Page 39 - Faith: The Way to Happiness

The Unhappiness of the Society of the Ignorant

H o w e v e r, for a person who ascribes partners to Allah, this is
impossible. The unconsciousness in which he remains becomes a
source of blind love for beings which do not deserve to be loved. The
Qur'an tells us about this aspect of disbelievers as follows:
Some people set up equals to Allah, loving them as they
should love Allah. But those who believe have greater love
for Allah. If only you could see those who do wrong at the
time when they see the punishment, and that truly all
strength belongs to Allah, and that Allah is severe in pun -
ishment. (Surat al-Baqara: 165)
Another way of ascribing partners to Allah is a person's self
love, his belief that he is the strongest, the most intelligent and the
most handsome. Such a person claims that his own ideas are right
and follows them. In short, he sees himself in a giant mirro r. The
deity of a person like this is his own self. He adopts himself as his
own god. Allah informs us about the condition of such people in the
following verse of the Qur'an:
Have you seen him who has taken his whims and desires to
be his god? Will you then be his guardian? (Surat al-
Furqan: 43)
Because people who ascribe partners to Allah adopt other peo-
ple and beings as their gods they naturally shape their lives accord-
ing to the wishes of these others because they believe that in this
way they will be happy and at peace. In addition, it is very impor-
tant for them to gain the admiration, approval and goodwill of these
false gods. Since their happiness is bound up with the goodwill of
these false gods they set aside a different part of themselves for each
of them. They develop a diff e rent personality for each of them be-
cause they have adopted more than one false god. Just as this causes

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