Idolatry

 

 

General Questions

 

Is it possible to believe that you are worshipping the true God when you are

actually worshipping a false god? Yes.

 

Do most religions have sacred books which claim that the God, gods or goddesses

revealed in their books are true? Yes.

 

Does merely claiming that you worship the true God prove that you are in fact

worshipping the true God? No.

 

Does the Qur'an claim that Allah is the true God? Yes.

 

Is it possible that the Qur'an could be in error and thus Allah is a false god?

Yes.

 

Is it possible that Islam derived the name  "Allah" from pre-Islamic sources?

Yes.

 

 

Specific Questions

 

Does the Qur'an define the word "Allah"? No.

 

Was the name "Allah" revealed for the first time in the Qur'an? No

 

Does the Qur'an assume that its readers have already heard of  "Allah"? Yes

 

Should we look into pre-Islamic Arabian history to see who "Allah" was before

Muhammad? Yes.

 

According to Mulism tradition, was Muhammad born into a Christian family and

tribe? No

 

Was he born into a Jewish family or tribe? No

 

What religion was his family and tribe? Pagans

 

What was the name of his pagan father? Abdullah (Abd + Allah)

 

Did Muhammad participate in the pagan ceremonies of Mecca? Yes

 

Did the Arabs in pre-Islamic times worship 360 gods? Yes

 

Did the pagans Arabs worship the sun, moon and the stars? Yes

 

 

         Yusuf Ali: pgs. 1619-1623 "The Forms of Pagan Worship."

It will be noticed that the sun and the moon and the five planets got

identified with a living deity, god or goddess, with the qualities of its

own.

Moon worship was equally popular in various forms...It may be noted that the

moon was a male divinity in ancient India; it was also a male divinity in

ancient Semitic religion, and the Arabic word for the moon (qamar) is of the

masculine gender. On the other hand, the Arabic word for the sun (shama) is

of the feminine gender. The pagan Arabs evidently looked upon the sun as a

goddess and the moon as a god.

If Wadd and Suwa represented Man and Woman, they might well represent the

astral worship of the moon and the sun...

The Pagan deities best known in the Ka'ba and round about Mecca were Lat,

Uzza and Manat...They were all female goddesses.

 

        In his explanation of why the Qur'an swears by the moon in Surah 74:32,

"Nay, verily by the Moon," Yusuf Alli comments, "The moon was worshipped as a

deity in times of darkness"(fn. 5798, pg. 1644).

 

Did the Arabs built temples to the Moon-god? Yes

 

Did different Arab tribes give the Moon-god different names/titles? Yes

 

What were some of the names/titles? Sin, Hubul, Ilumquh, Al-ilah.

 

Was the title "al-ilah" (the god) used of the Moon-god? Yes

 

Was the word "Allah" derived from "al-ilah?" Yes

 

Was the pagan "Allah" a high god in a pantheon of deities? Yes.

 

Was he worshipped at the Kabah? Yes.

 

Was Allah only one of many Meccan gods? Yes

 

Did they place a statue of Hubul on top of the Kabah? Yes.

 

At that time was Hubul considered the Moon-god? Yes.

 

Was the Kabah thus the "house of the Moon-god"? Yes.

 

Did the name "Allah" eventually replace that of Hubul as the name of the

Moon god? Yes.

 

Did they call the Kabah the "house of Allah"?

 

Did the pagans develop religious rites in connection with the worship of

their gods? Yes.

 

Did the pagans practice the Pilgrimage, the Fast of Ramadan, running around

the Kabah seven times, kissing the black stone, shaving the head, animal

sacrifices, running up and down two hills, throwing stones at the devil,

snorting water in and out the nose, praying several times a day toward Mecca,

giving alms, Friday prayers, etc.? Yes.

 

Did Muhammad command his followers to participate in these pagan ceremonies

while the pagans were still in control of Mecca? Yes (See Yusuf Ali, fn. 214,

pg. 78).

 

Did Islam go on to adopt these pagan religious rites? Yes.

 

                ...the whole of the [pagan] pilgrimage was

                spiritualized in Islam..."  (Yusuf Ali: fn. 223 pg. 80).

 

Were al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat called "the daughters of Allah"? Yes.

 

                Yusuf Ali explains in fn. 5096, pg. 1445, that Lat,

                Uzza and Manat were known as "the daughters of

                God [Allah]"

 

Did the Qur'an at one point tell Muslims to worship al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat?

