The Real Cause
In the previous chapter, we have explained in detail that the love for a real benign Being and praise and gratitude for Him is the most ancient and sincere emotion that exists within the nature of humans. This is why the Qur’an claims that God has taken a covenant of His providence from all humans and every person has had a role in this by agreeing with a “yes”:
وَاِذْ اَخَذَ رَبُّكَ مِن بَنِي آدَمَ مِنْ ظُهُوْرِهِمْ ذُرِّيَّتَهُمْ وَاَشْهَدَهُمْ عَلَى اَنفُسِهِمْ اَلَسْتَ بِرَبِّكُمْ قَالُوْا بَلَى شَهِدْنَا اَنْ تَقُوْلُوْا يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ اِنَّا كُنَّا عَنْ هَذَا غَافِلِيْنَ. (172:7)
When thy Lord drew forth from the Children of Adam - from their loins - their descendants, and made them testify concerning themselves, (saying): “Am I not your Lord (who cherishes and sustains you)?”- They said: “Yea! We do testify!” (This), lest ye should say on the Day of Judgment: “Of this we were never mindful.” (7:172)
Some people cast doubt on this, expressing their ignorance of whether such a promise has been made to God or not: they neither know of it nor do they remember that they had taken up responsibility to implement such a promise by agreeing to it. Both these points require proof, given that they are so important that every child of Adam shall be called upon to bear witness to the same.
It is surprising that people do not know that when a drop of liquid enters a mother’s womb and she, God knows, tolerates unbearable pain and difficulties, rearing the baby inside her, nurturing it with her own blood, and then gives birth to this lump of flesh after going through a life threatening experience. She then feeds it after transforming her blood into milk. After years of hard effort, she makes the baby capable enough to walk upon the earth. Then the time comes for the father’s sacrifice, his love, his nurturing and his training and education. This continues for a long time. During this period, if the father wants anything for himself, he wishes even more of the same for his child. He eats less, so that more is available for the child; he bears pain, so that the child can be in comfort; he puts his life in danger, so that his child remains safe from every threat. This is a chain of the love, kindness and sacrifice of parents that enables a child to be nurtured and grow into an adult. If even one link of this chain is broken, the life of the child is threatened. Now imagine that the child grows up and the parents reach their old age: now they are dependent and he is free. But he does not take care of them and if anyone reminds him of the rights and obligations to his parents, he answers to the effect that he is unaware that his parents have any rights over him. He is ignorant of any responsibilities towards them. He has never agreed to or Ishmaelites such a son vile and ignoble, because he is refusing such a right and such a responsibility that is of paramount significance and there is no other responsibility more established and evident of the truth. This responsibility lies with every person. It is present without any written document; proven without any testimony and necessary without any demand. It is the natural promise of privilege and responsibility greater than all other responsibilities on humans.
Following the same rationale, a man accepts the right of the woman from whom he takes benefit, to be protected and honoured and to be provided sustenance. On the same basis, a man takes up obligations to protect and support his family and clan. On the same basis, the municipality of a town taxes the income of its citizens and on the same basis a state requires its people to share their knowledge and skills, their time and independence and their wealth and lives and, in case the existence of the state is threatened, their sacrifice to protect it.
Now imagine that a man becomes responsible for a woman’s honour but refuses to take responsibility for her upkeep and her rights and obligations and says that he has not made any such commitment. Or, a citizen walks the streets of a town; takes benefit of the health system; benefits from its parks and gardens; obtains the brightness from the lights available; takes advantage of the established schools, but when the time comes for the town to make demands, says that he does not accept any responsibility towards it. Similarly, a person is benefitting from all the rights of citizenship of a state; taking advantage of its peace and justice systems; becomes the owner of land; father of a son; husband of a wife; citizen of a state, but when the requirements of the state are expressed, he says that he is free of such commitments: he never accepted that he would bear such burdens or ever get involved in such difficulties. Would his answers be legitimate? The wife would say that his excuse is wrong; the day that he used her honour freely and she had gave her body to him willingly, on the same day, he had made a strong covenant to fulfill all such responsibilities and the world would declare that such a man is ignoble and mean. The man’s tribe would say the same for this man, as would a municipality for its non paying resident, and a government to its citizen. The whole world would consider these statements to be correct and punishment for such a person legitimate. That every benefit carries with it a responsibility is as self-evident as the sun is.
