"Qad kunna lā naʿbudu 'llāha wa-lā naʿrifuhu". On the Problem of the Pre-Islamic Lord of the Kaʿba

This article deals with the problem of the pre-Islamic Lord of the Kaʿba. An attempt is made to critically review the accepted theory that Allah had been the main deity of this shrine long before Islam was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. The evidence of scripture and our other sources suggests that the heathen Arabs may have been not particularly familiar with the notion of Allah as the greatest deity reigning over a swarm of lesser idols. Deities other than Allah were apparently greatly revered in the Kaʿba, and their role as lords of the sanctuary cannot be easily discarded. As for the concept of Allah as the main deity in the Kaʿba, the evidence seems to stem from the early Islamic period, when the monotheistic notion of God prevailed and brought with it a new understanding of history as a sequence of monotheistic prophecies beginning with the very creation of the world. This concept appears to be mainly responsible for the emergence of the belief that Allah was present in people’s faith from the days of Adam until the final reincarnation of His religion in Muhammad’s daʿwa.