Yes. In Surah 53:19-20.

 

Have those verses been "abrogated" out of the present Qur'an? Yes.

 

What were they called? "The Satanic Verses." Yes.

 

Was the crescent moon an ancient pagan symbol of the Moon-god throughout the

ancient world? Yes.

 

Was it the religious symbol of the Moon-god in Arabia? Yes

 

Were stars also used as pagan symbols of the daughers of Allah? Yes

 

Did the Jews or the Christians of Arabia use the crescent moon with several

stars next to it as symbols of their faith? No

 

Did Islam adopt the pagan crescent moon and stars as it religious symbol? Yes.

 

As Islam developed over the centuries, did it adopt pagan names, pagan

ceremonies, pagan temples and pagan symbols? Yes

 

Is it possible that most Muslims do not know the pagan sources of the

symbols and rites of their own religion? Yes.

 

Are they shocked to find out the true sources of their ceremonies and stories?

Yes

 

Can Islam be the religion of Abraham if it is derived from paganism? No

 

What then is Islam? A modern version of one of the ancient fertility cults.

 

Is the "Allah" of the Qur'an, the Christian God of Father, Son, and Holy

Spirit? No

 

Do the Jews say that the Muslim "Allah" is their God too? No

 

Then whose god is Allah? Paganism

 

Documentation

 

        The following citations reveal that there is a general consensus

among Islamic scholars that Allah was a pagan deity before Islam developed.

He was only one god among a pantheon of 360 gods worshipped by the Arabs.

Even if he was at times viewed as a "high god," this does not mean he was

the one true God.

 

 

The word Allah was derived from al-ilah which had become a generic title for

whatever god was considered the highest god. Each Arab tribe used Allah to

refer to its own particular high god. This is why Hubal, the Moon god, was

the central focus of prayer at the Kabah and people prayed to Hubal using

the name Allah

 

"Historians like Vaqqidi have said Allah was actually the chief of the 360 gods

being worshipped in Arabia at the time Mohammed rose to prominence. Ibn Al-Kalbi

gave 27 names of pre-Islamic deities...Interestingly, not many Muslims want to

accept that Allah was already being worshipped at the Ka'ba in Mecca by Arab

pagans before Mohammed came. Some Muslims become angry when they are confronted

with this fact. But history is not on their side. Pre-Islamic literature has

proved this." 

G. J. O. Moshay, Who Is This Allah?, (Dorchester House, Bucks, UK, 1994),

pg. 138.

 

 

"Islam also owes the term "Allah" to the heathen Arabs. We have evidence that

it entered into numerous personal names in Northern Arabia and among the

Nabatians. It occurred among the Arabs of later times, in theophorous names

and on its own."

Ibn Warraq, Why I Am Not A Muslim, (Prometheus, Amherst, 1995) p. 42.

 

 

"In any case it is extremely important fact that Muhammad did  not find it

necessary to introduce an altogether novel deity, but contented himself with

ridding the heathen Allah of his companions subjecting him to a kind of dogmatic

purification."

Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, I:664.

 

 

"The name Allah, as the Qur'an itself is witness, was well known in pre-Islamic

Arabia. Indeed, both it and its feminine form, Allat, are found not infrequently

among the theophorous names in inscriptions from North Africa."

Arthur Jeffrey, ed., Islam: Muhammad and His Religion (New York: The Liberal

Arts Press, 1958), p. 85.

 

 

"Allah" is a proper name, applicable only to their [Arabs'] peculiar God."

Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics,  I:326.

 

"Allah" is a pre-Islamic name. . ."

Encyclopedia of Religion, I:117.

 

"Allah is found. . .in Arabic inscriptions prior to Islam."

Encyclopedia Britannica, I:643.

 

"The Arabs, before the time of Muhammad, accepted and worshipped, after a

fashion, a supreme god called Allah."

Encyclopedia of Islam, eds. Houtsma,  Arnold, Basset, Hartman

(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1913), I:302

 

 

"Allah was known to the pre-Islamic Arabs; he was one of the Meccan deities."

Encyclopedia of Islam, ed. Gibb, I:406.

 

"Ilah. . .appears in pre-Islamic poetry. . .By frequency of usage, al-ilah

was contracted to allah, frequently attested to in pre-Islamic poetry."

Encyclopedia of Islam, eds. Lewis, Menage, Pellat, Schacht

(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1971), II:1093.