On the basis of this natural and all-embracing law of the above responsibility and legitimacy, the hen in our house; the cow in its pen and the horse in its stable; the plants in our lawn and the trees in our garden also have rights on us. We shall be considered lowly and mean if we refused their rights. We owe it to the hen whose eggs and chickens we consume that we protect it from cats and dogs; we owe it to the cow whose milk we drink and to the horse that we ride upon that we take responsibility for their feed; we owe it to the plant from whose flowers we gain the benefit of heady perfumes and to the tree whose fruit we enjoy that we dig and add fertile soil to them and protect them from the destruction of cold and hot winds. We cannot refuse their rights. The day that we begin to obtain any benefits from their existence, that very day we have accepted their rights upon us. This is the promise of their claim and our responsibility that becomes valid automatically for everyone who is a recipient of a benefit. There is no other more significant and respected element in the nature of humans and among the noted deeds in the world.
Now please think over this point. If we do not refuse the rights of our parents on ourselves, then He who has created them has much greater rights upon us. If we do not have the leeway to refuse the rights of our wives, how is it possible for us to refuse the rights of He who gave life to a woman to provide peace and companionship to a man! When we acknowledge the rights of family, tribe and state, then He Who has created family and tribe, Who has placed an inclination and tendency in human beings to adhere to the collectivity is much more worthy of our abiding by the pledge of His providence.
When we believe in the
rights of even cats and hens; accept a silent commitment and
responsibility for cows and horses, why should we refuse the
covenant to Him who created cows and horses, deserts and
gardens, wind and water, fire and dust and who made them
appropriate and beneficial for the sustenance of our
existence? 1
Thus it is absolutely
incorrect to say that humans are not aware of this commitment;
however it is true that it is not easy to fulfil this promise.
We have explained in the previous chapter that God has blessed
humans with His love and need for His favours, but at the same
time has also placed numerous difficulties such as fear and
greed, desire and fright in their path so that their choice
and freedom may be tested and every person obtain a grade and
respect according to his strength and capacity before God.
These are the difficulties that are the standard of
distinction between a truthful seeker and an avaricious
person. The strong ones go through every high or low, easy or
difficult hurdles in order to reach God: they neither heed any
danger on the way nor do they get tempted towards any greed.
They listen to the voices of their nature constantly and its
attraction does not allow them to be conscious of the blisters
on the soles of their feet or the burning and pricking of
thorns. But those who are wretched by nature lose patience and
sit down at any hurdle they were meant to cross. This meanness
and weakness of character is actually the reason for
worshipping other deities and for polytheism. Such a person
does not consider his status and high position among God’s
creations and wherever he sees a shade for refuge or senses
fear, he gives up and settles down. This is not the place to
explain in detail the various ways in which such weakness is
demonstrated and the manner in which it manifests in different
forms of polytheism but we will mention a few important points
here to develop an idea in minds of our readers. Firstly, think about
the fact that God has gifted a man with a small kingdom within
himself; strengthened his existence by bestowing him with the
best of abilities; given him the desire for food and drink,
clothes, wives and children, a home so that by fulfilling
these wishes, he may be able to make use of his abilities for
continuity of his own and the world’s existence. He has
bestowed upon him the wisdom that distinguishes between good
and evil; a heart that is the centre of high intentions; a
soul within which He has placed the desire to reach Him and
gave him control over everyone else so that he may rule over
them and use them according to what God wants in order to
achieve the highest of positions in the After Life. But when
man saw that among all the things he received, the most
attractive were his own desires, their taste imminent and
their benefit quick, he became so captivated by them that he
surrendered his entire kingdom to them. He ordered his senses
to obey his desires and keep themselves busy in search of what
they longed for. He suspended the court of his rationality so
that there may be no appeal against these desires. He gave his
heart too, in the servitude of his wants. Consequently, he
became a subject of his physical pleasures. His example is
that of the king who gets so captivated by his maid servant
that he gives himself and his entire kingdom to her use such
that the scholars, elite and nobles as well as the instruments
of the state become slaves of the maid. This is the picture
of أَفَرَأَيْتَ مَنِ اتَّخَذَ
إِلَهَهُ هَوَاهُ وَأَضَلَّهُ (Then seest thou such a
one as takes as his god his own vain desire?
