A Greased Scotsman said:
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They don't worship the same gods, no. And I never suggested that they did. Indeed, a goddess called Allat was worshipped during this time period. She was worshipped in the city of Ta'if. Ta'if was attacked twice by Muslim armies; the second time they surrendered. One of the conditions of their surrender was that they had to embrace Islam and stop worshipping Allat. Spread by the sword, right there.
I don't doubt they worshipped Allah. But considering the polytheist nature of pre-Islamic society, I doubt it would have been in a context that Islam would have agreed with. It sounds like Islam is just the cult (the old definition of the word: e.g. 'focussed worship') of one Pagan god that gained power and influence thanks to the actions of a barbarian warlord. It's speculated that both Zoroastrianism and Judaism began from similar roots - that their monotheisms were the cults of cultural gods that grew and gained influence until they were strong enough to start removing the worship of other gods from society.
Regarding pre-Islamic belief in Abraham, his sons and angels; what evidence do you have to support this?
Not exactly.
It seems that the pre-Muslim Arabs believed in One High God, who they called Allah or Rahman, who was basically inaccessible to worshippers. So they worshipped this plethora of angels, deities and God-men as kind of intermediaries.
There were already various traditions which had thrown out these intermediaries, such as the Jewish, Christian and Hanif faiths, while Zoroastrianism was also influential. Worth noting that it was a non-trinitarian form of Christianity which predominated in Northwest Arabia.
I like you post.
Muhammad's father's name was Abdullah which means one who is in service of Allah. Muhammad did not invent the word "Allah*", it was naturally in vogue in the Arabs.
*Allah is proper name of God in Arabic, which represents all the attributes of God or their essence.
Regards
