Kontradikcije u Bibliji

<< < (7/14) > >>

Lindemann:
Inačpe arhaeologija kao i uvek ne mazi kuran,knjigu koja nema niti jedan
manuskript da bi se potvrdila njegova autentičnost makar 5%,koliko
samo verzija je postojalo posle muhamedove smrti,inače on nije ni pisao
kuran,bio je nepismen,ali drugi su ga pisali,pogledajte ovde i sami,kuran
je ništa drugo do pokušaj miksovanja odnosno hibrida arapskog
paganizma i Judeo Hrišćanstva.....

Allah - the Moon God

The Archaeology of the Middle East

The religion of Islam has as its focus of worship a deity by the name of
"Allah." The Muslims claim that Allah in pre-Islamic times was the biblical
God of the Patriarchs, prophets, and apostles. The issue is thus one of
continuity. Was "Allah" the biblical God or a pagan god in Arabia during
pre-Islamic times? The Muslim's claim of continuity is essential to their
attempt to convert Jews and Christians for if "Allah" is part of the flow of
divine revelation in Scripture, then it is the next step in biblical religion.
Thus we should all become Muslims. But, on the other hand, if Allah was
a pre-Islamic pagan deity, then its core claim is refuted. Religious claims
often fall before the results of hard sciences such as archeology. We can
endlessly speculate about the past or go and dig it up and see what the
evidence reveals. This is the only way to find out the truth concerning the
origins of Allah. As we shall see, the hard evidence demonstrates that the
god Allah was a pagan deity. In fact, he was the Moon-god who was
married to the sun goddess and the stars were his daughters.

Archaeologists have uncovered temples to the Moon-god throughout the

Middle East. From the mountains of Turkey to the banks of the Nile, the
most wide-spread religion of the ancient world was the worship of the
Moon-god. In the first literate civilization, the Sumerians have left us
thousands of clay tablets in which they described their religious beliefs.
As demonstrated by Sjoberg and Hall, the ancient Sumerians worshipped
a Moon-god who was called many different names. The most popular
names were Nanna, Suen and Asimbabbar. His symbol was the crescent
moon. Given the amount of artifacts concerning the worship of this
Moon-god, it is clear that this was the dominant religion in Sumeria. The
cult of the Moon-god was the most popular religion throughout ancient
Mesopotamia. The Assyrians, Babylonians, and the Akkadians took the
word Suen and transformed it into the word Sin as their favorite name for
the Moon-God. As Prof. Potts pointed out, "Sin is a name essentially
Sumerian in origin which had been borrowed by the Semites. "

In ancient Syria and Canna, the Moon-god Sin was usually represented
by the moon in its crescent phase. At times the full moon was placed
inside the crescent moon to emphasize all the phases of the moon. The
sun-goddess was the wife of Sin and the stars were their daughters. For
example, Istar was a daughter of Sin. Sacrifices to the Moon-god are
described in the Pas Shamra texts. In the Ugaritic texts, the Moon-god
was sometimes called Kusuh. In Persia, as well as in Egypt, the Moon-
god is depicted on wall murals and on the heads of statues. He was the
Judge of men and gods. The Old Testament constantly rebuked the
worship of the Moon-god (see: Deut. 4:19;17:3; II Kngs. 21:3,5; 23:5; Jer.
8:2; 19:13; Zeph. 1:5, etc.) When Israel fell into idolatry, it was usually
the cult of the Moon-god. As a matter of fact, everywhere in the ancient
world, the symbol of the crescent moon can be found on seal
impressions, steles, pottery, amulets, clay tablets, cylinders, weights,
earrings, necklaces, wall murals, etc. In Tell-el-Obeid, a copper calf was
found with a crescent moon on its forehead. An idol with the body of a
bull and the head of man has a crescent moon inlaid on its forehead with
shells. In Ur, the Stela of Ur-Nammu has the crescent symbol placed at
the top of the register of gods because the Moon-god was the head of
the gods. Even bread was baked in the form of a crescent as an act of
devotion to the Moon-god. The Ur of the Chaldees was so devoted to the
Moon-god that it was sometimes called Nannar in tablets from that time
period.

A temple of the Moon-god has been excavated in Ur by Sir Leonard

Woolley. He dug up many examples of moon worship in Ur and these are
displayed in the British Museum to this day. Harran was likewise noted
for its devotion to the Moon-god. In the 1950's a major temple to the
Moon-god was excavated at Hazer in Palestine. Two idols of the moon
god were found. Each was a stature of a man sitting upon a throne with a
crescent moon carved on his chest. The accompanying inscriptions make
it clear that these were idols of the Moon-god. Several smaller statues
were also found which were identified by their inscriptions as the
"daughters" of the Moon-god. What about Arabia? As pointed out by
Prof. Coon, "Muslims are notoriously loath to preserve traditions of
earlier paganism and like to garble what pre-Islamic history they permit
to survive in anachronistic terms."

During the nineteenth century, Amaud, Halevy and Glaser went to

Southern Arabia and dug up thousands of Sabean, Minaean, and
Qatabanian inscriptions which were subsequently translated. In the
1940's, the archeologists G. Caton Thompson and Carleton S. Coon
made some amazing discoveries in Arabia. During the 1950's, Wendell
Phillips, W.F. Albright, Richard Bower and others excavated sites at
Qataban, Timna, and Marib (the ancient capital of Sheba). Thousands of
inscriptions from walls and rocks in Northern Arabia have also been
collected. Reliefs and votive bowls used in worship of the "daughters of
Allah" have also been discovered. The three daughters, al-Lat, al-Uzza
and Manat are sometimes depicted together with Allah the Moon-god
represented by a crescent moon above them. The archeological evidence
demonstrates that the dominant religion of Arabia was the cult of the
Moon-god.

In Old Testament times, Nabonidus (555-539 BC), the last king of

Babylon, built Tayma, Arabia as a center of Moon-god worship. Segall
stated, "South Arabia's stellar religion has always been dominated by the
Moon-god in various variations." Many scholars have also noticed that
the Moon-god's name "Sin" is a part of such Arabic words as "Sinai," the
"wilderness of Sin," etc. When the popularity of the Moon-god waned
elsewhere, the Arabs remained true to their conviction that the Moon-
god was the greatest of all gods. While they worshipped 360 gods at the
Kabah in Mecca, the Moon-god was the chief deity. Mecca was in fact
built as a shrine for the Moon-god.

This is what made it the most sacred site of Arabian paganism. In 1944,
G. Caton Thompson revealed in her book, The Tombs and Moon Temple
of Hureidha, that she had uncovered a temple of the Moon-god in
southern Arabia. The symbols of the crescent moon and no less than
twenty-one inscriptions with the name Sin were found in this temple. An
idol which may be the Moon-god himself was also discovered. This was
later confirmed by other well-known archeologists.

The evidence reveals that the temple of the Moon-god was active even in
the Christian era. Evidence gathered from both North and South Arabia
demonstrate that Moon-god worship was clearly active even in
Muhammad's day and was still the dominant cult. According to numerous
inscriptions, while the name of the Moon-god was Sin, his title was al-
ilah, i.e. "the deity," meaning that he was the chief or high god among
the gods. As Coon pointed out, "The god Il or Ilah was originally a phase
of the Moon God." The Moon-god was called al- ilah, i.e. the god, which
was shortened to Allah in pre-Islamic times. The pagan Arabs even used
Allah in the names they gave to their children. For example, both
Muhammad's father and uncle had Allah as part of their names.

