“Ba'l” as “Idol” in Sami Culture and Its Applications in the Holy Qur’an

Abstract

The term “Ba'l” occurs five times in the Holy Qur'an. Muslim exegetes consider it as “husband”, “lordship”, and “the name of a type of idol”. The fact that the term "Ba'l" simultaneously means both a husband and a type of a type of idol makes its exact meaning complicated and ambiguous. It is argued that the exegetes’ views, suggesting its meaning as a type of idol, are considerable and the same idol has been commonly worshiped among different Sami tribes. The question here is “why did Sami peoples have such an idol?”. In other words, “why did husband have such a sanctuary in Sami cultures so that an idol was named on him and he became a myth?” In the context of the semantic convergence of the two words "Ba'l" and "Hubal", it is possible to identify and recognize the additional names as "Ba'l" in the vocabulary and legacy of Sami languages, mostly are the names of Arabic cities. Moreover, the word “Ba'l” has two meanings in the Holy Qur’an: a proper name (a Kan'ānī idol) and a spouse (husband) who had been in trouble with his wife for some reasons. In Arabic poetry, almost the same indication is apparent with the conquest of the general meaning of “husband”.

Keywords

• the holy qur’an
• sami languages
• ba'l
• hubal