ABSTRACT
Islam probably began as a protest against Meccan polytheism and idolatry, with an early expression of its message being the statement contained in Sūra 112 of the Qurʾān that God is One, that He does not beget nor has been begotten, and that none is comparable to Him. There is thus a horror of polytheism and the idea of multiplicity in God on the one hand and on the other of the worship of anything other than God, either personal or physical.
