Islam's God: The Origin of Allah the Moon God

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[spycatcher]

Pre-Islamic Arabia's religion was one of superstition. Belief in jinns (genies), curse casting, magic stones, totems was the norm - and it was against this background that Allah arose. Although the Quran is claimed to be a heavenly writing with no earthly source, evidence of these very sorts of cultural influence is found in such places as Suras 55, 72, 113 and 114.

Animism, the belief that spirits inhabit rocks, trees and other elements was also very commonplace. Some of these stones were venerated and used as a focal point for the worship of a particular tribal god. No surprise, Muhammad's family had just such a stone for their own tribe - a black stone, in fact, that they kept at the Kabah (where the tribal idols were set up). The pagan rites of bowing toward Mecca, making a pilgrimage to the Kabah, running around it seven times, kissing it, then running to the river to throw stones at the devil all found there way into Islamic practice.

The final piece of the puzzle was in found in the religion of the Sabeans, an astral religion that worshipped the moon god and planned their religious rites around the lunar calendar. One such rite was fasting from crescent moon to crescent moon, a practice which would also be adopted by Muhammad.

If these things were not present before Muhammad received them from Allah (who himself is the moon god of Muhammad's tribe), why did Muhammad not have to explain what those words meant in the Quran? How would people have known who Allah was? ( or: what a jinn was? what the Kabah was? what the word Islam meant? etc.). Even the word "Islam" which many believe to mean "submission" was not an original word. In Arabic it was a secular term that denoted the strength and bravery of a desert warrior (a definition that accurately reflects the war-like tribes that founded Islam with bloodshed).

The Moon God

"Allah" is from the compound Arabic word "al-ilah" or in english "the god". Allah was known before Muhammad's time without a doubt. His name has been found in pre-islamic writings and other archeological finds. At the Kabah in Mecca over 350 gods were worshipped, but it was built especially for the chief deity - the moon god. Allah was the personal title of the moon god. Allah was married to the sun goddess. They produced three daughters, whose worship Muhammad would later make the mistake of condoning. The crescent moon symbol of Arabia came from this god.

Muhammad's family revered this particular god, and it is this idol that Muhammad declared to be the only true god. So, Allah - far from being the revealed God of the Bible as Muhammad would have us believe - is nothing more than an amplified pagan idol. Muhammad did not re-make the pagan god, he simply removed the lower deities from the rites of worship. That is why he never had to explain who Allah was. By definition, an idol converted in the 7th century into a new god cannot be the sama God revealed thousands of years earlier to Biblical prophets!

[OWK]

So when Muslims worship the God of Abraham, they're worshipping some kind of "Moon-God"... But when western Christians worship the God of Abraham, they're worshiping the real one?

Is that it?

[egarvue]

If you read about Muhammad's life, you'd know he spent a LOT of time in what is now modern-day Syria & Israel, and a lot of time being around Christians & Jews (if you actually read the Koran, it reads a lot like someone wrote it attempting to be in the style of Jewish & Christian writings. While I have no doubt that origin of the word Allah may have come from the moon-god, I also am pretty sure that Muhammad was directing his monotheism toward the God of Abraham. By the way, what is the origin of our English word, "god"? I'm not defending Islam, but this is kind of silly.

[alancarp]

I know you meant that as a sillogism, but that's kinda right: you could call it a case of mistaken identity.

Islam thinks and acts as if Allah is the God of Abraham, but the Koran's description of Allah's character, demeanor, etc. is inconsistent with the Biblical account of YAHWEH, the God of Abraham presented there. Were YAHWEH and Allah the same, there would be no difference.
Of course, Islam claims that Judaism got it all wrong.

[No I'm not going to outline those disntinctions from the two books; the proof will be left to the student.]

[OWK]

Of course, Islam claims that Judaism got it all wrong.

Islam, Judaism, and Christianity have each been claiming that the others have "got it all wrong" for centuries.

And so it goes.

[alancarp]

"While I have no doubt that origin of the word Allah may have come from the moon-god, I also am pretty sure that Muhammad was directing his monotheism toward the God of Abraham."
Historically, that should have been the case since the Arab race descended from Abraham. Clearly, his ties to YAHWEH and Biblical teachings demand this. However, as the writer of post 1 cites, culture seems to have gotten in the way.

From Merriam-Webster's site: Main Entry: 1 god
Pronunciation: 'gäd also 'god
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English; akin to
Old High German got god
Date: before 12th century

[spycatcher]

Yeah, just like Christmas was a pagan holiday that we Christians just turned into the birthday of Christ.

If we also transferred some pagan deity over and said that was now our "Jesus" we wouldn't be honoring Jesus, but some other pagan idol (which would probably be a demonic entity)

The Biblical God	Allah
is knowable	cannot be known
is personal	is far off
is revealed in three persons	is not the Father, Son nor Holy Spirit
is love	has no regard for man
is active in man's life and history	does not interact with man
is a spirit, has personality, loves, thinks, is omnipotent... etc.	is not definable, we are only told what Allah is not
is a God of grace	grace is not found in Allah, only judgment

[BibChr]

Good attempt at dialogue, but that's not what OWK does. He just finds it comforting to try to cast a little dark on any discussion of truth he happens across. Beware flying cliches.