 

"The name Allah goes back before Muhammed."

The Facts on File: Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, ed. Anthony

Mercatante (New York, The Facts on File, 1983), I:41.

 

"The source of this (Allah) goes back to pre-Muslim times. Allah is not a

common name meaning "God" (or a "god"), and the Muslim must use another word

or form if he wishes to indicate any other than his own peculiar deity."

Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics (ed. Hastings), I:326.

 

"Allah was already known by name to the Arabs."

Henry Preserved Smith, The Bible and Islam: or, The Influence of the Old and

New Testament on the Religion of Mohammed (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,

1897), p. 102.

 

"The name Allah is also evident in archeological and literary remains of

pre-Islamic Arabia."

Kenneth Cragg, The Call of the Minaret (New York: Oxford University Press,

1956), p. 31.

 

 

"In recent years I have become increasingly convinced that for an adequate

understanding of the career of Muhammad and the sources of Islam great

importance must be attached to the existence in Mecca of belief in Allah as

a "high god."  In a sense this is a form of paganism, but it is so different

from paganism as commonly understood that it deserves separate treatment."

William Montgomery Watt, Muhammad's Mecca, p. vii.

 

"The use of the phrase "the Lord of this House" makes it likely that those

Meccans who believed in Allah as a high god - and they may have been numerous -

regarded the Ka'ba as his shrine, even though there were images of other gods

in it. There are stories in the Sira of pagan Meccans praying to Allah while

standing besides the image of Hubal."

William Montgomery Watt, Muhammad's Mecca, p. 39.

 

"The customs of heathenism have left an indelible mark on Islam, notably in

the rites of the pilgrimage (on which more will be said later), so that for

this reason alone something ought to be said about the chief characteristics

of Arabian paganism.

 

The relation of this name, which in Babylonia and Assyrian became a generic

term simply meaning 'god', to the Arabian Ilah familiar to us in the form

Allah, which is compounded of al, the definite article, and Ilah by eliding

the vowel 'i', is not clear. Some scholars trace the name to the South

Arabian Ilah, a title of the Moon god, but this is a matter of antiquarian

interest...it is clear from Nabataen and other inscriptions that Allah meant

'the god.'

 

The other gods mentioned in the Quran are all female deities: Al-Lat, al-Uzza,

and Manat, which represented the Sun, the planet Venus, and Fortune,

respectively; at Mecca they were regarded as the daughters of Allah...

As Allah meant 'the god', so Al-Lat means 'the goddess'."

Alfred Guilaume, Islam, (Penguin, 1956) pgs. 6-7

 

"As well as worshipping idols and spirits, found in animals, plants, rocks

and water, the ancient Arabs believed in several major gods and goddesses

whom they considered to hold supreme power over all things. The most famous

of these were Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, Manat and Hubal. The first three were thought

to be the daughters of Allah(God) and their intercessions on behalf of their

worshippers were therefore of great significance.

 

Hubal was associated with the Semitic god Ba'l and with Adonis or Tammuz,

the gods of spring, fertility, agriculture and plenty...Hubal's idol used

to stand by the holy well inside the Sacred House. It was made of red

sapphire but had a broken arm until the tribe of Quraysh, who considered him

one of their major gods, made him a replacement in solid gold.

 

In addition to the sun, moon and the star Al-Zuhara, the Arabs worshipped

the planets Saturn, Mercury, and Jupiter, the stars Sirius and Canopus and

the constellations of Orion, Ursa Major and Minor, and the seven Pleiades.

 

Some stars and planets were given human characters,. According to legend,

Al-Dabaran, one of the stars in the Hyades group, fell deeply in love with

Al-Thurayya, the fairest of the Pleiades stars. With the approval of the

Moon, he asked for her hand in marriage. "

 

Khairt al-Saeh, Fabled Cities, Princes & Jin from Arab Myths and Legends,

(New York: Schocken, 1985), p. 28-30. 

 

 

"Along with Allah, however; they worshipped a host of lesser gods and

"daughters of Allah.""

Encyclopedia of World Mythology and   Legend, I:61.

 

"It must not be assumed that since Moslems worship one God they are very

close to Christians in their faith. The important thing is not the belief

that God is One, but the conception that the believers have of God's

character. Satan also believes and trembles!  As Raymond Lull, the first

great missionary to Moslems, pointed out long ago, the greatest deficiency

in the Moslem religion is in its conception of God. ...For as we know,

Jehovah the God of the Bible, known both to Jews and Christians, is revealed

much differently than Allah, the god of Islam."