The fact that they were given such names by their pagan parents proves
that Allah was the title for the Moon-god even in Muhammad's day. Prof.
Coon goes on to say, "Similarly, under Mohammed's tutelage, the
relatively anonymous Ilah, became Al-Ilah, The God, or Allah, the
Supreme Being."

This fact answers the questions, "Why is Allah never defined in the
Qur'an? Why did Muhammad assume that the pagan Arabs already knew
who Allah was?" Muhammad was raised in the religion of the Moon-god
Allah. But he went one step further than his fellow pagan Arabs. While
they believed that Allah, i.e. the Moon-god, was the greatest of all gods
and the supreme deity in a pantheon of deities, Muhammad decided that
Allah was not only the greatest god but the only god.

In effect he said, "Look, you already believe that the Moon-god Allah is
the greatest of all gods. All I want you to do is to accept that the idea
that he is the only god. I am not taking away the Allah you already
worship. I am only taking away his wife and his daughters and all the
other gods." This is seen from the fact that the first point of the Muslim
creed is not, "Allah is great" but "Allah is the greatest," i.e., he is the
greatest among the gods. Why would Muhammad say that Allah is the
"greatest" except in a polytheistic context? The Arabic word is used to
contrast the greater from the lesser. That this is true is seen from the fact
that the pagan Arabs never accused Muhammad of preaching a different
Allah than the one they already worshipped. This "Allah" was the Moon-
god according to the archeological evidence. Muhammad thus attempted
to have it both ways. To the pagans, he said that he still believed in the
Moon-god Allah. To the Jews and the Christians, he said that Allah was
their God too. But both the Jews and the Christians knew better and that
is why they rejected his god Allah as a false god.

Al-Kindi, one of the early Christian apologists against Islam, pointed out
that Islam and its god Allah did not come from the Bible but from the
paganism of the Sabeans. They did not worship the God of the Bible but
the Moon-god and his daughters al-Uzza, al-Lat and Manat. Dr. Newman
concludes his study of the early Christian-Muslim debates by stating,
"Islam proved itself to be...a separate and antagonistic religion which
had sprung up from idolatry." Islamic scholar Caesar Farah concluded
"There is no reason, therefore, to accept the idea that Allah passed to the
Muslims from the Christians and Jews." The Arabs worshipped the Moon-
god as a supreme deity. But this was not biblical monotheism. While the
Moon-god was greater than all other gods and goddesses, this was still a
polytheistic pantheon of deities. Now that we have the actual idols of the
Moon-god, it is no longer possible to avoid the fact that Allah was a
pagan god in pre-Islamic times. Is it any wonder then that the symbol of
Islam is the crescent moon? That a crescent moon sits on top of their
mosques and minarets? That a crescent moon is found on the flags of
Islamic nations? That the Muslims fast during the month which begins
and ends with the appearance of the crescent moon in the sky?

CONCLUSION

The pagan Arabs worshipped the Moon-god Allah by praying toward

Mecca several times a day; making a pilgrimage to Mecca; running
around the temple of the Moon-god called the Kabah; kissing the black
stone; killing an animal in sacrifice to the Moon-god; throwing stones at
the devil; fasting for the month which begins and ends with the crescent
moon; giving alms to the poor, etc.,

The Muslim's claim that Allah is the God of the Bible and that Islam arose
from the religion of the prophets and apostles is refuted by solid,
overwhelming archeological evidence. Islam is nothing more than a
revival of the ancient Moon-god cult. It has taken the symbols, the rites,
the ceremonies, and even the name of its god from the ancient pagan
religion of the Moon-god. As such, it is sheer idolatry and must be
rejected by all those who follow the Torah and Gospel.

The religion of ancient Israel was based on revelation; the Old Testament
says that God appeared in diverse places and spoke to the Patriarchs;
there they raised altars of undressed stones, called Beth-el—or House of
God. Man's sensual imagination soon led him "to collect his gods in the
dust and fashion them as he pleased," imagining that God resided in
these Stones. Thus it became Beth-aven or House of Vanity. Beth-el
abounded in Chaldea, Asia, Egypt, Africa, Greece, in remote parts of
Europe, among the Druids, Gauls, and Celto-Scythians, and in North and
South America.

In the Hebrew language, stones fallen from the sky are called Bethel
(Heb. "House of God"). After dreaming of a ladder reaching to heaven,
Jacob called his stone pillow a Bethel-stone (Genesis 28:10-22).

"The Pagans imitated the Beth-el of Jacob and consecrated them with oil
and blood, making them gods, calling them Betyles (betylus, baetyl,
betyles). In classical antiquity a stone, either natural or artificially
shaped, venerated as of divine origin, or as a symbol of divinity. There
were a number of these sacred stones in Greece, the most famous being
on the omphalos at Delphi. Likewise there were the so-called animated or
oracular stones. "Strabo, Pliny, Helancius (Hellanicus) or Beth-al-Jupiter,
Cybele, Venus, Mithras). The greater part of the natural Betyles were the
black meteorites or fire-balls fallen from the heavens and regarded by
the Sabeists as heavenly divinities. These meteorites were the Cabiri, and
the Pelasgi—whose most noted worshippers were wandering or
dispersed men" (The Trail of the Serpent, by Inquire Within, Boswell
Publishing Co., Limited, London (1936) p. 10).

Meteorites-cults are common in Greco-Roman civilizations. According to

the religious historian Mircea Eliade, the Temple of Artemis (Diana) at
Ephesus contained a squat statue of the mother-goddess, carved from a
meteorite that fell from Jupiter (Acts 19:26-35). The Palladium of Troy
and the conic black stone or (Baetyl) of Elagabal in Emesa, Syria, are
believed to be of meteoric origin. Likewise, the Phrygian mother goddess
Cybele worshipped in Pessinus (later Rome) was a stone; doubtless a
meteorite. A further example is the meteorite of Pessinunt in Phrygia,
which was worshipped as "the needle of Cybele," brought to Rome in a
powerful procession after the Punic war on advice from the Delphic
oracle; there the meteorite was worshipped as a fertility goddess for
further 500 years.

"The most famous of all of the stone fetishes of Arabia was, of course,
the black stone in the sanctuary of Mecca. The Kabah was, and still is, a
rectangular stone structure. Built into its Eastern corner is the black
stone which had been an object of worship for many centuries before
Mohammed appropriated the Kabah for his new religion, and made the
pilgrimage to this holy place one of the pillars of Islam" (Mohammed: The
man and his faith, Tor Andrae, 1936, Translated by Theophil Menzel,
1960, p. 13-30; Britannica, Arabian Religions, p. 1059, 1979). The
"Hadschar al Aswad" in the Kabah is the most well known example of
meteorite worship in newer times. Despite the prohibition of portraying
God and adoration of objects, pilgrims to Mecca kiss this "Hadschar al
Aswad" (black stone) which, according to the prophet is "Yamin Allah"
(the right hand of God), supposedly a divine meteorite or Bethel-stone
predating creation that fell at the feet of Adam and Eve. It is presently
embedded in the southeastern corner of the Kabah. Muslims touch and
kiss the black stone during Hajj. moongod.htm

Lindemann:
The Cult of the Moon God

It should not come as a surprise that the word "Allah" was not something
invented by Muhammad or revealed for the first time in the Quran.

The well-known Middle East scholar H.A.R. Gibb has pointed out that the
reason that Muhammad never had to explain who Allah was in the Quran
is that his listeners had already heard about Allah long before
Muhammad was ever born (Mohammedanism: An Historical Survey, New
York: Mentor Books, 1955, p.38).

