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Is The "Allah" of the Qur'an the true universal
God?
Dr. Robert Morey
© 1996 Research and Education Foundation
Introduction
The art of asking questions is the very soul and
substance of all scholarship and research. Asking questions
is the only way to find out the Truth about any religion
including Islam. We must always remember that Truth is never
afraid of the spotlight of investigation.
In order to find an answer to the topic of our dialogue,
we must be willing to ask some very hard questions. We must
probe deeply into the sources of Islam. We must be willing
to let history and science answer our questions instead of
blindly following the dictates of dogmatism.
The Qur'an and Questions
We recognize that this will be especially hard for Muslims
because they are forbidden by the Qur'an to ask questions
about their own faith! They are warned that if they start
asking questions, they may lose their faith in Islam!
O ye who believe! Ask not questions about
things
which if made plain to you, may cause you trouble.
Some people before you did ask such questions, and on
that account lost their faith." (Surah
5:101-102).
In his famous commentary on the Qur'an, Maududi warns
Muslims not to probe too deeply into Islam.
The Holy Prophet himself forbade people to ask
questions ...so do not try to probe into such things.
The Meaning of the Qur'an, Maududi, vol. III, pgs.
76-77.
The questions were not the problem. The answers "made
plain" caused people to lose their faith in Islam. Whenever
people tell you not to ask questions because if you find the
answers you will lose faith in them, they are trying to hide
something.
Bukhari's Hadith tells us how Muhammad responded to those
who asked him questions:
The prophet was asked about things which he did
not
like, and when the questioner insisted, the Prophet
got angry. (vol. 1, no. 92)
The Prophet got angry and his cheeks or his face
became red. (vol. 1, no. 91)
"Allah has hated you...[for] asking too many
questions."
(vol. 2, no. 555; and vol. 3, no. 591)
We must ask ourselves, "What kind of god is Allah who
hates people for asking questions? This is not like the God
of the Bible who encourages us to seek, to ask, and to
knock! Why is Muhammad pictured as hating those who asked
him questions? Why were people warned not to ask any
questions? What is Islam trying to hide? Is Islam so weak
that merely asking questions threaten to destroy it? Do
Muslims assume that blind faith is the way to Islam?"
The Freedom To Question
Thankfully, we live in a wonderful country where we are
free to ask all the questions we want. We are free to probe
deeply into the sources of Islam, its god and its religious
ceremonies until we find the answer. Indeed, any Muslim who
fails to ask questions about the sources of the Qur'an and
Islam will be guilty of blind fanaticism and gross
ignorance. He should remember that if his religion is true,
then there is nothing to fear from asking questions.
The Infidel's Challenge
According to the Qur'an, the infidels of Muhammad's day
rejected the Qur'an because it was composed of old stories
and myths.
But the unbelievers say, "This is nothing but a
lie
which he has forged, and other have helped him do it
...Tales of the ancients, which he has caused to be
written; and they are dictated before him morning
and evening." (Surah 25:4-5)
The accusation is quite clear: The Qur'an is not a
"revelation" brought down out of heaven to Muhammad but it
is a forgery composed of previously existing stories. The
sources of the material found in the Qur'an was the main
point of their accusation.
The Qur'an's Response
How did the authors of the Qur'an handle this accusation?
Surprisingly, all they did was attack the character of those
who made the accusation and then simply repeat that the
Qur'an was brought down from heaven.
In truth, it is they who have put forward an
iniquity
and a falsehood. (Surah 25:4)
Say: "The Qur'an was sent down by Him who knows
the mystery that is in the heavens." (Surah 25:6)
In his commentary, Yusuf Ali states,
3058 In their misguided arrogance they say, "We
have heard such things before: they are pretty tales
which have come down from ancient times: they are
good for amusement, but who takes them
seriously?"
3059 The answer is that the Qur'an teaches
spiritual
knowledge of what is ordinarily hidden from men's
sight, and such knowledge can only come from God
to Whom alone is known the Mystery of the whole
Creation.
The question of the sources of the Qur'an is crucial to
whether Islam is true or false. Why? The famous Muslim
commentator Maududi explains,
Apparently this is a weighty argument. For there
can be no
greater proof of the "fraud" of Prophethood than to specify
its
source. But it looks strange that no argument has been put
forward
to
refute this charge except a mere denial, as if to say,
"Your
charge is an impudent lie: you are cruel and unjust to bring
such a
false charge against Our Messenger; for the Qur'an is the
Word of Allah
Who knows all the secrets in the heavens and the earth.