Howard F. Vos, Ed., Religions in a Changing World (Chicago, 1961), pp. 70,71.

 

"Allah was the name of a god whom the Arabs worshipped many centuries

before Muhammed was born."

The World Book Encyclopedia, (Chicago, 1955), Vol. 1, p. 230.

 

"But history establishes beyond the shadow of doubt that even the pagan

Arabs, before Mohammed's time, knew their chief god by the name of Allah

and even, in a sense, proclaimed his unity...Among the pagan Arabs this

term denoted the chief god of their pantheon, the Kaaba, with its three

hundred and sixty idols."

Samuel M. Zwemer, The Moslem Doctrine of God (New York, 1905), pp. 24-25.

 

"There is no corroborative evidence whatsoever for the Qu'ran's claim that

the Ka'aba was initially a house of monotheistic worship. Instead there

certainly is evidence as far back as history can trace the sources and

worship of the Ka'aba that it was thoroughly pagan and idolatrous in

content and emphasis."

Gilchrist, The Temple, The Ka'aba, and the Christ (Benoni, South Africa,

1980), p. 16.

 

 

"In pre-Islamic days, called the Days of Ignorance, the religious background

of the Arabs was pagan, and basically animistic. Through wells, trees, stones,

caves, springs, and other natural objects man could make contact with the

deity... At Mekka, Allah was the chief of the gods and the special deity of

the Quraish, the prophet's tribe.  Allah had three daughters: Al Uzzah

(Venus) most revered of all and pleased with human sacrifice; Manah, the

goddess of destiny, and Al Lat, the goddess of vegetable life.. Hubal and

more than 300 others made up the pantheon. The central shrine at Mekka was

the Kaaba, a cube like stone structure which still stands though many times

rebuilt. Imbedded in one corner is the black stone, probably a meteorite,

the kissing of which is now an essential part of the pilgrimage."

John Van Ess, Meet the Arab (New York, 1943, p. 29.

 

"...a people of Arabia, of the race of the Joktanites...the Alilai living

near the Red Sea in a district where gold is found; their name, children of

the moon, so called from the worship of the moon, or Alilat."

Gesenius Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures,

translated by Samuel Prideaux Tregelles (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1979), p. 367.

 

"That Islam was conceived in idolatry is shown by the fact that many rituals

performed in the name of Allah were connected with the pagan worship that

existed before Islam. And today, millions of Moslems pray towards Mecca,

where the famous revered black stone is located.

 

1. Before Islam Allah was reported to be know as:

--the supreme of a pantheon of gods.

--the name of a god whom the Arabs worshipped.

--the chief god of the pantheon.

--Ali-ilah, the god, the supreme.

--the all-powerful, all-knowing, and totally unknowable.

--the predeterminer of everyone's life) destiny).

--chief of the gods.

--the special deity of the Quraish.

--having three daughters: Al Uzzah (Venus), Manah (Destiny), and Alat.

--having the idol temple at Mecca under his name (House of Allah).

--the mate of Alat, the goddess of fate.

 

2. Because the Ka'aba, the sacred shrine which contains the Black Stone, in

Mecca was used for pagan idol worship before Islam and even called the House

of Allah at that time.

 

3. Because the rituals involved with the Islamic Pilgrimage are either

identical or very close to the pre-Islamic pagan idol worship at Mecca.

 

4. Because of other Arabian history which points to heathen worship of the

sun, moon, and the stars, as well as other gods, of which I believe Allah

was in some way connected to.

 

This then would prove to us that Allah is not the same as the true God of

the Bible whom we worship, because God never changes."

 

M. J. Afshari, Is Allah The Same God As The God Of The Bible?, pgs. 6, 8-9

 

"If a Muslim says, "Your God and our God is the same," either he does not

understand who Allah and Christ really are, or he intentionally glosses

over the deep-rooted differences."

Abd-Al Masih, Who Is Allah In Islam?, Villach, Austria, Light of Life, 1985,

p. 36.

 

"Sin.--The moon-god occupied the chief place in the astral triad.  Its other

two members, Shamash the sun and Ishtar the planet Venus, were his children. 

