V. Pagan Origins of Islam



Issue of Continuity: "Whenever someone tells them: 'Believe in what God has sent down;' they say: 'We believe [only] in what has been sent down to us,' while they disbelieve in what has come after that, even though it is the Truth confirming what they already have." (Qur'an 2:87 )

• Muslims claim that Allah is the same God of the Bible, and the message of the Koran is consistent with that of the Bible.
• Therefore, their claim for converting Jews or Christians to Islam rests on this issue, otherwise if their deity is a different 'god' with a different message, their claims are refuted.

Who is Allah? 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. (Dr. Robert Morey; <A href="http://www.cultbusters.com/allah.htm">http://www.cultbusters.com/allah.htm)

"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.

• The worship of the Moon-god "Suen" (also called Nanna or Asimbabbaar) was the most wide-spread religion in the Middle East (Hall, Mark. 1985, A Study of the Sumerian Moon-god, Nanna/Suen; University of PA)
• The symbol of this Moon-god was the crescent moon, and was constantly found on ancient pottery or artifacts of worship. Islam adopted the crescent moon as its religious symbol.
• In Mesopotamia the word "Suen" was transformed into the word "Sin" by the Sumerians as their favorite name for the Moon-god by the Sumerians (Austin Potts, 1971, The Hymns and Prayers To The Moon-god, Sin, Dropsie College, p. 2)
• The Old Testament rebuked the worship of the Moon-god (Deut. 4:19; 17:3; II Kings 21:3,5 etc.) because it often caused Israel to commit idolatry.
• While the name of the Moon-god was "Sin," his title was "al-ilah" meaning "the deity." "Ilah" is a generic Arabic word for "god" or "deity."
• "The god Il or Ilah was originally a phase of the Moon God." (Coon, Carleton S.; 1944. Southern Arabia, Washington D.C.: Smithsonian, p. 398)
• The pre-Islamic Arabs shortened 'al-ilah' to Allah. They used 'Allah' in the names of their children. For instance, Muhammed's father and uncle had Allah as part of their names.
• "Similarly, under Muhammed's tutelage, the relatively anonymous Ilah, became Al-Ilah, The God, or Allah, the Supreme Being." (Coon, p. 399)
• Mohammed never defined "Allah" in the Qur'an because he assumed that the pagan Arabs already knew who Allah was.
• Mohammed rejected all the deities of Ancient Arab such as Ilah's wives and daughters. But he kept the black stone which represented Allah.

Arabic Pagan Worship

• Islam's origins and practices have been tracked back by scholars to the ancient fertility religion of the moon god of Arabia.

"The moon god was worshipped by praying toward Mecca several times a day, making an annual pilgrimage to the Kabah which was a temple of the moon god, running around the Kabah seven times, caressing an idol of a black stone set in the wall of the Kabah, running between two hills, making animal sacrifices, gathering on Fridays for prayers, giving alms to the poor, etc. These were pagan rites practiced by the Arabs long before Mohammed was born." (Dr. Robert Morey; http://www.cultbusters.com/aorigin.htm)

"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." (Yusuf Ali: pgs. 1619-1623)

• 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)
• Muhammad commanded his followers to participate in these pagan ceremonies while the pagans were still in control of Mecca. (See Yusuf Ali, fn. 214, pg. 78.)
• Islam went on to adopt these pagan religious rites.

"...the whole of the [pagan] pilgrimage was spiritualized in Islam..." (Yusuf Ali: fn. 223 pg. 80)

• Al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat called "the daughters of Allah". Yusuf Ali explains in fn. 5096, pg. 1445, that Lat, Uzza and Manat were known as "the daughters of God [Allah]".
• The stars were used as pagan symbols of the daughters of Allah.
• The Qur'an at one point told Muslims to worship al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat in Surah 53:19-20.
• Those verses have been "abrogated" out of the present Qur'an. They were called "The Satanic Verses."
• The Arab tribes gave the Moon-god different titles: Sin, Hubul, Ilumquh, Al-ilah.
• The title "al-ilah" (the god) was used for the Moon-god.
• The word "Allah" was derived from "al-ilah."
• The pagan "Allah" was a high god in a pantheon of 360 deities worshipped at the Kabah.
• Allah was only one of many Meccan gods in the Kabah.
• The Muslims placed a statue of Hubul on top of the Kabah, at that time Hubul was considered the Moon-god by the Arabs.
• The Kabah was the "house of the Moon-god" and the name "Allah" eventually replaced that of Hubul as the name of the Moon god.
• They called the Kabah the "house of 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'bah 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)

Source: http://www.leaderu.com/wri/articles/islam-singh.html

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Greetings, LT,

The actual origination of this rumor lies with Dr. Robert Morey, a rather dishonest scoundrel hiding under the cloak of "Christian apologetics." But don't worry--he's no more accurate or honest when it comes to his treatment of Wicca and Neo-Paganism than he is his treatement of Islam.

