Pre Islamic Monotheism

Harvard Divinity School
Pre-Islamic Monotheism in Arabia

Author(s): Hamilton A. R. Gibb
Source: The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Oct., 1962), pp. 269-280
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Harvard Divinity School
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PRE-ISLAMIC MONOTHEISM IN ARABIA
HAMILTON A. R. GIBB
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
THE search for the presumed "sources" of Muhammad's religious

ideas, as these are expressed in the Qur'an, has inspired a con-
siderable range of studies, varying in tone from tentative to
polemical. Most writers on the topic seek to demonstrate either
a predominantly Jewish or a predominantly Christian "influence."
It is relatively easy, of course, to compile a catena of passages
from the Qur'an which can be paralleled by Scriptural texts or
by haggadic or apocryphal materials or compared with the prac-
tices of Jewish or Christian communities. The argument tends to
become inconclusive on the whole; Jewish scholars who argue for
a Jewish source or sources are apt to forget that the Old Testa-
ment was as much a part of Christian as of Jewish Scripture and
that even haggadic supplements had long since been taken up
into Christian writings; Christian scholars who argue for a Chris-
tian source or sources are somewhat embarrassed by Muhammad's
decisive rejection of Christological doctrine; and each side can
produce valid arguments against the other.
Muslim doctrine, for its part, has never denied a relationship
of Islam with Judaism and Christianity and their community of
origin (and, to a certain extent, of historical tradition), but ex-
plicitly rejects any "influence" from either side on the Qur'an,
declaring it to be the verbally inspired Word of God, directly
communicated to the Prophet by angelic mediation. Parallels
and deviations from the earlier Scriptures therefore need no ex-
planation. For myself, I unhesitatingly accept the term 'Revela-
tion' (in Arabic tanzil, "sending down" or waky, "inner com-
munication") as the description of Muhammad's personal experi-
ence, although Islam, like the other monotheistic religions, is
faced with the necessity of reinterpreting the no longer tenable
mediaeval concepts of 'revelation.'
Even on the basis of the orthodox Muslim view, however, there
is still room for an investigation of the 'prehistory' of Islam in
the Arabian peninsula. If the teaching of the Qur'an was to be
270 HARVARD THEOLOGICAL REVIEW
understood by its first hearers, as is rightly ass

scholarship, there must have been not only i
widely enough known in Mecca, an Arabic rel
applicable to the monotheistic content of the
vocabulary, by its use in the Qur'an, was merg
mon stock of classical Arabic, the problem th
scured for the Muslim scholars, even when they
a number of Qur'anic terms were of non-Arabic
Qur'an itself is a case in point. Whether or n
existed in Arabic in the sense of 'to read,' the te
Qur'an in its primitive use as "liturgical recit
trays an external source, somehow related to the
It is self-evident that these elements of technica
lary could have come only from the language of
monotheistic communities; it is not surprising t
examination they prove to be almost wholly o
origin (including terms of Greek or Persian or
Syriac), although a considerable proportion ap
tered the Qur'anic vocabulary indirectly through
Arabian channels. Equally significant is the ob
number of these terms were already Arabized, o
Arabic semantics. Injil, 'gospel,' Mfisd, 'Moses
are examples of the first; tazakkd, 'purify o
alms)' and the terms associated with baraka '
amples of the second. Since the original langu
to classical North-Arabian and had parallel
there is, of course, every excuse for the Arab
failing to recognize many of them as loanwor
technical sense.
Although a number of these loanwords are common to Christian
Syriac and Jewish Aramaic, detailed comparative study may help
to determine the Christian or Jewish coloring of their source in
Arabic - not of their use in the Qur'an. (Only in the early
Medinian suras of the Qur'an is there evidence of direct adoption
of Hebrew terms in certain special contexts.) It is a far cry from
1 Cf. A. Jeffery, The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur'an (Baroda, 1938), 233-234,
and the Introduction to the same work, pp. 2-12, for the argument among Muslim
scholars for and against the presence of foreign terms in the Qur'an.
PRE-ISLAMIC MONOTHEISM IN ARABIA 271
this, however, to infer that pre-Islamic monotheism

