Islam

Islam is a monotheistic religion based on the teachings of Muhammad, a 7th century Arab political and religious figure. The word "Islam" means "submission." The followers of Islam are called Muslims, or Moslems. Muslims follow the teaching of Muhammad, whom they believe to be God's last and greatest prophet. The faith teaches that the Angel Gabriel appeared to him.

Muslims believe that God (Allah, in Arabic) revealed the Qur'an to Muhammad, and despite his illiteracy, caused him to transcribe it . The Qur'an is considered to be the pure and holy word of Allah. Like Christianity, and Judaism, Islam originated in the Middle East. Islam claims to trace its roots back to Abraham. Muslims do not believe that Muhammad was the founder of Islam, rather that he restored the original faith of Abraham and the prophets, which had been corrupted and/or misinterpreted over time. Based upon this belief, the Bible, Old and New Testament, is believed to have become corrupted as well.

Islam is the second largest religion in the world, with over 1.4 billion followers, the number of Muslims is rapidly growing, mainly due to high birth rates in Muslim countries. Both Christian and Muslim sources agree that conversions to Christianity outnumber those to Islam.

Mecca, the Islamic holy city.

Five Pillars of Islam

• Shahadah (Profession of Faith) -The Shahadah is the Muslim profession of faith. 'aÅ¡hadu 'al-lā ilāha illā-llāhu wa 'aÅ¡hadu 'anna muħammadan rasÅ«lu-llāh, a loose English translation reads "There is none worthy of worship except the Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah" This testament can be seen as the foundation of all of the other tenets of Islam.

• Salat (Ritual Prayer) -All Muslims are required to Pray to Allah five times each day while facing Mecca.

• Zakat (Charity) Able Muslims must donate to the poor based on the wealth one has accumulated. In current usage it is interpreted as 2.5% of the value of most valuables and savings held for a full lunar year.

• Sawm (Fasting) All able-bodied Muslims (children, the elderly, and the ill are exempt) must fast during daylight hours during the daylight hours of the entire month of Ramadan. According to Muslims, this purifies the body and soul. Some Muslim sects allow military, police and emergency services personnel to receive an exemption from fasting from an imam, on the grounds that their work supports the community or national good.

• Hajj (Pilgrimage) All able-bodied Muslims must make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lives.

Pages from the Qur'an, the holy book of the Islamic religion.

Islam and Christianity

While Muslims do not believe Jesus to be the Son of God or in the resurrection, they consider him to be one of God's most important prophets. However, the Qur'an warns against worshiping Jesus, for fear of idolatry.

The Qur'an states that Christians will be punished, though the nature of the punishment is not specified:

"Surely, disbelievers are those who said: "Allah is the third of the three (in a Trinity)." But there is no god but One, Allah. And if they cease not from what they say, verily, a painful torment will befall the disbelievers among them.

Will they not repent to Allah and ask His Forgiveness? For Allah is OftForgiving, Most Merciful.

The Messiah , son of Mary, was no more than a Messenger; many were the Messengers that passed away before him. His mother was a Siddiqah (i.e. she believed in the words of God and His Books ). They both used to eat food (as any other human eat). Look how We make the signs clear to them, yet look how they are deluded away (from the truth)."

Qur'an 5:73-75

However, Islam does recognize Christians and Jews as "people of the book" since both refer to one God only, and recognize Abraham (Ibrahim in Arabic) as a founding prophet.

Islam and Paganism

Allah: The Pre-Islamic Origins of  “Allah” 
                     
    Recognized scholars from all over the world have examined the archeological and historical evidence in Arabia both before and during the seventh century in order to discover the historical origins of the god Allah.  They examined rock inscriptions, coins, temple writings, etc. to document the origins of the word “Allah” and to discover what it meant at that time.  

Notice that we emphasized that we are looking at the historical record to see what “Allah” meant in pre-Islamic Arabia. We are not interested in what people today believe the word means. Modern beliefs are irrelevant when it comes to historical answers.

    The following scholars have concluded that “Allah” was originally the Arabian  moon god. That  Muhammad transformed it into the one true god of Islam is logically irrelevant.   
        	  
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"Allah: Originally applied to the moon; he seems to be preceded by Ilmaqah, the moon god...” “Allat: the female counterpart to Allah." Dictionary of Non-Classical Mythology, p. 7

"Allah: Before the birth of Muhammad, Allah was known as a supreme, but not sole, God." Oxford Dictionary of World Religions, p. 48

“The god Il or Ilah was originally a phase of the Moon God.” Carleton S. Coon, Southern Arabia, (Washington, D.C. Smithsonian, 1944) p.399

“Allâh, the paramount deity of pagan Arabia, was the target of worship in varying degrees of intensity from the southernmost tip of Arabia to the Mediterranean. To the Babylonians he was "Il" (god); to the Canaanites, and later the Israelites, he was "El'; the South Arabians worshipped him as "Ilah," and the Bedouins as "al-Ilah" (the deity). With Muhammad he becomes Allâh, God of the Worlds, of all believers, the one and only who admits no associates or consorts in the worship of Him. Judaic and Christian concepts of God abetted the transformation of Allâh from a pagan deity to the God of all monotheists. There is no reason, therefore, to accept the idea that "Allah" passed to the Muslims from Christians and Jews. (Farah p. 28).

