阿拉一詞的地域變體曾出現在前伊斯蘭時代的基督教和其他宗教的碑文中[5][17]。關於阿拉在前伊斯蘭時代的多神教中的作用，人們提出了多種假說。一些學者認為，信奉多神論的阿拉伯人使用阿拉以指代造物主或是處於其宗教神系中的真神[18][19]。然而，此術語在當時的麥加宗教中可能是模糊的[18][20]。根據一種源自尤利烏斯·威爾豪森的假說，「阿拉」（古萊什附近部落聯盟的主神）是使胡巴勒（古萊什的主神）地位高於其他神祗的一種稱號[5]。然而，也有證據表明阿拉和胡巴勒是兩個不同的神[5]。據此假說，在克爾白里最初供奉的是一個名叫阿拉的主神，直到古萊什人佔領了麥加（約在伊斯蘭教先知默罕默德出生前一百年）後，才改為供奉古萊什人的諸神[5]。一些碑文似乎表明在古萊什人佔領麥加幾個世紀前，阿拉就已經被用作某個多神教神祗的名字，但目前我們對這種用法一無所知[5]。一些學者認為阿拉可能指一位遙遠的、將被其他更具體化的地方神逐漸取代的造物主[21][22]。但阿拉是否在麥加宗教崇拜中處於主要地位仍存在爭議[21][23]。目前還不清楚阿拉代表的標誌形象[23][24]。阿拉也是麥加諸神中唯一一個沒有偶像的神祗[25]。值得一提的是，默罕默德父親的名字是ʿAbd-Allāh（英語：Abd Allah ibn Abd al Muttalib），意為「阿拉的奴僕」[20]。
一些考古學家已經在約旦北部Umm el-Jimal的教堂遺址中發現了由前伊斯蘭時代的阿拉伯基督徒建造的碑文和墳墓；起初，據恩諾·利特曼（英語：Enno Littmann）在1949年表示，這些碑文援引阿拉作為上帝的本名。然而，經過貝拉米等人在1985年和1988年的第二次修訂後，銘文「阿拉」被重新翻譯為：「此碑文由ʿUlayh的同事、ʿUbaydah之子及Augusta Secunda Philadelphiana中的秘書所寫；願擦掉碑文的人發瘋」[29][30][31]。
在一些可能不經常使用詞彙「阿拉」以表示神的歐洲語言中仍會包含着含有本詞彙的流行表述。例如，受穆斯林長對伊比利亞半島長達數個世紀佔領的影響，西班牙語中的詞彙ojalá和葡萄牙語中的詞彙oxalá至今仍然存在。這兩個詞彙都源自阿拉伯語中的因沙拉（英語：inshalla）（阿拉伯語： إن شاء الله）[60][60]。
Lewis, Bernard; Holt, P. M.; Holt, Peter R.; Lambton, Ann Katherine Swynford. The Cambridge history of Islam. Cambridge, Eng: University Press. 1977: 32. ISBN 978-0-521-29135-4.
James Bellamy, "Two Pre-Islamic Arabic Inscriptions Revised: Jabal Ramm and Umm al-Jimal", Journal of the American Oriental Society, 108/3 (1988) pp. 372–378 (translation of the inscription) "This was set up by colleagues/friends of ʿUlayh, the son of ʿUbaydah, secretary/adviser of the cohort Augusta Secunda Philadelphiana; may he go mad/crazy who effaces it."
James of Edessa the hymns of Severus of Antioch and others." Ernest Walter Brooks (ed.), Patrologia Orientalis VII.5 (1911)., vol: 2, p. 613. : ܐܠܗܐ (Elaha).
Alfred Guillaume& Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, (2002 [1955]). The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Isḥāq's Sīrat Rasūl Allāh with Introduction and Notes. Karachi and New York: Oxford University Press, page 18.
Beatrice Gruendler, The Development of the Arabic Scripts: From the Nabatean Era to the First Islamic Century according to Dated Texts (1993), Atlanta: Scholars Press, Page:
Sidney H Griffith, "The Gospel in Arabic: An Enquiry into Its Appearance in the First Abbasid Century", Oriens Christianus, Volume 69, p. 166. "All one can say about the possibility of a pre-Islamic, Christian version of the Gospel in Arabic is that no sure sign of its actual existence has yet emerged..
Grafton, David D. The identity and witness of Arab pre-Islamic Arab Christianity: The Arabic language and the Bible. 2014. Christianity [...] did not penetrate into the lives of the Arabs primarily because the monks did not translate the Bible into the vernacular and inculcate Arab culture with biblical values and tradition. Trimingham's argument serves as an example of the Western Protestant assumptions outlined in the introduction of this article. It is clear that the earliest Arabic biblical texts can only be dated to the 9th century at the earliest, that is after the coming of Islam.
Sidney H. Griffith, The Bible in Arabic: The Scriptures of the 'People of the Book' in the Language of Islam. Jews, Christians and Muslims from the Ancient to the Modern World, Princeton University Press, 2013, pp242- 247 ff..
Hjälm, ML. Senses of Scripture, Treasures of Tradition, The Bible in Arabic among Jews, Christians and Muslims (Biblia Arabica) (English and Arabic Edition). Brill. 2017. ISBN 900434716X. By contrast, manuscripts containing translations of the gospels are encountered no earlier then the year 873 (Ms. Sinai. N.F. parch. 14 & 16)
Andreas Görke and Johanna Pink Tafsir and Islamic Intellectual History Exploring the Boundaries of a Genre Oxford University Press in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies London ISBN978-0-19-870206-1 p. 478
But compare:
Milkias, Paulos. Ge'ez Literature (Religious). Ethiopia. Africa in Focus. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. 2011: 299 [2018-02-15]. ISBN 9781598842579. （原始內容存檔於2020-11-12）. Monasticism played a key role in the Ethiopian literary movement. The Bible was translated during the time of the Nine Saints in the early sixth century [...].
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