From the height of Tawheed to the depravity of Shirk

Thus a person who becomes a polytheist has actually fallen from the great status of humanity. Tauheed is a strong fort that is given by Allah. One who associates anyone or anything with Allah falls out of this fort. The Satan kidnaps him and deceives him He commits the mistake to be deceived by the Satanic deceit. In this way becomes distant from divine mercy. The Satan makes him involved in illegal desires and wrong wants.

In brief, one who falls from the lofty status of Tawheed to the debased position of Shirk, either the man-eating bird of camel desires devours him up or he is blown away into the valley of deviation by the wind of Satanic instigations.

The Demand of Humanity – Tawheed

Man is the superiormost creature. He has the loftiest position among the creations of Allah. However, this position is bestowed on him only if he remains attached the Almighty. He achieves it only when he submits to the obedience of Allah. He considers everything that he has as Allah’s property. He sees himself debased and degraded before the mighty of Allah. He looks upon all the creatures as partners in the service of Allah. He believes that Allah is the giver of all bounties to him as well to others. According to him Allah is the guardian of all the creatures. He must not consider any creature to be instrumental in influencing anyone’s fate. He should consider all the creatures as mediums and channels. He may approach them for being mediums but he must only consider them as such. He must have absolute regard only for Allah. For example, during an illness he can visit a doctor and if necessary take the medicine. However, he should know that a cure is bestowed only by Allah. If Allah had not given cure in the hands of the doctor or effect in the medicine, he would never have been cured. If Allah had not permitted the doctor would not have succeeded in diagnosing the disease.

Thus he should consider himself and all other creatures to be depending and in need of Allah in all aspects of their life. He should have firm belief that it is Allah who has brought us into this world and it He alone who will take us away. Allah is the one who bestows excess and sometimes due to hidden wisdom he constrains the bounties. Allah is the one to protect us in the world and He alone can give us Salvation in the Hereafter. Allah is his Lord as well as of the others. Thus he should say with firm conviction.

I witness that there is no god except Allah. The one who has no partner. The kingdom is for Him and the Praise is for Him.

This is the great position of humanity. That he should only look upon Allah and worship Him alone. If man bows down before a creature of Allah, considers himself needs before him, pleads with him and degrades himself before him, he debases himself from the lofty position of humanity, Bowing before living and non living objects, before animals and angels is a kind of abasement. No one is higher than Allah. If man considers something other Allah as god it means that he has humiliated before it instead of Allah. The honour of humanity lies in that he should consider himself only in need of Allah. No creature can completely dissociate from Allah.

Cannot ever create a Mosquito

The Almighty Allah says,

يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ ضُرِبَ مَثَلٌ فَاسْتَمِعُوا لَهُ إِنَّ الَّذِينَ تَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ لَن يَخْلُقُوا ذُبَابًا وَلَوِ اجْتَمَعُوا لَهُ وَإِن يَسْلُبْهُمُ الذُّبَابُ شَيْئًا لَّا يَسْتَنقِذُوهُ مِنْهُ ضَعُفَ الطَّالِبُ وَالْمَطْلُوبُ

“O people! a parable is set forth, therefore listen to it: surely those whom you call upon besides Allah cannot create fly, though they should all gather for it, and should the fly snatch away anything from them, they could not take it back from i weak are the invoker and the invoked.”

(Surah Hajj 22:73)

Thus, is it correct to worship such people, such things and idols?

Does it behave humanity that man should plead before such deities?

Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq (a.s.) says,

“The infidels of Quraysh had hung idols on the four walls of the Ka’ba and they used to anoint them appointed green coloured flies on these idols and they used to snatch and flyaway with the Musk and Amber and devour them.”

We have taken the above tradition from Tafseer Safi that has taken it from Usoole Kafi

Types of False Deities

All these things that deterred man from the worship of One God and all those things that he came to regard as deities of Satan are either inorganic, or organic like the plants, the animals, man, jinns and angels etc. So we shall refer to them brief by because greater details will prolong the discussion.

The inanimate objects can be heavenly bodies like the moon and the stars or the idols. People usually made idols of wood or stone. They used to embellish them with gold, silver and precious stones and make them in different shapes. In the same way they used to make statues of the stars and install them in their worship houses. Then these ignorant people used to worship these idols that he his own hands had wrought. They used to rely on them and invocate them.

Prophet Ibrahim (a.s.) told the idol-worshippers of his nation:

قَالَ أَتَعْبُدُونَ مَا تَنْحِتُونَ

“What! Do you worship what you hew out? And Allah has created you and what you make.”

(Surah Saffat 37:95 – 96)

How can reason justify this action that man is bowing down before somethings that he has himself made? It is Allah who has created all the material that you used for making the idols.

The verses that are revealed in denouncement of idol-worship are numerous.

