The Quran claims that the pagans of Muhammads time believed that Allah was
the creator and owner of the heavens and earth:
Say: Unto Whom (belongeth) the earth and whosoever is therein, if ye have knowledge?
They will say: Unto Allah. Say: Will ye not then remember? Say: Who is Lord of the seven
heavens, and Lord of the Tremendous Throne? They will say: Unto Allah (all that
belongeth). Say: Will ye not then keep duty (unto Him)? Say: In Whose hand is the dominion
over all things and He protecteth, while against Him there is no protection, if ye have
knowledge? They will say: Unto Allah (all that belongeth). Say: How then are ye bewitched?
S. 23:84-89
And if thou wert to ask them: Who created the heavens and the earth, and constrained
the sun and the moon (to their appointed work)? they would say: Allah. How then are they
turned away? Allah maketh the provision wide for whom He will of His bondmen, and
straiteneth it for whom (He will). Lo! Allah is Aware of all things. And if thou wert to
ask them: Who causeth water to come down from the sky, and therewith reviveth the earth
after its death? they verily would say: Allah. Say: Praise be to Allah! But most of them
have no sense. S. 29:61-63
If thou shouldst ask them: Who created the heavens and the earth? they would answer:
Allah. Say: Praise be to Allah! But most of them know not. S. 31:25
The Quran says that the problem of the pagans was to associate other deities with Allah:
They assign unto Allah, of the crops and cattle which He created, a portion, and they
say: "This is Allah's" - in their make-believe - "and this is for (His)
partners in regard to us." Thus that which (they assign) unto His partners in them
reacheth not Allah and that which (they assign) unto Allah goeth to their (so-called)
partners. Evil is their ordinance. S. 6:136
Allah hath not chosen any son, nor is there any god along with Him; else would each god
have assuredly championed that which he created, and some of them would assuredly have
overcome others. Glorified be Allah above all that they allege. S. 23:91
And verily, if thou shouldst ask them: Who created the heavens and the earth? they will
say: Allah. Say: Bethink you then of those ye worship beside Allah, if Allah willed some
hurt for me, could they remove from me His hurt; or if He willed some mercy for me, could
they restrain His mercy? Say: Allah is my all. In Him do (all) the trusting put their
trust. S. 39:38
The Quran further states that their reason for worshiping these other gods was so that
they might get closer to Allah:
Surely pure religion is for Allah only. And those who choose protecting friends beside
Him (say): We worship them only that they may bring us near unto Allah. Lo! Allah will
judge between them concerning that wherein they differ. Lo! Allah guideth not him
who is a liar, an ingrate. S. 39:3
However, there are other references which indicate that the unbelievers did not
view Allah as the supreme god, but believed he was just one of many rival deities. For
instance, the Quran claims that Muhammads antagonists did not worship his god Allah:
Say: 'O unbelievers, I serve not what you serve and you are not serving what I
serve, nor am I serving what you have served, neither are you serving
what I serve. To you your religion, and to me my religion!' S. 109:1-6 Arberry
Muhammad is even warned from insulting their gods lest they insult his deity:
Revile not those unto whom they pray beside Allah lest they wrongfully revile Allah
through ignorance. Thus unto every nation have We made their deed seem fair. Then unto
their Lord is their return, and He will tell them what they used to do. S. 6:108
The above texts make no sense if the Quran is correct that the pagans worshiped Allah
as the supreme deity. After all, why would they insult the high god of their pantheon and
how could they be accused of not serving Allah if in fact they believed he was the creator
of all and that they only worshiped other gods in order to get closer to him?
These verses only make sense if the pagans did not worship Allah or did not view him as
the Supreme Being, but believed he was only one among many rival deities.
The following narrative provides additional substantiation that the pagans viewed Allah
as one among many gods, that is assuming that they did believe in Allah:
Abu Sufyan said, "Our victory today is a counterbalance to yours in the
battle of Badr, and in war (the victory) is always undecided and is shared in turns by the
belligerents, and you will find some of your (killed) men mutilated, but I did not urge my
men to do so, yet I do not feel sorry for their deed" After that he started reciting
cheerfully, "O Hubal, be high!" On that the Prophet said (to his
companions), "Why don't you answer him back?" They said, "O Allah's
Apostle! What shall we say?" He said, "Say, Allah is Higher and more
Sublime." (Then) Abu Sufyan said, "We have the (idol) Al Uzza, and you
have no Uzza." The Prophet said (to his companions), "Why don't you
answer him back?" They asked, "O Allah's Apostle! What shall we say?" He
said, "Say Allah is our Helper and you have no helper." (Sahih al-Bukhari,
Volume 4, Book 52,
Number 276)
The above tradition poses problems for the Muslim view that the pagans believed Allah
was superior to the rest of the gods. Abu Sufyans comments presuppose that Allah was
either one among many deities or that he was a foreign god who could be defeated by their
gods. After all, Abu Sufyan attributed the victory over Muhammad to his god Hubal and the
goddess Uzza, suggesting that at least in his mind these gods were equal, if not superior,
to Allah. Abu Sufyan apparently felt that Allah could be challenged and defeated.