directly connected with the institutionally organi
Christian communities. Such communities certain
Arabia, but there is considerable evidence both from
and from external sources that other monotheisti
to be found in Arabia, independently of the organ
and hence 'heretical' in their eyes. Such groups m
offshoots not only of Christianity, but also of Judais
Christian.2 The relation of Islam to the official Jew
tian churches and doctrines via these deviant gro
some extent parallel to that between the early Ch
and orthodox Judaism. The 'prehistory' of Christi
been almost miraculously illuminated by the dis
Essene documents, which demonstrate that several
tural elements and rituals in Christianity were relat
adoption or by rejection or reinterpretation, to thos
Sea community. It is improbable that the 'prehistory
Arabia will ever be revealed in such detail, and the
reduced to the fragments preserved in the Islamic tra
Qur'an itself. The much-disputed problem of iden
whom the Islamic tradition calls hanifs displays at on
the existence of such groups and the slender nature o
for their character. Furthermore, there are many
Qur'an which relate evidently to a prophetic tra
purely Arabian, even while it links on to the Jewish
traditions. In these circumstances, it is absurd to pos
as a hypothesis, a "Jewish foundation" for Islam
"Christian environment" has the merit of being at l
tive, and leaves room for an intermediate group or g
While the existence of a group or groups repres
monotheistic tradition can be regarded as historica
2There are numerous discussions of the possible r61e of su

Collyridians and Docetists in pre-Islamic Arabia. The Elxaites (E
Mandaeans have also been brought under contribution, and Dr. C
his Qumran Studies (Oxford U.P., 1957, pp. 112-130) has argued
may provide evidence for the existence of a non-Rabbinic Jewi
Dr. Edward Ullendorff has produced suggestive evidence that Chr
Arabia and Ethiopia was built upon a foundation of Judaic elem
in South Arabia in the early post-Christian centuries (Journal o
I [Manchester, 1956], 216-236).
has sometimes been argued that none of them h

of a hearing in Mecca. According to this view,
preaching would in effect have confronted the
body of new ideas that they found hard to acc
solid reasons to reject this assumption, as will be se
In what follows, however, no attempt will be m
through the Qur'an to discover all the allusions to,
of pre-Islamic monotheistic elements. In many inst
can be established only by lengthy examination of
and argument based upon them.3 The passage n
cussed is one that has received surprisingly litt
surprisingly, because it is the passage in which t
pre-Islamic monotheism is most openly acknow
character most clearly and fully presented. This pa
contained section at the end of Sfira LIII (vv.
clearly to be dated in the early Meccan period o
mission.
33. What thinkest thou of him who turned his back

34. having given little and then run dry?
35. Does he possess knowledge of the Unseen, such that he knows
of his own observation?
36. Has he not been told of what is in the Tablets of Moses
37. and of Abraham, who kept faith?
38. That no burdened soul shall bear the burden of another,
39. And that man has nothing to his credit save what he has striven
for,
40. And that [the object of] his striving shall surely come to light,
41. And thereafter he shall be recompensed for it with most faithful
recompense;
42. And that to thy Lord is the final end,
43. And that it is He who has given laughter and weeping,
44. And that it is He who has given life and given death,
45. And that it is He who has created the two sexes, the male and
the female,
46. from a drop of seed when it is passed into the womb;
' See especially the studies of Rev. T. O'Shaughnessy, S.J.: The Koranic Con-
cept of the Word of God (Rome, 1948), The Development of the meaning of Spirit
in the Koran (Rome, 1953), and 'The Seven Names for Hell in the Qur'an' in Bulle-
tin of the School of Oriental & African Studies XXIV (London, 1961), pp. 444-
469.
47. And that with Him rests [the determination of] the
ation,
48. And that it is He who has given wealth and possessions,
49. And that it is He [and none other] who is the lord of Sirius,
5o. And that it is He who brought destruction from the former 'Ad
51. and upon Thamfid and spared not,
52. and upon the tribesmen of Noah before [them] --truly these
were yet more impious and more rebellious,
53. And [that it is He who] overthrew the Overturned Cities
54. and overwhelmed them with His overwhelming.
55. Which therefore of the bounties of thy Lord wilt thou dispute?
56. This is a warning, one of the former warnings.
Verses 33-36 set the situation of the passage with unmistakable