Thus it was, in effect, from the night that light had emerged....In his

physical aspect Sin--who was venerated at Ur under the name of Nannar--was

an old man with along beard the color of lapis-lazuli.  He normally wore a

turban.  Every evening he got into his barque--which to mortals appeared in

the form of a brilliant crescent moon--and navigated the vast spaces of the

nocturnal sky.  Some people, however, believed that the luminous crescent

was Sin's weapon.  But one day the crescent gave way to a disk which stood

out in the sky like a gleaming crown.  There could be no doubt that this

was the god's own crown; and then Sin was called "Lord of the Diadem". 

These successive and regular transformations lent Sin a certain mystery. 

For this reason he was considered to be 'He whose deep heart no god can

penetrate'...  Sin was also full of wisdom.  At the end of every month

the gods came to consult them and he made decisions for them...His wife

was Ningal, 'the great Lady'.  He was the father not only of Shamash and

Ishtar but also of a son Nusku, the god fire."

Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology,  (New York, 1960), pp. 54-56.

 

"Allah, the Supreme Being of the Mussulmans:

1. Before Islam. That the Arabs, before the time of Muhammed, accepted

and worshipped, after a fashion, a supreme god called Allah,--''the Ilah,

or the god, if the form is of genuine Arabic source; if of Aramaic, from

Alaha, "the god"--seems absolutely certain.  Whether he was an abstraction

or a development from some individual god, such as Hubal, need not here be

considered...But they also recognized and tended to worship more fervently

and directly other strictly subordinate gods...It is certain  that they

regarded particular deities (mentioned in 1iii. 19-20 are al-'Uzza, Manat

or Manah, al-Lat(?); some have interpreted vii, 179 as a reference to a

perversion of Allah to Allat) as daughters of Allah (vi. 100; xvi, 59; xxxvii,

149; 1iii, 21); they also asserted that he had sons (vi. 100)..."There was

no god save Allah".  This meant, for Muhammed and the Meccans, that of all

the gods whom they worshipped, Allah was the only real deity.  It took no

account of the nature of God in the abstract, only of the personal position

of Allah.

...ilah, the common noun from which Allah is probably derived..."

First Encyclopedia of Islam, E.J. Brill (New York, 1987), p. 302.

 

"Islam for its part ensured the survival of these pre-Islamic constituents,

endowed them with a universal significance, and provided them with a context

within which they have enjoyed a most remarkable longevity.  Some of these

significant constituents, nomadic and sedentary, the pre-Islamic roots which

have formed the persistent heritage, deserve to be noted and discussed...

The pre-Islamic Pilgrimage in its essential features survives, indeed is

built into the very structure of Islam as one of its Five Pillars of Faith."

 The Cambridge History of Islam, Vol. I, ed. P.M. Holt (Cambridge, 1970), p. 27

 

"The Quran (22.52/I) implies that on at least one occasion 'Satan had

interposed' something in the revelation Muhammad received, and this probably

refers to the incident to be described. The story is that, while Muhammad

was hoping for some accommodation with the great merchants, he received a

revelation mentioning the goddesses al-Lat, al-Uzza, and Manat (53.19),

20 as now found), but continuing with other two (or three) verses

sanctioning intercession to these deities. At some later date Muhammad

received a further revelation abrogating the latter verses, but retaining

the names of the goddesses, and saying it was unfair that God should have

only daughters while human beings had sons."

The Cambridge History of Islam, Vol. I, ed. P.M. Holt (Cambridge, 1970),

p. 37.

 

"This notation at times might be very simple, as can be illustrated by

such equations as the sun or winged sun for the sun-god (Sumerian, Utu;

Akkadian, Shamash), a crescent moon for the moon-god (Nanna/Sin), a star

for Inanna/Ishtar (the planet Venus), seven dots or small stars for the

constellation Pleiades (of which seven are readily visible, our "Seven

Sisters")..."

 Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, Vol. III, ed. Jack M. Sasson,

(New York), p. 1841.

 

"...the Ka'aba was dedicated to al-Llah, the High God of the pagan Arabs,

despite the presiding effigy of Hubal. By the beginning of the seventh

century, al-Llah had become more important than before in the religious

life many of the Arabs. Many primitive religions develop a belief in a

High God, who is sometimes called the Sky God...But they also carried on

worshipping the other gods, who remained deeply important to them."

Karen Armstrong, Muhammad, (New York: San Francisco, 1992) p. 69.