From Wikipedia:

Allah (Arabic allāhu الله) is traditionally used by Muslims as the Arabic word for "God" (not "God's personal name", but the equivalent of the Hebrew word El as opposed to YHWH). The word Allah is not specific to Islam; Arab Christians and Arab Jews also use it to refer to the monotheist deity. Arabic translations of the Bible also employ it, as do the catholics of Malta who pronounce it as "Alla" in Maltese, a language derived from and most closely related to Arabic.

Justin

No counter of the data in the portion of that article? Just something that says "No it means what we originally said it does and all of this further historical investigation is mistaken, even though I have nothing to show that it isn't, except a denial."

Originally posted by LovingTheist

No counter of the data in the portion of that article? Just something that says "No it means what we originally said it does and all of this further historical investigation is mistaken, even though I have nothing to show that it isn't, except a denial."

And you have nothing to show that it is, other than an assertion.

BTW: I am not a Muslim. I just believe that this is a not something good to base an argument on. I reccomend you read Abraham Rihabany's The Syrian Christ. Rihbany was a Syrian Christian and in the book he describes the Christian's of his villiage referring to God as "Allah" because that is simply the Arabic word for God.

In my opinion Al-Lat (a variant of this name corresponds to Ishvar) was originally a pagan Moon deity, which was sanitized as Allah by Muhammad, but still retains it's essential characteristics, save it's polytheistic component. (That's why Islam still keeps the crescent moon and star symbol, for example). In my opinion,there are sufficient grounds for making a prima facie case.

By the same token however, infact by stronger evidentiary proof, the doctrine of the trinity, which makes Jesus God, is also pagan, polytheistic and unbiblical.

Please note that an eminent scholar, Dr. Oak, postulates Allah is Ishva(or Shiva) of the Sumerians/Dravidians. -- there are many remarkable similarities betwen Shiva and Allah, not the least of which is the crescent moon symbol. But that's another topic.


I fear therefore trinitarians(Catholics and many Protestants) are being hypocritical.

best,

Since there are not that many Muslims on Tweb, I will play the devil's advocate.

Originally posted by LovingTheist

Who is Allah? 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.

And for the same reasons that Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews refer to the God of Abraham as "Allah".

Originally posted by LovingTheist

The pre-Islamic Arabs shortened 'al-ilah' to Allah. They used 'Allah' in the names of their children. For instance, Muhammed's father and uncle had Allah as part of their names.

True, the same is said of the cultures of Jews and Christians "i.e: "Yochan/John" = "Grace of God"

Originally posted by LovingTheist

• Islam's origins and practices have been tracked back by scholars to the ancient fertility religion of the moon god of Arabia.

"The moon god was worshipped by praying toward Mecca several times a day, making an annual pilgrimage to the Kabah which was a temple of the moon god, running around the Kabah seven times, caressing an idol of a black stone set in the wall of the Kabah, running between two hills, making animal sacrifices, gathering on Fridays for prayers, giving alms to the poor, etc. These were pagan rites practiced by the Arabs long before Mohammed was born." (Dr. Robert Morey; http://www.cultbusters.com/aorigin.htm)

Dr Morey is a doctor of what?

Originally posted by LovingTheist

"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.

...

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...

I thought it was the other way around, the sun being male and the moon female.

Originally posted by LovingTheist

• 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)

Middle eastern men swear by thier beards. Do they worship facial hair?

Originally posted by LovingTheist

• Al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat called "the daughters of Allah". Yusuf Ali explains in fn. 5096, pg. 1445, that Lat, Uzza and Manat were known as "the daughters of God [Allah]".
• The stars were used as pagan symbols of the daughters of Allah.
• The Qur'an at one point told Muslims to worship al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat in Surah 53:19-20.
• Those verses have been "abrogated" out of the present Qur'an. They were called "The Satanic Verses."

Can you show evidence of this?

Originally posted by LovingTheist

• The Arab tribes gave the Moon-god different titles: Sin, Hubul, Ilumquh, Al-ilah.
• The title "al-ilah" (the god) was used for the Moon-god.
• The word "Allah" was derived from "al-ilah."
• The pagan "Allah" was a high god in a pantheon of 360 deities worshipped at the Kabah.

