Question Answered

The Christian acquaintance who sent me a copy of Morey's booklet also sent me five questions related to this subject. I will attempt to answer them below:

Question 1:

What is the significance of the crescent moon in Islam?

Answer:

The Qur'ân answers this question before you asked it. Read this verse:

They ask you about the new moons. Say: These are signs to mark fixed periods of time for mankind and for the pilgrimage
(Qur'ân 2:189).

Question 2:

Why does Islam follow a lunar calendar?

Answer:

In both the Bible and the Qur'ân religious festivals are regulated by the lunar calendar. Jews and Muslims have kept to these regulations which they believe to be from God. Why does Christianity follow a solar calendar?

Question 3:

Why is the feast of Ramadan marked by the appearance of the crescent moon?

Answer:

I think you mean the fast of Ramadan. God commanded Muslims in the Qur'ân to fast from dawn to sunset during the month called Ramadan (see Qur'ân 2:185, 187). The beginning and end of the month is determined by the crescent (2:189) based on the instruction of God's Messenger, on whom be peace.

Why this method and not another is not for us to say but for God and His Messenger to prescribe. However, I find it an efficient method. It is a universally applicable method, and it allows for Ramadan to move through all the seasons. This allows believers to have the pleasure of worshipping God by fasting in all the various seasons: one year in the summer, some years later in the winter.

Question 4:

Why does the Qur'ân place the Sabeans on the same level with Jews and Christians when scholars have clearly proven that the Sabeans were involved in the moon cult?

Answer:

I am not aware that the Qur'ân has placed the Sabeans on the same level with Jews and Christians. Perhaps you have in mind the following verse:

Those who believe and those who are Jews and Christians and Sabians, whoever believes in Allâh and the Last Day and do righteous good deeds shall have their reward with their Lord. On them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.
(Qurpan 2:62; also 5:69).

This verse, however, does not place the Sabeans on the same level as the Jews and Christians except in a particular context. The verse speaks of four distinct communities, and offers all four the opportunity to fear not nor grieve if only they would believe in Allâh and the Last Day and do right. The four communities are:

(a) the Believers (i.e., the Muslims)

(b) the Jews

(c) the Christians and

(d) the Sabeans.

While they are all offered the same opportunity for improvement, nothing, is said in this verse about the validity of the existing faiths of these four communities. Otherwise the Jews and Christians who are criticized in the Qur'ân for their deviations will not be placed on the same level with the believers. The matter becomes clear when you realise that believers here does not mean saved persons but those who ostensibly belong to the community of Muslims. They, as well as the other three groups, must do the following to be saved: believe in Allâh, believe in the Last Day, and do right. Doing right, according to the Qur'ân, includes following every teaching of Muhammad.

Questions 5:

Did the Meccans worship the true God since they recognized Allâh? Was Allâh one of the gods of the Ka'bah? And if so, where did the Meccans derive the recognition and the name of Allâh from?

Answer:

First, Allâh was not one of the 360 idols which were in the Ka'abah, although Morey has claimed this without evidence. When the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) entered Meccah victorious he went into the Ka'abah and broke the idols therein.

Allâh to the Arabs was the Lord of the Ka'abah. He was the unseen God whom they would call upon when in distress. Yes, they worshipped the true God but their worship was not purely for Him. They also worshipped other gods thinking that they would act as intermediaries between them and the true God Allâh.

The Arabs know of Allâh because Abraham visited Meccah and together with his son Ishmael laid the foundation of the Ka'abah. The descendants of Ishmael retained some of the worship rites and beliefs from Abraham. This included their knowledge of the true God Allâh.

Elsewhere I have shown conclusively that the true god El of the Bible is the same as Allâh of the Qur'ân. Please refer to Yahweh, Jehovah, or Allâh-What is God's real name? by Shabir Ally.


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Works Cited
Asimov, Isaac.Asimovs Guide to the Bible (US, Avon, 1968).

Boyd, Robert T.Tells, Tombs and Treasure (US, Bonanza Books, 1969).

