Abd al-Rahman al-Muallimi al-Yamani
Aqidat al-Arab fi Wathaniyyatihim - Dimn "Athar al-Muallimi
- Author died
- 1386 AH
- Editions
- Dar Alam al-Fawa'id lil-Nashr wal-Tawzi'
Aqidat al-Arab fi Wathaniyyatihim (The Creed of the Arabs in Their Paganism) is a theological treatise by the Yemeni scholar Abd al-Rahman al-Muallimi al-Yamani (d. 1386 AH / 1966 CE) examining the religious beliefs and idolatrous practices of pre-Islamic Arabs.
Background and Purpose
The treatise was composed to clarify the historical and theological reality of pre-Islamic Arabian paganism, their idols, and the entities they invoked besides God. Al-Muallimi notes that understanding this subject had become obscured over time, pointing out that even early commentators such as Ibn Jarir al-Tabari noted Mujahid ibn Jabr's lack of familiarity with certain aspects of it despite the short historical gap separating Mujahid from the pre-Islamic era. Al-Muallimi emphasizes that understanding their creed is crucial for Muslims because Islam came to dismantle those flawed beliefs, and numerous Quranic verses debate and address the arguments of the pre-Islamic pagans. Many of the discussions summarized in this work were elaborated by al-Muallimi in greater detail in his larger work Kitab al-Ibadah (The Book of Worship).
Structure and Contents
Al-Muallimi organized the treatise into seven numbered thematic sections:
- Monotheism (tawhid): Demonstrating that the pre-Islamic Arabs acknowledged the existence and lordship (rububiyyah) of God in general, believing that He is the Creator, Sustainer, and controller of the cosmos.
- The Contradiction in Their Belief: Highlighting the inconsistency of combining their affirmation of God's lordship with polytheism in worship and divinity (uluhiyyah).
- Disbelief in Daughters and False Worship: Addressing two core errors: attributing daughters to God—analyzing what they intended by this and proposing four potential causes for it—and worshiping other entities, which in reality amounted to worshiping non-existent beings, devils, or base desires.
- History of Arabian Paganism: Tracing the historical introduction of idolatry into the Hijaz and the Arabian Peninsula through Amr ibn Luhayy al-Khuza'i.
- The Purpose of Erecting Idols: Explaining that the Arabs did not worship stone statues for their inherent physical substance, but rather as symbolic representations and images of the entities they venerated.
- Feminine Names of Idols: Investigating the linguistic origins of naming prominent Arabian idols such as al-Lat, Manat, and al-Uzza with feminine names, and examining whether this was connected to regarding them as images of angels conceived as God's daughters.
- Belief Concerning Angels: Detailing the Arabs' doctrine regarding angels and showing that they differed from other polytheistic traditions, such as the Greeks and Egyptians, by viewing angels as intercessors intended to draw them closer to God.
Manuscript and Publication
The manuscript of the treatise consists of six folios, with 28 lines per page and dimensions of 24 × 25 cm. In print, the treatise spans approximately 24 pages. It was published within a five-treatise compilation prepared and annotated by Majid al-Ziyadi, and was subsequently included as the fifth treatise in volume six of Athar al-Shaykh al-Allamah Abd al-Rahman al-Muallimi al-Yamani, a multi-volume collection of his theological treatises.
Answer updated