Dr. Arthur Jeffery, one of the foremost Western Islamic scholars in

modern times and professor of Islamic and Middle East Studies at
Columbia University, notes:

"The name Allah, as the Quran 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" (Islam: Muhammad, and His Religion, New York: The Liberal Arts
Press, 1958, p. 85).

The word "Allah" comes from the compound Arabic word, al-ilah. Al is the
definite article "the" and ilah is an Arabic word for "god." It is not a
foreign word. It is not even the Syriac word for God. It is pure Arabic.
(There is an interesting discussion of the origins of Allah, in "Arabic
Lexicographical Miscellanies" by J. Blau in the Journal of Semitic Studies,
Vol. XVII, #2, 1972, pp. 173-190).

Neither is Allah a Hebrew or Greek word for God as found in the Bible.
Allah is a purely Arabic term used in reference to an Arabian deity.
Hastings' Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics I:326, T & T Clark, states:

'"Allah" is a proper name, applicable only to their [Arabs'] peculiar God. '
According to the Encyclopedia of Religion:

'"Allah" is a pre-Islamic name . . . corresponding to the Babylonian Bel'

(Encyclopedia of Religion, I:117 Washington DC, Corpus Pub., 1979).

For those who find it hard to believe that Allah was a pagan name for a
peculiar pagan Arabian deity in pre-Islamic times, the following
quotations may be helpful:

"Allah is found . . . in Arabic inscriptions prior to Islam" (Encyclopedia

Britannica, I:643).

"The Arabs, before the time of Mohammed, accepted and worshipped,

after a fashion, a supreme god called Allah" (Encyclopedia off Islam,
I:302, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1913, Houtsma).

"Allah was known to the pre-Islamic . . . Arabs; he was one of the Meccan
deities" (Encyclopedia off Islam, I:406, ed. Gibb).

"Ilah . . . appears in pre-Islamic poetry . . . By frequency of usage, al-ilah

was contracted to Allah, frequently attested to in pre-Islamic poetry"
(Encyclopedia off Islam, III:1093, 1971).

"The name Allah goes back before Muhammad" (Encyclopedia of World

Mythology and Legend, I:41, Anthony Mercatante, New York, The Facts
on File, 1983).

"The origin 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, I:326, Hastings).

To the testimony of the above standard reference works, we add those of

such scholars as Henry Preserved Smith of Harvard University who has
stated:

"Allah was already known by name to the Arabs" (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).

Dr. Kenneth Cragg, former editor of the prestigious scholarly journal

Muslim World and an outstanding modern Western Islamic scholar,
whose works are generally published by Oxford University, comments:

"The name Allah is also evident in archeological and literary remains of

pre-Islamic Arabia" (The Call of the Minaret, New York: Oxford University
Press, 1956, p. 31).

Dr. W. Montgomery Watt, who was Professor of Arabic and Islamic

Studies at Edinburgh University and Visiting Professor of Islamic studies
at College de France, Georgetown University, and the University of
Toronto, has done extensive work on the pre-Islamic concept of Allah. He
concludes:

"In recent years I have become increasingly convinced that for an

adequate understanding of the career of Muhammad and the origins 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. Also see his article, "Belief in a High God in Pre-Islamic Mecca",
Journal of Semitic Studies, Vol. 16, 1971, pp. 35-40).

Caesar Farah in his book on Islam concludes his discussion of the pre-
Islamic meaning of Allah by saying:

"There is no reason, therefore, to accept the idea that Allah passed to the
Muslims from the Christians and Jews" (Islam: Beliefs and Observations,
New York, Barrons, 1987, p. 28).

According to Middle East scholar E.M. Wherry, whose translation of the

Quran is still used today, in pre-Islamic times Allah-worship, as well as
the worship of Ba-al, were both astral religions in that they involved the
worship of the sun, the moon, and the stars (A Comprehensive
Commentary on the Quran, Osnabruck: Otto Zeller Verlag, 1973, p. 36).

Astral Religions

In Arabia, the sun god was viewed as a female goddess and the moon as
the male god. As has been pointed out by many scholars such as Alfred
Guilluame, the moon god was called by various names, one of which was
Allah! (Islam, p. 7).
The name Allah was used as the personal name of the moon god, in
addition to other titles that could be given to him.

Allah, the moon god, was married to the sun goddess. Together they
produced three goddesses who were called "the daughters of Allah."
These three goddesses were called Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, and Manat.

The daughters of Allah, along with Allah and the sun goddess were
viewed as "high" gods. That is, they were viewed as being at the top of
the pantheon of Arabian deities.

"Along with Allah, however, they worshipped a host of lesser gods and
"daughters of Al-lah" (Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend,
I:61)".

The Crescent Moon Symbol

The symbol of the worship of the moon god in Arabian culture and
elsewhere throughout the Middle East was the crescent moon.

Archaeologists have dug up numerous statues and hieroglyphic

inscriptions in which a crescent moon was seated on top of the head of
the deity to symbolize the worship of the moon god. In the same fashion
as the sun is pictured above the Egyptian deity.

While the moon was generally worshiped as a female deity in the Ancient
Near East, the Arabs viewed it as a male deity.

The Gods of the Quraysh

The Quraysh tribe into which Muhammad was born was particularly
devoted to Allah, the moon god, and especially to Allah's three daughters
who were viewed as intercessors between the people and Allah.

The worship of the three goddesses, Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, and Manat, played a
significant role in the worship at the Kabah in Mecca. The first two
daughters of Allah had names which were feminine forms of Allah.

The literal Arabic name of Muhammad's father was Abd-Allah. His uncle's
name was Obied-Allah. These names reveal the personal devotion that
Muhammad's pagan family had to the worship of Allah, the moon god.
Praying Toward Mecca

An Allah idol was set up at the Kebah along with all the other idols. The
pagans prayed toward Mecca and the Kabah because that is where their
gods were stationed.

It only made sense to them to face in the direction of their god and then
pray. Since the idol of their moon god, Allah, was at Mecca, they prayed
toward Mecca.

The worship of the moon god extended far beyond the Allah-worship in
Arabia. The entire fertile crescent was involved in the worship of the
moon.

This, in part, explains the early success of Islam among Arab groups that
traditionally had worshiped the moon god.

The use of the crescent moon as the symbol for Islam which is placed on
the flags of Islamic nations and on the top of mosques and minarets is a
throwback to the days when Allah was worshiped as the moon god in
Mecca.

While this may come as a surprise to many Christians who have wrongly
assumed that Allah was simply another name for the God of the Bible,
educated Muslims generally understand this point.

A Muslim Taxi Driver

During one trip to Washington D.C., I got involved in a conversation with

a Muslim taxi driver from Iran.

When I asked him. "Where did Islam obtain its symbol of the crescent
moon?" he responded that it was an ancient pagan symbol used
throughout the Middle East and that adopting this symbol had helped
Muslims to convert people throughout the Middle East.

When I pointed out that the word Allah itself was used by the moon-god
cult in pre-Islamic Arabia, he agreed that this was the case.

I then pointed out that the religion and the Quran of Muhammad could be
explained in terms of pre-Islamic culture, customs, and religious ideas.
He agreed with this!
He went on to explain that he was a university-educated Muslim who, at
this point in his life, was attempting to understand Islam from a scholarly
viewpoint. As a result, he had lost his faith in Islam.

The significance of the pre-Islamic source of the name Allah cannot be

over estimated.

