Oliver...

Submitted by Taj (United States), Jan 25, 2008 at 02:14

Oliver - actually, I made no mention of the idols in the Kaaba, however since you brought it up, in the tradition that relates that there were 360 of them, there is not a single detail that states that one of them was dedicated to any moon god. There is one scholar who put forth details of these idols, Karen Armstrong, who contends that each idol simply represented a day of the year. Outside of this speculation, there actually are no details, however in your incredulity or speculation, I welcome you to identify one of them as such...please include sources if you do, thanks.

Additionally, I would point out that there was never an idol dedicated to Allah. For example, as you mention that Allah was greater than "the other 359 idols", notice that Muhammad destroyed all 360. Also notice that nowhere will you find any scholarly reference to any idol dedicated to Allah nor any description of what any such idol even looked like. Hence, the assumption that He was represented by an idol is purely conjectural.

You hear that Jews and Christians who speak Arabic refer to God as "Allah" because it a postulate supported by weighty evidence. First, in the arabic language, the word for "god" is "ilah", and in the same way that a capital "G" denotes the supreme diety as opposed to a simpler reference to any diety of concept thereof, the arabic language uses the article "al" to create the proper name as well.

Second, as for proving it, I submit 2 points: first, there is no argument that present arab Jews and Christians refer to God as "Allah", and arabic texts of jewish and christian scriptures do so as well. To this point you can only attempt to determine - or even argue - when this general usage occurs, which would then cause you to have to study arab texts of both traditions - which, second, will at least lead you to conclude that at least as early as the 9th century, the arabic Bible was extant and it uses the word Allah for God (see Mt Sinai codex 151)...Now, in absence of any arab text or proof to contradict the above postulate/evidence, the protests to the assertion aren't very strong...

Lastly, I would point that it seems you are not familiar with the arab christian reference to God. Arab Christians do indeed refer to Jesus as God similarly to english references - they refer to him as "allah al ibn" (lit. "god the son")...

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