Divine Name Hu

 بِسۡمِ اللّٰہِ الرَّحۡمٰنِ الرَّحِیۡمِ

In the Name of Allah, the Rahman, the Merciful

All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds

Peace and benedictions upon you, my Master, Apostle of Allah

وَاِلٰـہُکُمۡ اِلٰہٌ وَّاحِدٌ ۚ لَاۤ اِلٰہَ اِلَّا ہُوَ الرَّحۡمٰنُ الرَّحِیۡمُ

And your God is One God. There is no god except HU, the Rahman, the Merciful

(Surah 2, Ayah 163)

Some people question why the Tetragrammaton (YHWH) is not explicitly mentioned in the Holy Quran, whereas it is the Name of God that frequently occurs in the Bible. This is perhaps due to the holiness and sanctity of the Name, which should not be so casually spoken as it may lead to sacrilege. That the Muslims should be safe from desecrating the Name may explain why Allah did not state it plainly in the Holy Quran. Hence, the Third Commandment in the Bible is:

לֹ֥א תִשָּׂ֛א אֶת־שֵֽׁם־יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ לַשָּׁ֑וְא כִּ֣י לֹ֤א יְנַקֶּה֙ יְהוָ֔ה אֵ֛ת אֲשֶׁר־יִשָּׂ֥א אֶת־שְׁמֹ֖ו לַשָּֽׁוְא

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain

(Exodus 20:7, KJV)

The Septuagint, a Koine Greek rendering of the Bible by Alexandrian Jews in the 3^rd and 2^nd centuries BCE, uses the word Kyrios (Lord) for the Tetragrammaton rather than transliterating the Name. For this reason, the King James and most other versions of the Bible also have Lord in place of the actual Name. The Jews till this day do not pronounce the Name, but instead say Adonai (my Lord) or Ha Shem (the Name), in strictly keeping with the Third Commandment. It was not until William Tyndale, a sixteenth century Protestant reformer, that the the Tetragrammaton was translated to the proper noun Jehovah. Jehovah, of course, is not the Name since it is only a possible Anglicization whereas the original Hebrew does not have the letter J. The Jehovah’s Witness movement has popularized the proper noun Jehovah, while more recently other Christian sects and movements are popularizing another possible pronunciation of the Name which I won’t write here to avoid possible sacrilege. This is not to say that Islam is completely unaware of the Name, as some have ignorantly alleged. In Islam we have the tradition of the Ism al-A’zam (the Greatest Name) from the Holy Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم who did not plainly reveal what it is but hinted at it. An orientalist scholar, James Alan Montgomery (1866-1949), made a link between the Name and the pronoun Hu (He): “Evidently the pronoun is an avoidance of the Name, but is practically identical with it. In addition are to be noted the names in which the pronoun replaces the Name, Abihu, ‘My Father is He,’ Elihu, ‘My God is He’...The earliest form of the Name was doubtless Yahu...The Muslim theologians should be further explored for this divine ‘He’ in the absolute...I must admit that every time I attended a dervish dhikr and heard the circle round the hall respond to the chant with which the shaykh opened the ceremony, with the chorus Allah Hu, the O.T. name came to my mind. As the ceremony progresses, the members of the inner circle entwine their arms, bend toward each other and gradually raise their voices, repeating without interruption Ya-Allah or Ya-hu, Ya-hu, Ya-hu to the point of autointoxication...As a result, it appears that the Name is not based on the non-Hebrew verb ‘to be,’ or ‘to befall,’ but upon the pronoun...The Name then means, ‘He is He,’ an early theologumenon, but at the basis of all theology.” (The Hebrew Divine Name and the Personal Pronoun Hu, Journal of Biblical Literature, v.63, no.2, Jun. 1944, pp.161-163)

Apparently, the Sufis are acquainted with the reality of the Ism al-A’zam or the Great Name, and chant it repeatedly with passion in an environment of holiness which leads to an ecstatic state. Such sessions of Dhikr among the Sufis replicates the experience of the ancient Israelite Prophets prophesying in the Name of Yahu.