Now wouldnt this support the fact that the pagans didn't see Allah as the
unrivaled and supreme deity?(1)
With the foregoing in perspective, it is rather interesting to read the following
amusing comments by some Muslim polemicists:
It is hard to see how this tradition poses "problems" for Muslims. In fact,
this tradition clearly refutes the missionaries' claim that Allah and Hubal were identical.
Furthermore, Abu Sufyan, the chieftain of the Quraysh, became a Muslim in 8 AH just
a few days before the liberation of Makkah, after a personal council with the Prophet.[15]
He swallowed his pride and admitted that:
By God, I thought that had there been any God with God, he would have continued to help
me.[16]
In other words, Hubal and al-Uzza which Abu Sufyan had proclaimed as gods
neither assisted nor helped him to defeat the Muslims. He then accepted Allah as the one,
supreme God beside whom there exists no other god. Furthermore, he was also personally
involved in the smashing of the idol of Allat, one of the so called daughters of
Allah (M S M Saifullah & Abdullah David, Is Hubal The Same As Allah?;
source)
There are several problems with the above assertions.(2)
First, the writers have confused a question of fact with a question of relevance
since Abu Sufyans conversion is irrelevant to the issue of his initially believing
that Hubal and Uzza could rival Allah in battle.
This leads us to the second problem with the authors claims. There is nothing
stated by Abu Sufyan which denies that the pagans initially believed that their gods were
equal to and rivaled Allah. In fact, his purported statements actually support the view
that they didnt consider Allah to be the unrivaled sovereign of all. Abu
Sufyans conclusion that Allah alone is god in light of the failure of his gods to
help him presupposes that he initially believed that these idols were Allahs equals
and could help the pagans fight against Allah and the Muslims. Note how this works out:
Abu Sufyan believed that his gods could assist him against Muslims and their god Allah.
The Muslims defeated and prevailed against Abu Sufyan, leading the latter to conclude
that his gods do not exist.
This, therefore, shows that as long as Abu Sufyan believed that his gods existed he did
not feel that Allah was greater than them, but actually thought that these other deities
could defeat Allah and his followers.
Finally, the authors have managed to bring to light an additional contradiction within
the Islamic corpus. According to what they have quoted, Abu Sufyan came to the conclusion
that the gods worshiped by the Meccans, such as the daughters of Allah which included the goddess
al-Uzza, do not exist. Yet according to other narratives, Muhammad believed that they did
exist and even sent one of his followers to kill al-Uzza:
In this year, five nights before the end of Ramadan, Khalid al-Walid destroyed
al-Uzza in the lowland of Nakhlah. Al-Uzza was an idol of the Banu Shayban, a
subdivision of Sulaym, allies of the Banu Hashim. The Banu Asad b. Abd al-Uzza
used to say it was their idol. Khalid set out for it, and then he said, "I have
destroyed it." [The Messenger of God] said, "Did you see anything?"
"No," said Khalid. "Then," he said, "go back and destroy it."
So Khalid returned to the idol, destroyed its temple, and broke the idol. The keeper
began saying, "Rage, O Uzza, with one of thy fits of rage!"whereupon
a naked, wailing Ethiopian woman came out before him. Khalid killed her and took her
jewels that were on her. Then he went to the Messenger of God and gave him a report of
what happened. "That was al-Uzza," he said, "and al-Uzza
will never be worshiped [again]."
According to Ibn Humayd Salamah Ibn Ishaq, who said: The Messenger of God
sent Khalid b. al-Walid to [deal with] al-Uzza, who was at Nakhlah. She was a temple
venerated by the tribes of Quraysh, Kinanah, and all Mudar. Her keepers were of the Banu
Shayban, a division of the Banu Sulaym, allies of the Banu Hashim. When the master of the
temple heard that Khalid was coming to deal with al-Uzza, he hung his sword on her
and climbed the mountain near which al-Uzza was located. As he went up he said:
O Uzza, attack with an attack that hits no vital place,
against Khalid! Throw down thy veil, and gird up thy train!
