What was the religion practised in Arabia, before the advent of Islam?

Question

In my view, it was the ancient Vedic religion/Hinduism. I am supported in my view by the information given in this site. http://www.hinduism.co.za/kaabaa.htm

The response so far have been quite informative, especially those from Doria and LST and their tone is admirably sober. That of Maliha shows a mild sense of irritation at the Kaaba being branded as a Hindu temple. I intended no offence to their religious faith. I wished they had read the article in the site I have cited. It throws up some facts, which are worth consideration. Even assuming that Kaaba was a place of worship of the "pagans", it does not diminish the importance of Islam which came to supplant the pre-existing religion. If people could realise that all the religions of the world have some common link connecting them-historical and theological- I will be happy, for that would have a sobering effect on mankind, now suffering from the evil of bigotry and the tendency to destroy the Hindu temples or other places of worship, as some one here who has answered, would like to.

Answer 1

The Kaaba in mecca that many call black stone, means many things for me. this is unity. all people from arround the world worship God alone in this area.
the pagan arabs were worshiping Idols and used this area for worship also. but who brought this Idea?

In the Quran, we know that God instructed the prophet Abraham and his son Ishmaeel to build the Kaaba. and to call people for unity from all arround the world to come << to worship God alone >> Abraham said, how can people accept the call? God said just call them and they will come.
<> so what is happening now is a miracle. Also I think that people came for pilgrimage at the time of Abraham for the worship ( in the Bible look for becca and the Quran bacca).

Another miracle : < Abraham in the Quran made a Duaa = he asked God to make from his descendants (sons) prophets from among their nations that they will call for the worship of God. so If you see now the prophet Muhammad is a descendant of the son Ishmaeel and Mose, Jesus and others from Isaac.
Know that the Bible says that God will make from Ishmaeel a nation.

Another miracle : the land of Arabia is just a Desert. In the Quran Abraham asked God to make this land blessed and fruitful and nice place to live. look now how they have Oil, Gold and live in blessing .this is the best of miracles that is proven true >>>>
Abraham ask God 1st, the land still Desert >>>> Muhammad recite the Quran , the land still desert but economical growth already but not enough >>>>> After Muhammad, not only the Kaaba became the center of worship, but also many richesses, founding as oil and Gold and more. even the pilgrimage is good for the economy.

When Abraham, left his wife hagar in the desert, he asked God to help them and bring some people to help them. when Abraham left her in the desert with her baby Ishmaeel, she was looking for water and food, so she kept walking between 2 big hills or mountains and go over them to look for somebody in the horizon. she did this 7 time between the 2 hills.
now in pilgrimage it is called safa wal marwa, people do this 7 times.
also, the baby started crying, and with his small feet and belessed ones he started hiting the ground, so God most merciful made water coming from the soil. it's name is Zamzam it's still there now, it is a blessed water.

Also when the birds saw the water they started flying arround, so some arab badouins came to check for it and they asked hagar to take some for exchange with food, and she accepted. from these arabs Ishmaeel learned arabic and married arab women and his descendants became pure arabs, one of them is keddar (look at the Bible also).

When Abraham saw is his dream that he slaughter his son, and the dreams of all the prophets are true, he took his son Ishmaeel to kill him with the knife, but God sent the lamb for that.
Now at the end of evrey pilgrimage, Muslims slaughter lambs and cheap.
another miracle << Abraham in the Quran ask God that to make his descendant follow the rituals from God......>>
Muhammad before death showed the muslim how to make this rituals, it was the first and last time when he did it before he died.
so 1400 years after the prophet died, who is in control of these things. If Islam is not the truth, the Quran is not the truth how can you explain these things.
I say, this is guidance from God, who believe it it is for his own benefit , if not, he will not harm nobody but himself.
to support this. Jesus peace be upon him tought people how to recognize a true prophet from a false.
so if there is no prophet after him, why he would said that?
think about it.
all the answersof your questions about the Bible are in the Quran, just look for it.

May God guide us all
Ameen

Answer 2

I read this from a bestseller. Apparently before the arrival of Islam by Muhammad, the Arabs worshipped 3 deities. I don't know the name. And when Muhammad introduce Islam and suggest the tribal people to worship Allah because the 3 deities they were worshipping possess no power to liberate them. Then the people got pissed off because Muhammad banned idol-worshipping and turn against Muhammad. Because of the revolt, Muhammad took leave to another place, which if I remember was Mekah or Medinah (not sure).

Quite possibly the 3 deities that they worshipped might be the 3 Gods of Hinduism - Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. But then...

