Mankind’s Greatest Shortcoming...

وَأُتْبِعُواْ فِي هَـذِهِ الدُّنْيَا لَعْنَةً وَيَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ أَلا إِنَّ عَاداً كَفَرُواْ رَبَّهُمْ أَلاَ بُعْداً لِّعَادٍ قَوْمِ هُودٍ
 “And they were pursued by a curse in this world and on the Day of Resurrection. No doubt! Verily, ‘Ad disbelieved in their Lord. So away with ‘Ad, the people of Hud.” [11:60] 

Mankind will always perish and die upon what their hearts have known, what their souls have lived and what their words have paid testimony to. This is why Allah says: “…And the good end will be for the righteous.” The destructive end that met the people of Hud is the end that ever mukadhib (belier) and every opponent of the Messengers are bound to meet. When Hud pleaded with his people, begged them to leave idolatry and brought them countless proofs in an attempt to bring them back to the straight path, they mocked and remarked: 

قَالُواْ يَا هُودُ مَا جِئْتَنَا بِبَيِّنَةٍ وَمَا نَحْنُ بِتَارِكِي آلِهَتِنَا عَن قَوْلِكَ وَمَا نَحْنُ لَكَ بِمُؤْمِنِينَ إِن نَّقُولُ إِلاَّ اعْتَرَاكَ بَعْضُ آلِهَتِنَا بِسُوَءٍ

 They said: “O Hud! No evidence have You brought us, and we shall not leave Our gods for Your (mere) saying! And we are not believers in you. All that we Say is that some of Our gods (false deities) have seized You with evil (madness).” [11:53-54]

 It was then that Hud shot back with his final words that ripped between him and his people – he called out to the testimony of his Lord which marked the end and sent a cursed nation to their final destruction. 
قَالَ إِنِّي أُشْهِدُ اللّهِ وَاشْهَدُواْ أَنِّي بَرِيءٌ مِّمَّا تُشْرِكُونَ
 مِن دُونِهِ فَكِيدُونِي جَمِيعاً ثُمَّ لاَ تُنظِرُونِ إِنِّي تَوَكَّلْتُ عَلَى اللّهِ رَبِّي وَرَبِّكُم مَّا مِن دَآبَّةٍ إِلاَّ هُوَ آخِذٌ بِنَاصِيَتِهَا إِنَّ رَبِّي عَلَى صِرَاطٍ مُّسْتَقِيم

   He said: “I call Allah to witness and bear you witness that I am free from that which you ascribe as partners in worship with Him (Allah). So plot against me, all of you, and give me no respite. I put my trust In Allah, my Lord and your Lord! There is not a moving (living) creature but He has grasp of its forelock. Verily, my Lord is on the Straight Path (the truth).” [11:54-56] 

 

And Hud was not alone. There has not a single Messenger except that he cried, “O my people! Worship Allah, indeed you have no God except Him…” and this is not just an oft-repeated verse in Surah Hud but it rings throughout the entire Qur’aan. The fact that this is a recurring theme indicates many things – primarily, the inability of Mankind to collectively stay upon the straight Path and the continuous misguidance that they fall prey to.Allah says: 
قُلْ سِيرُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ فَانظُرُوا كَيْفَ كَانَ عَاقِبَةُ الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلُ كَانَ أَكْثَرُهُم مُّشْرِكِينَ 
“Say: “Travel In the land and see what was the end of those before! Most of them were Mushrikûn” [30:42] 

The majority of Mankind without a doubt have left this world as disbelievers in their Messengers. Some they drove out of the village, others they ridiculed and harmed and yet others they killed. They chose misguidance over guidance and whoever opts for that, then in Thamud is a clear sign: 

وَأَمَّا ثَمُودُ فَهَدَيْنَاهُمْ فَاسْتَحَبُّوا الْعَمَى عَلَى الْهُدَى فَأَخَذَتْهُمْ صَاعِقَةُ الْعَذَابِ الْهُونِ بِمَا كَانُوا يَكْسِبُونَ 
“And as for Thamûd, we showed and made clear to them the Path of Truth through Our Messenger, but they preferred blindness to guidance, so the Sâ’iqah (a destructive torment) of disgracing torment seized them, because of what they used to earn.” [41:17] 

But what is bewildering is the ease with which people throughout the course of Time, have fallen into shirk (polytheism) and disbelief. It was only a few generations after Adam that the people turned to idol-worship. 

In fact, regarding the verse: 

وَقَالُوا لَا تَذَرُنَّ آلِهَتَكُمْ وَلَا تَذَرُنَّ وَدّاً وَلَا سُوَاعاً وَلَا يَغُوثَ وَيَعُوقَ وَنَسْراً 
“And they have said: ‘You shall not leave your gods, nor shall you leave Wadd, nor Suwa’, nor Yaghuth, nor Ya’uq, nor Nasr (names of the idols)” [71:23] 

Ibn Kathir mentions that these were actually righteous men from the people just before Nuh but after they had passed away, Shaytaan desired to introduce shirk and idol-worship on earth which was unheard of previously. He says: 

“When they passed away, Shaytaan inspired into their people to place idols of the men at the places where they used to sit and name (these idols) by their names. The people did so but without worshipping them, until when that generation passed away, and the knowledge thereof was taken away, the idols began to be worshipped.” [Qasas al-Anbiyaa’] 

And so idol-worship was introduced on the earth and spread until our present day today. Allah out of His Infinite Mercy sent His Messengers and Prophets to battle against this most blatant form of shirk and one after another they confronted it with the Truth which they were sent with, but the battle was decreed to last until the End of Times, because of Mankind’s inability to remain steadfast upon truth and certainty. 

