6. Al-An'aam

When communities go astray, all religious acts undergo this change. People ignore the true objective of the religious act and lay stress on externals. Now, those who reach the stage of making religion a source of worldly fun and frolic and are completely oblivious to its intended purpose, prove by their deeds that they are neither serious nor sincere about religion. And those who are not serious about such matters cannot have anything explained to them in this connection, as this goes against their temperament. Moreover, possession of material things gives them the illusion that they are the possessors of truth also. Here, they observe that all their needs are adequately fulfilled. Everywhere they are the life and soul of the gathering. There is no void in their lives. So, they presume that in the Hereafter also they will be successful. Such people, because of their misapprehensions, are not serious about the Hereafter. But, they should know that whatever they perpetrate will not be without consequences. They will be undone by their own actions. Their very arrogance will very soon rebound on them and there will be no mitigation of their suffering.

There are two kinds of travellers in the desert. One puts his entire trust in God. When he goes astray, he begs God’s assistance and soon has his feet set on the right path once again. The other has faith in entities other than God. When he loses his way in the desert, he is hardly aware that he is wandering aimlessly and ignores the calls of the faithful who would gladly re-direct him. The reason for this difference in outlook is that the former traveller keeps an open mind. He has no difficulty in seeing which is the right path, and if he chances to stray from it, he is willing to accept God’s guidance in order to return to it. The latter traveller, however, is lost right from the beginning, because he has fallen under the influence of Satan. His mind, therefore, works in a perverse way. The result is that he may listen, but he does not hear, and he may look, but he does not see.

The seeking of things other than God is a futile pursuit of entities that have no power to benefit or harm anybody. Heaven and earth, along with the systems prevailing in them, deny the existence of any being having any powers except the one and only Supreme Being. Similarly, man makes worldly glories his purpose in life and, in his efforts to achieve this purpose, tramples upon the requirements of truth and justice. All this is absolutely wrong. This would mean that this world is but a showplace for selfish and egoistic persons. But, the fact is that the perfect system prevalent in this universe reveals resplendent glimpses of the Perfect God and it is quite unimaginable that such a Perfect Being as He would create a showplace without meaning. The present situation existing in this world is purely temporary. God may at any moment promulgate a new command and break down the existing system. Then man’s present freedom will come to an end and God’s authority will prevail over human beings as it does today over all the other creatures in the universe. At that point only those who have surrendered themselves to God during the test period will be successful, i.e. those who feared God without any pressure being brought to bear on them before they bowed down to Him in body and soul.

One night Abraham was looking up at the sky in search of signs of the one and only God. Soon, the planet Venus, whom his community was worshipping as God, appeared shining before him in all its brightness. A thought arose in his mind—not as a question, but as an expression of astonishment— ‘Is this the thing which could be my Lord? Is this the one we should worship?’ But then, he saw it setting, i.e. disappearing from his sight. He exclaimed over this and asked how a thing which shone momentarily and then disappeared could be treated as worthy of worship. This was an argument based on observation which testified to the truth of his own belief. He had the same experience with the sun and the moon. Everything shines for some time, leaves people wonderstruck and then vanishes. He presented these astronomical observations (which were for him a clear verification of the principle of the unity of God) before his community in his preaching as an argument, adopting the method which is known in philosophical terminology as ‘accusative logic’, that is, repeating the words of the addressee and then convincing him. This method has been used in the Quran at other places also, for example, in verse 97, chapter 20, entitled, Ta Ha. The signs of creation spread throughout the universe are not only a source of enhancement of Faith, but also provide strong arguments for the call for Truth.

One night Abraham was looking up at the sky in search of signs of the one and only God. Soon, the planet Venus, whom his community was worshipping as God, appeared shining before him in all its brightness. A thought arose in his mind—not as a question, but as an expression of astonishment— ‘Is this the thing which could be my Lord? Is this the one we should worship?’ But then, he saw it setting, i.e. disappearing from his sight. He exclaimed over this and asked how a thing which shone momentarily and then disappeared could be treated as worthy of worship. This was an argument based on observation which testified to the truth of his own belief. He had the same experience with the sun and the moon. Everything shines for some time, leaves people wonderstruck and then vanishes. He presented these astronomical observations (which were for him a clear verification of the principle of the unity of God) before his community in his preaching as an argument, adopting the method which is known in philosophical terminology as ‘accusative logic’, that is, repeating the words of the addressee and then convincing him. This method has been used in the Quran at other places also, for example, in verse 97, chapter 20, entitled, Ta Ha. The signs of creation spread throughout the universe are not only a source of enhancement of Faith, but also provide strong arguments for the call for Truth.