Worship of the most lowly things

It is obvious that the position of man is higher than that of animals. In the same way the position of animals is higher than the inanimate objects. Thus if man begins to worship something that can neither move nor think. They do not even have a proper shape or body. Now if man begins to consider himself subservient to inanimate objects, it shall be definitely an illogical thing to do. In this way man has degraded himself to become lowlier than the inorganic substance.

Excuses for Idol Worship

Some idol worshipper justify their wrong practice saying,

“We know that these idols are not our creator and sustainer. But since it is no possible to contact God without a medium, we are compelled to make them in the form or God or proximate angels and worship them. So that it can gain proximity to the Creator of the Universe. Respecting the image of a person signifies respecting this person himself.”

This is just like repeating the words of the Holy Quran:

مَا نَعْبُدُهُمْ إِلَّا لِيُقَرِّبُونَا إِلَى اللَّهِ

“We do not serve them save that they make us nearer to Allah.”

(Surah Zumar 39:3)

Allah is Near but He has no form!

This is a wrong notion of the idol-worshippers. Do they not know that nobody is proximate to Allah? Reason and nature desire that every creature. Nothing should come between the Creator and the Creatures. The traditions of the Prophets also confirm this. However, the Almighty Allah does not possess a shape. He neither has a form or a face. Rather, He is the Creator of bodies, He Himself does not have a body. Thus it is not correct to make an image of God. It is also not correct to make the images of angels and men considering them to be proximate to Allah. No man has ever seen an angel in actual form. Thus whatever image is created is imaginative and false. As far as the stars and the idols are concerned, the Shaitan deviates men through them. By making them engrossed in their worship the Satan keeps them away from the worship of Allah. Another thing is that the idol-makers can neither prove their action through reason nor do they have any divine command as proof.

إِنَّمَا تَعْبُدُونَ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ أَوْثَانًا وَتَخْلُقُونَ إِفْكًا

“You only worship idols besides Allah and you create a lie.”

(Surah Ankabut 29:17)

Worship of the Four Elements

Some people worship the four elements, viz. fire, water, earth and air. The Satan has deviated them towards this. Some people worship only the fire. They consider it to be eternal. They say: The greatest creature of Allah is the fire. So we must worship it.” Some people worship only the air and consider it to be the only real entity. They do not think it to be different from the existence of Allah.

Other things earth (dust) is the only God. Some others worship the sea. The baselessness and falsity of such beliefs is obvious.

Sun, Moon and the Stars

Some people have deviated towards the Sun, the Moon and the Stars. The worshippers of the sun think that it is an angel. “It is a great, intelligent and powerful angel. It is the chief of all angels. It is the king of the heaven and the earth.”

Certain people exceed this and say: “Sun is the absolute truth and the actual God. It has created everything. We can see it with our eyes while we only hear the name of other non-material things. Man should worship only that which he can see. We should worship on hearsay.”

Some other people worship the moon. They consider it be a great and powerful angel. While the Zorastrians also revere other celestial bodies like the Venus, Saturn and Mars etc. They fix their images in their worship houses. They get them engraved in their homes and worship them.

From the aspect of creation, Earth is like the Moon and Stars

Today man has stepped on the moon. It has been proved beyond doubt that stars and planets are materials resembling this Earth. Their status is no higher than that of the Earth. If man pleads to them and prostrates before it is nothing but his own ignorance.

False beliefs

Yes! Distancing themselves from the religion of Islam and the Holy Quran has involved them in such false beliefs. So much so, that there are some people in India who worship the male sexual organ. Some consider cow to be holy. They say that your prayer shall be valid only if you wash your face with cow urine. When they see a cow urinating they rush to it and cup their hands to fill them with urine. After this they swear their faces with it and perform prayers. There is also a sect of Majoos who say: “Angels are the daughters of God. The influenced the course of happenings. The Almighty also has a wife from the jinn family.”

Another sect worships the jinns.

Worship of the trees and Division of Good and Evil

A date palm was considered sacred in the area of Najran. Weapons, clothes and dresses were kept on it as offerings.

It is written in Anisul Alaam that, “There is a tree besides the river Ganges in India, whose leaves move continuously in a particular fashion. They move sixty times in a minute. The polytheists of India consider this river and this tree sacred.”

These are a religious group called ‘Sanawiya’. According to them there are two creators of this world. All that is good it’s creates by Yazdan, who is wise and kind. The second Creator is Ahriman (Satan). He is powerless and he has created all the evil.

The Nature of Man says that God is One

Scholars say that except for the atheists and the materialists, the followers of all other religions believe in the Unity and the Oneness of Allah. Even if they indulge in polytheism they consider other gods to be smaller than the Almighty. Even then they consider Allah as the greatest. Or they say that the smaller gods give some bounties and answer invocations. But they consider that the creator and the Lord of all is one. Because the human nature cannot, but believe in the Oneness of Allah.

