THE MESSAGE OF ISLAM
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essence of worship, the basic message of Allah's divine religion, Islam
is the worship of Allah alone and the avoidance of worship directed to
any person, place or thing other than Allah.Since everything other than
Allah, the Creator of all things, is Allah's creation; it may be said
that Islam, in essence calls man away from the worship of creation and
invites him to worship only its Creator. He is the only one deserving
man's worship as it is only by His will that prayers are answered. If
man prays to a tree and his prayers are answered, it was not the tree
which answered his prayers but Allah who allowed the circumstances
prayed for to take place. One might say, "That is obvious," however, to
tree-worshippers it might not be. Similarly, prayers to Jesus, Buddha,
or Krishna, to Saint Christopher, or Saint Jude or even to Muhammad,
are not answered by them but are answered by Allah. Jesus did nottell
his followers to worship him but to worship Allah. As the Qur'aan
states:
"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')" (Soorah
Al-Maa'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'aan, known as Soorah Al-Faatihah, verse 4:
"You alone do we worship and from you alone do we seek help".
Elsewhere, in the final book of revelation, the Qur'aan, Allah also
said:
"And your Lord says:"Call on Me and I will answer your(prayer)."(Soorsh
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 maybecalled 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 Our'aan Allah clearlystates:
"For We assuredly sent amongst every people a prophet,(with the
command) worship meand avoid false gods " (Soorsh 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 Elaaha lllallaah" (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-Bukhaaree
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.