In answer to the video "Muhammad's Destruction of Idols"
Prior to the rise of the prophet Muhammad and the retribution befalling the heedless Ishmaelites, idol worship continued to flourish and even spread to the centers inhabited by their Christian and Jewish neighbors, namely Najran and Yathrib.
The Jews of Yathrib tolerated idol worship, coexisted with it, and finally befriended it so as to develop their trade with the pagan Arabs. Although idolatry was important to the pre-Islamic Arabs, yet they did not develop any elaborate mythology around their gods and goddesses as did ancient people around the world such as the Greeks, Romans or Hindus.
No trace of such things can be found in the pre-Islamic poetry and traditions. This fact further indicates that polytheism and idol worship were not indigenous to the Ismailite Arabs but were grafted on to the Abrahamic tradition. One of such polytheistic influences came from Noah's descendants. For instance it is documented in Arab history as well as the Torah that some of them -such as the branch descending from Ham- inhabited the region of Canaan. This Noahide branch reverted to idol worship. This is why in the HB these Noachide descendants of Ham, along with all pagan tribes including the Philistines who apprently knew God despite their perverted spirituality 1Sam4:7, were systematically slaughtered by the Israelites.
The Canaanites and Noahide descendants had reached the utmost of their spiritual depravation Gen15:16,Deut9 and had to be uprooted in order to make way for a new nation to be tested in turn. Archaeological evidence suggests that Canaanite pagan worship was ongoing on the location of what would later become Temple mount. The Canaanite relatives of the Israelites, who are actually Abrahamic descendants, such as the Moabites descendants of Lot and Edomites whose father is Esau may very well have emulated their ancestors by worshiping YHWH.
Jethro Similarily proclaims to Moses that YHWH is greater than all gods Ex18:7-12. Jethro was a Midianite-Kenite (from Midian the son of Abraham and Kenite from Cain whose descendants lived among all the people of the Levant). That monotheism preceding the arrival of the Israelites in Canaan was corrupted with time, as happened to the Israelites themselves. These non-Israelite Abrahamic descendants grafted their own evil inclinations and foreign religions to their original monotheism. These crimes made them unworthy of remaining in a land declared sacred by God and dedicated to monotheistic worship. The same would be done through the Ishmaelite prophet Muhammad, commanded to uproot, willingly or forcefully, those who had disfigured the religion of their forefather Abraham, who had perverted the purpose for which a settlement was established on that land of Mecca 8:34-35,53.
The Quran names the idols brought by these Noachide descendants, and the Arabs of the peninsula adopted them 71:21 among other gods mostly because of the Nomadic migrations throughout the peninsula.
It is well documented archaeologically that most gods of the Arabian peninsula were introduced into the Southern kingdoms of Saba and Himyar in the 2nd century BC, through these nomadic routes. This also led to the Arabization of these idols' names. Some of these idols of Noah's times who were associated with the One God 23:24 include the Nisr, which is the "vulture-god". It was worshipped all throughout the Middle East, whether it went by this name or another. After Noah, generations after generations kept returning to polytheism all the while they worshipped the One supreme God 23:31-44,11:53-4,46:21-2. The names of these idols were thus preserved, just as the Israelites in their books carried on the name of Baal and other regional gods whom they started worshipping again at different portions of their history.
The Meccans were thus originally monotheists, who lapsed into idolatry. Just as the Israelites lapsed into idolatry as recounted in the Hebrew Bible even intermarrying with polytheist Canaanites.
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