Polytheism with regard to the Tawheed in Action

In other words it can be said that everyone is unanimous on the being and qualities of the Almighty Allah. They all say that the eternal being of the Almighty Allah is one. But some people do Shirk in the Tawheed of actions. They say that all that is done by providence has the hand of some others besides Allah. They consider these other factors worthy of obedience besides the Almighty. The obedience should be for Allah, alone. With regard to worship also they perform such acts that befit only for the Almighty Allah.

Idol-worship is an open Polytheism

So far we have discussed the idol-worshippers whose polytheism is obvious. Even the Holy Quran applies to them both the terms: Polytheist and Idol-worshippers. The people of the book (Ahle Kitals) are in a type of a different kind of polytheism. It can just be said that they have done Shirk. There is a difference between doing Shirk and being mushriks (polytheists) themselves. For example, in spite of Hajj becoming incumbent on him if someone does not go for it, it is said that he has done Kufr (infidelity). But we can’t say that he has become a Kafir (infidel). Thus polytheists are those whose polytheism is obvious. And obvious polytheism means that a person accepts smaller gods and worships them.

The Polytheism of Ahle Kitab is Hidden Polytheism

The polytheism of Ahle Kitab is a hidden or concealed polytheism. Ahle Kitab includes the Jews and Christians. Some scholars say that Majoos are also included in it. Certain traditions also support the view that the Majoos had a prophet and a heavenly book too. But now that book has been taken away from them.

The polytheism of the Ahle Kitab is due to various reasons: For example the Jews say that, “Ozair is the son of God.”

Ozair is the same person whom the Jews call in Hebrew, Ozra. He is that same person who laid the new foundation of Jew faith. Nebuchawaezer the king of Babel had conquered the cities and territories of the Jews. He razed their synagogues and burnt their holy books. After this Ozair wrote a new book by the name of Torah.

Nebuchawazer had killed all the male Jews. The women, children and some old men were sent to Babel. They remained in Babel for nearly a hundred years. Finally, Koresh the king of Persia invaded Babel and conquered it. Then Ozair came to koresh and lobbied for the homeless Jews. Koresh had respect for Ozair. He agreed to Ozair that Jew be permitted to return to their homeland. He also gave the permission to rewrite the Torah, because not a single copy of Torah had survived. Despite this fact, Ozair wrote a book called Torah in 457 B.C. then he distributed it among the Jews under the same title of Torah.

However, after three hundred years or so, in 161 B.C. the ruler of Sham, Antiocis again conquered the Jewish territories. As a result of this even the Torah written by Ozair was destroyed. The soldiers of Antiocis used to raid homes and wherever a copy of Torah was found, it was burnt to ashes.

The Jews revere Ozair because he had once again settled them in Palestine. That is why they call him ‘Son of God’. This is just like how the Christians refer to Isa (a.s.) as the “Son of God,” because they found in him a glimpse of divein qualities. They consider him to be from god or the Son of God. They think that since he is so close to God, he must be the Son of God. Actually this extreme belief of the Jews and Christians has no firm basis.

وَقَالَتِ الْيَهُودُ عُزَيْرٌ ابْنُ اللّهِ وَقَالَتْ النَّصَارَى الْمَسِيحُ ابْنُ اللّهِ ذَلِكَ قَوْلُهُم بِأَفْوَاهِهِمْ

“And the Jews say: Uzair is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths.”

(Surah Taubah 9:30)

Please refer to Surah Taubah verses 30-32 for this topic.

The Christians believe in ‘Unity in trinity’. While they say that the Creator of the Universe is one they also returate that the creator consists of three parts. One part is concerned with creation. The second part is the son of God (Isa). He is concerned with the mission of speaking to the people as a representative of God. And the third part is the Ruhul Qudus (Jibraeel a.s.). He is considered with the section of life. These three different parts of God are know as “Aqaneem” in their terminology and one of them implies a particular quality without which the personage has no existence.

This was in brief the belief of trinity. However when we study this subject in detail in different books we find that there are more than seventy points regarding who there exist controversies. That is the explanations for trinity are contradictory to each other. So much so that some Christian writers state that the belief of trinity is not logical, but we must accept it without any investigation.

Please refer to the Anisul Aalaam for more details. Also, the Tafseer al-Mizan has discussed this topic under the exegesis of the 30^th Ayat of Surah Aale Imran.

The idol-worshippers of India and the Buddhist are believed in trinity. Rather, scholars say that the Christians have borrowed the idea of trinity from the idol-worshippers.

Allamah Tabatabai quotes from ‘Khurafat-e-Taurat’ in his Tafseer al-Mizan: “When undertake a careful study of India we find that there most ancient and the most common deities are the trinity. That is one God has three parts. According to them there are three parts of the Godhead: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. They believe that the three of them collectively make up the Godhead. According to them Brahma is the Creator, Vishnu is the preserve and Shiva is the destroyer.