Hubal and Dhu Shara

[pembuka kedok setan]

Hubal and Dhu Shara

There are two deities that are also relevant to this argument: Hubal and Dhu
Shara.

Dhu Shara or more correctly Dhu 'sh-Shara which means "pertaining to
ash-Shara" has an obvious connection to the term Asherah of the Bible. It is
a deity that was worshipped by the Nabateans in their capital of Petra. He
was represented by a four-cornerd block of unhewn black stone four feet in
height and two feet in width. The blood of sacrificial victims was poured
upon it and before it. Underneath it stood a golden pedestal and the whole
sanctuary blazed with gold and votive offerings (ERE vol. 1. p. 663). The
Greek records show this deity as Dusares. Epiphaneus says the festival of
Dusares was celebrated at Petra on the 25th December which was the winter
solstice. The ERE acknowledges it as a connection with sun worship (ibid)
(cf. the paper The Origins of Christmas and Easter (No. 235)).

In the centre of the home of the cult As sherah (hence The Groves) he was
identified with Dionysus. The connection of the cult with luxuriant
vegetation is also that of sun worship in the cycles. This god became
represented by an idol among the tribe of Daus not far from Mecca.

The black stone of Dusares or Dionysus the god of the Nabateans at Petra was
taken to the Ka'aba and became the cult focus there that even Muhammed would
fail to remove. It subsequently became adopted by Hadithic Islam and the
worship of a pagan god has become the centre of the Meccan pilgrimage.

The second God to come from the North was that of Hubal. 'Amr b. Luhai is
understood to have brought his idol to Mecca from Moab (Ma'ab) and placed it
in the Ka'aba. It was originally of human form. It had with it divining
arrows for divination.

The Kalb tribe of the Syrian Desert used the name of Hubal for a person or
clan and they also used Isaf and Na'ila, which were two other deities
peculiar to Mecca.

'Amr b. Luhai is held to be the representative of the Huza'a which was the
tribe to occupy Mecca before the Quraish (ERE ibid p. 664).

We might thus deduce that the Huza'a introduced the pagan cults to Mecca
although

Nöldeke considers it improbable that 'Amr B. Luhai should be credited with
this move but does not specify the reason, leaving us to infer that it
preceded him

The word El was used by earlier Arabs as a single name for the deity as
simply God in the same way it is used in the Bible. The word became iyal as
a plural form of majesty.

In the same way the word for Lord, Baal, as The Lord became a name of the
deity and appears commonly in the Semitic system. The verb ba'ila (to be
bewildered) means in effect to seize for the God Ba'al (probably also our
bail).

In the Saifa inscriptions the word Hallah meaning The God enters the
composition of the various personal names of the Nabateans and many various
Northern Arabs at a very early time. Forms such as Zaid Allahi or increase
of God, etc., are found from an early time and the word was in use among
even the pre-Islamic and Heathen Arabs. Allah became a common use among the
various idiomatic phrases in common use among the heathen Arabs. The Koran
itself is the evidence for the view that the pre-Islamic and heathen Arabs
themselves regarded Allah as the Supreme Being. They turn to Allah when in
distress (Surahs x. 23; xxix. 65; xxxi. 31). Solemn oaths are sworn in his
name (S. vi. 109; xvi. 40; xxxv. 40). He is recognized by mankind as the
Creator, and Giver of rain (xxxi. 61 ff). Their crime is that they worship
other gods beside Him; namely the three goddesses Al Lat, Al Uzza and Manat
who are believed to be His daughters (xvi. 59 ff).

Wellhausan cites a large number of passages in which pre-Islamic Arabs
mention Allah as a great deity. There are so many that even if we strike
some out as suspicious there are so many as to establish beyond doubt that
the term Allah is a pre-Muhammedan term.

The term is the common name for God among all Arabs, heathen and otherwise.
Yet despite the evidence Wellhausen then goes on to try and establish a link
that says the name Allah is derived from the worship of the Moabite Hubal.
This seems to be a religious bias with no basis in historical fact that one
can readily see. In fact the evidence is quite the contrary.

It is from Wellhausen that the false argument is derived (ERE ibid).

The confusion in the names comes from the danger of a little knowledge of
some based on an error by Wellhausen.

Because we repeatedly find the name of a deity followed by the title Alaha,
or the god, Wellhausen argued that the Arabs of a later age might have
applied the epithet Allah as the God to a number of different deities and
that, in this manner, from being a mere appendage to the name of a great
god, may gradually have become the name of the Supreme God.

This argument is appalling reasoning ignoring the text of the Bible and the
ancient linguistic forms concerning the names of God in the Hebrew,
Chaldean, Aramaic and Arabic languages.