| "And behold Allah will say: "O Jesus the son of Mary Did you say to men, Worship me and my mother as gods besides Allah He will say-"Glory to you I could never say what I had no right (to say')" (Surah Al-Ma'idah- 5:116) |
Nor did he worship himself when he worshipped but rather he worshipped Allah. This basic principle is enshrined in the opening chapter of the Qur'an, known as Surah Al-Fatihah, verse 4:
| "You alone do we worship and from you alone do we seek help". Elsewhere, in the final book of revelation, the Qur'an, |
Allah also said:
| "And your Lord says:"Call on Me and I will answer your(prayer)."(Surah Mu'min 40:60) |
It is worth noting that the basic message of Islam is that Allah and His creation are distinctly different entities. Neither is Allah His creation or a part of it, nor is His creation Him or a part of Him.
This might seem obvious, but, man's worship of creation instead of the Creator is to a large degree based on ignorance of this concept. It is the belief that the essence of Allah is everywhere in His creation or that His divine being is or was present in some aspects of His creation, which has provided justification for the worship of creation though such worship may be called the worship of Allah through his creation. How ever, the message of Islam as brought by the prophets of Allah is to worship only Allah and to avoid the worship of his creation either directly or indirectly. In the Quran Allah clearly states:
| "For We assuredly sent amongst every people a prophet,(with the command) worship me and avoid false gods " (Surah Al-Nahl 16:36) |
When the idol worshipper is questioned as to why he or she bows down to idols created by men, the invariable reply is that they are not actually worshipping the stone image, but Allah who is present within it. They claim that the stone idol is only a focal point for Allah's essence and is not in itself Allah! One who has accepted the concept of the presence of God's being within His creation in any way will be obliged to accept this argument of idolatry. Whereas, one who understands the basic message of Islam and its implications would never concede to idolatry no matter how it is rationalized. Those who have claimed divinity for themselves down through the ages have often based their claims on the mistaken belief that Allah is present in man. They merely had to assert that although Allah according to their false beliefs, is in all of us, He is more present in them than in the rest of us. Hence, they claim, we should submit our will to them and worship them as they are either God in person or God concentrated within the person.
Similarly, those who have asserted the godhood of others after their passing have found fertile ground among those who accept the false belief of God's presence in man. One who has grasped the basic message of Islam and its implications could never agree to worship another human being under any circumstances. God's religion in essence is a clear call to the worship of the Creator and the rejection of creation-worship in any form. This is the meaning of the motto of Islam:
"Laa ilaha ilallah" (There is no god but Allah) Its repetition automatically brings one within the fold of Islam and sincere belief in it guarantees one Paradise.
Thus, the final Prophet of Islam is reported to have said,
| "Any one who says: There is no god but Allah and dies holding that (belief) will enter paradise". (Reported by Abu Dharr and collected by Al-Bukhari and Muslim). |
It consists in the submission to Allah as one God, yielding to Him by
obeying
His commandments, and the denial of polytheism and polytheists.
Thus, it may be stated that the basic message of false religion is that
Allah
may be worshipped in the form of His creation. False religion invites man
to
the worship of creation by calling the creation or some aspect of it God.
For
example, prophet Jesus invited his followers to worship Allah but those
who
claim to be his followers today call people to worship Jesus, claiming
that
he was Allah!
Buddha was a reformer who introduced a number of humanistic principles to
the
religion of India. He did not claim to be God nor did he suggest to his
followers that he be an object of worship. Yet, today most Buddhists who
are
to be found outside of India have taken him to be God and prostrate to
idols
made in their perception of his likeness.