O Uzza, if today thou wilt not slay Khalid,
bear a swift punishment, or become a Christian!
Having reached al-Uzza, Khalid destroyed her and returned to the Messenger of
God. (The History of al-Tabari: The Victory of Islam, translated by Michael
Fishbein [State University of New York Press (SUNY), Albany 1997], Volume 8, pp. 187-188;
bold emphasis ours)
How, then, could Abu Sufyan deny the existence of these gods when his own prophet
believed that such beings did exist?
In conclusion, it is apparent from the foregoing data that both the Quran and the
Islamic tradition are confused regarding whether the pagans worshiped Allah or not.
Certain citations say that they did worship Allah and believed he was the supreme creator
of all, whereas other references claim that they didnt serve him and/or didnt
believe that he was the supreme god of all. Rather, they thought that Allah was either a
foreign god or one among many equal deities.
(1) A Muslim may argue that these passages are not including all of
the Meccan pagans, but only some of them. They may wish to say that the verses
are merely stating that there were some (if not many) pagans who may have doubted
that Allah was the supreme deity.
The problem with this assertion is that the verses do not make such
a qualification but speak of the pagans in general, i.e. the texts do not say
that only some, or perhaps many, of the pagans denied that Allah was
the high god who was sovereign over the rest. The language of the Quran
clearly includes all of the pagans.
Had the author of the Quran wanted to make sure that the reader wouldn't
assume that s/he was referring to all the pagans s/he could have qualified
his/her statements, much like s/he did in the following texts:
Can ye (o ye men of Faith) entertain the hope that they will believe in you?
- Seeing that a party of them heard the Word of God, and
perverted it knowingly after they understood it. S. 2:75 Y. Ali
Is it not (the case) that every time they make a covenant, some party
among them throw it aside? - Nay, Most of them are faithless. And
when there came to them an apostle from God, confirming what was with them,
a party of the people of the Book threw away the Book of God
behind their backs, as if (it had been something) they did not know!
S. 2:100-101 Y. Ali
The foregoing examples show that if the author only meant that some, if not
many, of the pagans didn't view Allah as the highest and unrivaled god s/he
could have formulated the references in the following manner:
Say: 'O unbelievers, I serve not what some of you serve
and some of you are not serving what I serve, nor am I serving
what some of you have served, neither are some of you
serving what I serve. To you your religion, and to me my religion!'
Revile not those unto whom some of them pray beside Allah
lest some of them wrongfully revile Allah through ignorance.
Or:
Say: 'O unbelievers, I serve not what a party among you serve
and some of you are not serving what I serve, nor am I serving
what a party among you have served, neither are some of
you serving what I serve. To you your religion, and to me my religion!'
Revile not those unto whom a party among them pray beside
Allah lest they wrongfully revile Allah through ignorance.
But unfortunately for the Muslims this is not what s/he wrote. As it stands,
these verses have been framed in such a way as to leave no doubt that the author
of the Quran intended to include all of the pagans without exception.
(2) This response from Islamic Awareness was in reference to my claim that if
this particular hadith regarding Abu Sufyan is submitted as proof that Hubal wasnt
Allah in pre-Islamic times then it must also be taken as evidence against Allah being
the supreme God of all. Instead of addressing the issue, the authors decided to bring up
the red herring of Abu Sufyans conversion to Islam! However, this fails to address
at all my point that Abu Sufyans statements presuppose that the pagans before Islam
considered their gods such as Hubal as being equal to, if not greater than, Allah.
Hence, either the IA team must accept the fact that this narration refutes the claim of
the Quran that the pagans believed Allah was the supreme sovereign god over all, or must
concede the point we made that this report is not recounting actual history but is reading
back into Muhammads time later theological and polemical ideas and views. As such,
it doesnt tell us anything about Allahs identity in pre-Islamic times, i.e.
whether Allah was a name for Hubal, the chief god of Mecca and the Quraysh, or a separate
deity altogether.
The following excerpt is from John Haydock’s Catholic Commentary on the Holy Bible on 1 John 5 5:7. It was compiled by the late Rev. Fr. George Leo Haydock. The commentary can be accessed online: Haydock Commentary Online. All emphasis will be mine.
Ver. 7. There are three
I will be examining particular texts that seem to point to the punishment of unbelievers being an ongoing, never-ending experience of torment. This is known as the doctrine of eternal/everlasting conscious torment (ECT).
Synoptic Gospels
The Lord Jesus often described the punishment of the wicked as a “place” of