clarity and precision. Muhammad turns on a Meccan opponent,
and pointedly asks if he does not know "what is in the Scriptures
of Moses." The obvious inference is that the "Scriptures of
Moses" were so familiar in Mecca that one could scarcely imagine
any Meccan being ignorant of them. So far from presenting a
body of completely new ideas, therefore, the Qur'anic Revela-
tion was (in its early stages) basically dramatizing and expanding
certain well-known religious teachings. But of course Muham-
mad was not preaching to the converted; the assumption from
the context, supported by the known general course of events, is
that the Meccans in general were rather cold, even contemptu-
ous, towards these religious ideas, and their first attitude was
probably one of surprise that one of their own people should
take them so seriously and profoundly. The opposition is not
yet active, but passive, "turning their backs."
In reply to this attitude of disregard, the evident object of
the passage is to demonstrate the identity of Muhammad's preach-
ing with the content of previous revelations, and it proceeds to
summarize briefly the positive content of these revelations. The
description "tablets of Moses" is evidently a recognized term,
and 'tablets' (suhuf) unmistakably implies written documents.
But there is no indication that Muhammad had read or seen these
documents, or derived his revelations from them; the following
series of quotations implies only the existence of an oral teach-
ing. But why were they called the "Tablets of Moses"? It is per-
fectly clear that the following verses are not

Torah; and it might be supposed that there is
niscence of the "tables of Moses" containing t
ments, or of the Mosaic Law as a whole. Primar
significance of the phrase must be related t
Revelation, Moses being for both Jews and Chri
exemplar of the inspired prophet. That the
precise allusion to the Torah is further indicate
of "and of Abraham," which also conveys
'tablets' of Abraham is neither a Jewish nor a
a first suggestion of a deviant tradition.4 Alt
frequently mentioned in later passages of the
phrase for "who remained faithful" (alladhk
recur, and I shall return to it later.
The maxim in verse 38, "No burdened soul s
den of another," while reflecting a general sc
not found in the Torah. The closest parall
Epistles (Galatians vi, 5), "For every man s
burden." So also the maxim in verses 39 and 4
passage from St. Paul (I Corinthians iii, 8), "
receive his own reward according to his own
has no recognizable scriptural parallels and re
from the poet Zuhair.5
The maxim in verse 42, "To thy Lord is the fi
scriptural but with no precise parallel. A ph
in a parallel early Medinian summary (LVII,
is the First and the Last," suggests that it re
interpretation of "Alpha and Omega," "the b
end," in Revelation xxi, 6.
"He it is who has given laughter and wee
again has no precise biblical parallel. From the
Muslim commentators it appears to be an ar
special creation of man, on the ground that ma
ture with these capacities, and presumably th
monotheistic argument against the pagans.
'It may possibly contain an allusion to the apocryphal Apo
which seems to have circulated more widely in Christian th
5Mu'allaqa, v. 58: "Whatever a man possesses of inwar
think it hidden from men, shall surely be made known."
The maxim in verse 44, "He it is who has given life a