 

"The cult of a deity termed simply "the god" (al-ilah) was known throughout

southern Syria and northern Arabia in the days before Islam--Muhammad's

father was named 'Abd Allah ("Servant of Allah")--and was obviously of

central importance in Mecca, where the building called the Ka'bah was

indisputably his house.  Indeed, the Muslims shahadah attests to precisely

that point: the Quraysh, the paramount tribe of Mecca, were being called

on by Muhammad to repudiate the very existence of all the other gods save

this one.  It seems equally certain that Allah was not merely a god in

Mecca but was widely regarded as the "high god," the chief and head of

the Meccan pantheon, whether this was the result, as has been argued,

of a natural progression toward henotheism or of the growing influence

of Jews and Christians in the Arabian Peninsula...Thus Allah was neither

an unknown nor an unimportant deity to the Quraysh when Muhammad began

preaching his worship at Mecca."

The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, ed. John L. Esposito,

(New York, 1995), pp. 76-77.

 

"The religion of the Arabs, as well as their political life, was on a

thoroughly primitive level...In particular the Semites regarded trees,

caves, springs, and large stones as being inhabited by spirits; like

the Black Stone of Islam in a corner of the Ka'bah at Mecca, in Petra

and other places in Arabia stones were venerated also...Every tribe

worshipped its own god, but also recognized the power of other tribal

gods in their own sphere...Three goddesses in particular had elevated

themselves above the circle of the inferior demons.  The goddess of fate,

al-Manat, corresponding to the Tyche Soteira of the Greeks, though known

in Mecca, was worshipped chiefly among the neighboring Bedouin tribes of

the Hudhayl.  Allat--"the Goddess," who is Taif was called ar-Rabbah,

"the Lady," and whom Herodotus equates with Urania--corresponded to the

great mother of the gods, Astarte of the northern Semites; al-'Uzza,

"the Mightiest," worshipped in the planet Venus, was merely a variant

form... In addition to all these gods and goddesses the Arabs, like many

other primitive peoples, believed in a God who was creator of the world,

Allah, whom the Arabs did not, as has often been thought, owe to the

Jews and Christians...The more the significance of the cult declined,

the greater became the value of a general religious temper associated

with Allah.  Among the Meccans he was already coming to take the place

of the old moon-god Hubal as the lord of the Ka'bah...Allah was actually

the guardian of contracts, though at first these were still settled at

a special ritual locality and so subordinate to the supervision of an

idol.  In particular he was regarded as the guardian of the alien guest,

though consideration for him still lagged behind duty to one's kinsmen."

History of the Islamic Peoples, Carl Brockelmann, (New York), pp. 8-10.

 

"The Romans and Abyssinians were identified with Christianity.  Whole

tribes and districts held up the banner of Judaism and waged war in its

propagation.  The Persian power was the exponent of fire-worship; and

the Arabs in general were devoted to that native idolatry which had its

center in the national sanctuary of the Kaaba...The religion most widely

prevalent in Arabia, when Mohammed began life, was a species of heathenism

or idol-worship, which had its local center in Mecca and its temple...

According to a theory held by many, this temple had been sourceally

connected with the ancient worship of the sun, moon and stars, and its

circumambulation by the worshippers had a symbolical reference to the

rotation of the heavenly bodies.  Within its precincts and in its

neighborhood there were found many idols, such as Hobal, Lat, Ozza, Manah,

Wadd, Sawa, Yaghut, Nasr, Isaf, Naila, etc.  A black stone in the temple

wall was regarded with superstitious awe as eminently sacred...The attempt

of the Mussulmans to derive it direct from a stone altar or pillar,

erected by Abraham and his son Ishmael, in that identical locality, is

altogether unsupported by history, and, in fact, flagrantly contrary to

the Biblical record of the life of Abraham and his son.  The pagan

character of the temple is sufficiently marked by the statement of

Mohammedan writers that before its purification by their Prophet, it

contained no less than 360 idols, as many as there were days in their

year; and that on its walls were painted the figures of angels, prophets,

saints, including those of Abraham and Ishmael, and even of the Virgin

Mary with her infant Son...Mohammed, with great practical insight and

shrewdness, seized on this advantage and retained the heathen shrine of

his native city as the local center of Islam.  He sanctioned it by his

own example as a place of religious pilgrimage for all his followers.

 Mohammed and Mohammedanism, S.W. Koelle, (London, 1889), p. 17-19.

