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Introduction
Judaism and Christianity had equipped the Prophet of Islam with an exclusive god and a sectarian scripture which declared war on pagan Gods and their places of worship. The Jews and Christians in Arabia, descended from immigrants or native converts, also provided practical demonstration of how to proceed vis-a-vis pagan temples, whenever and wherever these two sects acquired political power, howsoever shortlived.
We do not know what the Christianized Arabs on the borders of the Byzantine Empire did to pagan places of worship; the sources are silent on the subject. It is a safe bet that they must have followed in the footsteps of their mentors in the Empire. Some information, however, is available on what happened in Yemen, the southern province of Arabia. Some years before the birth of Muhammad, Tubba, the Himayrite king of Yemen, had converted to Judaism under the influence of two rabbis from Yathrib (Medina). He used state-power for converting his people to the new creed. Now Riãm, reports Ibn Ishãq, was one of the temples which they venerated and where they offered sacrifices and received oracles when they were polytheists. The two rabbis told Tubba that it was merely a shayTãn which deceived them in this way and they asked to be allowed to deal with it. When the king agreed they commanded a black dog to come out of it and killed it-at least this is what the Yamanites say. Then they destroyed the temple and I am told that its ruins to this day show traces of the blood that was poured over it.1 The blood must have been that of the pagans who courted death in defence of the temple.
Around the same lime, some nobles of Najran, another principality in Yemen, were converted to Christianity by a missionary named Faymiyûn. At this time, reports Ibn Ishãq, the people of Najrãn followed the religion of the Arabs worshipping a great palm-tree. Every year they had a festival when they hung on the tree any fine garment they could find and womens jewels. Then they sallied out and devoted the day to it. Faymiyûn reported to the nobles that the palm-tree could neither help nor hurt and that if he were to curse the tree in the name of God, He would destroy it, for He was God Alone without companion. The nobles agreed. Faymiyûn invoked God against the tree and God sent a wind against it which tore it from its roots and cast it on the ground. The miracle helped the people of Najran to adopt the law of Ýsã b. Maryam in which Faymiyûn instructed them.2 In plain language the story says that political power was used for forcing the people into the Christian fold and destroying their places of worship. Churches rose on the sites of sacred groves and pagan temples.
Author : Shri Sita Ram Goel
Foot Notes
1 Ibn Ishãq, op. cit, pp. 10- 11. The pagan Gods are supposed to be dead matter in the lore of the prophetic creeds. But, as we have seen and shall see, these Gods not only speak but also produce live beings, animal as well as human, whenever they are threatened with destruction.
2 Ibid., pp. 15-16.
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