Conclusion

In the field of comparative religions, it is understood that each of the

major religions of mankind has its own peculiar concept of deity. In other
words, all religions do not worship the same God, only under different
names.

The sloppy thinking that would ignore the essential differences which
divide world religions is an insult the uniqueness of world religions.

Which of the world religions holds to the Christian concept of one eternal
God in three persons? When the Hindu denies the personality of God,
which religions do not agree with this? Obviously, all men do not worship
the same God, or goddesses.

Note: Christians do not understand "the peculiar concept of one eternal

God in three persons" but one eternal God with three major offices or
dispensation claims.

The Quran's concept of deity evolved out of the pre-Islamic pagan

religion of Allah-worship. It is so uniquely Arab that it cannot be simply
reduced to Jewish or Christian beliefs.

Marriage, Divorce, Adultery and Polygamy

In his personal life, Muhammad had two great weaknesses. The first was
greed. By looting caravans and Jewish settlements he had amassed
fabulous wealth for himself, his family, and his tribe (Ali Dashti, 23 Years,
p. 86-87; Encyclopedia Britannica, 15:648).

When we turn and look at the life of Muhammad we find that he clearly
killed and robbed people in the name of Allah according to the Quran. He
taught his disciples by example, command, and precept that they could
and should kill and rob in Allah's name and force people to submit to
Islam.

His next greatest weakness was women. Although in the Quran he would
limit his followers to having four wives, he himself took more than four
wives and concubines.

The question of the number of women with whom Muhammad was

sexually involved either as wives, concubines or devotees was made a
point of contention by the Jews in Muhammad's day. Ali Dashti
comments:

"All the commentaries agree that verse 57 of Sura 4 (on-Nesa) was sent
down after the Jews criticized Mohammad's appetite for women, alleging
that he had nothing to do except to take wives" (Ali Dashti, 23 Years, pp.
120-138).

Since polygamy was practiced in the Old Testament by such patriarchs as

Abraham, the mere fact that Muhammad had more than one wife is not
sufficient in and of itself to discount his claim to prophethood. But this
does negate the fact that the issue has historical in terms of trying to
understand Muhammad as a man.

It also poses a logical problem for Muslims. Because the Quran in Sura
4:3 forbids the taking of more than four wives, to have taken any more
would have been sinful for Muhammad.

One Muslin apologist with whom I was conversing argued as follows:

"Muhammad was sinless. The Quran makes taking more than four wives a
sin. Therefore Muhammad could not have taken more than four wives.
Why? Because Muhammad was sinless."

I pointed out that the question of how many wives Muhammad or anyone
else had should be answered on the basis of the historical and literary
evidence and not blind faith.

Muslim scholar and statesman Ali Dashti gives the following list of the
women in Muhammad's life:

1. Khadija   12. Hend
2. Sawda   13. Asma (of Saba)
3. Aesha   14. Zaynab (of Khozayma)
4. Omm Salama   15. Habla
5. Halsa   16. Asma (of Noman)
6. Zaynab (of Jahsh)   17. Mary (the Christian)
7. Jowayriyi   18. Rayhana
8. Omm Habiba   19. Omm Sharik
9. Safiya   20. Maymuna
10. Maymuna (of Hareth)   21. Zaynab (a third one)
11. Fatema   22. Khawla
Several observations need to be given about the above list:

The first 16 women were wives. Numbers 17 and 18 were slaves or

concubines.

The last four women were neither wives or slaves but devout Muslim
women who "gave" themselves to satisfy Muhammad's sexual desires.

Zaynab of Jahsh was originally Muhammad's adopted son Zaid's wife.

The fact that Muhammad took her for himself has been problematic to
many people, Muslims included. (God does not break His Own Word and
He never changes His mind. Now read Sura 33:36-38).

(The vindicated prophet Moses taught under the Old Testament, that a
minister could only marry a virgin or the widow of a minister (Leviticus
21:13-15). The vindicated prophet Jesus taught under the New
Testament that an apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor or teacher can
marry only a virgin in the faith -- because he is a type of Christ Who is
uniting only with virgins to the Word.

Every prophet from Adam taught that any woman who has more than one
living husband is an adulteress, and her subsequent husband is in
adultery with her first husband as polygamy was legal only for the man --
Genesis 3:16; Romans 7:1-3).

Aesha was only eight or nine years old when Muhammad took her to his
bed. According to Hadith, she was still playing with her dolls. This facet
of Muhammad's sexual appetite is particularly distressing to Westerners.

While in Islamic countries an eight-or-nine-year-old girl can be given in

marriage to an adult male, in the West, most people would shudder to
think of an eight-or-nine-year-old girl being given in marriage to anyone.
(Although it is condoned by the Jew's Talmud).
This aspect of Muhammad's personal life is something that many
scholars pass over once again because they do not want to hurt the
feelings of Muslims. Yet, history cannot be rewritten to avoid confronting
the facts that Muhammad had unnatural desires for little girls.

Finally, Mary, the Coptic Christian, refused to marry Muhammad because

she would not renounce Christianity and embrace Islam. She bravely
chose to remain a slave rather than convert.

The documentation for all the women in Muhammad's harem is so vast

and has been presented so many times by able scholars that only those
who use circular reasoning can object to it.

Sinlessness

According to the New Testament, Jesus Christ lived a perfect and sinless
life (2 Corinthians 5:21).

When His enemies came to accuse Jesus before Pilate and Herod, they
had to invent charges because no one could find anything against Him.

But when we turn to the life of Muhammad, we find that he was a normal
human being engaged in the same sins which afflict all of us. He lied; he
cheated; he lusted; he failed to keep his word, etc. He was neither perfect
nor sinless.

A Sinful Muhammad?

After I had given a lecture on Islam at the University of Texas (Austin) in

1991, I was challenged by some Muslim students to prove that
Muhammad was a sinner

My first response was to point out that the burden of proof was not on
me but on them. I then asked, "Where in the Quran is it ever stated that
Muhammad was sinless?"

They could not refer me to a single passage in which such an idea is even
suggested, much less taught.

They demanded that I show from the Quran where Muhammad was said
to be a sinner. I answered their challenge by citing several passages from
the Quran which clearly reveal to any honest reader that Muhammad was
a sinner.

Lindemann:
The Quranic Muhammad

In Sura 18:110, and elsewhere, Muhammad is commanded by Allah:

"Say, I am but a man like yourselves."

Nowhere in the Quran is Muhammad said to be sinless. Instead, Allah

tells Muhammad that he is no different than any other man.

Those Muslims who claim that Muhammad was sinless have failed to note
Sura 40:55, where Allah told Muhammad to repent of his sins!

Muhammad Pickthal translates Sura 40:55 as saying:

"Ask forgiveness of thy sin".

The only way out of this passage is to state that Allah was wrong to ask
Muhammad to ask for forgiveness because he had nothing to forgive!

Pickthal's translation of Sura 48:1, 2 states:

"Lo! We have given thee,    

      (O Muhammad), signal victory,
that Allah may forgive thee
of past and that which is to
come, and may perfect His
favor unto thee, and guide
thee on a right path"          

Not only was Muhammad commanded to repent of his sins and to seek
forgiveness, but he was also reminded off his past sins that Allah had
already forgiven and of future sins which would need future forgiveness!

Muhammad was not sinless according to the Quran. He was just one
more poor sinner in need of forgiveness and redemption.

Many Variant Readings of the Quran

Muslims attack the Bible on the grounds that it sometimes has conflicting
wording from different manuscripts. Yet this is exactly the case with the
text of the Quran. There are many conflicting readings on the text of the
Quran as Arthur Jeffery has demonstrated in his book, Material for the
History of the Text of the Quran (New York, Russell F. Moore, 1952).

