the crescent of islam

In the Christian world, the cross is the most prominent religious object. One can see it in churches, schools, funeral parlors, cemeteries, sarcophagi, some Christian houses, and even on necklaces of some women. Christians believe it is the symbol of Christianity. There is no Christianity with that ubiquitous cross.

In Islam, the religion of the Muslims, there is no cross. Muslims do not believe Jesus died on the cross. When the Jews arrested Jesus and wanted to kill him, Allah (God) miraculously intervened and saved him. Jesus was raised to heaven without passing death. So no one can see a cross in the mosques as he can see in Christian churches. Instead, one can see the crescent on the domes and minarets of almost all mosques around the world.

Most Muslims believe the crescent is the symbol of Islam . But why the crescent? Muslim scholars are not unanimous in explaining the meaning of the crescent. Some say it represents the crescent of the Islamic month of Ramadan, the month in which Muslims fast. If a month has such importance as to represent Islam, why chose Ramadan? Why not Rabee-ul-Awwal, the Islamic month in which the Prophet Muhammad was born? Or why not Safar the Islamic month in which the Prophet Muhammad died? So many Muslim scholars disagree with this Ramadan explanation.

Some scholars explain that the crescent means that Islam is a growing religion just like the crescent moon which becomes bigger and bigger until it becomes full moon. But why start with the crescent? The new moon is much appropriate. Islam started with one man, the Prophet Muhammad himself. Then it grows until it is embraced now by more than ¼ of the whole world population. Islam is indeed a fast growing religion. So with this explanation, Islam cannot be represented by a crescent. Can we change the crescent to a new moon?

Another Muslim scholar has a different version. He said the crescent represents the so-called fertile crescent in the Middle East, starting from Egypt, passing the western part of Saudi then to Iraq. But why this region only? Muslims say Islam is a universal religion; it cannot be isolated to the fertile crescent only. Furthermore, when Islam was first revealed to the Prophet, this region was immersed in paganism.

Until now the correct meaning of this crescent on the mosques is unknown. If Muslim scholars are not sure, how can the ordinary Muslims know? And to complicate matters, nobody knows for sure when the crescent was first used as a symbol of Islam, and who introduced it . Some Muslim scholars say it was during the Abbasid caliphate. Some, however, disagreed.. They claim it started during the time of the Ottoman empire of the Turks in 1300 – 1916 C.E. Of course, all these are wild guesses.

Prophet Muhammad did not use the crescent as a symbol of Islam. When he built the first mosque in a place called Quba, he did not install any crescent. Later when he built another mosque in Medina, now known as the Mosque of the Prophet, he did not install any crescent; neither did he teach that it was the symbol of Islam. In other words, using the crescent as the symbol of Islam is an innovation of the Muslims themselves.

When Prophet Muhammad received the first revelation of Islam sometime in 610 C.E., the Middle East and the whole known world were already immersed in paganism. Christianity has already absorbed many pagan beliefs and rites like the trinity doctrine, the god-eating- rite now known as the Holy Eucharist, Christmas, Crucifixion and Easter, and many others. Islam is a purely monotheistic religion that tried to destroy these pagan beliefs and rites.

The worship of the triune god first started in ancient Babylon which is now in modern Iraq, a Muslim country. The first trinity started with Nimrod the son, his father Cush and his wife . Though worshiped in different names, this trinity spread to other countries like Egypt, Turkey and other Mediterranean countries.

After the passage of time, the gods of Babylon begun to multiply and other triune gods came like Sin the moon god, Shamash the sun god and Ishtar the fertility goddess.In Christianity Sin the moon god became the father, Shamash the sun god became the son Jesus, and Ishtar the wife of Sin became Mary the mother of Jesus.

Archaeological findings in the ruins of Babylon showed a stone tablet depicting the shrine and emblem of the trinity Sin, Shamash and Ishtar. The emblem of Ishtar is the eight-pointed star; that of Shamash , the sun god or the son, is the sun; and that of Sin, the moon god or the father, is the crescent.

In 1300 C.E. when Turkey, a former pagan country but now Muslim, rose to power, it preserved the crescent as its emblem , and it was also at this time that the crescent became prominent in almost all mosque throughout the empire. Saudi Arabia and all Muslim countries in the Middle East became part of the empire, so all the mosques there displayed the crescent emblem. And from the Middle East, it spread throughout the world.

The Ottoman Empire fell in 1916. Although the empire was gone, the crescent remains until now. The Muslims love it although it was an emblem of the pagan god Sin.Is Islam purely monotheist? One should think hard on the origin of the crescent he sees on the mosques before he answers, yes.