Although all creatures have life and can be termed as "living", the true, ultimate life belongs to God only. He is the ever-living/al hayy 2:255,40:65. The prophet Daniel states in the Aramaic in which the text was recorded Dan6:26"elaha hayya qayyam". The words carry several implications, including the pervasive pattern throughout the Quran of God being the sole self-sufficient, uncreated, independant entity. He relies on none other than Himself to subsit and will perdure even when all things perish 55:26-7,28:88. Al hayy/the ever living is also a description meant at distinguishing Allah from false deities, as is done in the HB Joshua3:10,1Sam17:26,1Sam17:36,Jer10:9-10,etc., whether they be inanimate entities or living creatures that made themselves or were made into objects of worship 16:20-1. They are neither alive nor are able to keep others alive, they do not exist of their own accord nor can keep others into existence. Their existence depends at all times on the self-sustaining source of all life, Allah.
The Quran treats all false concepts, including idol worship as ideas invented, blindly passed on by the following generations. They are without any reasonable basis to be found in human instincts or by observing the functionning of the universe, to justify their existence. No strong and clear scriptural basis exists claiming divine origin for any of those ideas. they are falsehoods projected either on physical or abstract entities
10:66,45:23,53:23"They are naught but names which you have named, you and your fathers; Allah has not sent for them any authority. They follow naught but conjecture and the low desires which (their) souls incline to; and certainly the guidance has come to them from their Lord".
But whatever form these worshipped entities may be, it is the same evil force hiding behind them and inciting their followers to remain on the deviant path
19:44,34:41,4:117"and they do not call on anything but a rebellious Shaitan".
Authentic or not, this is what could have been meant by the report in the sira, that once the statue of al Uzza was destroyed, suddenly appeared
a naked, wailing Ethiopian woman
whom the companion killed. That fantastic tale seems to have been drawn from earlier reports which could have found their way even among early anti Muslim polemics by Christians. Among Anastasius' "testimonies" of Muslim/satanic partnership was that of Christian sailors who
"arrived at the place where those who have reduced us to servitude have their stone and their cult".
This obviously speaks of the Kaaba and the black stone. The sailors, still having their mysoginistic biblical passages in mind witnessed
"an indecent and horrible old woman rise from the ground".
She proceeded to gather the sacrifices made at the altar then took them underground with her.
When the Quran states the worshipped entities will be hurled in hell along with their worshipers 21:98-9,37:22-3 it doesnt mean that the simple fact of worshiping an entity will result in it going to hell because the Quran attaches 2 conditions for such a situation to occur; the entity's unequivocal demand to be worshiped as a deity, the followers' actual worship. Yet in almost all cases those to whom divinity was ascribed were created by the people themselves under the influence of evil forces. It is these evil inciters that will be thrown in hell. So in the case of true prophets or saints who were later worshipped as gods, nothing of their righteousness and of what they earned will be diminished and they will have nothing to fear in the hereafter 21:101-3. They are innocent of their followers innovations and deviations
21:26-9"Nay! they are honored servants. They do not precede Him in speech and (only) according to His commandment do they act..And whoever of them should say: Surely I am a god besides Him, such a one do We recompense with hell; thus do, We recompense the unjust.."
To illustrate further, the Quran presents the case of the prophet Jesus who shall be questionned on the Day of Judgment regarding his followers' idolizing and worshiping him, and cleared of any guilt since he never commanded it 5:116-120. Since he acted as God's messenger, then what his followers did in his name should be justifiable from his teachings, among them, the worship of both himself and his mother Mary. It is interesting that, just as his word in defence of his mother's chastity constituted the best testimony of the truth in this world, so to in the hereafter, he will speak on her behalf to clear her from any possible guilt as to the people's worshipping her. Jesus was nothing but a faithful and exemplary servant and prophet of God 43:59, in accordance with the glad tidings of eminence given to his mother before he was born
3:45"When the angels said: O Mariam! Allah gives you good tidings of a word from Him, whose name is the Massih, Isa son of Mariam, honoured in this world and the hereafter, and he is among those brought near".
5:116 is a very powerful passage in the sense that those who raised him to the status of divinity and put all hopes of salvation in him will see him being interrogated, humbling himself, then cleared of any responsibility, for the deviations of those claiming to follow him. Like all those who attributed divinity to entities besides God, those claiming to be Jesus' followers will find themselves in a hopeless situation where they will have to answer for their own claims, beliefs, conjecture and deeds.
Although Jesus' testimony is the one most vividly detailed at the divine court of justice, all other sentient entities falsely ascribed divine authority will dismiss those that worshipped them
16:86"And when those who associated others with Allah see their "partners," they will say," Our Lord, these are our partners [to You] whom we used to invoke besides You." But they will throw at them the statement, "Indeed, you are liars".
This intricate discourse reveals the seriousness of ascribing partners to God; the guilty do not dare describing them as God's partners, they are "our partners". The worshipped entities on the other hand, frightened by the consequences of such allegation, will quickly throw it back at the guilty. Then, just as Jesus is depicted, they will all humble themselves before God, totally disowning their former worshippers.
