Archeologists 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?