Many times a Prophet would guide a nation and successfully remove all forms of shirk within his followers but a short time would remain until a portion of them would revert back to polluting their ‘Ibaadah. An excuse they would conjure up is that although they believe in Allah, these idols are only meant as intermediaries and intercessors: 

وَالَّذِينَ اتَّخَذُوا مِن دُونِهِ أَوْلِيَاء مَا نَعْبُدُهُمْ إِلَّا لِيُقَرِّبُونَا إِلَى اللَّهِ زُلْفَى إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَحْكُمُ بَيْنَهُمْ فِي مَا هُمْ فِيهِ يَخْتَلِفُونَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَهْدِي مَنْ هُوَ كَاذِبٌ كَفَّارٌ   
“And those who take Auliya’ (protectors and helpers) besides Him (say): “We worship them only that they may bring us near to Allah.” Verily, Allah will judge between them concerning that wherein they differ. Truly, Allah guides not him who is a liar, and a disbeliever.” [39:3] 

An excuse is all it is, and Allah testifies that it is indeed a grave lie and disbelief. The pagan Makkans offered this excuse and proclaimed their belief that Allah is the Creator and Ultimate Lord but, again the incapacity to worship Him alone was present and sadly this was to be a lasting failure in many, except him whom Allah saves. 

Ibn Qayyim mentions this deception and says, “And from the ignorance of the mushrik (polytheist) is his belief that the one whom he has taken as a protector and intercessor will intercede for him and benefit him in front of Allah! And yet they don’t know that no-one intercedes in front of Allah except with His permission.” [Madarij al-Salikeen] 

This shortcoming of the Sons of Adam is highlighted in Surah Yusuf when Allah says: 

وَمَا يُؤْمِنُ أَكْثَرُهُمْ بِاللّهِ إِلاَّ وَهُم مُّشْرِكُونَ 
“And most of them believe not in Allah except that they attribute partners unto Him.” [12:106] 

Due to the corruption of the natural fitrah that Allah has placed in the hearts of Mankind, many are those that subsequently corrupt their worship. They set up shurakaa’ (partners) with Allah knowingly and in ignorance – and for this reason, the chapters of the Qur’aan are filled with the interrogative question of the Day of Judgement: ‘Where are My so-called partners?” 

وَيَوْمَ يُنَادِيهِمْ أَيْنَ شُرَكَائِي قَالُوا آذَنَّاكَ مَا مِنَّا مِن شَهِيد
   “And so, on the Day when He shall call out to them, “Where are those [alleged] partners of Mine?” – they will answer, “We confess unto Thee that none of us can bear witness” [41:47] 

If one were to walk through the earth, one would see this disgraceful act of shirk taking place in several different forms. There are some that take their religious leaders and priests as Lords – unable to place the creation in their proper position, some engage in worship at the site of graves (‘ubbad al-quboor) and yet others seemingly worship Allah but have a diseased inner whereby their unconditional love, hope and fear lie in other than their Creator. 

This unnatural phenomenon to take something other than Allah as a guide, protector, saviour and in a nutshell; a God, has resulted in the Messengers of Allah employing various means in their respective Laws in order to put an end to shirk. The establishment of idols for example was outlawed in all the Sharaa’i of the Messengers, who physically destroyed idols in the holy lands. Every preventative measure has been taken in the Revelations and the respective Sunnan of the Messengers, in order to hinder and obstruct any form of shirk from prevailing. When Samiri lured the people of Musa to take the calf as an object of worship, Haroon who was left in charge of the people spoke out against it but for the sake of unity amongst the people, he did not take action or fight out against the matter, due to their stubborness and obvious disagreement. For this even, he received harsh rebuking from Musa who saw the dangers of an issue as decisive as this. 

قَالَ يَا هَارُونُ مَا مَنَعَكَ إِذْ رَأَيْتَهُمْ ضَلُّوا
أَلَّا تَتَّبِعَنِ أَفَعَصَيْتَ أَمْرِي   
(Musa said): “O Harun! What stopped you when you saw them going astray; That you followed me not? Have you then disobeyed my order?” 
قَالَ يَا ابْنَ أُمَّ لَا تَأْخُذْ بِلِحْيَتِي وَلَا بِرَأْسِي إِنِّي خَشِيتُ أَن تَقُولَ فَرَّقْتَ بَيْنَ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ وَلَمْ تَرْقُبْ قَوْلِي   
He said: “O son of my mother! Seize not by my beard, nor by my head! Verily, I feared lest you should say: ‘You have caused a division among the Children of Israel, and you have not respected my word!’ “ [20:92-94] 

Although cooperation in all that’s good is important and even vital, cooperation and remaining silent over the concerns of Shar’iah (such as avenues that freely lead to shirk) has its grave consequences. 

As intelligent believers in Allah, we need to be able to acquire the tools that will allow us to be one step ahead of the Satanic game that is forever misleading Mankind. We need to purify and develop ourselves and our societies so that none but Allah is worshipped throughout all times and place.