Islam for Non-Muslims

• RELIGIOUS FAITHS VS IRRELIGIOUS IDEAS
• 1 The Present State of the World Religions
• 2 Religious System as a Historical Reality
• 3 The Evidences of God across the Universe
• 4 The Absolute Oneness of God
• 5 The Reality of the Afterlife
• 6 The Growth of Irreligious Ideas
• 7 Worshipping Natural Elements
• 8 Worshipping Imaginary Idols
• 9 Worshipping Human Beings
• 10 Inventing Relationship to God
• 11 Inventing the Idea of Reincarnation
• 12 Inventing the Theory of Evolution (Darwinism)
• 13 Inventing ‘Nature’ as the Creator of the Universe
• 14 Importance of Religion in this Secular World
• ISLAM AS A RELIGION
• 15 Addressing the Criticisms of Islam
• 16 Islam as a Magnet for the Non-Muslims
• 17 The Quran as the Original Divine Book
• 18 The Quranic Reality in Archeological Findings
• 19 Muhammad (pbuh) as the Great Prophet
• 20 Islam as the True Religion
• 21 Islam as the Universal Religion
• 22 Islam as the Eternal Religion
• 23 Islam as a Practicable Religion
• 24 Islam as an Enjoyable Religion
• 25 Islam as the Peaceful & Savior Religion
• 26 Islam as the Progressive & Rational Religion
• 27 Islam in Health & Hygiene
• 28 Islam in Promotion of Science
• 29 Muslims in Practices of Science
• 30 Islam & Other Monotheisms: Similarities & Differences
• 31 Islamic Tolerance for Other Religions
• 32 Islamic Rights for Non-Muslim Citizens
• ISLAM AS A WAY OF LIFE
• 33 Islamic System vs. Human Ideologies
• 34 Moral & Social Impacts of Islamic Rituals
• 35 Moral Discipline in Islam
• 36 Sinning of 3 W’s: Women, Wine and Wealth
• 37 Dignity & Equality of Man in Islam
• 38 Human Rights in Islam
• 39 Social Duties in Islam
• 40 Dignity & Rights of Labor in Islam
• 41 Dignity of Women in Islam
• 42 Rights of Women in Islam
• 43 Marriage & Family Life in Islam
• 44 Political Philosophy in Islam
• 45 Economic Principles in Islam
• 46 Islamic Economy vs. Capitalism & Communism
• 47 Patriotism & Internationalism in Islam
• 48 Understanding Controversial Issues in Islam
• 49 Conversion to Islam: Problems & Prospects
• 50 Conclusive Message to the Non-Muslims

7:  WORSHIPPING NATURAL ELEMENTS

Introduction: Worshipping natural forces has been a part of human culture since time immemorial. This, however, has been losing appeal with the progress of scientific knowledge and replacement from genuine religious ideas.  According to this culture, the elements of nature like sun, moon, mountain, storm, earthquake, fire, stone, flower, tree etc. have spirits with ability to do good or bad to people.  Therefore their followers adopt elaborate rituals (e.g. burning candles, singing hymn, dancing etc.), offering sacrifices of wealth, animals or even human life. The purpose is to please them in order to gain benefits such as light from sun, water from rain etc. or stay out of harms from earthquake, flood, tornado etc. Sometimes people were also amazed by the beauty and power of natural phenomena (e.g. moon, flower, rainbow) and therefore choose to worship them.

(1) Nature Worship is Superstitious: The practice of worshipping nature sprang up at a time when primitive people, due to lack of scientific knowledge or religious exposure, did not have enough idea about the mysteries of the nature. Therefore, they invented many unfounded stories to explain these forces and also came up with many superstitious beliefs. This mode of worship made stronger presence in areas where pure monotheistic beliefs were less than influential.  
  