Chick, Jack T.Allâh had No Son (US, Chick Publications, 1994).

Keller, Werner. The Bible As History (US, Hodder and Stoughton, 1980).

Keller, Werner. The Bible As History in Pictures (US, William Morrow and Company, 1964).

Magnusson, Magnus. Archaeology Of The Bible (US, Simon and Schuster, 1977).

Morey, Robert. The Islamic Invasion (US, Harvest House, 1992).

Morey, Robert. The Moon-God Allâh in The Archaeology of the Middle East (Newport, PA., Research & Education Foundation, 1994).

Schonfield, Hugh J.The Passover Plot (US, Bantam, 1965).

St.Clair-Tisdall, W.The Sources of Islam (Scotland, T & T.Clark, no date).

The New American Bible (US, Catholic Book Publishing Co., 1986).


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Appendix

Robert Morey's Deceptive Methods

His Use of False Quotations and Other Dishonest Tactics to Prove that Allâh is a Moon-god. Adapted from the book Common Questions People Ask About Islam by Shabir Ally

Questions 7

Dr.Robert Morey proves in his book that Allâh is the name of the moon god worshipped in Arabia before Islam. Is he right?

Answer

The book you refer to is entitled The Islamic Invasion: Confronting the World's Fastest Growing Religion. The author, Dr. Robert Morey, sees Islam as an invasion into North America and a threat to his religious heritage. Unfortunately, Dr.Morey has resorted to dishonest tactics in combatting Islam. To prove his contention that Allâh is not the God of Christians and Jews, he quoted from several books in such a dishonest fashion that the quotations say the opposite of what we find in those books.

Dr. Morey quoted from the Encyclopedia Britannica to support his case. But in fact the Encyclopedia says:

Allâh is the standard Arabic word for "God" and is used by Arab Christians as well as by Muslims (Britannica, 1990 Edition, vol.1, p.276).

Dr. Morey also quoted from H A R Gibb to support his case. But Gibb actually says the opposite. In his book Mohammedanism, Gibb says on page 26 that both Muhammad and his opponents believed in the existence of a supreme God Allâh. Gibb further explained this on pages 37-38. Dr.Morey should have checked his references more carefully before his book went into print.

Dr. Morey said that Alfred Guillaume agrees with him, and he refers to page 7 of Alfred Guillaume's book entitled Islam. But here is what Alfred Guillaume actually says on page 7 of his book:

In Arabia Allâh was known from Christian and Jewish sources as the one God, and there can be no doubt whatever that he was known to the pagan Arabs of Mecca as the supreme being.

How could Dr.Morey misquote like this?

Dr. Morey quoted from page 28 of a book by another non-Muslim writer Caesar Farah. But when we refer to that book we find that Dr. Morey gave only a partial quotation which leaves out the main discussion. The book actually says that the God who was called II by the Babylonians and El by the Israelites was called ilah, al-ilah, and eventually Allâh in Arabia. Farah, says further on page 31 that before Islam the pagans had already believed that Allâh is the supreme deity. Of course they had 360 idols, but, contrary to Dr. Morey's assertion, Allâh was never one of the 360 idols. As Caesar Farah points out on page 56, the Prophet Muhammad, on whom be peace, personally destroyed those idols.

Dr. Morey also quoted from William Montgomery Watt. But Watt says on page 26 of his book that the Arabic word Allâh is similar to the Greek term ho theos which we know is the way God is referred to in the New Testament.

Dr.Morey quoted from Kenneth Cragg's book entitled The Call of the Minaret. However, on page 36 of Kenneth Cragg's book we find the following:

Since both Christian and Muslim faiths believe in One supreme sovereign Creator-God, they are obviously referring when they speak of Him, under whatever terms, to the same Being.

Further on the same page, Cragg explains that the One whom the Muslims call Allâh is the same One whom the Christians call 'the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.' although the two faiths understand Him differently.

Dr. Morey should know that as a scholar he has the academic obligation to quote honestly. He should also know that as a follower of Jesus, on whom be peace, he has an obligation to speak the truth.