"Before Islam, the religions of the Arabic world involved the worship of many spirits, called jinn. Allah was but one of many gods worshiped in Mecca. But then Muhammad taught the worship of Allah as the only God, whom he identified as the same God worshiped by Christians and Jews." A Short History of Philosophy, (Oxford University Press) p. 130

“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 Nabateans. 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 an 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 and Ethics, 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

"Allah: Perceived in pre-Islamic times as the creator of the earth and water, though not, at that time, considered monotheistically... Allat: Astral and tutelary goddess. Pre-Islamic... One of three daughters of Allah." Encyclopedia of Gods, p. 11

"Manat: Goddess. Pre-Islamic... One of the so-called daughters of Allah." Encyclopedia of Gods, p. 156

"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 beside 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 Assyria 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 mater 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’al 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 or 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 Canopies and the constellations of Orion, Urea Major and Minor, and the seven Pleiades. Some stars and planets were given human characters. According to legend, Al-Doberman, one of the stars in the Hades group, fell deeply in love with Al-Thruways, the fairest of the Pleiades stars. With the approval of the Moon, he asked for her hand in marriage.” Chair al-Sash, Fabled Cities, Princes & Jin From Arab Myths and Legends, (New York: Chicken, 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 in 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, know 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 Qur’an’s claim that the Ka’aba was initially a house of monotheist 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.” John 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, 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, MI, 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. 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). --the chief of the gods. --the special deity of the Quraish. --having three daughters: Al Uzzah (Venus), Manah …Because the rituals involved with the Islamic Pilgrimage are either identical or very close to the pre-Islamic pagan idol worship at Mecca. 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?, pp. 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.” Adb-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 a long 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 in 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 Istar but also of a son Nusku, the god of fire.” Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology, (New York, 1960), pp. 54-56.

“Allah, the Supreme Being of the Mussulmans: 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-‘Ussa, 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; liii. 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 (22.51/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, or ‘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 attest 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 there 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 kinsman.” 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 the 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 his life, was a species of heathenism of 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 was regarded with superstitious awe as eminently sacred…The attempt of the Mussulmans to derive it direct from a stone alter 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 of the 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.” Qataban and Sheba: Exploring the Ancient Kingdoms on the Biblical Spice Routes of Arabia, Wendell Phillips, (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 god 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: Exploring the Ancient Kingdoms on the Biblical Spice Routes of Arabia, ibid. 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.

“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 tribe 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 a 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 sacrifical 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 Bedouin 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 line on in a dim and ghostly state. Offerings were made to them and steales 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 each 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 Athena. 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, Maxine Robinson, (New York), pp. 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 understood the word in their own peculiar way.” God and Man in the Koran, Toshihiko Izutsu, (Tokyo, 1964), pp. 95-99, 103-104.

Conclusion

    What shall we say in the light of this overwhelming evidence? 

1. In Pre-Islamic times, “Allah” was used by pagan Arabs in reference to one of 360 gods worshipped at a pagan temple in Mecca called the Kabah.

2. This “Allah” may have been a high god or even the top deity among the gods but he was not viewed in the monotheistic sense as the only true deity.

3. Many scholars trace this “Allah” back to Il and Ilah and from there to the Moon-God.

4. This “Allah” was the Moon-god who was married to the Sun goddess and their children were called the “daughters of Allah.” These are the historical and archeological facts as we know it.

Dr. Robert Morey, B.A., M.Div., D.D., Ph.D., D.Min,

Sharia

Sharia is the body of Islamic law. The term means "way" or "path"; it is the legal framework within which public and some private aspects of life are regulated for those living in a legal system based on Muslim principles of jurisprudence. It is not actually part of the canonical Qur'an; that is to say, it is not believed to be the direct word of Allah by Muslims, but rather the interpretation of it.

Sharia deals with many aspects of day-to-day life, including politics, economics, banking, business law, contract law, sexuality, and social issues. Some Islamic scholars accept Sharia as the body of precedent and legal theory established before the 19th century, while other scholars view Sharia as a changing body, and include Islamic legal theory from the contemporary period.^{[Citation Needed]}

Ex-Muslims

Michelle Malkin highlights a group of Ex-Muslims hoping to change the terms of debate about Islam in Europe. Maryam Namazie, the head of the British group said "Too many things in the media and government policies have been geared to pandering to the political Islamic movements and Islamic organizations."

External links

• Islam and Christianity - excellent article comparing and contrasting the two