is obviously another argument of the same kind, of m
reference, and common scriptural ground. The clo
parallel is to be found in the Song of Hannah (I Sa
YHWH memith um'hayyeh; but it seems surprisin
the text referred to, that the second half of the same
bringeth down to the grave (Sheol) and bringeth up,"
be included in the quotation when it is so aptly app
doctrine of resurrection.
Verses 45-46 go back to Genesis i, 27: "Male and female cre-
ated He them," with a rider evidently designed to counter sophis-
ticated Arab scepticism, which probably accounts for the fre-
quent reiteration of the same idea in the Qur'an. Nevertheless,
the orthodox Muslim interpretation goes even further, and re-
jects any suggestion of an automatic process of fertilization by
giving to "passed into the womb" (tumnd) the rare (and philo-
logically dubious) meaning of 'decreed' or 'potentialized.'
Verse 47: "With Him lies the latter creation" (or "coming
into existence"), i.e., the resurrection, is remarkable for the
peculiar phrase employed: al-nash'at al-ukhrd. The term is de-
rived from nasha'a, 'rise up,' and is a literal Arabic rendering of
andstasis.
Verse 48: "He it is who has given wealth and possessions,"
i.e., by endowing men with possessions or the means of wealth,
although again reflecting a general theme, differs from the biblical
parallels that more immediately come to mind (in the Song of
Hannah, I Samuel ii, 7: "The Lord maketh poor and maketh
rich," and its development in the Magnificat, Luke i, 52-53) by
omitting the alternative. The closest text is that in Ecclesiastes
v, 19: "Every man to whom God hath given riches and wealth,
and hath given him power to eat thereof . . . this is the gift of
God."
With verse 49 there is introduced a short group of verses that
present extra-biblical arguments. In the first, "It is He who is
the lord of Sirius," the argument is directed against some form of
star-worship. But no evidence has yet been found either for the
significance of Sirius in the ancient star-cults of Southern Arabia,
or for the existence of a contemporary star-worshipping commu-
nity in Arabia. The early Islamic tradition is equ

produces what are no more than guesses, such
worshipped by the tribe of Tayy, in the Syr
some ancestor of Muhammad himself. It is also no more than a
guess that behind this, as behind one or two other passing allu-
sions in the early Meccan stiras, there may be dimly discerned
some obscure Gnostic teaching.
Verses 50 and 51, on the other hand, are amply illustrated
not only by other Qur'anic passages but also by extra-Qur'anic
references. They represent the most obvious native Arabian
supplement to the "Tablets of Moses," and it is clear from sur-
viving references in pre-Islamic poetry that the disappearance
or destruction of 'Ad was a popular theme of moralistic reflection.
This popularity had one peculiar consequence, which can, how-
ever, be paralleled by numerous instances in popular religious
tradition in the Near East.6 'Ad was historically a tribe on the
borders of Midian and southern Transjordan, where the ruins of
the temple, Iram, with which its name was associated still exist.'
Already before the rise of Islam, however, the tradition of its
destruction had been transferred to the great sands of southern
Arabia, and the grave of the monotheistic prophet Hfid associated
with it in the Arabian tradition is still commonly located in
Hadhramaut.
The history of Thamiid is relatively well attested. The tribe
had been established for about a thousand years in the northern
Hijaz, in the region of El-'Eld and Madi'in Sdlih, where large
numbers of their inscriptions and rock tombs have been found.
The disappearance of what had been a powerful tribe about the
fifth century A.D. (probably under the pressure of nomadic
expansion) became an impressive symbol of impermanence, fre-
quently cited by the old poets who lived within the ambiance of
the monotheistic Arab communities in the North.
Verse 52 returns to biblical materials of a related character.
The story of Noah was evidently as popular a theme with the
itinerant preachers in Arabia as with our own mediaeval preach-
' Cf. for example, my translation of the Travels of Ibn BattiltL, vol. I (1958),
p. 85, notes 68, 69, 72, and p. 143, n. 286, for parallel transpositions.
'See Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 73 (Feb., 1939),
pp. 13-15.
ers and church decorators, and was no doubt embell

the sensational detail at which the Qur'anic trailer mere
This is followed in verses 53-54 by the other ever-popu
of Sodom and Gomorrah. There is, however, a sign
guistic detail in the term translated by "Overturned
origin is the Hebrew mahpaka, but it has passed throug
Syriac to a naturalized Arabic form mu'tafika. The term
has no such meaning in Arabic, nor can it be attach
Arabic root. It can therefore have been understood only
already current in Arabic (and Meccan) usage.
Verse 54 presents in maxim form what appears to
a traditional phrase for the conclusion of a monoth
ment, and reflects the dialect of South-western Ar
appears in the Qur'an in a rather remarkable sfira, S
a drum-beat refrain punctuating an elaborately constru
ment.
Verse 55 sums up the passage by restating in more general

