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| Who do YOU worship?
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| Hamza Patterson |
| Article ID: 1510 | 8462 Reads |
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Amongst many philosophical thoughts, ideologies, and spiritual backgrounds. There is not one person in the world who does not worship a deity in some shape or form. Even atheists. Atheism is the disbelief of God. However what ‘God’ is it that they disbelieve in?
You will find that it is the narrow-minded outdated cliché of a big old man with a beard in the sky controlling the affairs of the universe (which Islam renounces anyway).
In reality, the definition of a God is a bit more than that. A God can be anyone or thing that has been given excessive attention to. More specifically, a God is something where a person believes it can bring benefit to them or remove harm from them. In other words, anything where you put your full reliance in providing what you want and what you need is a God.
Unfortunately you will find that majority of people of the world have fallen into placing their devotion, reverence and trust into deities that do not have divine capabilities to provide what their worshippers are asking for.
Amongst the main examples are the Jews and Christians, who Muslims refer to as ‘The people of the Book’.
They give excessive attention to created beings which ultimately results in their worship to other than Allaah.
The Jews have a subtle way of worshipping other than Allaah by fully relying on their lineage through their mother to guarantee them saved and enter paradise.
The Christians on the other hand are more overt and go extreme lengths worshipping other than Allaah by attributing Jesus the son of Mary to be the son of Allaah and invoking in him for all their needs.
Allaah (swt) addressed them by saying;
{O people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians)! Do not exceed the limits in your religion, nor say of Allaah aught but the truth. The Messiah 'Iesa (Jesus), son of Maryam (Mary), was (no more than) a Messenger of Allaah and His Word, ("Be!" - and he was) which He bestowed on Maryam (Mary) and a spirit created by Him; so believe in Allaah and His Messengers. Say not: "Three (trinity)!" Cease! (it is) better for you. For Allaah is (the only) One Ilāh (God), Glory be to Him (Far Exalted is He) above having a son. To Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth. And Allaah is All-Sufficient as a Disposer of affairs.}-[An-Nisa 4:171]
However, the Christians are not alone in invoking to other than Allaah. Unfortunately the sad reality is that a lot of Muslims falling into the same trap also by making supplication to created beings (whether dead or alive) when they possess no ability whatsoever.
Allaah says;
{And most of them do not believe in Allah without associating others (with Him)}-[Yusuf 12:106]
Allaah says about these people;
{"And who is more astray than one who calls (invokes) besides Allah, such as will not answer him till the Day of Resurrection; and who are (even) unaware of their calls (invocations) to them? And when mankind are gathered (on the Day of Resurrection), they (false deities) will become enemies for them and will deny their worshipping."}
[Qur’an 46: 5-6 ]
A False God explained by classical Islamic scholar Ibn Qayyim (May Allaah have mercy on him) is “anything which a slave exceeds its limit in these 3 things”;
1. That which they follow
2. That which they worship
3. That which they obey
As humans we have this innate nature to worship God because as humans we have 3 different instincts.
1) Religious Instinct
2) Social Instinct
3) Survival Instinct
So with each instinct there is a natural innate thing about us that want to do what we do and if we don't find the natural "nutriment" for our instincts, we will only find a in-natural replacement to fill it or else as humans we fill lost and incomplete. The sad thing is, even when replaced with something that isn't natural to fill the void of the instinct, we still feel void, empty and lost. Because it isn't natural.
On the subject of Atheists again, they boldly claim to not worship a deity whatsoever, however this is far from the truth. These same people who choose to deny a God, end up worshipping something else due to their spiritual vacuum.
For example, take a look at a hard-core sports fan. He spends his life supporting specific teams, financially, physically and emotionally. He attends every game, either in person or vicariously over the TV. He buys the memorabilia. He is devastated when they lose, and he reaches Paradise when they win...It may sounds strange, however we need to just change the way we look at it.
This person is completely preoccupied with sports because his life lacks something else. This is how he has chosen to fill that spiritual vacuum. Some others do this with their families, friends and studies.
In reality though, it mainly boils down to one thing which they have taken to be their Lord, their Judge and their solution to happiness and that is their desires.
Allaah says;
{Have you seen him who takes his own lust (vain desires) as his ilâh (Lord)?}-[Al Jathiya 45:23]
Worshipping God alone is from our natural religious instinct, which IS our intrinsic innate deposition. To worship anything else is incidental.
This is the exact same thing The Messenger of Allaah (saw) was talking about, when he said;
‘Every new-born child is born in a state of fitrah (Natural deposition). Then his parents make him a Jew, a Christian or a Magian, just as an animal is born intact. Do you observe any among them that are mutilated at birth?’
That is why Allaah says in The Qur'an ;
{“I have not created the Jinn and man but that they should serve Me ”} [Qur’an 51: 56)
Worshipping others other than the one who deserves to be worshipped or alongside the one who deserves to be worshipped is described by Allaah as injustice, as He (Glory to him) says;
{Verily, the shirk is gross injustice}-[Qur’an31:13]
Injustice signifies putting a thing in a wrong place, thus whoever worships other than Allaah, he places the worship in a place other than its own, and dedicates it to the one who does not deserve it; hence it is gross injustice.
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