It must have been a hard choice for history's greatest ever man [sorry not Obama but Muhammad]. There were so many potential 'Allahs' or the 'one' for Muhammad to venerate. The Al-Lah moon deity has many attributes and 99 names in the Koran of course [see Sura 59:22-24]. Should this Al-Lah thing be referencing the Babylonian moon deity Hub'Al or his three daughters, venerated for some 1500 years in Mecca by the time of the 'great man' Muhammad ? Or maybe Allat the Sun goddess is the 'ilah' or the one ? Or perhaps the El-Lah is one of the other 358 idols in the Kabaa ? As with many things in life Muhammad stuck to what he knew. The choice was reasonably straightforward. Since his family venerated Hub'Al as the 'ilah' or one main divinity, the Allah or 'only one' would replace Hub'Al as the chief divine will-power in the universe, one that governs all human events and all the causes and effects of the natural and human worlds. Allah uber alles.

But it was not a uni-directional choice. This not-so-new Allah or Hub'Allah decided that Muhammad was the most important human in history [until the age of Obama]. Pagan Arabs had prostrated themselves in humiliation and engaged in bizarre rituals – which are still performed by Moslems today – to the great Hub'Al literally for millennia. But in around 610 AD the Allah or Hub'Allah decided that he loved Muhammad the most. The bi-directional relationship between Muhammad and Hub'Allah was thus born.

Why the sudden change for Allah or Hub'Al, and the redirection of his or its 'love' from the pagan Arab mass to one man? Sahih Bukhari, in his aHadiths provides one passage describing the Arab devotion to Allah or 'the one'.

Bukhari- Volume 2, Book 26, Number 725: 
Narrated Muhammad bin Jubair bin Mut'im: 
My father said, "(Before Islam) I was looking for my camel." The same narration is told by a different sub-narrator. Jubair bin Mut'im said, "My camel was lost and I went out in search of it on the day of 'Arafat, and I saw the Prophet standing in 'Arafat. I said to myself: By Allah he is from the Hums (literally: strictly religious, Quraish were called so, as they used to say, 'We are the people of Allah we shall not go out of the sanctuary). What has brought him here?" 

The above informs us that the Quraysh were devoted to the Allah long before Muhammad appropriated the 'one' and linked it with himself. Muhammad started preaching against his own tribe, when he received visions that the Al-Lah thing loved him the most. In Muhammad's theology Hub'Allah loved him and only him! The Quraish were not pious or strict enough in their groveling to the moon deity. There was too much laxity, good humor, sex and not enough mindless ritualization and submitted, irrational slavishness. This apparently had made the El-Lah thing very angry. He chose Muhammad to straighten things out. This occurred circa 610 AD. Now magically and quite suddenly, the millennia-long venerated Allah rejected the Meccans. The moon idol became romantically and psychologically obsessed only with Muhammad. Truly a bizarre tale.

The Meccans became angry at Muhammad in his early 'ministry' for a variety of reasons. He transgressed the social code and ethos of the existing cults. He harangued the Meccans as unworthy. He declaimed that he was a prophet. His sermonizing was having a negative impact on trade and pilgrimmage to the city state. He ridiculed pantheism. In its place he proposed that the Allah was really the name and deity of all the idols. The Hub'Allah had apparently chosen Muhammad to change and associate the name of 'ilah' with all the idols, wrapping up 360 deities into one. This would certainly have confused a pantheistic people.

In fact quite strangely, Muhammad demanded that early Moslems memorize Allah's 99 names. How can Allah be monotheistic when the name refers to 99 instances and discrete objects ? In other words Allah's name was being changed at will – Muhammad's will – to fit the social mores and naming conventions of a pagan cult. Muhammad also claimed that whoever believed in these 99 names and could recite them would enter the Hub'Allah's promised paradise [see Sahih Bukhari, 8.75.419 and 3.50.894].

Allah is thus a pagan symbol and naming convention. It incorporates Hub'Al[lah] and other other pagan deities. Moslem and Arab historian Benjamin Walker writes:

“Thus Wadd, a moon god was assimilated into and survived in al-Wadud, 'the Loving'; Munim, worshipped in north Arabia survives in al-Mani, 'the Withholder'; Salm, a deity of Tayma, in al-Salaam, 'the Peace'; Kaus or Kayis, regarded as the consort of Manat, is retained in al-Kawi, 'the Strong'; Aziz of north Arabia is preserved unchanged is al-Aziz, 'the Mighty'.The pre-Islamic designations of God, al-Rahman, 'the Merciful', and ar-Rahim, 'the Compassionate', remain conspicuous in Islam [Walker, 2004, p. 43].”

The Koran confirms that this 'mighty and often merciful' Al-Lah figure is actually a polytheistic deity.
“And your Allah is One Allah: There is no god but He, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.” [002.163]
“It is He Who is Allah in heaven and Allah on earth; and He is full of Wisdom and Knowledge.” [043.084]

It is clear that in the beginning of his ministry and political project, that Muhammad was quite unsure as to who should be his 'Allah' or 'the one' [Obama would be born much later sadly]. Would the ilah thing be ar-Rahman, ar-Rahim, Allat, Uzza, Wadd, Hubal, Aziz-or any other numerous deities that the Meccan Pagans used to worship. Besides Hubal, Allah, Allat, Uzza, and Manat, each tribe in Arabia, had their own favourite idol or deity. So which Allah was the right Allah?

Muhammad solved this conundrum as one would expect he would. He chose his family deity Hub'Al, and used the Arabic word for 'the one' or ilah to describe its ascendancy over all idols. This is why the Koran states in many places that 'your Allah is the One Allah'. Hub'Al, long the protector of Mecca simply disappears from the record and Arab history. Allah replaces it and every other idol. In other words, whatever you are worshipping Mr. and Mrs. Pagan Arab, is actually my Allah. So keep your rites, your rituals, your pilgrimmage, your oblations, your prayers and just redirect them to Mecca, my hometown, and enrich me with money, power and totalitarian control. So spake Muhammad. And the Arabs agreed.