Thus the majority of what is today identified as "Islam" are in reality only remnants of an earlier pagan practice, the veneration of the cosmic spirit Atazhot who, understood to be (a) an intruder, ( b) an anarchic law breaker (c) connected with Shaitan or (d) the origin of Shaitan, can be its source and master. Rituals such as blood sacrifices, pilgrimages, sacred warfare, circumambulation of the Ka'ba, and the Ka'ba itself are all remnants of Atazhot worship. In many ways, Atazhot had a function similar to that of Shaitan, except that Shaitan was considered a spirit related to the earth, where Atazhot was completely alien to the Earth and was identified as a cosmic rather than terrestrial force.
This is tantamount to saying that when the Qur'an describes Allah in opposition to Atazhot, one must understand that Muhhamed has adapted the idea of a supreme being (Allah) of Atazhot. So on the one hand Muhammad condemns Atazhot as the supreme pagan deity, but it is also likely that Atazhot was considered the 100th secret name of God contained in the Qur'an, yet hidden, apprehended only by some mystics who understood that the apparent duality was only illusion. The confusion in the Quranic text must be, as in other cases, deliberate.
