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

9:  WORSHIPPING HUMAN BEINGS

Introduction: The worship of human beings has been a die-hard culture across ages and places. This type of worship, regardless of varieties, is far from being justified as God declares attributing partnership to His human servants is “ungrateful blasphemy” (43:15).  Now let us look at this in some details.

(1) Worship of the Prophets: God appointed all the prophets from amongst the human beings. He assigned them with the mission of enhancing awareness about one God.  It was, therefore, quite impossible that God would play contradictory role by allowing His servant messengers to be His rivals.  Instead, He clearly instructed people not to take “angels or prophets for Lords or Patrons” (3:80). Nor was it likely that the prophets, chosen from the best people in their society, would betray God through self-declaration as a god. You will therefore not find even a single instance in which a real prophet declared himself a god or wanted to be worshipped as such. Instead they boasted on their status as the “servant of God” (19:30). The culture of worshipping them, however, sprang up after their death. It was their miraculous powers that were mostly to blame. They were survived by the stories of their God-given miracles which appeared amazing to their followers and that fueled their imagination to promote their prophets to the position of god.

The above, nevertheless, happened in selective cases. The most ancient prophets are known very little, with a very little following today, if any. The Prophet of Islam being the last in the chains of prophets, left behind a stern warning against turning his grave into a worship shrine, obviously with successful effects. Presently, any form of his worship at his graveyard in Medina is a punishable crime and you will also never see his image or statue in any mosque or elsewhere obviously in prevention of his worship.

The worship of the prophets is totally wrong for the following reasons:

 (i) All prophets are the “servants” of God and they cannot be equated with their master God (7:194).  (ii) They do not deserve any credit for any miracles which are only “permitted by God” (13:38). (iii) Facing ban, their worship will only bring troubles for their followers.
(2) Worship of So-Called Holy Persons (Saints etc.): Compared to worship of the prophets, worship of saints are more commonplace, mainly due to the following factors.

(i) Trickery of So-called Holy People: They are the people who try to look religious in public eye by means of religious dress and rituals. The sweet flavor of being worshipped as god along with accompanying benefits from prestige, power and purse (wealth) inspires them to be passed for a god and gain followers by adopting various deceptive methods. They might claim to have supernatural powers like healing sickness, treating infertility, exorcising spirits, fortunetelling, offering help in landing a good job or spouse etc. by reciting some mantras or verses, showing magical or deceitful skills sometimes in collaboration with the Jinns and so on.

(ii) Folly of the Worshippers: The above holy persons find a favorable ground for practicing their trickery among the people who are largely illiterate, ignorant, simple-hearted and are likely to be more easily influenced by superstitions rather than scientific wisdom.  God warns people from “taking priests and their anchorites to be their lords in derogation of God” (9:31). Without heeding this warning, the above people become easy prey to the tricks of above deceitful persons, often in the hope of gaining some earthly benefits. In return, they try to please them by offering praise, respect, money etc. and eventually go to the extreme of bowing, prostrating, sacrificing and doing other rituals that should be dedicated only to the real God. In this way, the real God is replaced by the fake ones. The worship of these self-styled gods continues even after their death in the form of worshipping their tombs.
 
   Sometimes social custom contributes to human worship. For example, in some south Asian regions, some lucky young girls are nominated as ‘living goddess’ for temporary worship before their rejection after puberty. Similarly, sometimes people invent their so-called reincarnated gods (e.g. Lama in Tibet) among the newborn and offer services to them.  Likewise, the culture of frequently bowing head before other people is quite popular in some Asian nations. Such practice defies the reasoning that anyone you worship “besides God are servants like you” and none except God deserves your worship (7:194).

Logical Arguments against So-Called Human Worship: 

(i) All humans including the saints or ancestral “fathers” (12:40) were created as servants with the purpose of worshiping God and not to be worshipped.
(ii) The holy persons regardless of titles like priest, saint, dervish, etc. and the level of their spirituality, also “long for God’s Mercy and fear His Wrath” (17:57). It will therefore make religious sense if you directly connect with the real God instead of the false gods or any intermediary links.  
(iii) The saints do not have any qualities befitting a god. They are mortal and are subject to weaknesses of various descriptions. Whatever miracles or powers they claim to have are either fake or derived from God.  
(iv) The above holy persons do not remain holy anymore when they enjoy worship by fellow humans. Likewise, if you choose to worship them “out of mutual love and regard” (29:25), that will mean unauthorized worship similar to your rebellion against God, containing seeds of your self-destruction. In that case, on “the Day of Judgment, you shall disown and curse each other and Fire will be your abode” (29:25).

 (3) Worship of Leadership:

(a) Political Leaders: Forcible basis of worshipping human gods from amongst the political leaders has a pretty ancient root. These leaders had absolute powers which they misused by forcing people to worship them as god. Roman emperors like Nero and Caligula of ancient Rome provide such examples. Likewise, the Pharaoh Ramses II of ancient Egypt claimed himself to be a god in order to qualify for human worship: “Oh Chiefs! I do not know any god for you except me” (28:38). The traditional Japanese emperors were no stranger to such ‘sun god’ theory but they were not known for aggressive demand for worship.
Sometimes the historic leaders like, Lenin, Stalin, Mao or their followers choose to build their statues or images in public places for the sake of immortalization, if not for worship. But they had some supporters who crossed the borderline of lawful honor and into an area of illegal worship such as through prostrating, praying etc. at their statues.

(b) Social Leadership:  Worshipping of social leaders has a different background characterized more by voluntary choice rather than imposition. These leaders have no power to force people into worship but they make some positive contributions such as through social or economic reforms, invention of scientific devices, founding a popular or benevolent program and so on. They may not beg for worship but their contributions to the society make people so grateful that they vent gratitude by honoring them and in extreme cases doing something like prostrating their statues that borders on worship.  This type of examples includes Karl Marx, Confucius, Gandhi etc. or sometimes may extend to tribal leaders as well.  

Arguments against Worship of Human Leadership:
(i) All human leaders, however powerful and influential they may be, are not immune from death. As their life span is limited, who will be there to run the office of god after their death?  
(ii) Human leaders, knowing their life as brief, sometimes aim to be immortal through their metallic busts. These statues are often pulled down or destroyed by the succeeding opponents citing bad roles of those leaders. Such ups and downs do not happen in case of the real God.
(iii) The above leaders are disqualified as god not only for their mortal nature, but also for their physical and mental limitations.  Take the case of two Roman emperors cited above who brutally forced people to worship them as god. One was cruel Nero who killed his mother, wife and then himself. Another was insane Caligula who wanted to make his horse a senator. If these were the mental conditions of your god, what benefits would you expect from them?
(iv) The human gods not only lack the qualities of real God, their worship faces a total ban and threat of penalty from God Who “prepared Hell for (these) unbelievers for (their) entertainment (as mocking citation)” (18:102).  
(v) Worshipping one man by the other is beneath the dignity of humanity.    

Conclusion: Obviously, the culture of human worship is not only absurd but also harmful for the humanity. So let there be an end of this as God warned “in the worship of Lord, admit no one as partner” (18:110).