Page 43 - Faith: The Way to Happiness

The Unhappiness of the Society of the Ignorant

own guesses and estimations and act according to these. What
brings forth all these false gods is their own conjecture and imagina-
tion. Not only do these conjectures and estimations produce nothing
right, they further increase the losses of those who make them and,
as Allah tells us in the verse, "It has been revealed to you and those
before you: 'If you associate others with Allah, your actions will
come to nothing and you will be among the losers.'" (Surat az-
Zumar: 65), everything such people do and every effort they make is
wasted. Our Prophet (saws) also informs us that their hopes of get-
ting help from anyone and anything other than Allah will do them
no good at all:
"… When you ask for anything ask it from Allah, and if you seek
help, seek help in Allah. Know that if the people were to unite to do
you some benefit they could benefit you only with what Allah had
-
recorded for you, and that if they were to unite to do you some in
jury they could injure you only with what Allah had recorded for
you..." (Tirmidhi Hadith)
But some people like this do not know what a great danger lies
in setting up false gods and what a great deception it is. A p e r s o n
who throughout his life ascribes partners to Allah will realize on the
Day of Judgment that the people or objects which he made his
deities have abandoned him, and he will understand that they were
nothing but a deception, possessing no power at all. In the Qur'an,
Allah tells us of the re g ret and psychological collapse which these
people will suffer in the Hereafter:
When those who were followed disown those who fol-
lowed them, and they see the punishment, and the connec -
tion between them is cut, those who followed will say, "If
only we could have another chance, we would disown them
just as they have disowned us." In that way Allah will show

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