|
Bismi
Allah
(In
the Name of Allah)
Part–2(i)
of 11
By
Abul Kasem (e-mail address: [email protected])
May
4, 2006
[A note of caution: The contents of this essay might offend some
readers.]
Who is Allah?–(i)
A brief history of Allah
When we study Allah seriously, the important
feature to learn is that Allah has quite a fascinating history. In ancient
Arabia
, during biblical time, many millenniums before Muhammad was born, Allah
was worshipped by the desert Bedouins of Arabia. The ancient Arabs
associated Allah with the moon which shone clearly in the night sky of the
vast and wild desert for most of the year. The reason why Allah was
treated as a moon god is not difficult to understand. The Bedouin Arabs
had a nomadic life. Living in a harsh, barren, desert–land, devoid of
any perennial river for irrigation and incapable of sustaining an
agricultural society, the Bedouin Arabs belonged to a pastoral society.
They were half-starved anarchic tribes (Rodinson, 2002, p. 17). Their
meagre livelihood grossly depended on grazing and tending cattle,
conducting frequent raids and plunder on other tribes or on the passing
caravans. Rodinson writes that the unruly Arabs vendetta is the pillar of
Bedouin society (Rodinson, 2002, p. 14). The Bedouins during those days
also had a life of unceasing cycles of plunder and revenge. Day-time
travel was nearly impossible due to the unbearable heat of the sun. Most
journeys were undertaken at night, on moonlight and beneath a sky bedecked
with glittering stars. They marvelled at the exquisitely beautiful night
sky with the moon at its centre of beauty. To them the emergence of the
graceful moon was the appearance of the king of the night sky. That is why
those indigent Bedouin Arabs were so intimately connected with the moon
and its phases. Their lives were literally governed by the moon.
To them, the moon was their life-sustainer. They based their primitive
calendar on the movement of the moon; their religious and communal
ceremonies were all arranged according to the moon’s position and
phases. No wonder, that those desert Arabs considered moon as their
highest deity—Allah Taalaa–the supreme God. Professor of Arab History,
the late, Phillip K. Hitti, writes that the moon-worshipping is
principally a pastoral society and the sun-worshiping is chiefly an
agricultural society (Hitti, 2002, p. 97). To the Arab Bedouin folks, moon
was an absolute holy entity to be worshipped and revered with utmost zeal.
After Muhammad forced, at the point of sword, Islam on these desert Arab
indigents, these neo-Muslim
Bedouins still continued with the practice of their age–old belief that
their life was regulated by the moon.
Even today, we find that this obsession with the
Arab Bedouin moon is strongly prevalent in Islam. Islam is intimately
connected with the moon. All its rituals are based on the sighting of the
moon or on the moon calendar. No matter how much Islam advocates that it
shuns idolatry or Paganism, it has not shed off its past connection with
Paganism and idolatry. The truth is: Islam is still symbolised with the
moon, especially the crescent shape. Look at the spires of any mosques;
you are bound to witness a dazzling crescent moon, sometimes along with a
star as well. Later, I shall provide the historical reason why the star is
also a symbol of Islam. To explicate further, look at the symbol of Red
Cross in Islamic Paradises. It is, of course, a crescent‑the symbol
of Islam, which was the ubiquitous emblem of the moon god of the Arab
Pagans. Even the flags of many Islamic countries show either the crescent
moon and star together, or the crescent moon alone. Have a look at the
national flags of a few Islamic states, such as: Algeria,
Pakistan, Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan (shows the
full moon), Malaysia,
Mauritania, Brunei,
Turkey…etc. As for idolatry
and stone-worshipping, please remember that the holiest object in Islam is
the stone of Ka’ba.
This stone (or stones—presumably three broken pieces of rocks, as
reported by many historians) was also the stone of worship by the Pagan
Arabs. Even Muhammad kissed and hugged it in his chest with deep
reverence, Caliph Umar did the same and the Muslims are supposed to do
this at least once in their life times.
We will now briefly review the history of Allah (see the stone-carved Pagan Allah here).
Historians believe that the Arabian Allah originated in
Syria
. The Aramaeans inhabited
Syria
around 1300 BC. These Syrians used to worship passionately a few deities,
the principal among them were the storm-god Hadad; the sky-god Alaha and
the goddess Athargatis. The Syrians probably got Allah (in some form of
image) from the
Sumer
in the ancient city of Babylon.
According to many historians, Alaha is the Syrian name of Allah (Walker,
2004, p. 20). To them, Allah was a male God, the supreme God, who had
three daughters, Allat, Uzza and Manat. The Nabateans, the first-born son
of Ismail around Sinai Peninsula, were the first to bring Allah to Arabia
from Syria (Walker, 2004, p. 22) The Nabateans probably worshipped Allah
in other names as well, such as: Elh
and Alh (ibid). Besides Allah, the Nabateans also brought from Syria
Hubal, a huge male idol. This Hubal was later placed in the precinct of
Ka’ba. Hubal was the greatest of all idols in and around Ka’ba. The
massive statue of Hubal was made of red agnate in the form of a man with
right hand broken off. The Quraysh received Hubal in this form from
Khuzaymah ibn Mudrikah, a Meccan who brought it from
Syria
. Later, the Quraysh made for it a hand of gold. Hubal stood in front of
Ka’ba. The Pagan Quraysh considered Ka’ba for Hubal only (Rodinson,
2002, p. 54). They used divination arrows to determine the legitimacy of a
newly born child (ibn al-Kalbi, 1952, p. 23). Many historians believe that
Hubal was the physical representation of Allah at Ka’ba. In his youth
Muhammad helped with the ritualistic preparations being ardently made for
the ceremonial installation of Hubal in Ka’ba (Walker, 2004, p. 42).
Muhammad’s biographer, Martin Lings, a Catholic convert to Islam, agrees
that Hubal was from
Syria
(Lings, 1983, p. 5, 11). Arab Historians believe that the mighty Hubal was
actually an ancient variation of Allah (Walker, 2004, p. 31). The word (Hubal)
is derived from the Semitic word Hu,
which means ‘He’ or ‘He is’ with the suffix El,
which, of course, is another name for Allah. The deified name of Hubal was
ceremoniously invoked by the Quraysh during war cry (ibid). Gradually, the
concept of Allah, the God spread all around
Arabia
. An inscription found in south
Arabia
bears the name of Allah. Allah is Hallah in the Safa inscription. This was
five centuries before Islam. The Arabs used to invoke Allah during times
of special peril. This all-powerful Allah gradually became the supreme
tribal deity of the Quraysh. Even the holy Qur’an confirms this in
verses 6:109,
6:136, 10:22,
31:22,and 31:29
(Hitti, 2002, pp. 100–101). Other names by which Allah was known are:
the Babylonian and Assyrian Ilu,
the Canaanite El, the Hebrew Elohim and Ilah of central
Arabia
(Walker, 2004, p. 420).
Another name of Allah was Wadd—the moon god which stood at the head of
the Minaean Pantheon. Allat, Uzza and Manat were the three daughters of
Allah for this Wadd (Hitti, 2002, pp. 97–98).
< back
next >
|
