Morey Deception Refuted

Allah The Moon God : Robert Morey’s Decep­tive Methods

Ques­tion 7 :

Dr. Robert Morey proves in his book that Allah is the name of the moon god wor­shipped in Ara­bia before Islam. Is he right ?

Answer :

The book you refer to is enti­tled The Islam­ic Inva­sion : Con­fronting the World’s Fastest Grow­ing Reli­gion. The author, Dr. Robert Morey, sees Islam as an inva­sion into North Amer­i­ca and a threat to his reli­gious her­itage. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, Dr. Morey has resort­ed to dis­hon­est tac­tics in com­bat­ing Islam. To prove his con­tention that Allah is not the God of Chris­tians and Jews, he quot­ed from sev­er­al books in such a dis­hon­est fash­ion that the quo­ta­tions say the oppo­site of what we find in those books.

Dr. Morey quot­ed from the Ency­clo­pe­dia Bri­tan­ni­cato sup­port his case. But in fact the Ency­clo­pe­dia says :

Allah is the stan­dard Ara­bic word for God” and is used by Arab Chris­tians as well as by Mus­lims.1

Dr. Morey also quot­ed from H. A. R. Gibb to sup­port his case. But Gibb actu­al­ly says the oppo­site. In his book Mohammedanism, Gibb says on page 26 that both Muham­mad and his oppo­nents believed in the exis­tence of a supreme God Allah. Gibb fur­ther explained this on pages 37 – 38. Dr. Morey should have checked his ref­er­ences more care­ful­ly before his book went into print.

Dr. Morey said that Alfred Guil­laume agrees with him, and he refers to page 7 of Alfred Guil­laume’s book enti­tled Islam. But here is what Alfred Guil­laume actu­al­ly says on page 7 of his book :

In Ara­bia Allah was known from Chris­t­ian and Jew­ish sources as the one God, and there can be no doubt what­ev­er that he was known to the pagan Arabs of Mec­ca as the supreme being.

How could Dr. Morey mis­quote like this ?

Dr. Morey quot­ed from page 28 of a book by anoth­er non-Mus­lim writer Cae­sar Farah. But when we refer to that book we find that Dr. Morey gave only a par­tial quo­ta­tion which leaves out the main dis­cus­sion. The book actu­al­ly says that the God who was called Il by the Baby­lo­ni­ans and El by the Israelites was called ilah, al-ilah, and even­tu­al­ly Allah in Arabia.

Farah says fur­ther on page 31 that before Islam the pagans had already believed that Allah is the supreme deity. Of course they had 360 idols, but, con­trary to Dr. Morey’s asser­tion, Allah was nev­er one of the 360 idols. As Cae­sar Farah points out on page 56, the Prophet Muham­mad, on whom be peace, per­son­al­ly destroyed those idols.

Dr. Morey also quot­ed from William Mont­gomery Watt. But Watt says on page 26 of his book that the Ara­bic word Allah is sim­i­lar to the Greek term ho theos which we know is the way God is referred to in the New Testament.

Dr. Morey quot­ed from Ken­neth Crag­g’s book enti­tled The Call of the Minaret. How­ev­er, on page 36 of Ken­neth Crag­g’s book we find the following :

Since both Chris­t­ian and Mus­lim faiths believe in One supreme sov­er­eign Cre­ator-God, they are obvi­ous­ly refer­ring when they speak of Him, under what­ev­er terms, to the same Being.

Fur­ther on the same page, Cragg explains that the One whom the Mus­lims call Allah is the same One whom the Chris­tians call the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ although the two faiths under­stand Him differently.

Dr. Morey should know that as a schol­ar he has the aca­d­e­m­ic oblig­a­tion to quote hon­est­ly. He should also know that as a fol­low­er of Jesus, on whom be peace, he has an oblig­a­tion to speak the truth.Endmark

Adapt­ed from Com­mon Ques­tions Peo­ple Ask About Islam
Cite this arti­cle as : Shab­bir Ally, Allah The Moon God : Robert Morey’s Decep­tive Meth­ods,” in Bis­mi­ka Allahu­ma, Octo­ber 7, 2005, last accessed March 19, 2024, https://​bis​mikaal​lahu​ma​.org/​i​s​l​a​m​/​r​o​b​e​r​t​-​m​o​r​e​y​-​d​e​c​e​p​t​i​v​e​-​m​e​t​h​o​ds/
  1. Bri­tan­ni­ca, 1990 Edi­tion, vol. 1, p. 276[]

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One response to “Allah The Moon God : Robert Morey’s Decep­tive Methods”

  1. shery Avatar
    shery

    Robert,Morey’s was mis­lead by Holy Ghost!!

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