al-Lat (Arabic: اللات, romanized: al-Lāt, pronounced [alːaːt]), also spelled Allat, Allatu, and Alilat, is a pre-Islamic Arabian goddess, at one time worshipped under various associations throughout the entire Arabian Peninsula, including Mecca, where she was worshipped alongside Al-Uzza and Manat as one of the daughters of Allah.

[3] The worship of al-Lat is attested in South Arabian inscriptions as Lat and Latan, but she had more prominence in north Arabia and the Hejaz, and her cult reached as far as Syria.

It has also been associated with the "idol of jealousy" erected in the temple of Jerusalem according to the Book of Ezekiel, which was offered an oblation of barley-meal by the husband who suspected his wife of infidelity.

[4] John F. Healey believes that al-Lat and al-'Uzza originated as a single goddess, which parted ways in the pre-Islamic Meccan tradition.

[28] By the second-century AD, al-Lat in Palmyra began to be portrayed in the style of Athena, and was referred to as "Athena-Allāt", but this assimilation does not extend beyond her iconography.

[30] In Islamic sources discussing pre-Islamic Arabia, al-Lat is attested as the chief goddess of the Banu Thaqif tribe.

[31] She was said to be venerated in Ta'if, where she was called ar-Rabba ("The Lady"),[32][33] and she reportedly had a shrine there that was decorated with ornaments and treasure of gold and onyx.

[17] Al-Lat is also mentioned in pre-Islamic Arab poetry, such as in al-Mutalammis' satire of Amr ibn Hind:[36] Thou hast banished me for fear of lampoon and satire.No!

[42] According to Islamic tradition, the shrine dedicated to al-Lat in Ta'if was demolished on the orders of Muhammad, during the Expedition of Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, in the same year as the Battle of Tabuk[34] (which occurred in October 630 AD).

[46] In its essential form, the story reports that during Muhammad's recitation of Surat An-Najm, when he reached the following verses: Have you thought of al-Lāt and al-‘Uzzá and Manāt, the third, the other?Satan tempted him to utter the following line:[46] These are the exalted gharāniq, whose intercession is hoped for.

That were indeed an unfair division!The majority of Muslim scholars have rejected the historicity of the incident on the basis of the theological doctrine of 'isma (prophetic infallibility i.e., divine protection of Muhammad from mistakes) and their weak isnads (chains of transmission).

[47] Due to its defective chain of narration, the tradition of the Satanic Verses never made it into any of the canonical hadith compilations,[49] though reference and exegesis about the Verses appear in early histories, such as al-Tabari's Tārīkh ar-Rusul wal-Mulūk and Ibn Ishaq's Sīrat Rasūl Allāh (as reconstructed by Alfred Guillaume).

[46] Various legends about her origins were known in medieval Islamic tradition, including one that linked al-Lat's stone with a man who grinds cereal (al-latt, "the grinder").

[51] These two stones representing the primordial couple (sic Adam & Eve the so called ancestors of the human race) most likely pre-existed this cautionary tale promulgated by Islam.

Furthermore, Isaf and Na'ila played a central role in the Quraish and al-Khuza'a's ritual practice of hierogamy or 'sacred marriage' culminating in a communal wedding feast 'walima'.

[55] Waqidi's mention of the 'head' (ra's) of ar-Rabba may imply that the image was perceived in human or animal form, although Julius Wellhausen resisted this implication.

[57] Al-Lat was associated with the Greek goddess Athena (and by extension, the Roman Minerva) in Nabataea, Hatra, and Palmyra.

[58] Al-Lat can also be identified with the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, with both of the deities taking part in prosperity, warfare, and later being linked to Aphrodite and Athena.

The Lion of Al-Lat statue that adorned her temple in Palmyra was damaged by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in 2015 but has been since restored.