Answer 3

This is from Wikipedia:

Before the coming of Islam, most Arabs followed a religion featuring the worship of a number of deities, including Hubal, Wadd, Al-Lat, Manat, and Uzza, while some tribes had converted to Christianity or Judaism, and a few individuals, the hanifs, had apparently rejected polytheism in favor of a vague monotheism. The most prominent Arab Christian kingdoms were the Ghassanid and Lakhmid kingdoms. With the coversion of the Himyarite kings to Judaism in the late 4th century the elites of the other prominent Arab kingdom, the Kindites, being Himyirite vassals, appear to have converted (at least partly) to Judaism too. With the expansion of Islam, the majority of Arabs rapidly became Muslims, and the pre-Islamic polytheistic traditions disappeared.

Answer 4

Each tribe had it's own idol to worship, or a variant of idols. Many Arabs believed that certain stones were spiritual and would carry them in their pockets and pray to them. The idols varied from tribe to tribe and small carved gods and goddesses were sold in Mekka, it was a big business. Each tribe had it's idol housed in the Kabba before Islam, and even then- it was a place of pilgrimage to the Pagans.

That is one of the reasons why Islam caused such a fuss in Mekka- they didn't want to lose money and business that the selling of the carved idols made for them.
In the end Mohammed pbuh- smashed every idol that was housed in Mekka with his own hands, and he helped to rebuild the walls of the Kabba when it began to crack. It was a lot like hinduism as you have stated above, because the gods and godesses were so varied from tribe to tribe. But I dont believe it was the SAME religion- just same theory of many differant Gods representing One God.

Answer 5

Mecca was a desert till prophet Abraham went with his wife and son there. The wife found a small spring there which emerged as a pure water canal. They settled there. Later others too started to settle. The father and the son ismail built ka'aba, there to worship One God as the prophets had been preaching. But in course of time people,(pagans), started keeping idols there. When prophet Mohammed was born in the most respected community in Mecca after about 1000 years, he closely watched the minus points of idol worship and revering staues. (Of kings). He was the grandson of the custodians of ka'aba. He tried to pacify his family. he reminded them how they have been degenerating over the years but they didnot listen to him and made life difficult for him. He had to go and settle in Madina.But when the whole local population of mecca realised they became his followers and they themselves uprooted the idols from ka'aba.
He was told by revelation that compulsion in faith is of no use. Give them time patiently to realise for themselves and awaken their conscience". If force was used people would have become rebelious.That would have hurt their ego and become stubborn. But the guidance was intended, to make them understand what is better and easier for them. Not to make them rebel.
So, the very same people who threw stones on him, wounded him called him mad, killed his companions mercilessly, chased him out, became champions of Islam. Did their best and used their might to the best of their ability to spread, Islam. One ness of God and accepted Mohammed as his true messenger.
Islam was last of religions. and first of social revolution. It instigated protests against selfish kings and priests, revolutions for equality, also reformations in other religions. It invited people towards eternal fecility, by a method suited to their temperment. retained worship in Ka'aba, accepted the previous prophets, Bible (both testaments), and showed a path to healthy broadminded liberal outlook. Ability to distinguish between good and bad.
Hindues in their worst face, think of ka'aba as any hindu temple.
This can instigate bloody destructions in future for nothing.
No use feeling guilty then, after spreading rumours, started by the devilish people around.

Answer 6

Well apparently they did discover a ganesh statue in kuwait, and when "carbon dating" was used to ascertain the age of the statue, the scientists did discover the statue to be of an era pre-dating the birth of islam.

So how did a ganesh statue end up burried in Kuwait?

Answer 7

Hijab is the least situation everybody can ask about in Islam. the biggest issues are the violent life sort of prophet muhammed, and the historic and clinical contradictions in Quran.

Answer 8

Hinduism? Nah, I don't think so....

It was Judaism, Christianity, Paganism-idol worshiping.

I'm not sure where you got the Hinduism part, but these are the one. As Poki Poki mentioned.....

Answer 9

Poki Poki and S Diorio are absolutely right... Hinduism never been the religion in Arabia.
Northstar knows nothing, all of what he wrote is fabrications and so is the article you're referring to in this web-page.

Answer 10

They would worship Allah which is translated to mean 'black men'. They had huge idols and worshiped the sun and the moon and charted the stars...they ate any outsiders because they believed that they would take on all the strength and knowledge of those eaten. They adopted a culture of violence and tribal fear based on superstition. They spoke in a language based on the sounds of gutteral grunts, this evolved to arabic but was the basis for a culture based on fear-driven religion.