At one point Jeffery gives 90 pages of variant readings on the text. For
example, in Sura 2 there are over 140 conflicting and variant readings on
the text of the Quran.

All Western and Muslim scholars admit the presence of variant readings
in the text of the Quran (Dashti, 23 Years, p. 28; Mandudi, Meaning of the
Quran, pp. 17-18; McClintock and Strong, Cyclopedia, V152).

Guillaume points out that the Quran at first "had a large number of
variants, not always trifling in significance" (Islam, p. 189).

"It is interesting to note that in scholarly Muslim journals, there is

beginning to be a grudging acknowledgment of the fact that there are
variant and conflicting readings on the text of the Quran" (One example
would be Saleh al-Wahaihu, "A Study of Seven Quranic Variants,"
International Journal of Islamic and Arabic Studies, Vol. V (1989), #2,
pp. 1-57).

Some Verses Missing

According to Professor Guillaume in his book, Islam, (pp. 191ff.), some of

the original verses of the Quran were lost.

For example, one Sura originally had 200 verses in the days of Ayesha.
But by the time Uthman standardized the text of the Quran, it had only
73 verses! A total of 127 verses had been lost, and they have never been
recovered.

The Shiite Muslims claim that Uthman left out 25 percent of the original
verses in the Quran for political reasons (McClintock and Strong,
Cyclopedia, V:152).

That there are verses which got left out of Uthman's version of the Quran
is universally recognized (Shorter Encyclopedia off Islam, pp. 278-282;
Guillaume, Islam, p. 191; Wherry, A Comprehensive Commentary on the
Quran, pp. 110-111).
John Burton's book, The Collection of the Quran, which was published by
Cambridge University, documents how such verses were lost (London
University Press, 1977, pp. 117ff. See also Arthur Jeffery, Islam:
Muhammad and His Religion, New York; Liberal Arts Press, 1958, pp.
66-68).

Burton states concerning the Muslim claim that the Quran is perfect:

"The Muslin accounts of the history of the Quran texts are a mass of
confusion, contradiction and inconsistencies" (Burton, Collection, p.
231).

Changes in the Quran

One interesting way that some off the original verses of the Quran were
lost is that a follower of Muhammad named Abdollah Sarh would make
suggestions to Muhammad about rephrasing, adding to, or subtracting
from the Suras. Muhammad often did as Sarh suggested.

Ali Dashti explains what happened:

"Abdollah renounced Islam on the ground that the revelations, if from

God, could not be changed at the prompting of a scribe such as he. After
his apostasy he went to Mecca and joined the Qorayshites" (Dashti, 23
Years, p. 98).

It is no wonder that when Muhammad conquered Mecca one of the first

people he killed was Abdollah, for he knew too much and opened his
mouth too often.

Some Verses Abrogated

In the abrogation process spoken of earlier, verses which are

contradictory to Muslim faith and practice have been removed from the
text, such as the "satanic verses" in which Muhammad approved of the
worship of the three goddesses, the daughters of Allah.

The Arabic scholar E. Wherry comments:

"There being some passages in the Quran which are contradictory, the
Muhammadan doctors obviate any objection from thence by the doctrine
of abrogation; for they say that God in the Quran commanded several
things which were for good reasons afterwards revoked and abrogated"
(A Comprehensive Commentary on the Qurun, p. 110).

Wherry goes on to document numerous examples of verses taken out of

the Quran.

Canon Sell in his work, Historical Development of the Quran, also

comments on the practice of abrogating verses out of the Quran if they
are troublesome:

"It is to us astounding how so compromising a procedure can have been

permitted to be introduced into the system by friends and foes (Madras:
Diocesan Press, 1923, pp. 36-37).

Some Verses Added

Not only have parts of the Quran been lost, but entire verses and
chapters have been added to it.

For example, Ubai had several Suras in his manuscript of the Quran
which Uthman omitted from his standardized text.

Thus there were Qurans in circulation before Uthman's text which had
additional revelations from Muhammad that Uthman did not find or
approve of, and thus he failed to place them in his text.

No Originals

As to the claim that the original manuscript of the Quran is still in

existence, we have already pointed out there was no single "manuscript"
of the Quran.

Caesar Farah in his book on Islam, states:

"When Muhammad died there existed no singular codex of the sacred

text" (Caesar Farah, Islam: Beliefs and Observations, New York; Barrons,
1987, p. 28).

The Shorter Encyclopedia off Islam comments:

"One thing only is certain and is openly recognized by tradition, namely,

that there was not in existence any collection of revelations in the final
form, because, as long as he was alive, new revelations were being added
to the earlier ones" (p. 271).

Some of the pre-Islamic Sources for material in the Quran

Arabian Sources

The Quran repeats fanciful Arabian fables as if they were true.

"Arabic legends about the fabulous jinns fill its pages" (G.G. Pfander,
Balance of Truth, pp. 283).

"The story of the she-camel who leapt out of a rock and became a
prophet was known long before Muhammad" (Suras 7:73-77,85; 91:14;
54:29).

The story of an entire village of people who were turned into apes
because they broke the sabbath by fishing was a popular legend in
Muhammad's day (Suras 2:65; 7:163-166).

The gushing 12 springs story found in Sura 2:60 comes from pre-Islamic
legends.

In what is called the "Rip Van Winkle" story, seven men and their animals
slept for 309 years in a cave and then woke up perfectly fine (Sura
18:9-26)!

This legend is found in Greek and Christian fables as well as Arabian lore.

The fable of the pieces of four dead, cut-up birds getting up and flying
was well known in Muhammad's time (Sura 2:260).

It is also clear that Muhammad used such pre-Islamic literature as the

Saba Moallaqat of Imra'ul Cays in his composition of Suras 21:96;
29:31,46; 37:59; 54:1, and 93:1.

Sabean Sources

Muhammad incorporated parts of the religion of the Sabeans into Islam

(Encyclopedia off Islam (ed. Eliade), pp. 303ff.; International Standard
Bible Encyclopedia, pp. 1:219ff.).

He adopted such pagan rituals as:

Worshiping at Kabah

Praying five times a day towards Mecca (Muhammad chose five of the
same times the Sabeans prayed).

Fasting for part of a day for an entire month.

Eastern Religious Sources

Muhammad derived some of his ideas from Eastern religions such as

Zoroastrianism and Hinduism. All of these things were in existence long
before Muhammad was born.

The Quran records the following things which are ascribed to Muhammad
but in reality were previously known stories now attributed to him for the
first time (Sell, Studies, pp. 219ff.).

The story of a flying trip through seven heavens.

The Houries of paradise.

Azazil and other spirits coming up from Hades.

The "light" of Muhammad.

The bridge of Sirat.

Paradise with its wine, women, and song (from the Persians).

The king of death.

The peacock story.

Arab Racism

According to the literal Arabic translation of Sura 3:106, 107, on

Judgment Day, only people with white faces will be saved. People with
black faces will be damned. [This is a carnal understanding of a common
expression. The Arabic term "ibyaddat wujuhahum" literally meaning
"their faces turned white" is used as well as the term "iswaddat
wujuhahum"literally meaning "their faces turned black". These are
common expressions used among all Arabs, including the Christians,
with reference to good behavior and bad behavior, or good morals and
bad morals].

A Carnal Heaven

The Quran promises a heaven full of wine and free sex (Suras 2:25; 4:57;
11:23; 47:15).