Because of this, that these entities never demanded to be idolized, and in addition are totally unaware of it 46:5, they are called "lies" by such prophets as Ibrahim and Hud. They do not perceive such worship. Even if they were made to hear these prayers, they would be utterly powerless in controlling wordly causality and the destineies of their worshippers
11:50,16:73,19:42,29:17,35:14,37:86,22:62"That is because Allah is the Truth, and that what they call upon besides Him-- that is the falsehood, and because Allah is the High, the Great".
Contrary to any entity or concept worshiped besides Him, Allah is "the Truth" al haqq, one of God's Quranic attributes signifying the Ultimate Reality or Primal Cause of all that exists. It is therefore natural that only the prayers addressed to him are true and valid
13:14"To Him is due the true prayer; and those whom they pray to besides Allah give them no answer, but (they are) like one who stretches forth his two hands towards water that it may reach his mouth, but it will not reach it; and the prayer of the unbelievers is only in error".
Because of the absence of any of those powers attributed to them, false deities are in a state of subjugation to the laws of the universe like their worshippers are, uncapable of inflicting evil or bringing any good upon their followers by themselves, not even able to create or catch the most insignificant insect should they all collaborate in their efforts. As contingent entities, they, just like the most saintly personalities of this world 7:188,10:49 stand in contrast to the uncaused cause, the necessary being, under Whose dominion are all benefit or harm that may come upon creation
6:17-18"And if Allah should touch you with adversity, there is no remover of it except Him. And if He touches you with good - then He is over all things competent. And He is the subjugator over His servants. And He is the Wise, the Acquainted [with all]".
In the words of the prophet Jeremiah as inspired to him
Jer10:5"fear them not for they will do no harm, neither is it in them to do good".
Even though the worshipers might profit indirectly in their comunities from idol worship, the harm they will ultimately incure will be disproportionaly higher 22:12-3. Neither can the idols help themselves nor their worshippers from the divine scourge, especially had they truly demanded to be worshiped
5:76,7:190-8,21:42-3,22:73,35:13"this is Allah, your Lord, His is the kingdom; and those whom you call upon besides Him do not control a straw".
A particularily strong and yet pragmatic observation the Quran points to in order to illustrate the helplesness of those idols in 22:73 is that, besides their inability to create even an insect like a fly viewed as among the smallest, simplest, bothersome or useless as opposed to the universe of complexities originated by the supreme creator whom they also believe in, should one of these lowly creatures snatch a thing from them, like the offerings often left in front of the idols, these idols would be helpless in getting it back.
That the idol worshipers and all those who worship entities other than or besides Allah, are only worshiping a figment of their imagination incited by evil spirits, clothing them in the garb of extraneous beings and entities, is portrayed on the Day of Judgement. A Divine court will be set up 5:116-119,10:28-29,25:17-19,34:40-2 where the worshipers and all worshiped entities, whether the stone idols, prophets, saints, angels or any other entities whom they had set up as partners with God and rendered those rights to them which belonged to God alone will be gathered. The objects worshipped will be cited as 35:40"your partners" because they had never been divinely sanctionned as "God's partners" and
34:22"they control not the weight of an atom in the heavens or in the earth, nor have they any partnership in either, nor has He a helper among them".
A seperation will then be made between them and their worshippers. The stones will be made to speak and along with all other worshiped entities, will declare their disavowal of those who called on them and their unawareness that they had been worshipped
"It was not us that you served. Therefore Allah is sufficient as a witness between us and you that we were quite unaware of your serving (us)".
Those things which they thought were their protectors have become their enemies, exposing them as worshippers of falsehood
25:19,46:6,19:82"They shall soon deny their worshipping them, and they shall be adversaries to them".
This will be the death blow and desillusion of all worshippers of false deities, realizing that their prayers were in vain; the entities to whom they had ascribed divinity were not even aware of their prayers
28:64"And it will be said: Call your associate-gods. So they will call upon them, but they will not answer them"7:37,40:73-4"Then shall it be said to them: Where is that which you used to set up besides Allah? They shall say: They are gone away from us, nay, we used not to call upon anything before"7:53"Indeed they have lost their souls and that which they forged has gone away from them".
In what the writers of the HB describe as the "end of days", meaning in their terminology the ushering of an utopian era, but whose descriptions parallel in many places the Quran's description of the Resurrection and Judgement, a day will come where the worshipers of false deities will be brought low and humbled, their idols disappear and only the true God remain and exalted Isa2.
Further reading answering Sam Shamoun "INVOCATION AND WORSHIP: THE ISLAMIC DILEMMA"
- Sam Shamoun "The Islamic Gods Unveiled Pt. 2 Additional Proof that Islam is Repackaged Arab Paganism" (intercession, 4:64, etc.)
- Sam Shamoun "Revisiting the Worship and Prayers of Allah" (praying to Muhammad, supplication etc.)
- Sam Shamoun "NOTES FOR TAUHID DEBATE WITH YAHYA PT. 2" (the blind man)