The Meaning of the Qur'an, Maududi, vol. III, pgs.
178-179.
The question of whether Islam derived its beliefs and
ceremonies from heaven or from earth is crucial. If it
obtained its god, its rites, and its doctrines from
pre-existing pagan religions, then the claim that it was
"brought down from heaven" falls to the ground.
Foundational Principles
1. We can all agree on this common ground: the Qur'an is
literature.
2. Our interpretation of the Qur'an is subject to the
same rules of analysis and exegesis that govern the
interpretation of any other piece of literature: grammar,
syntax, literary context, historical context, and cultural
context.
3. One literary rule is that when a book refers to things
without explaining them to the readers, the author is
assuming that these things are so well known that no
explanation is needed.
4. The Qur'an refers to gods, people, places, and things
which are nowhere explained or defined within the Qur'an
itself.
5. The authors of the Qur'an assumed that everyone
already knew of these things and thus no explanation was
needed.
6. There are many passages in the Qur'an which would be
unintelligible if we did not go outside of the Qur'an to the
historical and cultural context of pre-Islamic Arabia. Such
surahs as "The Blind Man" (80), "The Elephant" (105), etc.
are unintelligible if recourse is not made to historical
sources.
7. All scholars use pre-Islamic history to explain the
contents of the Qur'an.
8. What kind of literature is the Qur'an? Is it rational
discourse or historical narative? Is a book of songs or
poems? What is it? The authors of the Qur'an tell us that it
is primarily composed of "pretty stories." Indeed, if we
removed all the "pretty stories" from the text of the
Qur'an, it would be reduced to a few pages of threats and
warnings.
We relate to you the most pretty
stories in what we reveal to you
in this Qur'an. (Surah (12:3)
9. From where did these "stories"originate? Were they
"brought down" from heaven or were they derived from old
myths and legends?
Many scholars are agreed that the stories found in the
Qur'an were derived from the legends and myths of Arabs,
Jews, Persians, and Christians. In other words, they did not
come from heaven but from earth. Their source is not Allah
but human story tellers. This is why many scholars view the
Qur'an as a fanciful book of ancient tales.
This will not come as a surprise to anyone who actually
reads the Qur'an. It is primarily composed of old fables and
myths which convolute the names, dates, events, and places
of biblical and secular history into incoherent fantasies.
Such fantastic stories as the youths in the cave, the she
camel, the monkey people and the night journey are only
faint garbled reflections of the original tales.
Example: Yusuf Ali's translation and commentary on the
Qur'an is well known and accepted all over the world. In his
comments on the text, he traces the stories of the Qur'an
back to the original Arab, Jewish, Persian or Christian
legends from which they were derived. He does not deny the
earthly sources of the Qur'an. Instead, he documents
them!
If the Qur'an is a confused and jumbled record of ancient
"stories" drawn from the various nations conquered by the
Arabs, this becomes the most serious threat to Islam's claim
of divine revelation. Maududi was right. Once we identify
the sources of the Qur'an, it is no longer a revelation.
Yusuf Ali's Translation and Commentary
Surah verse source of story
2 60 Jewish and Arab legends
65 Jewish legends
125 Arab legends
158 Arab legends
189 Arab legends
194 Arab legends
196 Arab legends
197 Arab legends
198 Arab legends
200 Arab legends
259 Jewish legend
3 49 Christian legend
7 65 Arab legends
73 Arab legends
85 Arab legends
11 59 Arab legends
18 9 Christian legend
110 Persian source
74 32 Arab legends
10. It is thus proper and appropriate to apply the
question of sources to the god of Islam. Did Islam derive
its god from revelation or from previously existing
sources?
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 goddessesrevealed 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 eities...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, rnold, 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 known 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.
...Before the name [Allah] came into Islam, it
had already long been part of the pre-Islamic system, and a
considerably important part, too...the pagan concept of
Allah, which is purely Arabian--the case in which we see the
pre-Islamic Arabs themselves talking about "Allah" as they
understand the word in their own peculiar way."
God and Man in the Koran, Toshihiko Izutsu, (Tokyo,
1964), pp. 95-99, 103-104.
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