If drunkenness and gross immorality is sinful on earth, how is it right in

Paradise?

The Quran's picture of paradise is exactly what a seventh-century pagan

Arab would have thought wonderful.

The carnal concept of a harem of beautiful women and all the wine you
can drink is in direct conflict with the spirituality and holiness of the
Biblical concept of heaven (Revelation 22:12-17).

Conclusion

While the devout Muslim believes with all of his heart that the rituals and
doctrines of Islam are entirely heavenly in origin and thus cannot have
any earthly sources, Middle East scholars have demonstrated beyond all
doubt that every ritual and belief in Islam can be traced back to pre-
Islamic Arabian culture.

In other words Muhammad did not preach anything new. Everything he

taught had been believed and practiced in Arabia long before he was
ever born. Even the idea of "only one God" was borrowed from the Jews
and the Christians. islam.htm

Lindemann:
1. The True Origin of 'Allah':
The Archaeological Record Speaks

A. The Name of God in the Bible

The God of the Old Testament is known as YHWH ()or, when pointed with
the correct vowels, Yahweh. This translates as "The Self-Existent One",
being derived from the Hebrew háwáh, meaning "to exist". As Allah is the
name of God on the Muslim Holy Scriptures, the Koran (or Quran), so
Yahweh is the Name of God in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Bible. What is
particularly interesting and significant is the fact that Yahweh never
appears as the name of of any deity outside the Bible. There is no record
anywhere of any other tribe or religion which worhipped Yahweh. The
Hebrew Name of God is unique to the Bible and its chosen people. From
this alone we may deduce that the Name "Yahweh" was not borrowed
from some other culture or religion. It emerged unquely within the Bible
revelation.

It is claimed by Muslims that Allah is the God of the Bible and that he is
mentioned in the sacred texts. This is absolutely not true. The name
"Allah" does not appear once in either the Old or New Testaments. The
only time God is referred to by name in the Old Testament is either as
YAHWEH (meaning "He (who) is") or as a contraction, YAH. [Please note
that the name "Jehovah" is not a biblical name of God but was especially
'created' by Jews afraid to pronounce the Sacred Name by combining the
consonants YHWH with the vowels from adonai, meaning "Lord"].

The word alah does exist in Hebrew but it is not a proper name and it
never refers to God. It has three principal meanings: (a) to curse, swear,
or adjure; (b) to lament (weep); and (c) to arise, ascend, climb, go away,
leap, etc.. It is an indisputable fact that ALLAH does not appear even
once as the Name of God, or even of a man, in the Hebrew Scriptures.
There is no word 'alah' or 'allah' in the Greek New Testament at all. It
was, quite simply, unknown in the Bible world. To therefore claim that
'Allah' was the name of God in the Bible is without one single shred of
evidence. God has always been known as Yahweh, or (much less
frequently) by the contraction Yah.

Muslim scholars have gone to great lengths to try and prove that the
Arabic "Allah" is, in fact, the same as the Hebrew "Eloah", which is not a
proper name and simply translates as "God". The words "El" and
"Elohim" also translate the same way, appear far more numerously than
Eloah, and may be used to designate either the true God, pagan deities,
idols, or even human judges. It is for this reason that I have heard
Muslim apologists get annoyed when other Muslins talk about "God"
instead of "Allah" because the word "God" can be applied to any
religion's god. They recognise that Allah is a proper name which
distinguishes the God of the Muslims from the God of the Jews and
Christians, or the gods of the Hindus and others. "Eloah" is, in any case,
a derivative of "El" and its plural "Elohim" which doesn't remotely sound
like "Allah". You will not find many (if any) Muslims insisting that they
worship the Hebrew Eloah - the only time they ever try to make a
connection is when trying to recruit Jews and Christians to Islam. If I
were confess that "Eloah" were my God and that Mohammed was his
prophet I doubt any Muslim would believe I had converted to Islam!

There is another El-derived word for "God" in the Old Testament which
sounds similar to Allah and that is Elah. It is only used by the prophets
Ezra, Daniel and once by Jeremiah. It is, again, not a proper name, and
actually also means an "oak tree" and was thus also used by pagans as a
title for their tree deities, i.e. idols. I doubt somehow that Muslims would
wish their Allah to be associated with an idol.

Even if the Muslim scholars were right about "Eloah" (which the evidence
strongly repudiates) we would then be faced with the problem that God
has two proper names - Yahweh and Eloah/Allah - which contradicts
God's own testimony in the Old Testament that He is only known as
Yahweh.

The Name Yahweh is enshrined in the Third Commandment:

Thou shalt not take the Name of Yahweh () thy Elohim [God] in vain"
(Ex.20:7)

The word "vain" is the Hebrew shoaw, meaning "to rush over, to bring
devastation, uselessness, or ruin". In other words, this is THE Sacred
Name above all names. This Name is not to be blasphemed (Lev.24:16)
or desicrated. It is to be treated with reverential awe because it is the
essence of the True God Himself.
The Catholics and most Protestants have blasphemed this Name by
changing it to "Jehovah" which translated "God is perverse" by mutilating
it (as described above). There is even a whole church called the
"Jehovah's Witnesses" which uses this disgusting name. The Bible
teaches from cover to cover that the true Name of God, Yahweh, is
essential to salvation. It is mentioned right at the beginning of the Bible
and is used througout. Yahweh is the creator "who made the earth and
the heavens" (Gen.2:4).

One thing most Muslims and Christians are ignorant of is that the Name
of the True God appears within the Name of Jesus. Most Christians are
rather embarrassed to learn that "Jesus" isn't the real Name of Christ at
all. If you had asked someone in New Testament times who "Jesus" was,
nobody would have known. If you had asked Mary (Miryam) is she had a
son called "Jesus" she would have stared at you blankly. The son of Mary
was not called "Jesus" but Yah'shua ().

Jesus is a Greek word. The letter "J" doesn't even exist in Hebrew. Yet the
angel Gabriel told Mary/Miriyam that the Messiah's Name, which was
given by Almighty God Himself, was of special significance. It has a
precise meaning of prophetic importance. Gabriel said that He would
receive this Name because "He shall save His people from their sins".
Every Hebrew scholar will tell you that the Name given through Gabriel
was Y'SHUA or YAH'SHUA. Literally translated this means, "YAH saves" -
and you will remember that Yah is a contraction of Yahweh.

You see, God's true Name was even preserved in the Name of the
Messiah because it is YAH / Yahweh - who saves. The Name of "Jesus"
was "YAHWEH SAVES".

The Scriptures are therefore consistent not only in preserving the true
Name of God, Yahweh, throughout, but in placing the Sacred Name in the
Messiah as well. This is no accident of of immense prophetic significance.
There are now millions of believers who now no longer use the perverse
name "Jehovah" and who use the correct name of Jesus, Yah'shua, in
order to be true to the Scriptures. I am one of them. Christians have been
guilty of obscuring the truth by adopting perverted or Hellenised Names
of Deity.

What has this to do with our discussion of Allah? The reason I have spent
so much time underscoring the Biblical Name of God is to show clearly
and finally that it has been known as Yahweh since the beginning of time.
And whilst there are certain superficial similarities in sound to the Arabic
"Allah" the meaning and historical origin is quite, quite different.