form the argument of verse 36 and the implication that Muham-
mad's preaching is identical with the content of previous revela-
tions. The term "warning," nadhir (which may also mean "war-
ner"), adds, however, a further small detail in the implication
that the content here reproduced is that of missionary homilies,
presumably of itinerant preachers.
From the angle of content, one remarkable feature of the dis-
course is the absence of any dogmatic slant. Its theme is the
lordship of God, the personal responsibility of the created be-
ing, and God's reward and punishment. There would seem to
be an almost deliberate avoidance of the distinctive confessional
elements of either Judaism or Christianity, and an emphasis on
the basic themes of a monotheistic faith divorced from both the
rival creeds. How bitter that rivalry had been in South Arabia
is known from historical data. Arab tradition connects these
religious rivalries with the political designs of the surrounding
imperial powers, but even had there been no political overtones
there could well have been good reason for a native monotheistic
movement in Arabia to seek an independent middle course. And
such was in fact to become a cardinal element in Islam.8
S Sfira II, v. 137/143: 'We have made of you a median Community' (ummatan
wustd) .
A second no less remarkable feature is the l

the discourse. It has already been argued that th
ulary of the Qur'an presupposes the existence o
of religious terms with a monotheistic refer
suggests that the argument can now be carrie
sume the existence of an established style of re
Like all early Qur'anic revelations it is rhym
long d) but not in metre; it is the kind of rh
saj' ("cooing"), and used in Arabia for oracula
verbial sayings and the like. One obvious adva
is that it facilitated memorizing (a matter of ca
in a non-literate society), and there are evide
much of the material used in public preachi
form which aimed precisely at this result. Thus
fessedly reported on the authority of Muham
J.hiz,
b. Sd'idaBaydn,
at the I, 247),
fair quotesman
of 'Ukdz: a discourse bywaman
'dsha mdt, the preacher Quss
mdta fdt,
wa-kullu md huwa dtin dt ("Whoso lives will die, whoso dies
will pass away, and everything that is to come will come"). The
verbal authenticity of this and similar phrases attributed to him
may perhaps be questioned, but the record at least indicates a
reminiscence of the use of what we may call rhymed slogans in
such discourses.
The earliest sections of the Qur'an also offer numerous ex-
amples of this linguistic style, usually in single verses within a
wider or more general context. Together with this there appear
fragments of conventional Arabic poetic technique in the Qur'anic
descriptions of Paradise and Hell and narratives relating to former
prophets, sometimes fitting easily into their context, sometimes in
surprising contrast to it. Thus the destroyed tribes of 'Ad and
Thamfid are described as "like the trunks of uprooted palmtrees"
and "like the dry twigs gathered by the shepherd for his sheep-
fold" (LIV, 20, 31); and in the middle of the story of Noah we
find, instead of the simple 'vessel,' "a thing of planks and nails"
(LIV, i3). The traditional stories that circulated in Arabia cer-
tainly contained touches of this kind. But this fact does not in
itself lay Muhammad open to the charge of "borrowing." A
preacher, if he is to be effective, must preach in terms which,
on the one hand, are understood by his hearers, and

