians venerating “Eloh”, the Biblical version, which should be inferior in accuracy to the Quranic version for the following simple reasons:

Hebrew, as a spoken language today, has been revived by the Jews of the nineteenth century, who felt that a unifying language must be sought to allow for the unification of the Israelites after centuries of diasporas.

This effort was not perfect, and according to many scholars, including Zuckermann, the revivalists could not avoid the Ashkenazi mindset arising from their European background. He added that “Had the language revivalists been Arabic-speaking Jews, Israeli Hebrew would have been a totally different language – both genetically and typologically, much more Semitic.” [Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2006), p. 63.]

In contrast, Arabic has been uninterruptedly spoken by millions of people since the revelation of the Quran. Of note here that the word “Allah” has been used before the Quran was revealed by the Arabs irrespective of their religious belonging. That, in and of itself, is another answer to the debater. The Arabic Bibles from before Islam, and to date still have the word “Allah”.

As for the sources of both claims, namely the Quran and Bible, there is probably no doubt amongst credible historians, whether or not they believe in the divine origin of either book, that the Quran was better preserved than the Bible.

Sir William Muir (Orientalist) said the following in reference to the Quran: “There is, probably in the world, no other book, which has remained twelve centuries with so pure a text.”

You will find the following statement about the authenticity of the Bible in the preface of the RSV, “The King James Version has with good reason been termed the Noblest Monument of English prose…[y]et the King James Version has grave defects, by the middle of the nineteenth century, the development of Biblical studies and discovery of many manuscripts more ancient than those upon which the KJV was based made it manifest that these defects are so many and so serious as to call for revision of the English translation.”

So, for centuries, those most ancient manuscripts were not accessible to the Christians, but how ancient are the most ancient? They still don’t have any complete manuscript that was written within one century from Jesus’ rise.

Having said all that, you as a Muslim should know that the name of God is Allah, because that is what is confirmed by Him in the Quran, the last testament, and purest and only preserved one, that is miraculous in all aspects, literary, historical, legislative, scientific, sociological, etc. and that was conveyed to us by the most perfect of humans, Muhammad (blessings and peace be upon him).