(45:23)) It is obvious that
this is not the result of human nature but of the meanness of
his character. Similarly, God created
parents; gave man his wife and children; bestowed upon him
relatives and friends; gave him the collectives of family,
clan, tribe and nation; blessed him with wealth and property;
herds of animals so that he use them and, bringing to bear his
individual and collective abilities, he develop civic riches
of which he is the owner because he has been made the
viceregent of God. But man assumed that all those resources
and their purpose was his real purpose in life. He became so
engrossed in love for his parents that he created the
foundations of patriarchy. He carried his love for wife and
children so far that He forgot the instructions of God. He
became so embroiled in the problems of family, tribe and clan
that he began worshipping his ancestors and tribal deities. He
became so rapturous of the love of wealth and possessions that
he started to believe that they were his gods. He even made
the animals from which he benefitted his deities. Cows, bulls,
elephants, horses etc all became his gods. The things which
God had given to him as blessings to be ridden upon were made
into a horse by him and the halter which God had given to him
to climb and reach up to Him were converted into a lasso for
his feet and neck. God has given
innumerable blessings to humans and all of them are beneficial
for them. They do not demand any recompense, contrary to
wives, children, nation and tribes and cows and horses. These
blessings are, for example, the sun, moon and stars, the
rainbow, clouds and rain, winds, fire, water, the earth,
rivers, mountains, birds etc. These things have been bestowed
by God so that humans can use them for their benefit and,
without worrying about their rights, spend their time in
actions that would please God. But when humans saw that, in
spite of providing so many benefits, these things did not ask
for any return, they became so enraptured by their free
benefits that they began to worship each of these blessings by
giving them the status of an idol. This is the example of a
King giving many slaves and maids to His favourite courtier,
and taking up his responsibilities upon Himself, leaving the
courtier free from his own and those of his servants’
responsibilities so that he may focus on the objectives of his
kingdom. However, the courtier becomes so absorbed in the free
services of these slaves that he begins to consider them kings
in themselves and to worship them, forgetting the King and His
kingdom. Similarly, God blessed
many with His provisions, gave them status and wealth,
reputation and respect, thrones and crowns so as to test them
to see whether they obey Him or rebel against Him, implement
His laws on earth, or their own; spread justice and peace or
chaos and anarchy. But they, believing that all of this was
the fruit of their abilities, became arrogant and assumed the
position of gods instead of serving God. Some thought that
they were God’s incarnation, just as the god kings of Egypt
and ancient rajahs of India made their people worship them as
gods. Among the Muslim kings, Akbar too was given this status
by his ignorant and sycophantic courtiers. Some thought that
they were heavenly beings, for example, Japanese kings
believed that they were above humans. When Alexander went to
Egypt, he, too, became enamoured of such a malaise. These evil
gods are the example of a king bestowing some equipage to one
of his slaves and giving him the responsibility to manage a
part of his state, and the slave becoming so drunk with this
power that he claims his own kingship of the region when
arriving there. In the same manner,
God kept many people free of the responsibilities of wealth
and property. The purpose of this was the testing of man’s
perseverance and acceptance so that God could see whether he
made idols of those who rebelled against God, or remains
steadfast on the demands of his nature by being satisfied with
whatever was available to him. However, many did not clear
this test. They became desirous of being close to the rebels
of God and carry out for them all the customs of worship and
servitude that can only be legitimate for the Lord of this
universe. Such people made the rebels of God their deities and
gods while they are alive and carved their statues and shrines
after their death. God bestowed upon His
