 Some scholars have suggested that Muḥammad used the term Allah in addressing both pagan Arabs and Jews or Christians in order to establish a common ground for the understanding of the name for God , a claim Gerhard Böwering says is doubtful . According to Böwering , in contrast with pre @-@ Islamic Arabian polytheism , God in Islam does not have associates and companions , nor is there any kinship between God and jinn . Pre @-@ Islamic pagan Arabs believed in a blind , powerful , inexorable and insensible fate over which man had no control . This was replaced with the Islamic notion of a powerful but provident and merciful God . 
