TYPE: Supreme Deity.
ORIGIN: Nabatean and Arabic. Derived from the Western Semitic God Il.
KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP: Circa 300 BCE until present.
SYNONYMS: None (but see below)
CENTER(S) OF CULT: Mecca [Saudi Arabia]
ART REFERENCES: None
LITERARY SOURCES: Qur'an
INFORMATION:
The Creator god of Islam. Perceived in pre-Islamic times as the creator of the earth and water though not, at that time, considered monotheistically.
Through the teachings of the prophet Muhammad (born Mecca circa 570 CE), which achieved their first major spread in the seventh century, the faith of Islam (submission to God) proclaimed Allah as a unique and sole deity. He is perceived as the creator of the cosmos and of all existence who will judge mankind at the final apocalypse. It is considered that the revelations delivered through the agency of Muhammad represent the only true message of God and that comparable revelations described in the teachings of Yhwhism and Christianity are defective.
Adherents to the faith are known as Muslims and the sacred book of Islam is the Qur'an (Koran). Devotion to Allah is all-embracing and there is no effective distinction into secular and nonsecular life. He is accorded one hundred sacred names or epithets of which ninety-nine are known and are accounted on rosary beads. The final name remains a mystery. No representation of Allah is made in art.
Present estimates put the number of practicing Muslims at about 700 million, rather less than the global estimated total of Catholics. It is anticipated, however, that Islam will have become the major religion of the world, in numerical terms, by the millennium.