By using the principle of identifying the object of worship, false
religion
becomes very obvious and the contrived nature of their origin clear. As
God
said in the Qur'an:
| He has commanded that you only worship Him; that is the right religion, but most men do not understand ". (Surah Yusuf 12:40) |
It may be argued that all religions teach good things so why should it matter which one we follow. The reply is that all false religions teach the greatest evil, the worship of creation. Creation-worship is the greatest sin that man can commit because it contradicts the very purpose of his creation. Man was created to worship Allah alone as Allah has explicitly stated in the Qur'an:
| "I have only created Jinns and men, that they may worship me"(Surah Dhariyat 51:56) |
Consequently, the worship of creation, which is the essence of idolatry, is the only unforgivable sin. One who dies in this state of idolatry has sealed his fate in the next life. This is not an opinion, but a revealed fact stated by Allah in his final revelation to man:
| "Verily Allah will not forgive the joining of partners with Him, but He may forgive (sins) less than that for whom so ever He wishes"(Surah An-Nisa 4:48 and 116) |
| "Verily those who believe, those who follow the Jewish (Scriptures), the Christians and the Sabians any who believe In Allah and the last day, and work righteousness *hall have their reward with their Lord;They will not be overcome by fear nor grief (Surah Al-Baqarah 2:62). |
| If only they had stood by the law, the Gospel, and all the revelation that was sent to them from their Lord, they would have enjoyed happiness from every side. There Is from among them a party on the right course; but many of them follow a course that Is evil." (Surah Al-Ma'idah 5:66) |
In Surah Al-A'raf, Verses 172-173; Allah explained that when He created Adam, He caused all of Adam's descendants to come into existence and took a pledge from them saying,
| Am I not your Lord? To which they all replied, " Yes, we testify to It:' |
Allah then explained why He had all of mankind bear witness that He is their creator and only true God worthy of worship. He said,
| "That was In case you (mankind) should say on the day of Resurrection, "Verily we were unaware of all this." |
That is to say, we had no idea that You Allah, were our God. No one told us that we were only supposed to worship You alone. Allah went on to explain That it was also In case you should say,
| "Certainly It was our ancestors who made partners (With Allah) and we are only their descendants; will You then destroy us for what those liars did?" |
Thus, every child is born with a natural belief in Allah and an inborn inclination to worship Him alone called in Arabic the "Fitrah".
If the child were left alone, he would worship Allah in his own way, but all children are affected by those things around them, seen or unseen.
The Prophet (PBUH) reported that Allah said,
| "I created my servants in the right religion but devils made them go astray" |
. The Prophet (PBUH) also said,
| "Each child is born in a state of "Fitrah", then his parents make him a Jew, Christian or a Zoroastrian, the way an animal gives birth to a normal offspring. Have you noticed any that were born mutilated?" (Collected by Al- Bukhari and Muslim). |
So, just as the child submits to the physical laws which Allah has put in nature, his soul also submits naturally to the fact that Allah is his Lord and Creator. But, his parents try to make him follow their own way and the child is not strong enough in the early stages of his life to resist or oppose the will of his parents. The religion which the child follows at this stage is one of custom and upbringing and Allah does not hold him to account or punish him for this religion.
Throughout people's lives from childhood until the time they die, signs
are
shown to them in all regions of the earth and in their own souls, until it
becomes clear that there is only one true God (Allah). If the people are
honest with themselves, reject their false gods and seek Allah, the way
will
be made easy for them but if they continually reject Allah's signs and
continue to worship creation, the more difficult it will be for them to
escape. For example, in the South Eastern region of the Amazon jungle in
Brazil, South America, a primitive tribe erected a new hut to house their
main idol Skwatch, representing the supreme God of all creation. The
homage
to the God, and while he was in prostration to what he had been taught was
his Creator and Sustainer, a mangy old flea-ridden dog walked into the
hut,
The young man looked up in time to see the dog lift its hind leg and pass
urine on the idol. Outraged, the youth chased the dog out of the temple,
but
when his rage died down he realized that the idol could not be the Lord of
the
universe. Allah must be elsewhere. He now had a choice to act on his
knowledge and seek Allah, or to dishonestly go along with the false
beliefs
of his tribe. As strange as it may seem, that was a sign from Allah for
that
young man. It contained within it divine guidance that what he was
worshipping was false.
Prophets were sent, as was earlier mentioned, to every nation and tribe to
support man's natural belief in Allah and man's inborn inclination to
worship
Him as well as to reinforce the divine truth in the daily signs revealed
by
Allah. Although, in most cases, much of the prophets' teachings became
distorted, portions remained which point out right and wrong. For example,
the ten commandments of the Torah, their confirmation in the Gospels and
the
existence of laws against murder, stealing and adultery in most societies.
Consequently, every soul will be held to account for its belief in Allah
and
its acceptance of the religion of Islam; the total submission to the will
of
Allah.
We pray to Allah, the exalted, to keep us on the right path to which He
has
guided us, and to bestow on us a blessing from Him, He is indeed the Most
Merciful. Praise and gratitude be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, and
peace
and blessings be on prophet Muhammad, his Family, his companions, and
those
who rightly follow them.