Ilah

Ilah is that which the heart is bound by love. Meaning an object which the hearts are bound to with such; love, fear, hope, tawakkul, help, pray, sacrifice, votive, prostration and with all hidden types of ibadah. Ilah means ma’luh meaning mabud- the one who is worshipped. All linguistic scholars described the meaning of ilah in such manner

The Ulama of the tafsir, hadith and fiqh interpreted the word Ilah as mabud. But some people of kalam interpreted the term ilah just as the one who only is able to contrive and create; this is a great error and a huge mistake. Anyone, who thinks somewhat about it, will immediately understand that this is batil (reasoning). The individual, who maintains such a thing, seems that he does not have notion, of what Allah ta'ala says in His book about the Mushrikun and that the Arab Mushrikun were Mushrik, although they said that Allah ta'ala has power to invent and to create.

Abu Abbas, radhiAllahu anhumma, said: 'Ilah does not only mean that, the one who possesses to invent and to create.'

Ibn Faris (d. 395 H.) said: "The Hamza, Lam, and Haa (individual Arabic letters that make up the word “ilah”) is a root meaning “to worship”. Thus al-Ilah is Allah The Exalted, and He is called that because He is worshipped. And it is said: a man ta`allaha (is godly), if he devoted himself to worshipping." (Mu`jam Maqayis Al-Lugha by Ibn Faris 1/127)

Ilah is the One Who is obeyed and not disobeyed out of; His Haybat (majesty), Ijlaal, Muhabbah, Khawf, Rajaa, Tawakkul, asking from Him and directing Dua to Him. None is worthy of it but Allah Ta’ala. So whoever commits Shirk (associate partners) in anything by attributing any of the attributes that are peculiar to the Ilahiyyah (Lordship), he will have defiled his Ikhlaas (sincerity), in statement La-ilaha Illallah and will have invalidation in Tawhid. His worship to the creation is in accordance with ascribing these attributes (of al-Ilahiyyah) to them. All of these are among branches of Shirk.

The Ilah is the Ma’bud that is worshiped. It is Ilah with meaning of Ma’luh (who is taken as Ilah).

The Ilah is he to whom the hearts are inclined to out of; Muhabbah (love), Ijlaal (reverence), Inabah (penitence), Ikraam (honor), Tadhim (glorification), Khawf (fear), Rajaa (hope) and Tawakkul (trust).

The word al-Ilah "god" is a generic noun just like the word “man” or “horse (mare; mature female horse or other equine animal)”. It refers to anyone or anything that is Ma’bud (actually worshiped), regardless of it being worshiped in Haqq (truth, deserving) or Baatil (falsely, being unworthy of that). Later on it became triumphantly used for the Ma’bud (i.e. Allah Ta’ala) that is worshiped in Haqq (truth).

The Ilah, the one worshipped is Allah -Azza wa Jal-, then it (the word ilah) was borrowed by the polytheists for what they worshipped (of idols and other things) other than Allah The Exalted, because they believed that it deserved to be worshipped. (Al-Misbah Al-Muneer by Al-Fayyumi, the root “Alah”‌; Lisan Al-Arab by Ibn Mandhur , the root “Ilah”‌)