2 Other gods GyIi ee sph ay by 2Rte (31:13) eS Ir Gyo S355 SoG “Ascribe no partners unto Allah. To ascribe partners (unto Him) ts indeed the highest wrong doing.’ ‘The Divine laws given to mankind through the messengers of God were meant to create a direct relationship between God and man without any intermediaries. Thus when we are reading the Quran, we are personally in contact with God recelving His prescribed guidance. But the forces of exploitation always intervened between God and man. Such forces in the words of the Quran are called ‘other gods’. Any law-making authority whose laws are contrary to or exceed the limits prescribed by the revealed fundamental principles, fs described by the Holy Suran as “other god’: ASSAi WEISS o OEY 8 Bk ELA 3? oi ase (21:21-22) Q Osh BAe GAG “Or have they chosen gods from the earth; can they (false gods} cause the living objects. to arise from the non-living? If there were in the heavens and the earth other gods besides the God, there would have been disorder and confusion in both. But glory to God, the Controller of the throne of authority, (Ile 1s high} above what they attribute to Him ‘Such other gods always intervened between man and God, and their whims and wishes acted as curtains between man and the light of divine message. The rays of light make it possible for us to distinguish the features and the exact location of objects around us. That is why the Sura itself is termed Light: C240 Bo best 18) OOS Blea ai aE “Surely the light has come to you from Allah in the form ofa persptcuous book.” The intermediaries between God and man always turned the divine message into an adulterated and unreal one. They mystified the human vision and stupifled the8 Consptractes against the Quran human intellect. With the appearance of the Quran, all these vells of darkness disappeared and the curtains which stood between man and God, through ages. were raised one by one. But again with the passage of time, the followers of Muhammad”, turning to the footsteps of earlier nations, forsook the Divine message and the curtains once more fell and isolated man from God in human affairs. It is of utmost importance to explain the true nature of these attractive, ornamental and yet deceitful curtains which have kept the Divine message hidden from the eyes of mankind, through ages, and which ultimately turned the Muslims to follow the footsteps of earlier nations and forget the final and complete code of Ife, given to them, through the last messenger of God. INTERMEDIARIES BETWEEN MAN AND GOD Worship of the messengers of God. - Next to Allah, the most venerated and most exalted personality, in the eyes of believers, is that of a messenger of God. In this respect the Holy Quran has exposed a human weakness which has been repeatedly displayed in human history. That Is, the followers of a particular messenger of God raising the status of that messenger to that of God Himself; considering him to be super human and making him the object of worship. Whereas the Quran has emphastsed the ‘Oneness of God, it has laid equal emphasis on the messengers of God being human beings. The status of God and His messengers respectively Is made abundantly clear when it is sald: ENE TAS Jaa IGUAL ies Res EES (21:73) OS BEIGE Ess “And We made them (the messengers} leaders, guiding {men} by Our command and We sent them inspiration to lead a profitable way of Ife, to follow closely the Divine laws hd provide nourishment to humantty; and they constantly served Us (and Us only).” Like other human beings. the Rasools (messengers) were themselves dependent on God: (28:24) On BASE Gedsily Bode — "Moses said: © my Lord! Truly I am in (desperate) need of any profitable things) that thou dost send me.” ‘The Rasools had no power over any good or harm to thelr ownselves: az 2 sere eh (7188) we aw FEC FS95 G5 CA LIGS "Say I have no power over any profit or loss to myself except as according to the law of Allah.” ‘The Rasoolé were the first to believe in what was revealed to them and they were ¥ Mark on the word Muhammad signifes "peace be upon him.”Other gods 9 bound to act on the Divine guidance as much as the other believers. Even though they entirely and whole-heartedly submitted to the will of God so that there was not the slightest possibility of their disobedience to the Divine command; yet if such a thing could be possible, they were placed at par with other human beings as far as the law of requital and their personal responsibility was concerned. Rather the punishment for them would have been greater, as their responsibility was greater. The Quran has clarified this point:- ae test erase a EG OME 2 gNe GEL IBLE STA; (07:74-75) ORACLE SILAS esi Cadns a) “And had We not given thee strength, thou wouldst nearly have inclined to them a litle, In that case, We should have made thee taste an equal portion (of punishment) in this Iife and an equal portion after death: and moreover thou wouldst have found none to help thee against Us.” ‘The Holy Quran repeatedly lays stress on the point that in spite of their superiority in respect of their being the recipients of Divine guidance and in spite of their knowledge of reality being at a super level, they were all human beings otherwise. ‘They were the teachers of mankind and were also entrusted with the task of establishing a social order in accordance with the code of life provided to them by means of revelation, in their respective ages. As a matter of fact, a teacher of mankind must be one amongst them, so that he may be able to mingle with them and share their Joys and sorrows, and also be acquainted with their problems. It ts mentioned in the ‘Holy Quran: Lr ——t—t—‘C™CNCS=SCr”CNSN (25:7) SEI GRIEG Fd soi "And they (the non-believers) say: What sort of a messenger of God is this, who cats food and walks through the streets (as we do)?” ‘There came the reply: ee ea ro (28:20) 2G GERACE TG Te MSIE “And the messengers of God who were sent before thee were all {men} who ate food and mtd through the areca ‘Thus in spite of thelr most exalted status amongst mankind they were human beings after all. They themselves bowed down before Allah and never made others to bow down Cae ‘themecives:, “Bg J “It fs not (possible) that a man, to whom ts given the Book and the Wisdom and the office of a measenger of Ged that he should afterwards have said to mankind: Be slaves of me instead of Allah.” Against the background provided by the Quran as described above, let us take