 At the present time, most of the above conditions that favored the culture of nature worship are approaching a vanishing point.  With the advance of civilization, now science and education have conquered the myths and superstitions. More importantly, monotheistic ideas about the right kind of God are well in place almost everywhere within their reach. So, nowadays, it barely makes any sense if you keep going with the  practices of nature worship, particularly after grasping the following arguments:

(2) Nature Worship not Prestigious:  Everything in the Universe including the natural elements is created by God. All that you “worship besides God are servants like you” (7:194) and they are even lower ones for being lifeless. It would, therefore, be worth the dignity of human beings to worship the real God rather than worshipping His humble creations, in the same way it is more honorable to serve a majestic king rather than his lowly servant.    

(3) Nature Derives Power from Real God:  The power of the natural elements is not their own but is derived from the Omnipotent God.  For example, He “subjected the sun and the moon” to His preferred benevolent mission (31:29).  In fact, He is the original source of all powers and He exercises some of them through lifeless nature.  For example, God uses thunder-bolts to “strike whomsoever he wills” (13: 13). Thus the natural forces are simply loyal agents of God for handing out His blessings (e.g. sunshine, rain etc.) or punishments (e.g. tornado, earthquake etc).  Given this fact, if you forget the real God and instead choose to worship His subordinate nature, then it will simply incur His displeasure.  As a result, He is likely to penalize you through the very natural agents you seek refuge in.  Thus the worship of nature whom you sometimes call ‘mother nature’ may not treat you with motherly love; instead it may be a cause of your ruin rather than relief.  It is, therefore, the real God and not His created nature that plays the role of a real savior to mankind.

(4) Nature Has No Divine Qualities:  God is the embodiment of all qualities in the superlative degree.  By contrast, the things He created are plagued with numerous limitations and weaknesses.  For example, plants are immovable and die after certain period. The moon or sun sets on daily basis and eclipses periodically, fire is extinguished by water and water is vaporized by heat and above all, all creations will eventually cease to exist in the Doom’s Day. More importantly, the natural elements are not able to “listen to your prayer” such as your sacrifice of chicken into volcanic crater (7:194) and therefore your worship will go nowhere.  Prophet Abraham became convinced about the real God after his frustrating observations that the stars, the moon and the sun: all disappear or set down, one by one. Then he concluded “I do not love those that set. Oh my people! I am indeed free from your (guilt) of inventing partners of God” (6:76/78).
  
  By contrast, God is insulated from any such imperfections and therefore only He alone, and not any of His creations, is worthy of worship. During the time of Prophet Solomon, Queen Bilquis and her people of Saba used to “worship the sun” under inspiration from Satan who “kept them from guidance” (27:24). So God advised not to “worship the sun and the moon but worship only God Who created them, if you wish to serve Him” (41:37).
Animal Worship: Like the worship of natural elements, the worship of animals like cow, elephant, lion, snake, monkey, cat, fish etc. is also not only unreasonable but also utterly disgraceful for man. The logic is quite simple.  Men are created as the best of creations and are endowed with “inheritance of earth” (6:165).  God honored people as the owners of their animals who are “subject to you” (22:36) but people often wrongly choose to worship these animals as their gods and thereby let their own position down to the dust.

People oftentimes take animals for worship with an eye to their benevolent roles, or for any imaginary reasons. For example, cows are directly or indirectly worshipped in South Asia mainly in gratitude for their supply of nutritious milk or for their gentle nature.  But the point is missed to the worshippers that the benevolent roles of animals like cattle do not represent their own original power but the design of God to help you with “numerous benefits” including milk, meat etc. (23:21).
On the harmful side, the roles of snakes, for example, are not their own but only reflect God’s will to use these agents for inflicting punishment as no one “can harm (you) in the least without God’s consent” (58:10).  All the animals lack the rationality of a man and their qualifications are nowhere near those of men much less of a God.  For example, the cows worshipped by the people of Moses, as God observed, “could not speak”, could not even utter a “word” and “they did not have any power to do them any harm or help” without divine will (7:148; 20:89). He therefore declared a total ban on any form of animal worship, saying about worship of the calf as one example “You did grievous wrong” and you will be “overwhelmed with wrath from Lord” (2:51; 7:152). 

Conclusion: The foregoing discussion leads to the conclusion that worship of natural elements and animals does not represent worship of the real God and therefore what you can achieve from such worship is only harm instead of help.