B. Origin of the Name Allah

The word "Allah" comes from the compound Arabic word, al-ilah. Al is the
definite article "the" and ilah is an Arabic word for "god", i.e. the god. We
see immediately that (a) this is not a proper name but a generic name
rather like the Hebrew El (which as we have seen was used of any deity;
and (b) that Allah is not a foreign word (as it would have been if it had
been borrowed from the Hebrew Bible) but a purely Arabic one. It would
also be wrong to compare "Allah" with the Hebrew or Greek for God (El
and Theos, respectively), because "Allah" is purely an Arabic term used
exclusively in reference to an Arabic deity.
The Encyclopedia of Religion says: "'Allah' is a pre-Islamic name ...
corresponding to the Baylonian Bel" (ed. James Hastings, Edinburgh, T. &
T. Clark, 1908, I:326).

I know that Muslims will find this hard to believe so I am now going to
make many citations and present the archaeological evidence to prove
conclusively that is true. Though this data will be painful for many of our
readers, it is necessary to face the truth. Facts are facts, and unless you
are willing to desert all logic, reason and common sense, and the
evidence of your eyes, they must be faced.

"Allah is found ... in Arabic inscriptions prior to Islam" (Encyclopedia

Britannica, I:643)
"The Arabs, before the time of Mohammed, 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, III:1093)
"The name Allah goes back before Muhammed" (Encyclopedia of World
Mythology and Legend, "The Facts on File", ed. Anthony Mercatante, New
York, 1983, I:41)
The origin 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. James Hastings,
Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1908, I:326)
Scholar Henry Preserved Smith of Harvard University stated:
"Allah was already known by name to the Arabs" (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)
Dr. Kenneth Cragg, former editor of the prestigious scholarly journal
Muslim World and an outstanding modern Western Islamic scholar,
whose works were generally published by Oxford University, comments:
The name Allah is also evident in archaeological and literary remains of
pre-Islamic Arabia" (The Call of the Minaret, New York: OUP, 1956, p.31)
Dr. W. Montgomery Watt, who was Professor of Arabic and Islamic
Studies at Edinburgh University and Visiting Professor of Islamic Studies
at College de France, georgetown University, and the University of
Toronto, has done extensive work on the pre-Islamic concept of Allah. He
concludes:
"In recent years I have become increasingly convinced that for an
adequate understanding of the career of Muhammad and the origins 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 dererves
separate treatment" (Mohammad's Mecca, p.vii. See also his article,
"Belief in a High God in pre-Islamic Mecca", Journal of Scientific Semitic
Studies, vol.16, 1971, pp.35-40)

Caesar Farah in his book on Islam concludes his discussion of the pre-
Islamic meaning of Allah by saying:
"There is no reason, therefore, to accept the idea that Allah passed to the
Muslims from the Christians and Jews" (Islam: Beliefs and Observations,
New York: Barrons, 1987, p.28)

According to Middle East scholar E.M.Wherry, whose translation of the

Koran is still used today, in pre-Islamic times Allah-worship, as well as
the worship of Baal, were both astral religions in that they involved the
worship of the sun, the moon, and the stars (A Comprehensive
Commentary on the Quran, Osnabrück: Otto Zeller Verlag, 1973, p.36).
"In ancient Arabia, the sun-god was viewed as a female goddess and the
moon as the male god. As has been pointed out by many scholars as
Alfred Guilluame, the moon god was called by various names, one of
which was Allah (op.cit., Islam, p.7)

"The name Allah was used as the personal name of the moon god, in
addition to the other titles that could be given to him.

"Allah, the moon god, was married to the sun goddess. Together they
produced three goddesses who were called 'the daughters of Allah'.
These three goddesses were called Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, and Manat.

"The daughters of Allah, along with Allah and the sun goddess were
viewed as "high" gods. That is, they were viewed as being at the top of
the pantheon of Arabian deities" (Robert Morey, The Islamic Invasion,
Eugene, Oregon, Harvest House Publishers, 1977, pp.50-51).

The Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend records:

"Along with Allah, however, they worshipped a host of lesser gods and
"daughters of Allah" (op.cit., I:61).

It is a well known fact archaeologically speaking that the cresent moon

was the symbol of worship of the moon god both in Arabia and
throughout the Middle East in pre-Islamic times. Archaeologists have
excavated numerous statues and hieroglyphic inscriptions in which a
crescent moon was seated on the top of the head of the deity to
symbolise the worship of the moon-god. Interestingly, whilst the moon
was generally worshipped as a female deity in the Ancient Near East, the
Arabs viewed it as a male deity.
In Mesopotamia the Sumerian god Nanna, named Sîn by the Akkadians,
was worshipped in particular in Ur, where he was the chief god of the city,
and also in the city of Harran in Syria, which had close religious links with
Ur. The Ugaritic texts have shown that there a moon deity was
worshipped under the name yrh. On the monuments the god is
represented by the symbol of the crescent moon. At Hazor in Palestine a
small Canaanite shrine of the late Bronze Age was discovered which
contained a basalt stele depicting two hands lifted as if in prayer to a
crescent moon, indicating that the shrine was dedicated to the moon
god.

The worship of stellar deities, instead of Yahweh, was always a

temptation faced by the Israelites (Dt.4:19; Jer.7:18; Am.5:26; Ac.7:43).
But Yahweh is at the zennith of the heavens (Job 22:12).

"The Quraysh tribe into which Mohammad was born was particularly
devoted to Allah, the moon god, and especially to Allah's three daughters
who were viewed as intercessors between the people and Allah.

"The worship of the three goddesses, Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, and Manat, played
a significant rôle in the worship at the Kabah in Mecca. The first two
daughters of Allah had names which were feminine forms of Allah.

"The literal Arabic name of Muhammad's father was Abd-Allah. His

uncle's name was Obied-Allah. These names reveal the personal devotion
that Muhammad's pagan family had to the worship of Allah, the moon
god" (op.cit., Morey, p.51).

History proves conclusively that before Islam came into existence, the
Sabbeans in Arabia worshipped the moon-god Allah who was married to
the sun-goddess. We have also seen that it was a matter of common
practice to use the name of the moon-god in personal names in
Muhammad's tribe. That Allah was a pagan deity in pre-Islamic times is
incontestible. And so we must ask ourselves the question: why was
Muhammad's God named after a pagan deity in his own tribe?
It is an undeniable fact that an Allah idol was set up at the Kabah along
with all the other idols of the time. The pagans prayed towards Mecca
and the Kabah because that is where their gods were stationed. It made
sense to them to face in the direction of their god and pray since that is
where he was. Since the idol of their moon god, Allah, was at Mecca, they
prayed towards Mecca.

As we have seen, and as is acknowledged amongst all scholars of Middle

Eastern religious history, the worship of the moon-god extended far
beyond Allah-worship in Arabia. The entire fertile crescent was involved
in moon-worship. The data falls neatly in place and we are able therefore
to understand, in part, the early success Islam had amongst Arab groups
that had traditionally worshipped Allah, the moon-god. We can also
understand that the use of the crescent moon as the symbol of Islam,
and which appears on dozens of flags of Islamic nations in Asia and
Africa, and surmounts minerets and mosque roofs, is a throwback to the
days when Allah was worshipped as the moon-god in Mecca.

Lindemann:
Educated Muslims understand these facts only too well - better, in fact,
than most Christians. Robert Morey recalls a conversation he once had:

"During one trip to Washington DC I got involved in a conversation with a

Muslim taxi driver from Iran. When I asked him, 'Where did Islam obtain
its symbol of the crescent moon?' he responded that it was an ancient
pagan symbol used throughout the Middle East and that adopting this
symbol had helped Muslims to convert people throughout the Middle
East. When I pointed out that the word Allah itself was used by the
moon-god cult in pre-Islamic Arabia, he agreed that this was the case. I
then pointed out that the religion and the Quran of Muhammad could be
explained in terms of pre-Islamic culture, customs, and religious ideas.
He agreed with this! He went on to explain that he was a university-
educated Muslim who, at this point in his life, was attempting to
understand Islam from a scholarly viewpoint. As a result, he had lost his
faith in Islam. The significance of the pre-Islamic source of the name
Allah cannot be overestimated" (op.cit., pp.52-53).