 

"According to D. Nielsen, the starting point of the religion of the Semitic

nomads was marked by the astral triad, Sun-Moon-Venus, the moon being more

important for the nomads and the sun more important for the settled tribes.

Studies on Islam, trans., ed. Merlin L. Swartz, (New York, Oxford, 1981),

p. 7.

 

"One detail which already impressed the Greek authors was the role played

by sacred stones,...The material object is not venerated for itself but

rather as the dwelling of either a person being (god, spirit) or a force."

Studies on Islam, ibid., p. 8.

 

"The final divinity to be considered is Allah who was recognized before

Islam as god, and if not as the only god at least as a supreme god.  The

Quran makes it quite clear that he was recognized at Mecca, though belief

in him was certainly more widespread..  How is this to be explained? 

Earlier scholars attributed the diffusion of this belief solely to

Christian and Judaic influences.  But now a growing number of authors

maintain that this idea had older roots in Arabia...If, therefore, Allah

is indigenous to Arabia, one must ask further: Are there indications of

a nomadic source?  I think there are, based on a comparison of the beliefs

of the nomads in central and northern Asia with those of northeastern

Africa.  Like the supreme being of many other nomads, Allah is a god of

the sky and dispenser of rain."

Studies on Islam, ibid., p. 12.

 

"The ibex (wa'al) still inhabits South Arabia and in Sabean times represented

the moon god.  Dr. Albert Jamme believes it was of religious significance to

the ancient Sabeans that the curved ibex horn held sideways resembled the

first quarter of the moon."

Wendell Phillips, Qataban and Sheba,  Exploring the Ancient Kingdoms on the

Biblical Spice Routes of Arabia (New York, 1955), p. 64.

 

"The first pre-Islamic inscription discovered in Dhofar Province, Oman, this

bronze plaque, deciphered by Dr. Albert Jamme, dates from about the second

century A.D. and gives the name of the Hadramaut moon good Sin and the name

Sumhuram, a long-lost city....The moon was the chief deity of all the early

South Arabian kingdoms--particularly fitting in that region where the soft

light of the moon brought the rest and cool winds of night as a relief

from the blinding sun and scorching heat of day. 

 

In contrast to most of the old religions with which we are familiar, the

moon god is male, while the sun god is his consort, a female.  The third

god of importance is their child, the male morning star, which we know as

the planet Venus...

 

The spice route riches brought them a standard of luxurious living

inconceivable to the poverty-stricken South Arabian Bedouins of today. 

Like nearly all Semitic peoples they worshipped the moon, the sun, and the

morning star.  The chief god, the moon, was a male deity symbolized by the

bull, and we found many carved bulls' heads, with drains for the blood of

sacrificed animals."

Qataban and Sheba, Wendell Phillips,  (New York), p. 227.

 

"Arabia in Muhammad's time was polytheistic in its conception of the cosmos

and tribal in its social structure.  Each tribe had its own god(s) and

goddess(es), which were manifest in the forms of idols, stones, trees, or

stars in the sky."

Islamic Studies, A History of Religions Approach, 2nd Ed., Richard C. Martin,

(New Jersey), p. 96.

 

"The verses of the Qur'an make it clear that the very name Allah existed

in the Jahiliyya or pre-Islamic Arabia.  Certain pagan tribes believed in

a god whom they called 'Allah' and whom they believed to be the creator of

heaven and earth and holder of the highest rank in the hierarchy of the

gods.  It is well known that the Quraish as well as other tribes believed

in Allah, whom they designated as the 'Lord of the House' (i.e., of the

Ka'ba)...It is therefore clear that the Qur'anic conception of Allah is

not entirely new."

A Guide to the Contents of the Qur'an, Faruq Sherif, (Reading, 1995),

pgs. 21-22.

 

"II. The Religion of the Pre-Islamic Arabs

 

The life of the pre-Islamic Arabs, especially in the Hijaz depended on trade

and they made a trade of their religion as well.  About four hundred years

before the birth of Muhammad one Amr bin Lahyo bin Harath bin Amr ul-Qais

bin Thalaba bin Azd bin Khalan bin Babalyun bin Saba, a descendant of

Qahtan and king of Hijaz, had put an idol called Habal on the roof of

the Kaba.  This was one of the chief deities of the Quraish before Islam. 