servants many spiritual blessings. Some were made His
ambassadors and prophets. These pure and righteous people
never invited people to serve anyone, other than God, but
after some time, their followers and false claimants of their
love, who sought the pleasures of the world, placed them in
the same position as that of God. Jesus (sws) and many other
pious people were thus made associates of God. Similarly, political
and economic reasons were also the causes of polytheism and
idol worship. A study of ancient history shows that many
nations worshipped idols of others merely to maintain
political relations with them. It so happened many times that
victorious nations kept the idols of the conquered nations in
their temples in order to satisfy the latter. In India, Akbar
carried out many such undignified actions. The Quraysh
converted the House of God into a Grand Temple by placing
statues of deities of all Arab tribes inside it, so that they
could maintain their superiority over them. A study of the
history of the Israelites shows that they married women
belonging to polytheistic tribes for these base reasons and
brought their idols and polytheistic beliefs inside their
homes. Their progeny was brought up to be polytheists. The
impacts of dominance of the British and relationship with
Hindus upon Muslims are already evident and these will
increase if the situation does not change. These examples are
only a few of the difficulties caused by greed and desire. Now
we present a few examples of fear. Whatever man saw as being fearsome,
threatening and horrific, he included along with God as worth
worshipping. Man was tested with maladies due to his excesses,
filth and laziness so that he could rise to high levels of
balance, purity and alacrity that are a necessary requirement
for his being born in the best structure, but his soul found
these restrictions troublesome. Instead of bearing these
difficulties, he found it easier to believe in spirits living
inside these illnesses and began to offer them sacrifices.
Such a man’s example is that of one who stumbles against a
stone, and, instead of vowing to keep his eyes open and taking
care while walking, he builds a temple next to the stone that
hit him and sits down to worship it. Or, if a man has lice in
his clothes and they bother him, he praises them every morning
instead of taking a bath and washing his clothes. Similarly, man saw that snakes bite him,
scorpions sting him, lions and wolves tear him apart. When God
created these species, He had many reasons, one of them being
that they mobilize man to use the best of his capabilities to
work collectively and keep himself clean. These things force
man to clear forests and convert them to fields, cut mountains
down to build houses, give up his solitary life and adopt a
social and collective life and strengthen the abilities he
possesses for protection and resistance. If these animals and
snakes had not been created, man would himself have become a
species living in their pits and caves. The brilliance of the
civic lives that we see today would not have existed. However,
the humans who found these changes difficult and wished to
remain in the conditions they already were, decided to worship
these animals as forest gods, in the belief that they would
thus be saved from their dangers. Their example is that of an
idle and lazy person who has been surrounded by smoke inside a
closed house and although his sense of smell and pressure to
breathe are forcing him to come out in the open and fresh air,
his laziness prevents him from doing so. He thus begins to
pray to the pile of dirt and the smoke, calling upon it thus:
“O’ spirit of filth; O’ god of smoke, have mercy on me! I pray
you!” In the same vein, nature that is so
merciful and kind in every aspect has manifested its justice
and power and has shaken the earth. It has caused mountains to
erupt with fire, made winds into storms, caused the skies to
drop lightning so that man should not forget God’s justice
while being complacent in His mercy. Man should remember God’s
anger and rage in which, if there is disturbance, God can make
those very things which benefit him rebellious for him. But
man, instead of running towards God in fear of these
punishments, runs towards the things that he is afraid of.
Just as he had given the blessings he received the status of
deities, he gives the status of avengers to these punishments.
