Conclusion
The deities listed in the foregoing few pages may sound too many to minds under the spell of monotheism. The fact, however, is that they are far too few and represent only what has been salvaged by modern scholarship form the extensive ruins caused by Islam. For the pagan Arabs, the whole of their homeland was honeycombed with temples and sanctuaries housing hundreds of divinities with as may Names and Forms. Every household had its ancestral deities which were joined by those brought in by the brides. Every locality, every oasis, every grove had its own presiding deity. So also every tribal territory. Finally, the national temple, the Ka’ba at Mecca, had as many as three hundred and sixty deities, the Names and Forms of which remain unknown except in the case of few. “It seems that in course of time the various Arab tribes had brought in their gods and placed them in the Ka’ba, which had consequently acquired the character of the national pantheon for the whole of Arabia.”
The more pertinent point in the present context, however, is that the pagan Arabs were fully satisfied their ancestral religion and felt no need for a replacement. Of course, they were not in the business of saving souls and civilizing other people, which is what has come to count in the history of religion. But that is a “fault” inbuilt in the very genius of paganism. “Occupied with the reform of their own lives and the righting of actual wrongs, these persons made no noise and being earnest did not suppose that the replacement of one cult for another would make men virtuous; and Mohammed himself had occasion to draw a contrast between the conduct of his pagan and that of his believing son-in-law, greatly to the disadvantage of the latter. So far as the religious sentiment requires gratification, there is no evidence to show that paganism had failed to gratify it. We gather from the inscriptions of the pagan Arabs that a wealth of affection and gratitude was bestowed upon their gods and patrons.” In the pagan spiritual tradition people are expected to be “busy with themselves”. That is, busy in improving their own morals by purifying their own consciousness. The prophetic tradition, on the other hand, harangues people to be “busy with the others”, that is, saving other people from sin, infidelity, and the eternal hell-fire. That is why the prophetic tradition abounds in missions and da’was, crusades and jihads.
It is often pointed out that no pagan Arab came forward with a philosophical defence of his religion when it was assailed by Muhammad. The only defence which every pagan put up for his religions was that it was the religion of his forefathers and as, such, hallowed by time and tradition. A deeper reflection goes to show that this was indeed a very strong defence. What the monotheists dismiss as polytheism and idol-worship are natural to the normal human psyche. Moreover, honoring that which was honored by one’s ancestors keeps one rooted in one’s history and culture. Cults which encourage one to denounce one’s ancestors as barbarians or infidels, and one’s past history as an age of ignorance, render one rootless and make one into a menace to one’s neighbors.
The Bible provides ample evidence of the normal people reverting to polytheism and idol-worship again and again, and the persistent and violent wars which the prophets had to wage for reimposing Jehovah on them. In any case, a religion stands in needs of a philosophical defence only when it is already on a course of decline, and an inner dissatisfaction stars gnawing at the heart of its more perceptive adherents. There is no evidence that the pagan Arabs were suffering from such a psychosis on the eve of Islam. The confidence with which they spurned Muhammad’s message and ridiculed his superior claims leaves little doubt that Arab paganism was still in a state of god health. Though not so the environment in which this paganism lived and breathed. The mental disorder glorified as monotheism was present in an epidemic form, not only all around it but also in its very midst. Arab paganism was blissfully ignorant of what monotheism meant and the mischief it intended for a society, which permitted it to spread.
