Part 2, The True Origin of 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 GlyphsAnatolian (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 fromYahweh. 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).

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 was excavated in Ur by Sir Leonard Woolley. He dug up many examples of moon-worship that are now displayed in the British Museum. Harran was likewise noted for its devotion to the moon-god. An example of the Babylonian moon-god is shown to the right. Note the presence of the crescent.

In the 1950’s a major temple to the moon-god was excavated at Hazor in Palestine. Two idols of the moon-god were found. Each was a statue of a man sitting upon a throne with a crescent moon carved into his chest (below left). The accompanying inscriptions make it clear that these were idols of the moon-god (below right). The worship tablet found at the same sight (left) shows arms outstretched towards the Moon-god here represented by the full moon within the crescent moon. Several smaller statues were also found which were identified by their inscriptions as the daughters of the moon-god. These are illustrated in the collection of photographs (below right).

via NCCG.ORG New Covenant Church of God – B’rit Chadashah Assembly of Yahweh – New Covenant Ministries Islam Page – 1. The True Origin of ‘Allah’: The Archaeological Record Speaks.

Categories: Christian misconceptions