Seadet-i Ebediyye - Endless Bliss Second Fascicle

(time).” Magians are among the Sanawiyya (mentioned above).
They believe in two gods, and polytheists and idolaters believe in
many gods. All of them are disbelievers without a heavenly book.
For, they do not believe in any of the Prophets, and they do not
read any heavenly books. Communists and Masons are
irreligious, godless unbelievers and they are grouped with the
Dahriyya. Brahmins, Buddhists, Jews and Christians, who are
theoretically among the People of the Book (Ahl-i-kitâb),
become polytheists (mushriks) with time. Today the earth carries
only one unchanged, true religion: Islam, which was brought by
Muhammad ‘’alaihissalâm’. Allâhu ta’âlâ has promised that this
religion shall remain pristine and true until the end of the world.
Respecting, honouring or cherishing a human picture or statue
means putting it at a high place, standing towards it, bowing
before it, prostrating oneself before it, lauding it, or supplicating
it. And this, in its turn, may be done for two reasons:
1 - You may be respecting a picture because you believe that it
belongs to your father or teacher or commander or a Prophet or a
Walî or someone who has served your religion or nation. In this
case you do not deify the owner of the picture; in other words,
you do not believe that he possesses one of the attributes
belonging to Allâhu ta’âlâ. You know him as a creature. Imitating
others, you respect the picture to show your love for the owner of
the picture or to please him. A person who shows this kind of
respect does not become a disbeliever. Only, he has committed a
harâm. However, he who denies the fact that it is harâm becomes
a disbeliever. On the other hand, paying respect to a disbeliever’s
picture is kufr (disbelief).
2 - It is kufr to respect an icon or a cross or a star or the sun or
a cow by deifying it or the person it represents, that is, believing
that it is capable of creating whatever it likes and doing whatever
it chooses, and curing, for instance, any kind of disease. It is
polytheism, and a person who holds this belief becomes a
polytheist. His respecting becomes worshipping. And the picture
or the icon or whatsoever he respects becomes a pagan deity.
Christians become polytheists because they say that Jesus is the
son of God and angels are His daughters and worship icons and
statues of boys and girls. Adherents of Barnabas’s sect and
Arians, who do not hold this heretical belief, are not polytheists.
They are among the Ahl-i-kitâb. However, since they deny
Muhammad ‘’alaihis-salâm’ they are disbelievers.]
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