阿拉一词的地域变体曾出现在前伊斯兰时代的基督教和其他宗教的碑文中[5][17]。关于阿拉在前伊斯兰时代的多神教中的作用，人们提出了多种假说。一些学者认为，信奉多神论的阿拉伯人使用阿拉以指代造物主或是处于其宗教神系中的真神[18][19]。然而，此术语在当时的麦加宗教中可能是模糊的[18][20]。根据一种源自尤利乌斯·威尔豪森的假说，“阿拉”（古莱什附近部落联盟的主神）是使胡巴勒（古莱什的主神）地位高于其他神祗的一种称号[5]。然而，也有证据表明阿拉和胡巴勒是两个不同的神[5]。据此假说，在克尔白里最初供奉的是一个名叫阿拉的主神，直到古莱什人占领了麦加（约在伊斯兰教先知默罕默德出生前一百年）后，才改为供奉古莱什人的诸神[5]。一些碑文似乎表明在古莱什人占领麦加几个世纪前，阿拉就已经被用作某个多神教神祗的名字，但目前我们对这种用法一无所知[5]。一些学者认为阿拉可能指一位遥远的、将被其他更具体化的地方神逐渐取代的造物主[21][22]。但阿拉是否在麦加宗教崇拜中处于主要地位仍存在争议[21][23]。目前还不清楚阿拉代表的标志形象[23][24]。阿拉也是麦加诸神中唯一一个没有偶像的神祗[25]。值得一提的是，默罕默德父亲的名字是ʿAbd-Allāh（英语：Abd Allah ibn Abd al Muttalib），意为“阿拉的奴仆”[20]。
一些考古学家已经在约旦北部Umm el-Jimal的教堂遗址中发现了由前伊斯兰时代的阿拉伯基督徒建造的碑文和坟墓；起初，据恩诺·利特曼（英语：Enno Littmann）在1949年表示，这些碑文援引阿拉作为上帝的本名。然而，经过贝拉米等人在1985年和1988年的第二次修订后，铭文“阿拉”被重新翻译为：“此碑文由ʿUlayh的同事、ʿUbaydah之子及Augusta Secunda Philadelphiana中的秘书所写；愿擦掉碑文的人发疯”[29][30][31]。
在一些可能不经常使用词汇“阿拉”以表示神的欧洲语言中仍会包含着含有本词汇的流行表述。例如，受穆斯林长对伊比利亚半岛长达数个世纪占领的影响，西班牙语中的词汇ojalá和葡萄牙语中的词汇oxalá至今仍然存在。这两个词汇都源自阿拉伯语中的因沙拉（英语：inshalla）（阿拉伯语： 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. （原始内容存档于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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