One night Abraham was looking up at the sky in search of signs of the one and only God. Soon, the planet Venus, whom his community was worshipping as God, appeared shining before him in all its brightness. A thought arose in his mind—not as a question, but as an expression of astonishment— ‘Is this the thing which could be my Lord? Is this the one we should worship?’ But then, he saw it setting, i.e. disappearing from his sight. He exclaimed over this and asked how a thing which shone momentarily and then disappeared could be treated as worthy of worship. This was an argument based on observation which testified to the truth of his own belief. He had the same experience with the sun and the moon. Everything shines for some time, leaves people wonderstruck and then vanishes. He presented these astronomical observations (which were for him a clear verification of the principle of the unity of God) before his community in his preaching as an argument, adopting the method which is known in philosophical terminology as ‘accusative logic’, that is, repeating the words of the addressee and then convincing him. This method has been used in the Quran at other places also, for example, in verse 97, chapter 20, entitled, Ta Ha. The signs of creation spread throughout the universe are not only a source of enhancement of Faith, but also provide strong arguments for the call for Truth.

One night Abraham was looking up at the sky in search of signs of the one and only God. Soon, the planet Venus, whom his community was worshipping as God, appeared shining before him in all its brightness. A thought arose in his mind—not as a question, but as an expression of astonishment— ‘Is this the thing which could be my Lord? Is this the one we should worship?’ But then, he saw it setting, i.e. disappearing from his sight. He exclaimed over this and asked how a thing which shone momentarily and then disappeared could be treated as worthy of worship. This was an argument based on observation which testified to the truth of his own belief. He had the same experience with the sun and the moon. Everything shines for some time, leaves people wonderstruck and then vanishes. He presented these astronomical observations (which were for him a clear verification of the principle of the unity of God) before his community in his preaching as an argument, adopting the method which is known in philosophical terminology as ‘accusative logic’, that is, repeating the words of the addressee and then convincing him. This method has been used in the Quran at other places also, for example, in verse 97, chapter 20, entitled, Ta Ha. The signs of creation spread throughout the universe are not only a source of enhancement of Faith, but also provide strong arguments for the call for Truth.

One night Abraham was looking up at the sky in search of signs of the one and only God. Soon, the planet Venus, whom his community was worshipping as God, appeared shining before him in all its brightness. A thought arose in his mind—not as a question, but as an expression of astonishment— ‘Is this the thing which could be my Lord? Is this the one we should worship?’ But then, he saw it setting, i.e. disappearing from his sight. He exclaimed over this and asked how a thing which shone momentarily and then disappeared could be treated as worthy of worship. This was an argument based on observation which testified to the truth of his own belief. He had the same experience with the sun and the moon. Everything shines for some time, leaves people wonderstruck and then vanishes. He presented these astronomical observations (which were for him a clear verification of the principle of the unity of God) before his community in his preaching as an argument, adopting the method which is known in philosophical terminology as ‘accusative logic’, that is, repeating the words of the addressee and then convincing him. This method has been used in the Quran at other places also, for example, in verse 97, chapter 20, entitled, Ta Ha. The signs of creation spread throughout the universe are not only a source of enhancement of Faith, but also provide strong arguments for the call for Truth.

The story of Abraham narrated here is not the story of his search for Truth but that of his observation of Truth. Abraham was born in Iraq four thousand years ago in an environment in which the sun, moon and stars were worshipped. However, Nature’s guidance and God’s special help kept Abraham away from polytheism. His keen vigilant eyes observed signs in the phenomena spread throughout the universe which supported the idea of the oneness of God (tawhid). Everywhere in the mirror of the universe, the face of the one God would appear before him. Feeling sorry for his community, he used to ask them why they were blind to reality, in spite of the facts revealed before them. Whenever a thing or person is given the status of the worshipped one (ma‘bud), it naturally follows that the concepts of mysterious pre-eminence and greatness become attached to that thing or person. People start thinking that, in the scheme of the universe, this being has a high status such as is not enjoyed by anybody else. Pleasing him brings good fortune, while displeasing him does the reverse. Accordingly, when Abraham said that his community’s deities were valueless and that in this world of God they had absolutely no powers, people were afraid that, as a result of this ‘insolence’, they might be subjected to some suffering and they started arguing with Abraham. They warned him against such talk and said that the vengeance of these deities would be wreaked upon him—he would become blind, go mad, would face destruction, etc.