What is particularly interesting to me personally is seeing the parallels

between the evolution of Islam and the Roman Catholic Church, both of
which absorbed pagan ideas in order to make converts. Muhammad was
not alone in his plagiarisation of other religions. Bogus "Christian"
churches have done it too. Those naming the Name of Christ must accept
responsibility for similar things. And it is for this reason that this author
has renounced all counterfeit forms of Christianity and returned to the
original teachings of the Bible and to the true God, Yahweh-Elohim.
If there is one thing that has been abundantly clear in my study of
comparative religions it is this: all the major religions have different
concepts of deity. Yahweh, Allah, Vishnu and Buddha are absolutely not
the same. In other words, all religions do not worship the same God, only
under different names. That is why the use of the word "God" in
describing deity is so inadequate and why we must return to the names
of these deities to discover what they actually mean in terms of
personality and attributes. Ignoring the essential differences which
divide world religions is an insult to the uniqueness of world religions.
Yahweh, the God of the Bible, is not Allah the god of the Koran, is not
Vishnu the god of the Vedas, is not the god of the Buddhists, etc.. As we
shall see in a later article, there are fundamental differences between
Yahweh and Allah in terms of personal attributes, theology, morals,
ethics, soteriology, eschatology, theocracy, and in almost every other
respect. They represent two different spiritual worlds. And when we
discover even more of the nature of Yahweh through the revelation of
Yah'shua (Jesus) we see that the gap between the Bible and the Koran is
even wider.

I shall conclude this article with more evidence concerning the true
origin of the deity which has been incorporated into Islam as Allah.

C. Archaeology of the Moon-God

Muslims worship a deity called Allah and claim that the Allah in pre-
Islamic times was the biblical God, Yahweh, of the patriarchs, prophets,
and apostles.

Ahmed Deedat, well-known Muslim apologist, argues that Allah is a

biblical name for God on the basis of "Allelujah" which he convolutes into
"Allah-lujah" (What is His Name?, Durban, SA: IPCI, 1990, p.37). This
only reveals that he does not understand Hebrew, for haleluyah is the
contracted form of Yahweh, YAH, preceeded by the verb "to praise"
(literally, Praise Yah(weh)!). His other "biblical" arguments are equally
absurd. He also claims that the word "Allah" was never corrupted by
paganism. "Allah is a unique word for the only God ... you cannot make a
feminine of Allah", says Deedat. But what he does not tell his readers is
that one of Allah's daughters was named "Al-Lat", which is the feminine
form of "Allah"!

The issue here is therefore seen to be one of CONTINUITY for the

Muslim's claim of continuity (from Judaism to Christianity to Islam) is
essential in their attempt to convert Jews and Christians. If "Allah" is part
of the flow of divine revelation in Scripture, then it is the next step in
biblical religion. Thus we should all become Muslims. But, on the other
hand, if Allah was a pre-Islamic pagan deity, then its core claim is
refuted.

Religious claims often come to grief as a result of solid scientific,

archaeological evidence. So, instead of endlessly speculating about the
past, we can look to science to see what the evidence reveals. As we shall
see, the hard evidence demonstrates that the god Allah was a pagan
deity. In fact, he was the moon-god who was married to the sun-goddess
and the stars were his daughters.

Archaeologists have uncovered temples to the moon-god throughout the

Middle East. From the mountains of Turkey to the banks of the Nile, the
most widespread religion of the ancient world was the worship of the
moon-god. It was even the religion of the patriarch Abraham before
Yahweh revealed Himself and commanded him to leave his home in Ur of
the Chaldees and migrate to Canaan

A scene from the time of Abraham. A merchant, his wife and daughter at
the ziggurat of Ur, prayerfully watching parading
priests and musicians restore a gilded statue of the moon-god Sîn to his
temple atop the "Hill of Heaven"
Archaeologists have uncovered temples to the moon-god throughout the
Middle East (see the artistic reconstruction above based on museum
artifacts, wall paintings found in ruined cities, etc. in ancient
Mesopotamia). From the mountains of Turkey to the banks of the Nile,
the most widespread religion of the ancient world was the worship of the
moon-god.

The Sumerians, in the first literate civilisation, left thoudands of clay

tablets describing their religious beliefs. As demonstrated by Sjöberg and
Hall, the ancient Sumerians worshipped a moon-god who was called by
many different names. The most popular names were Nanna, Suen, and
Asimbabbar (Mark Hall, A Study of the Sumerian Moon-god, Sin, PhD.,
1985, University of Pennsylvania). His symbol was the crescent moon.
Given the amount of artifacts concerning the worship of this moon-god,
it is clear that this was the dominant religion in Sumeria. The cult of the
moon-god was the most popular religion throughout ancient
Mesopotamia. The Assyrians, Babylonians, and Arkkadians took the word
Suen and transformed it into the word Sîn as their favourite name for this
deity (Austin Potts, The Hymns and Prayers to the Moon-god, Sin, PhD.,
1971, Dropsie College, p.2). As Professor Potts pointed out, "Sîn is a
name essentially Sumerian in origin which had been borrowed by the
Semites" (op.cit., p.4).

Anatolian mural from Karum - notice the boxed pre-Islamic Crescent-

and-Star glyph

Another pre-Islamic crescent moon and star from the same location

Pre-Islamic and Islamic Crescent-and-Star Glyphs

Anatolian (left), Islamic (centre), Ancient Persian Moon-goddess (right)

In ancient Syria and Canna, the moon-god Sîn was usually represented
by the moon in its crescent phase. At times, the full moon was placed
inside the crescent moon to emphasise all the phases of the moon. The
sun-goddess was the wife of Sîn and the stars were their daughters. For
example, Ishtar was the daughter of Sîn (Ibid., p.7).

Sacrifices to the moon-god are described in the Ras Shamra texts (see
Ras Shamra stele from North Syria to the right). In the Ugaritic texts, the
moon-god was sometimes called Kusuh. In Persia (above right), as well
as in Egypt (left), the moon-god is depicted on wall murals and on the
heads of statutes. He was the judge of men and gods.

As a matter of fact, everywhere in the ancient world the symbol of the

crescent moon can be found on seal impressions, steles, pottery,
amulets, clay tablets, cylinders, weights, earrings, necklasses, wall
murals, and so on. In Tell-el-Obeid, a copper calf was found with crescent
moon on its forehead, the same idol the children of Israel worshipped in
the Desert of Sîn (Sînai) during the apostacy whilst Moses was on top of
the mountain getting the Ten Commandments from Yahweh. While God's
prophet (Moses) was conversing with the true God, Yahweh, the
Israelites were descending into idolatry worshipping the moon-god, Sîn!
An idol with the body of a bull and the head of a man has a crescent
inlaid on its forehead with shells. In Ur, the Stela of Ur-Nammu has the
crescent symbol placed at the top of the register of gods because the
moon god was the head of the gods. Even bread was baked in the form of
a crescent as an act of devotion to the moon-god (Ibid, pp.14-21).

Navigacija

[0] Indeks poruka

[#] Sledeća strana

[*] Prethodna strana