Ilah

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ʾilāh^[1] is the Arabic for "deity" or "god". The plural is "ʾilāha‎." It is cognate to Northwest Semitic ’ēl and Akkadian ilu. The word is from a Proto-Semitic archaic biliteral ʾ-l meaning "god" (possibly with a wider meaning of "strong"), which was extended to a regular triliteral by the addition of a h (as in Hebrew Eloah). The word is spelled either إله with an optional diacritic alif to mark the ā (as is the case with Allah), or (more rarely) with a full alif, إلاه .

The feminine is ʾilāhah إلاﻫﺔ "goddess", with the article, al-ʾilāhah اﻻﻻﻫﺔ according to Lane's 1893 Lexicon referring to "the great serpent" in particular, "because it was a special object of the worship of some of the ancient Arabs".

In Islamic context, an ilah is the concept of a deity and does not necessarily refer to the monotheistic God (Allah), but can also refer to polytheistic deities (the worship of which is considered shirk). The term is used throughout the Qur'an in passages detailing the existence of Allah as the only ilah, and of the beliefs of non-Muslims in other ilah(s). Notably, the first statement of the Shahadah is, "there is no ilah but Allah", which may be rendered as "no deity to be worshiped but God" or "there is no true God to be worshipped but Allah" .