Volume 10 Surah 12 - 15 - Enjoy Islam

Ibrahīm (Abraham) | GRACE AND GRATITUDE
other than God and Muĥammad is God’s Messenger”. This is what people overlook.
They take all such matters carelessly, without thinking that they demonstrate the
same paganism that has been practised by different communities throughout history.
It is not necessary that idols be represented in primitive form. For idols are mere
covers for tyranny which hides behind them in order to impose its authority over
people. Yet none of these idols speak, hear or see. Its custodian or priest or the ruler
was always around, chanting the idol’s praises or acting as its spokesman, but saying
what he wants to say. Therefore, when banners or slogans are raised in any
community which give rulers or priests the power to put in place laws, values,
standards and practices that are at variance with what is acceptable to God, then
these are in effect, position and nature deities like those idols of old.
We see today that nationalism, patriotism or a certain class in society or people as
a whole are made like banners or slogans which are adored in place of God. People
are made to sacrifice for such banners their lives, property, morals and even their
honour. Whenever divine law and its requirements come in conflict with what the
service of such banners and slogans requires, then God’s law is set aside and the
requirements of these banners are met. To be more accurate we should say that it is
the requirements of the tyrants standing behind these banners that are fulfilled. This
is indeed a form of idol worship, because an idol need not be made of wood or stone.
It can be represented in a doctrine or a slogan.
The role of Islam is not only to destroy wood or stone idols. That was not the
purpose of all the efforts and sacrifices made by God’s messengers and their
followers in history. Islam aims rather to establish in a very clear way the difference
between submission to God alone in all matters and affairs and submission to other
beings or entities. It is necessary to look carefully at forms and appearances in every
situation to establish whether the existing order conforms to the concept of God’s
oneness or to a form of paganism.
People may imagine themselves to be following the faith revealed by God because
they declare, “There is no deity except God, and Muĥammad is God’s Messenger”,
and they submit to God in all matters of worship and in marriage, divorce and
inheritance. Yet when matters go beyond this narrow aspect, their submission is to
other beings. They follow laws that are in clear conflict with what God has legislated.
They even sacrifice their lives, property, honour and morals, willingly or unwillingly,
to fulfil what this neo-paganism requires of them, even when it is in conflict with
what is acceptable to God. They are thus totally mistaken when they imagine that
they follow Islam. They should wake up and realize that theirs is a situation of clear
paganism.
Divine faith is not as hollow as it is imagined to be by some of those who claim to
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