This is the example of a King who has provided His people with
peace and satisfaction, but when He demonstrates the strength
of His martial forces occasionally, so that his servants may
remember that the King who possesses the means to happiness
and peace also has the control over ways to warn and punish,
his people make these forces their king and start worshipping
the same, ignoring the King altogether. In the same way, those people to whom God
gave space despite their rebellion and anarchy so that they
could reach their end naturally also became deities. God
allowed them this space in order to assess others who depended
on them according to whether they remained true to the oath
taken by their souls or bowed down to these rebels to benefit
their physical selves and repeated whatever they said. This
category includes rebels within humans as well as evil forces
among Djinns. This law of leniency and test is prominent
throughout the history of the world: Pharaoh, Qarun, Haman,
Abu Lahab, Abu Jahal and all others who followed their path
are in one row and Noah (sws), Abraham (sws), Moses (sws) and
Muhammad (sws) and all pious and sincere servants of God who
worshipped only Him are in another row. This struggle has
existed from the beginning and will remain so until the Day of
Judgement according to the law of God. There are so many who,
while knowing the demands of their souls, begin to worship
these tyrants due to some greed or fear, but there are others
who are never shamed in front of their own souls and God. They
not only remain constant upon the oath they had taken for God
but also try to keep others on the true path. This fear of evil has made polytheism a
permanent belief. Zoroastrians worshipped both goodness and
evil as two deities and Hindus developed a trio of gods who
created life; sustained life and took life, aligned with the
systems of worldly states. Iran and India have been
predominantly inclined towards philosophy since ancient times:
they have painted the colours of philosophy over their
foolishness. If one thinks about it, the fact becomes evident
that the polytheism that exists within these nations has come
through the same routes as in others. It is surprising that in
spite of the dominance of philosophy, the secret of the
balance between opposites in the universe could not be clear
to these nations. Each and every opposite within the universe
possesses within it the same purpose of unity that exists
within wives and husbands and the Qur’an has explained this in
many ways. These details have been provided in my book
These few examples have been mentioned
only for guidance. If you pick up any book on idol worship and
read it from this perspective, it will become clear to you
that obedience and worship of any being other than God,
whether it is dead or alive is the result of the base and vile
elements in human character. One form of this vileness is imitation of
the ignorant. One group of humans neither deliberated upon
reality themselves nor did they ponder over the invitation of
others who did and of messengers sent by God. They merely
followed the path set by their ancestors with closed eyes.
They found it very difficult to identify a way different from
their forefather’s. If humans are not animals, but an
intelligent and rational species, to become an animal and
suspend one’s thinking powers is surely the result of their
base character. There have been many people in this world
who were not blind followers of their ancestors. They made
changes in the ancient traditions and turned the direction of
the trends of time with their thought and perspectives. Many
made sacrifices for the same, to the extent that some even
drank poison. However, they could not decipher the secret of
monotheism and they continued to wander in the same perdition
in which their nation was lost. This is because many of them
could not cross the obstacles of nation worship in spite of
overcoming many other hurdles. It is a condition of reaching
pure monotheism that the person should sever completely all
constraints. This blessing is obtained only either by prophets
or by those who follow them and also receive guidance from God
to do the same. The reason for polytheism that we have
stated above is validated by the Qur’an and other ancient
books. The Qur’an calls polytheism the utmost oppression:
اِنَّ الشِّرْكَ لَظُلْمٌ عَظِيْمٌ.
“Indeed, polytheism is the highest wrong-doing.” (31:13).
Oppression is the opposite of justice. It means taking away
someone’s right. We have discussed in detail above that God
has the greatest right over humans and to associate someone
with God is to destroy the greatest right. This is why it is
the highest oppression and suppression of this right being
vile is self evident: the greater the suppression of rights,
the greater the extent of vileness This is the reason why a
polytheist has been compared with a prostitute in ancient
books. The Torah says that God is high minded: just as you
would not like your wife to sleep next to another man, He too
would not like His servant to associate someone else with Him.