It is said that there were altogether three hundred and sixty idols in

and about the Kaba and that each tribes had its own deity...The shapes

and figures of the idols were also made according to the fancy of the

worshippers.  Thus Wadd was shaped like a man, Naila like a woman, so

was Suwa. Yaghuth was made in the shape of lion, Yauq like a horse and

Nasr like a vulture..Besides Hodal, there was another idol called Shams

placed on the roof of the Kaba...The blood of the sacrificial animals

brought by the pilgrims was offered to the deities in the Kaba and

sometimes even human beings were sacrificed and offered to the god...

Besides idol-worship, they also worshipped the stars, the sun and the

moon."

Muhammad The Holy Prophet, Hafiz Ghulam Sarwar (Pakistan), p. 18-19.

 

"The Beduin do not seem to have had much time for religion.  They were

realists, without a great deal of imagination.  They believed the land

was peopled by spirits, the jinns, who were often invisible but appeared

also in animal form.  The dead were thought to live on in a dim and

ghostly state.  Offerings were made to them and stelae and cairns of

stones erected on their graves.  Certain trees and stones (especially

meteorites and those shaped to resemble human forms) housed spirits and

divinities.  Divinities dwelt in the sky and some were actually stars. 

Some were thought to be ancient sages made divine.  The list of these

divine beings, and above all the importance with which was regarded,

varied from one tribe to the next; but the chief of them were to be

found all over the peninsula.  This was especially true of Allah, 'the

God, the Divinity', the personification of the divine world in its

highest form, creator of the universe and keeper of sworn oaths.  In

the Hejaz three goddesses had price of place as the 'daughters of Allah'.

The first of these was Allat, mentioned by Herodotus under the name of

Alilat.  Her name means simply 'the goddess', and she may have stood for

one aspect of Venus, the morning star, although hellenized Arabs

identified her with Athene.  Next came Uzza, 'the all-powerful'; whom

other sources identify with Venus.  The third was Manat, the goddess of

fate, who held the shears which cut the thread of life and who was

worshipped in a shrine on the sea-shore.  The great god of Mecca was

Hubal, an idol made of red cornelian...Homage was paid to the divinity

with offerings and the sacrifice of animals and perhaps, occasionally,

of human beings.  Certain sanctuaries were the object of pilgrimage (hajj)

at which a variety of rituals were performed, consisting notably of

ceremonial processions around the sacred object.  Certain prohibitions

had to be observed during these rituals, such as in many cases abstention

from sexual relations.  Magic was common. People feared the evil eye

and protected themselves with amulets."

Mohammed, Maxime Rodinson, (New York), pgs. 16-17.

 

"These and many other verses show clearly that the existence of a god

called Allah and even his highest position among the divinities was

known and acknowledged in Jahiliyyah, but He was, after all, but one

of the gods. ..Was the Koranic concept of Allah a continuation of the

pre-Islamic one, or did the former represent a complete break with the

latter?  Were there some essential--not accidental--ties between the

two concepts signified by one and the same name?  Or was it a simple

matter of a common word used for two different objects?

In order to be able to give a satisfactory answer to these initial

questions, we will do well to remember the fact that, when the Koran

began to use this name, there immediately arose serious debates among

the Arabs of Mecca.  The Koranic usage of the word provoked stormy

discussions over the nature of this God between the Muslims and the

Kafirs, as is most eloquently attested by the Koran itself.

 

What does this mean from the semantical point of view?  What are the

implications of the fact that the name of Allah was not only known to

both parties but was actually used by both parties in their discussion

with each other?  The very fact that the name of Allah was common to

both the pagan Arabs and the Muslims, particularly the fact that it

gave rise to much heated discussion about the concept of God, would

seem to suggest conclusively that there was some common ground of

understanding between the two parties.  Otherwise there could have

been neither debate nor discussion at all.  And when the Prophet

addressed his adversaries in the name of Allah, he did so simply and

solely because he knew that this name meant something--and something

important--to their minds too.  If this were not so, his activity would

have been quite pointless in this respect.

As regards the 'basic' meaning of Allah, ... In pre-Islamic times each

tribe, as a rule, had its own local god or divinity known by a proper

name.  So, at first, each tribe may have meant its own local divinity

when it used an expression equivalent in meaning to "the God"; this is

quite probable.  But the very fact that people began to designate their

own local divinity by the abstract form of "the God" must have paved

the way for the growth of an abstract notion of God without any

localizing qualification and then, following this, for a belief in the

supreme God common to all the tribes.  We meet with similar instances

all over the world.