In the ANE, both people and dieties were given multiple names. (I.e: Jacob/Israel, El-Shaddai/<tetragammaton>).

Originally posted by LovingTheist

"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'bah 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)


Source: http://www.leaderu.com/wri/articles/islam-singh.html

I haven't encountered any Muslims that have a problem with Allah being worshipped pre-Muhammad. Arabs are descendants of Abraham after all, so most likely that within Arabic culture Abraham's Elohist tradition over time became corrupted by paganism.

Bullhonk. There are plenty of other errors with Islam, but the fact is that allah is simply the arabic equivalent of "god". It's probably dervied from the hebrew elo_ah. Or it could be from the hebrew elokim, as many words in hebrew that naturally have an im ending in hebrew seem to drop that ending in arabic.

allah has always been the translation of elokim into arabic.

If we're going to critique the Muslims, let's do it right. Let's tear apart their proof-texts, like I did with their Shir HaShirim proof-text on my website.

Originally posted by Yoshiyahu

Bullhonk. There are plenty of other errors with Islam, but the fact is that allah is simply the arabic equivalent of "god". It's probably dervied from the hebrew elo_ah. Or it could be from the hebrew elokim, as many words in hebrew that naturally have an im ending in hebrew seem to drop that ending in arabic.

allah has always been the translation of elokim into arabic.

If we're going to critique the Muslims, let's do it right. Let's tear apart their proof-texts, like I did with their Shir HaShirim proof-text on my website.

That's what I've been saying all along. Finally, someone with common sense.

Right then. I went and dug up an old conversation with another of our resident Moon-god theorists. Here's the main salient points for you.

-------------
1. In southern Arabia, including Qatab and Saba, the god Wabb was the recognized moon-diety. There is massive epigraphical evidence of this point, and the following. In the northern sections of Arabia, including Mecca, Jawf, Sin, and Petra, "Allah" (i.e. "The God") was used as the titular name of the sun-diety. In neither region of Arabia was "Allah" the moon-god - yet this is the claim you have repeatedly staked. How do you explain this?

2. In the northern parts of Arabia, it is also a well-established fact that the moon-god of pre-Islamic culture was not a moon-god, but a moon-goddess; i.e. the total inversion of the masculinized sun-god. For modern Islam's Allah to be the moon-god of pre-Islamic northern Arabia (i.e. Mecca), a divine sex-change would be mandatory. Can you explain this?

3a. In Aramaic, the terminology for God is "elah." Who do we remember who spoke Aramaic? And referred to God a lot? Oh, now I remember - it was your god. It is not an coincidence that the Aramaic word for God is so similar to the Arabic word, Crusader. Was Jesus of Nazareth referring to the "moon-god," as you claim?

3b. When your Christ referred to elah, was he simply referring to the "moon-god" of Islam, in cognate terminological format? If elah, i.e. Allah, is nothing more than a moon-god, then what were Ezra and Daniel worshipping?

3c. Arabic Christians, Arabic-translated Bibles, and Arabic Christian mythology all call their God "Allah." They have done so since they first emerged in Arabic civilization. Are all Arabic-speaking Christians, then, committing idolatry?

4. When you refer to your "archeological evidence," what exactly is that evidence? I assume you are referring to the Statue at Hazor, which Morey decided was an idol of "Allah," the "moon-god." Stefan Wimmer, of the University of Murich, would like to point out a few things:

i: The statue which Morey claims is an idolatrous image of the moon-god is a figure kneeling, with arms outstretched - designed with the inscription of a holy symbol on a necklace, and an offering cup in the right hand. What gods do you know who's image is in a state of supplication to itself? The statue is a depiction a shaven-pate, robed priest offering supplication to his god - it is much akin to remembering warriors through statuary representations of their greatest deeds.

ii: The aforementioned statue was located in the leftward fringes of the temple - rather than the central or elevated positions reserved for images of divinity. This is not the location for a revered idol, but the location of a pretty decoration - and if you know anything about pre-Islamic polytheism, it was never considered wise to offend any diety - much less the Sun-God's counterpart. In the organization of the temple at Hazor, the central stelae are smooth, phallic - common representations of the "undescribable." The outermost items are, on the left, the statue (of a priest, which Morey called Allah), and on the right, a tablet with the religious tenets of the shrine. The statue that Morey so proudly waves around is nothing more than the immortalized depiction of proper clerical conduct.
-------

Right then. Moon god theory = Horsehocky. Next idiotic postulation.
BlackOpal12

[quote=Pythagoras]In my opinion Al-Lat (a variant of this name corresponds to Ishvar) was originally a pagan Moon deity, which was sanitized as Allah by Muhammad, but still retains it's essential characteristics, save it's polytheistic component. (That's why Islam still keeps the crescent moon and star symbol, for example). In my opinion,there are sufficient grounds for making a prima facie case.