The purity of text in the Qur’an has not adopted this simile
exactly, but has taken its meaning beautifully. In some
places, the Qur’an has associated a polytheist man with an
adulterer and polytheist woman with an adulteress. Surah Nur
says:
الزَّانِيَةُ وَالزَّانِیْ فَاجْلِدُوْا
كُلَّ وَاحِدٍ مِّنْهُمَا مِائَةَ جَلْدَةٍ وَّلَا تَأْخُذْكُمْ
بِهِمَا رَأْفَةٌ فِیْ دِيْنِ اللّٰهِ اِنْ كُنْتُمْ
تُؤْمِنُوْنَ بِاللّٰهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَلْيَشْهَدْ
عَذَابَهُمَا طَآئِفَةٌ مِّنَ الْمُؤْمِنِيْنَ. (2:24) Let no man guilty of adultery or
fornication marry and but a woman similarly guilty, or an
Unbeliever: nor let any but such a man or an Unbeliever marry
such a woman: to the Believers such a thing is forbidden.
(24:2). The placement of two things together is
not without their relationship. When this reality is
considered, one finds that there is a close moral connection
between a polytheist and prostitute. The latter gives up
herself to a man, making him the protector of her honour and
receiving her upkeep and other rights from him. The same
situation exists with a polytheist. He accepts God as his
creator; takes an oath to serve Him; lives in His house; eats
what He gives and drinks what He bestows; wears clothes given
by Him: whatever he possesses is given by God. In spite of
this, he serves another; expresses love for someone else. This
moral condition can belong to either a prostitute or
adulteress or to a polytheist. These two infidelities in the
world can be an example for others. This is why the Qur’an has
called polytheist traitors and treachery is a famous word in
Arabic for the infidelity and perfidy of women. Here, the question of why the Qur’an
repeatedly mentions that God shall forgive all sins except of
polytheism is clarified. Everyone knows that a respected and
high minded husband can forgive all mistakes of his wife but
he can never forgive her infidelity. If he does so, he is not
a husband, but is a pimp, base, mean and shameless animal.
When the shame of a man can reach to this level, who can
imagine that of the Being from a mere reflection of whose
beauty has provided this universe the brilliance of purity and
honour? How can He forgive the person who has stained his
shirt with the filth of serving another? The Qur’an says:
هُوَ اللّٰهُ الَّذِیْ لَا اِلَهَ اِلَّا
هُوَ الْمَلِكُ الْقُدُّوسُ السَّلَامُ الْمُؤْمِنُ
الْمُهَيْمِنُ الْعَزِيزُ الْجَبَّارُ الْمُتَكَبِّرُ سُبْحَانَ
اللّٰهِ عَمَّا يُشْرِكُوْنَ. (23:59) Allah is He, than Whom there is no other
god;- the Sovereign, the Holy One, the Source of Peace (and
Perfection), the Guardian of Faith, the Preserver of Safety,
the Exalted in Might, the Irresistible, the Supreme: Glory to
Allah. (High is He) above the partners they attribute to Him.
(59:23) One should carefully deliberate upon the
names of God here and especially the attribute of being the
Supreme and then one should observe how He has stated His
superiority and purity above all others. This makes it clear
that He who is supreme and high minded and no one else is
magnificence as relevant, His grandeur will never accept any
one else’s association. Due to this link between fornication and
polytheism, the latter has been compared with profanity in
many places and polytheists have been called impure. God has
instructed that the House of God be cleansed of traitors who
are polluted with this filth because He cannot tolerate the
presence of those who are not loyal to Him in His House. It is
a rule of God that the group that gets involved in this dirt
becomes subject to the wrath of God so that the people who are
aware of the reality of polytheism decide on the death of the
nation that has accepted the germs of polytheism. The Qur’an
proves that God’s anger becomes the fate of a nation if it
gets involved in polytheism.
