Allah: The Repurposed Deity of Pagan Arabia

Islam’s Central God Has Pagan Roots

The Islamic narrative insists that Allah is the one true God of Abraham, Moses, and Jesus—eternally singular, transcendent, and unique. But the evidence tells a different story. The name Allah predates Islam, and its usage in pagan Arabia points to a repurposed high god in a polytheistic context—not a revelation, but a reinvention.

Islam didn’t reveal Allah. It rebranded him.

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1️⃣ The Name “Allah” Precedes Islam

Long before Muhammad, Arabs—both pagan and Christian—used the term Allah. Inscriptions, poems, and early texts across the Arabian Peninsula show that Allah was part of the pre-Islamic religious lexicon.

• Nabataean and Safaitic inscriptions (1st century BCE to 4th century CE) use ʾl-h (or Ilah) to denote a high god.

• Pre-Islamic Christian Arabs, especially in the northern Hijaz and Syria, used Allah as the Arabic translation of the Greek Theos.

• The Quraysh tribe—Muhammad’s own—already believed in Allah as a supreme deity, but as one among many.

This is not monotheism. It’s henotheism—a high god over a pantheon.

🔍 Conclusion: “Allah” is not a unique Islamic term. It’s a recycled title, common in the polytheistic environment Muhammad was born into.

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2️⃣ Qur’anic Proof of Pre-Islamic Allah Worship

The Qur’an itself confirms that Allah was known and worshipped by pagans before Islam.

Surah 29:61:

“If you ask them who created the heavens and the earth and subjected the sun and the moon, they will surely say ‘Allah.’”

Surah 6:137:

“And thus to many of the polytheists, their ‘partners’ were made pleasing...”

These verses admit that pagan Arabs already recognized Allah as a creator deity, yet still worshipped other gods beside him. This proves that Muhammad didn’t introduce a new God—he merely stripped the existing deity of his divine partners.

This is not revelation; it is monotheistic rebranding.

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3️⃣ The Daughters of Allah: Qur’an 53:19–20

The clearest internal evidence comes from Surah 53:

“Have you considered al-Lat and al-‘Uzza, and Manat, the third—the other one?”
(53:19–20)

These were the so-called daughters of Allah, goddesses in the Meccan pantheon. The verse mocks them, but it proves that:

• Allah was understood to have divine offspring (a concept the Qur’an fiercely rejects elsewhere).

• His worship coexisted with that of female deities—common in Arabian polytheism.

Even more damning is the historical context: early Islamic biographers report that Muhammad initially acknowledged these goddesses in a now-retracted verse—the infamous Satanic Verses:

“These are the exalted cranes (gharānīq), whose intercession is to be hoped for.”

Though later removed and denounced as satanic influence (Ibn Ishaq, al-Tabari), this episode shows that Muhammad himself temporarily endorsed a pagan intercessory theology before recanting. Whether one accepts the incident or not, the presence of these goddesses in the Qur’an verifies Allah’s pagan context.

🔍 Conclusion: The Qur’an itself documents Allah as part of a pre-Islamic pagan family structure.

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4️⃣ Allah Among Many: The Kaaba’s 360 Idols

According to Islamic tradition (e.g., Sahih al-Bukhari 2478), the Kaaba in Mecca—long before Islam—housed 360 idols, with Allah as the chief deity. He was the “lord of the Kaaba”, but not alone.

Islamic sources say Muhammad destroyed these idols after his conquest of Mecca, but again—this shows Allah was already venerated. Muhammad’s innovation was to purge his divine rivals, not introduce a new deity.

🔍 Conclusion: Allah was Mecca’s high god, not its only god. Islam didn’t reveal Allah—it monopolized him.

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5️⃣ No Connection to the Biblical God—Only an Assumption

Muslim apologists insist that Allah is simply the Arabic name for the Biblical God, El, Elohim, or Theos. But this is a theological assumption, not a historical fact.

• The character of Allah in the Qur’an differs significantly from Yahweh:

  • Allah is unknowable, unincarnate, and utterly transcendent.

  • Yahweh speaks directly, enters into covenants, appears to prophets, and walks with men (Genesis 3:8, Exodus 33:11).

• The Biblical God never had daughters, nor did He share the Kaaba.

• Allah denies the Trinity, incarnation, and divine sonship—core to the Biblical God's revelation.

So while the names El and Allah may share a linguistic root (ʾl-h, meaning “god”), the identity and nature of these deities are not the same.

🔍 Conclusion: Similar sound ≠ same god. Islam redefined God on its own terms, contradicting the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

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Final Verdict: A Repurposed Pagan Deity

The Islamic Allah:

• Existed in pagan Mecca

• Had daughters (per Qur’an 53:19–20)

• Was worshipped alongside other gods

• Was known to the Quraysh before Muhammad

• Was redefined, not revealed

Islam didn’t restore monotheism. It repurposed a pagan high god, recast him as the sole deity, and rebranded this redefinition as “pure” tawhid.

This is not divine continuity. It’s theological plagiarism.