Dan
Biblical Christianity web site

[BibChr]

Neat table; thanks! It'd be interesting to see supporting citations in the Koran, but I don't know whether it displays unity of teaching as the Bible does.

Dan

[motexva]

I believe they are worshiping a sun god, possibly the one worshiped by the Sumerians. Can't remember my Wsetern Civ I class right now, but it's something like that.

[OWK]

And had you been born in a squat mud-brick hut in the hills of Afghanistan, you would now be attempting to convince me that the Christians all worship a false God, and that Allah is the way.

You were born here, so you believe what you believe. They were born there, so they believe what they believe. But had your places of birth been reversed, you'd be every bit as vehement a defender of Allah.

And so it goes.

[Excuse_Me]

Actually, Allat (Al-Ilat) was the Moon Goddess. She is mentioned in the "Satanic Verses" of Sura 53 of the Quran. Allah was the god of heaven and earth, a linguistic transformation originally from the Sumerian god En-lil, also meaning "the god." En-lil was the most powerful of the Sumerian dieties even though he was the son of Anu, the father of the gods.

[VeritatisSplendor]

Don't be stupid.

Christians who speak Arabic pray to "Allah". "Allah" means "God" in Arabic. Muslims are monotheists who are praying to the Creator of the Universe, whom they identify with the God of Abraham.

Now, they are mistaken about many of the attributes of God, but that doesn't mean they are praying to a non-entity. Are you saying that God doesn't hear their prayers?

If this is your logic, then, since either Jews or Christians are also seriously mistaken about the attributes of God, do you believe that God doesn't hear the prayers of whichever of those two groups doesn't understand Him correctly?

[twigs]

Mohammed was trying to unite the tribes of the period who were engaging in increasing warfare with each other and who did each have their own tribal god. You are correct that he got the idea of a unified from the Jews and Christians. He traveled with caravans with his uncle, later marrying his boss, a wealthy widow. On these travels, he did meet Christians and Jews and apparently discussed religion. So he chose the god of his tribe to be everyone's god. It has also been suspected by some that he had epileptic seizures and that he had his visions in the midst of seizures.

[MWS]

Well, the Muslim story on this is that ancient Arabian paganism was a perversion of primordal religion. Allah was the one and only God (so the story goes), but men perverted perverted that, set up daughters of Allah, as well as many other deities. Then Muhammad came and "restored" the original state of religion and returned Allah back to his original place.

Technically speaking, Muslims do not worship a moon-god. Their proper name for God may have originally came from the name of their moon god, but Muslims are quite clear that God is transcendant and very far away from material existance. In fact, it could be argued that the God of Islam is TOO transendant- he has supposedly never even spoken to men directly. Men are not even created in God's image, because God is unlike anything in material existence, as well as completely different from all creation. This is the main reason that the God of Islam is not the God of Judaism and Christianity- it is a far better argument than the "Islam's God was taken from an ancient Arabic pagan moon God" argument.

Instead, I would argue that the reason why Islam's God is different is, as I mentioned above, he is too transendant. The God of Judaism interacts directly with the people- the God of Islam only sends angels. The God of Judaism created men in his image- the God of Islam only created men as servant to be his viceregents on earth (you can ask any Muslim, and they will tell you- men have nothing in common with their God). The God of Islam is different from the God of Christianity for the same reasons, and more. The God of Christianity became man, fully sharing in human nature (one man, two complete natures, two wills- the human fully in conformity to the divine). The God of Christianity is three persons who share in one essence and hence are one God, while the God of Islam, while being just one God, is also only one person. This list is by no means complete, but I just wanted to point out that the arguments that Islam's God is not the same as the Judeo-Christian God should be taken in the opposite direction from the way I see it going- they are different in their very natures.

[ArrogantBustard]

Christians who speak Arabic pray to "Allah".

I've been wondering about this. The Eastern Christians I know speak either Greek or Ukrainian. I've seen wild claims on FR about Islam being a dressed up moon-god cult, but so far all I've seen for documentation is a Jack Chick tract and a web site which displays similar (ie: zero) credibility. Still looking...

AB

[alancarp]

We'll always give it a shot!

[MHGinTN]

Here's a fascinating read you might want to make regarding one of the 'prophets Mohammed cited as preceding him in the list which includes Jesus as merely a speaker/prophet, not the son of God ... Idris (from the egyptian pantheon of imaginary gods) the Prophet of Islam?

[spycatcher]

There's a reason Allah's messenger seems to have the same personality as bin Laden and other creeps. Compare to the personality of Jesus. They're clearly messengers of two different Gods. I'll let you read and figure out which God is the true king of kings, and worthy of our praise.

Is Islam a Religion of Peace?