قَالَ قَدْ وَقَعَ عَلَيْكُمْ مِّنْ
رَّبِّكُمْ رِجْسٌ وَّغَضَبٌ اَتُجَادِلُونَنِیْ فِیْ اَسْمَآءٍ
سَمَّيْتُمُوهَآ اَنْتُمْ وَآبَآؤكُمْ مَّا نَزَّلَ اللّٰهُ
بِهَا مِنْ سُلْطَانٍ فَانْتَظِرُوْا إِنِّیْ مَعَكُمْ مِّنَ
الْمُنتَظِرِيْنَ.(71:7) He said: “Punishment and wrath have
already come upon you from your Lord: dispute ye with me over
names which ye have devised - ye and your fathers,- without
authority from Allah. then wait: I am amongst you, also
waiting.” (7:71) This is a brief explanation of how God’s
rights become destroyed through polytheism. Now think over the
fact that polytheism is, in itself, great oppression against
one’s own soul and in this respect, it is a mean and vile
thing. We have seen above that if the respect
that God has bestowed upon man and all the abilities and
strengths given to him had not been surrounded by the
weaknesses of childhood and old age, it would not have been
amiss if he had declared himself to be all powerful, much as
the Pharaoh had done. His high status and his superiority over
everything else in the universe demands that he would have
wished to become a deity instead of serving a god. But despite
these abilities, when he sees that he has not brought himself
into this world; he does not possess the capability of keeping
himself here; he has not made heaven or earth or anything in
between; he does not have the ability to create a fly or any
other insect, then he bows in front of an unseen Being with
the abject feelings of weakness and humility and fear with
gratitude and submission. He does so because he finds himself
forced to and without this, neither is his mind satisfied nor
is his heart at rest. The riddle of this universe remains
unsolved if he does not do this. After doing this, all the
frustrations of his heart and problems in his mind are settled
and he finds the end of the knot for resolving all the secrets
of the universe. If, after this, anyone tells him that there
are others besides the One before whom he must bow his head,
the proof of this statement remains with this person. He would
turn away, saying that the high position of my soul has
accepted to bow in front of One Superior Being because there
was not refuge without this and both you and I have accepted
this fact. If you now say that there are others as well, then
you must bring evidence of this: I am not fond of making new
gods. For me, one God and Creator is enough. If a slave does
not like to serve many masters, why should I put this yoke
around my neck that I should become a servant of many deities?
ءَاَرْبَابٌ مُّتَفَرِّقُوْنَ خَيْرٌ أَمِ
اللّٰهُ الْوَاحِدُ الْقَهَّارُ.(39:12) …are many lords differing among
themselves better, or the One Allah, Supreme and Irresistible?
(12:39)
ضَرَبَ اللّٰهُ مَثَلًا رَّجُلًا فِيْهِ
شُرَكَآءُ مُتَشَاكِسُوْنَ وَرَجُلًا سَلَمًا لِّرَجُلٍ هَلْ
يَسْتَوِيَانِ مَثَلًا اَلْحَمْدُ لِلّٰهِ بَلْ اَكْثَرُهُمْ لَا
يَعْلَمُوْنَ. (29:39) Allah puts forth a Parable a man
belonging to many partners at variance with each other, and a
man belonging entirely to one master: are those two equal in
comparison? Praise be to Allah. but most of them have no
knowledge. (39:29) But those who had mean natures did not
pay attention to their souls. After assuming the status of
viceregents of God, they made the lowliest of humans and
people like themselves their gods and humiliated their souls
so much that there could be no further humiliation.
وَمَنْ يُّهِنِ اللّٰهُ فَمَا لَهُ مِنْ
مُّكْرِمٍ. (18:22) None can raise to honour: for Allah
carries out all that He wills. (22:18)
حُنَفَآءَ لِلّٰهِ غَيْرَ مُشْرِكِيْنَ بِهِ
وَمَنْ يُّشْرِكْ بِاللّٰهِ فَكَاَنَّمَا خَرَّ مِنَ السَّمَآءِ
فَتَخْطَفُهُ الطَّيْرُ اَوْ تَهْوِیْ بِهِ الرِّيحُ فِیْ
مَكَانٍ سَحِيْقٍ. (31:22) … if anyone assigns partners to Allah,
is as if he had fallen from heaven and been snatched up by
birds, or the wind had swooped (like a bird on its prey) and
thrown him into a far- distant place. (22:31) These refer to the same base and mean
character of such people. (Translated by Nikhat Sattar)
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1. It must be remembered here that the Gita compares the person to the thief who benefits from the blessings of God but does not make any sacrifices for Him.