hand appeal to their emotions. So also the Revel
its early stages, use familiar language and tradit
until its hearers have become receptive to a fulle
of religious thought. That these early passages inclu
recognized by the Meccans as related to poetry i
the charge (quoted and vigorously rebutted in th
Muhammad was a poet. It was not long, howeve
Qur'an discarded both of these adaptations to tra
and moved on to its own original and inimitable
nique as its range of both religious thought and
panded.
In connection with this discussion of the early content and
vocabulary of the Qur'an, it is pertinent to look briefly at the
productions ascribed to the contemporary poet Umayya ibn
Abi's-Salt. Umayya was a citizen of the neighboring town of
TA'if, and his collected diwan contains a rather incongruous mix-
ture of panegyrics addressed to a prominent Meccan citizen and
of religious poems which are strikingly similar in subject, treat-
ment, and vocabulary to the Qur'anic descriptions of Paradise
and Hell and prophetic narratives. He was, however, an oppo-
nent of Muhammad and died without embracing Islam. Critical
opinion, among both Muslim and Western scholars, regards these
religious poems as forgeries, probably composed in the first cen-
tury of Islam. There can be little doubt that some of the pieces
are unauthentic and post-Qur'anic. But to reject them all on the
ground of similarities of subject and vocabulary to the Qur'an
is an a priori and inadmissible judgment. It is difficult to see
how such forgeries could have been circulated under his name if
there had not been something of this kind to attach them to in his
genuine production. The Qur'anic passage discussed in this study
has shown clearly that warnings of the divine Judgment, pointed
by narratives of former prophets and peoples, were central themes
of Arabian monotheism. It has been noted that Umayya's narra-
tives occasionally diverge from the Qur'anic narratives in small
details, and one small but not unimportant example of parallels
to the Qur'anic vocabulary,9 by the addition in his poem on
9 Ed. Schulthess (see the following note), poem XXIX, v. 9.
Abraham of "to a vow" (binadhrin) to the verb (

verse 37 above is left undefined, indicates ag
phrase. The evidence supplied by Umayya's p
remains ambiguous pending further investigatio
ever, be added that in spite of its monotheistic c
tone of much of his verse is profoundly pessimi
this respect the dominant tendency of pre-Is
whole.
Finally, the whole passage quoted from Sfi

conjunction with parallel Qur'anic passages, br
mense difference between the Qur'an and su
those of Umayya ibn Abi's-Salt. This is the vi
that permeates it. While the poems may ech
lesson, there is nothing of the urgency and passi
presentation. However vivid and sensuous Uma
(of Paradise and Hell, for example) may have b
seem to have had any marked effect upon his
TW'if, let alone the Meccans. Similar material
culated among other monotheistic circles and
Arabia, and of course take their place within the
the Qur'an. But what gave them their effect
presentation was that they were linked up with t
core of its teaching. The Qur'an is not conte
"burdened souls" in relation to a distant hereafter - this was the
sort of thing to which men "turned their backs" - but drives
home again and again, in glowing eloquence, what it means to be
a "burdened soul" in this life, in relation to one's own actions and
one's fellowmen. Then, and then only, were men ready to listen
to what the Qur'an had to say about the Judgment, reward and
punishment.
1o In addition to the introduction by Friedrich Schulthess to his edition of the
diwan of Umayya (Beitriige zur Assyriologie, VIII, 8, Leipzig, 1911) there is a
fuller discussion of the relation of his poetry to the Qur'an by Tor Andrae (French
translation, Les Origines de l'Islam et le Christianisme, Paris, 1955, 55-63). While
I wholly agree with the view that the poems ascribed to Umayya cannot be re-
garded as a source of Qur'anic materials or doctrine, Andrae's scepticism on the
ground of the expansion of Qur'anic narratives in Umayya's poems does not appear
to me wholly convincing. It is natural to suppose that the preachers often em-
bellished their themes with luxuriant detail which finds no place in the correspond-
ing Qur'anic passages (cf. the remarks on v. 52 above).

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Harvard Divinity School

Pre-Islamic Monotheism in Arabia

THE search for the presumed "sources" of Muhammad's religious

understood by its first hearers, as is rightly ass

this, however, to infer that pre-Islamic monotheism

2There are numerous discussions of the possible r61e of su

has sometimes been argued that none of them h

33. What thinkest thou of him who turned his back

Verses 33-36 set the situation of the passage with unmistakable

fectly clear that the following verses are not

The maxim in verse 44, "He it is who has given life a

nity in Arabia. The early Islamic tradition is equ

ers and church decorators, and was no doubt embell

Verse 55 sums up the passage by restating in more general

A second no less remarkable feature is the l

on the one hand, are understood by his hearers, and

Abraham of "to a vow" (binadhrin) to the verb (

Finally, the whole passage quoted from Sfi

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