Pre-Islam, Bedouin customs and religious beliefs Essay

Pre-Islam, Bedouin customs and religious beliefs - Essay Example For example, there are three major features of Bedouin religion which are quite absent from the Muslim beliefs. In fact, these practices are actually abhorred in Islam with punishments for disobedience of the same. Idol worship, polytheism and accepting that god has children are three things expressly forbidden by Islam while these things were expressly accepted by the Bedouin tribes. Additionally things which were part of the Bedouin religion of the time included the worship of stars, the worship of ancestors and other influences from Christianity as well as the Judaic religion (Henninger, 1981). In fact, the connection between Christianity, Judaism and Islam seems to be far greater than any connection between pre-Islamic Bedouin religions. For example, Mohammad accepted Christ as his brother but does not accept that Christ was divine. He also accepts the prophets of the Jews as rightly guided individuals and even follows the customs of the Jews until Islam is able to define customs for itself as a new religion. Moreover, the idea of animal sacrifice to appease or win favor with God comes from Judeo-Christian traditions and the idea of animal sacrifice is accepted by Islam as well (Henninger, 1981). While Mohammad was able to find some allies in the shape of Christians who were his friends and relatives, we know for a fact that Mohammad and his followers were all persecuted for their religion by the pagans (Hines, 1999). The Muslims must have said harsh words against the pagan religions of the tribes in Mecca which led to the negative reaction. Had there been no discrepancy between the two ideas for religion it is doubtful that Muhammad would have to go into exile from Mecca to save his life. One important connection between the pre-Islamic religion of the Bedouin and the religion of the Muslims is that the concept of the supreme god remains pretty much the same (Wikipedia, 2006). However,