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The Qur’ān and Belief in a “High God”

At the Fifth International Congress of Arabists and Islamists, held in Brüssels in 1970,1 read a paper entitled "Belief in a 'High God' in pre-Islamic Mecca". That paper showed that the Qur'än contained many verses indicating that about the year 600 A.D. some people in Mecca believed in Allah äs a "high god", while also acknowledging other lesser deities. In some cases these lesser deities seem to have been regarded äs angels who could intercede with the "high god" on behalf of their worshippers. As an example of a passage in which pagans are described äs acknowledging Allah äs creator, 29.61-65 may be quoted: If you ask them who created the heavens and the earth, and made the sun and moon subservient, they will certainly say, Allah ... And if you ask them who sent down water from heaven and thereby revived the earth after its death, they will certainly say, Allall ... And when they sail on the ship they pray to Allah äs soleobjectof devotion, but when he has brought them safe to land they "associate" (yushrikün-sc. other gods with him.) The conclusion to be derived from all this Qur'änic material was expressed cautiously This attitude (so. the recognition of Allah äs a "high god") may even have been more prevalent than strict (sc. undififerentiated) polytheism, but our meagre sources make it impossible to be certain about this. A recent book has caued attention to the fact that belief in a high or supreme god was widespread in the Semitic Near East in the Grecp-Roman period. This is The Pagan God: Populär Religion in the Chreco-Eoman Near East, by Javier Teixidor, published at Princeton in 1977. The book is based on a study of inscriptions, and these reflect the effective beliefs of ordinary men and women.