George Sale, The Koran, commonly called the Alcoran of Mohammed, translated into English immediately from the original Arabic; with Explanatory Notes, taken from the most approved Commentators. To which is prefixed A Preliminary Discource (1734)
other deities, who were subordinate to him, they called simply al Ilahât, i.e. the goddesses; which words the Grecians not understanding, and it being their constant custom to resolve the religion of every other nation into their own, and find out gods of theirs to match the other’s, they pretend the Arabs worshipped only two deities, Orotalt and Alilat, as those names are corruptly written, whom they will have to be the same with Bacchus and Urania; pitching on the former as one of the greatest of their own gods, and educated in Arabia, and on the other, because of the veneration shewn by the Arabs to the stars 1.
That they acknowledged one supreme God, appears, to omit other proof, from their usual form of addressing themselves to him, which was this, I dedicate myself to thy service, O God! I dedicate myself to thy service, O God! Thou hast no companion, except thy companion of whom thou art absolute Master, and of whatever is his 2. So that they supposed the idols not to be sui juris, tho’ they offered sacrifices and other offerings to them, as well as to God, who was also often put off with the least portion, as Mohammed upbraids them. Thus when they planted fruit trees, or sowed a field, they divided it by a line into two parts, setting one apart for their idols, and the other for God; if any of the fruits happened to fall from the idol’s part into God’s, they made restitucion; but if from God’s part into the idol’s, they made no restitution. So when they watered the idol’s grounds, if the water broke over the channels made for that purpose, and ran on God’s part, they dammed it up again; but if the contrary, they let it run on, saying, they wanted what was God’s, but he wanted nothing 3. In the same manner, if the offering designed for God happened to be better than that designed for the idol, they made an exchange, but not otherwise 4.
It was from this gross idolatry, or the worship of inferior deities, or companions of God, as the Arabs continue to call them, that Mohammed reclaimed his countrymen, establishing the sole worship of the true God among them; so that how much soever the Mohammedans are to blame in other points, they are far from being idolaters, as some ignorant writers have pretended.
The worship of the stars the Arabs might easily be led into, from their observing the changes of weather to happen at the rising or setting of certain of them 5, which after a long course of experience
1 V. Herodot. l. 3. c. 8. Arrian. p. 161, 162. & Strab. l. 16.
2 Al Shahrestani.
3 Nodhm al dorr.
4 Al Beidawi.
5 V. Post.
