For those who may be curious, I'll digress a moment.

For those who may be curious, I'll digress a moment. The Third Commandment
does not say: "Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain."
Not only is it beneath Yahweh to write such a trivial thing in stone, his
name isn't "the Lord." A name can't be "taken," and "vain" means either
egotistical as it relates to a person, or failed as it relates to an
endeavor. In that the line was meaningless, Jews, and later Christians,
falsely assumed that our Creator was telling us that they shouldn't swear or
say, "Yahweh."

The Commandment as it was actually written in Hebrew says something that is
vital to our very survival: "You shall not accept or advance in the name or
character of Yahweh, your deity, anything that is deceptive or destructive."
Our failure to understand this Commandment and live by it is the reason Holy
Wars are fought. Our tolerance of things that purport to be godly, but are
instead false and destructive, is why Islam exists. It is why Muslim
militants kill us. It is why the world is, and has been, in such a horrible
mess.

So why didn't Muhammad initially name his dark spirit? Why did he begin by
calling him by the Hebrew, hence Hanif title "Lord?" Why then did he finally
name him after a rival to the Meccan Allah? Good questions all. And since
the Muslim sages don't provide a viable answer, I'll propose one-speculative
as it might be. Khadija converted Muhammad by telling him that her aged
cousin said that he was a prophet in the line of Moses. This man knew that
the Jews called their God "Lord." But the Meccans were not satisfied with a
title. All gods had names. Even pagan stone idols had names-why not
Muhammad's god? If he was so important, he must have a name.

That put the wannabe prophet in a pickle. If he called his god by any of the
most familiar pagan names-Hubal, Allah, Al-Lat (the female form of Al-Lah),
Manat, or Al-Uzza-something would be expected of them. After all, if they
could give such marvelous Qur'an recitals, why not a miracle? Since these
idols were close at hand it would have been hard to explain away their lack
of participation in the prophet's mission.

For those who may be curious, I'll digress a moment. The Third Commandment
does not say: "Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain."
Not only is it beneath Yahweh to write such a trivial thing in stone, his
name isn't "the Lord." A name can't be "taken," and "vain" means either
egotistical as it relates to a person, or failed as it relates to an
endeavor. In that the line was meaningless, Jews, and later Christians,
falsely assumed that our Creator was telling us that they shouldn't swear or
say, "Yahweh."

The Commandment as it was actually written in Hebrew says something that is
vital to our very survival: "You shall not accept or advance in the name or
character of Yahweh, your deity, anything that is deceptive or destructive."

Our failure to understand this Commandment...

"Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain."

For those who may be curious, I'll digress a moment. The Third
Commandment does not say: "Thou shall not take the name of the Lord
thy God in vain." Not only is it beneath Yahweh to write such a
trivial thing in stone, his name isn't "the Lord." A name can't be
"taken," and "vain" means either egotistical as it relates to a
person, or failed as it relates to an endeavor. In that the line was
meaningless, Jews, and later Christians, falsely assumed that our
Creator was telling us that they shouldn't swear or say, "Yahweh."