By the same token however, infact by stronger evidentiary proof, the doctrine of the trinity, which makes Jesus God, is also pagan, polytheistic and unbiblical.

Please note that an eminent scholar, Dr. Oak, postulates Allah is Ishva(or Shiva) of the Sumerians/Dravidians. -- there are many remarkable similarities betwen Shiva and Allah, not the least of which is the crescent moon symbol. But that's another topic.



If allah is arabic for GOD then why do they still use the cresant moon...
as their symbol...the Jews have the Star of David a disciple of God,
Christianity.

[quote=A.AngelAnthony]

Originally posted by Pythagoras

In my opinion Al-Lat (a variant of this name corresponds to Ishvar) was originally a pagan Moon deity, which was sanitized as Allah by Muhammad, but still retains it's essential characteristics, save it's polytheistic component. (That's why Islam still keeps the crescent moon and star symbol, for example). In my opinion,there are sufficient grounds for making a prima facie case.

By the same token however, infact by stronger evidentiary proof, the doctrine of the trinity, which makes Jesus God, is also pagan, polytheistic and unbiblical.

Please note that an eminent scholar, Dr. Oak, postulates Allah is Ishva(or Shiva) of the Sumerians/Dravidians. -- there are many remarkable similarities betwen Shiva and Allah, not the least of which is the crescent moon symbol. But that's another topic.


If allah is arabic for GOD then why do they still use the cresant moon...
as their symbol...the Jews have the Star of David a disciple of God,
Christianity.

It is the doctrine of the hypostatic union which teaches that Jesus is God. The doctrine of the Trinity teaches that God is a tri-personal Being. The doctine of Christ's deity is derived from Scripture, and therefore, quite biblical

[quote=Crusader]

Originally posted by A.AngelAnthony

It is the doctrine of the hypostatic union which teaches that Jesus is God. The doctrine of the Trinity teaches that God is a tri-personal Being. The doctine of Christ's deity is derived from Scripture, and therefore, quite biblical

[quote=Pythagoras]In my opinion Al-Lat (a variant of this name corresponds to Ishvar) was originally a pagan Moon deity, which was sanitized as Allah by Muhammad, but still retains it's essential characteristics, save it's polytheistic component. (That's why Islam still keeps the crescent moon and star symbol, for example). In my opinion,there are sufficient grounds for making a prima facie case.

By the same token however, infact by stronger evidentiary proof, the doctrine of the trinity, which makes Jesus God, is also pagan, polytheistic and unbiblical.

Please note that an eminent scholar, Dr. Oak, postulates Allah is Ishva(or Shiva) of the Sumerians/Dravidians. -- there are many remarkable similarities betwen Shiva and Allah, not the least of which is the crescent moon symbol. But that's another topic.

(For the record all that you see in this specific reply was not my writings I was just replying to someones post with a qoute).

[quote=A.AngelAnthony][quote=Crusader]

Originally posted by Pythagoras

In my opinion Al-Lat (a variant of this name corresponds to Ishvar) was originally a pagan Moon deity, which was sanitized as Allah by Muhammad, but still retains it's essential characteristics, save it's polytheistic component. (That's why Islam still keeps the crescent moon and star symbol, for example). In my opinion,there are sufficient grounds for making a prima facie case.

By the same token however, infact by stronger evidentiary proof, the doctrine of the trinity, which makes Jesus God, is also pagan, polytheistic and unbiblical.

Please note that an eminent scholar, Dr. Oak, postulates Allah is Ishva(or Shiva) of the Sumerians/Dravidians. -- there are many remarkable similarities betwen Shiva and Allah, not the least of which is the crescent moon symbol. But that's another topic.

(For the record all that you see in this specific reply was not my writings I was just replying to someones post with a qoute).

Allah, which does mean "God" in Arabic, has been discarded by some Arabic-speaking Christians in Africa, for instance, since the term originally was associated with moon worship in the southern Saudi penninsula.

I'm not really sure what you point is LT, the case is certainly no stronger than that El/Elohim was an evolution of older canaanite gods sharing the same name and with similar characteristics...

Originally posted by James Peter

I'm not really sure what you point is LT, the case is certainly no stronger than that El/Elohim was an evolution of older canaanite gods sharing the same name and with similar characteristics...

But not the Name YHWH!