Page 29 - The Struggle Against the Religion of Irreligion

Allah informs us in the Qur’an about people who worshipped

beings other than Him and took statues as deities, giving detailed

accounts of His prophets' struggles with those people. Many assume

that societies of the past that worshipped idols had a primitive lifestyle

and therefore held such a religious view. Consequently, they think

that some African tribes currently worship totems because of their

primitiveness.

However, on closer examination of the beliefs and viewpoints of

societies identified as idolatrous in the Qur’an, it is noticed that those

societies bear striking similarities to some contemporary ones. Just as

the peoples of the past took lifeless statues or wooden and stone

objects as deities, the rationale that accepts lifeless matter as a form

of deity is also prevalent in our day. Before proceeding with

comparisons between past and contemporary rationales, some

information provided in the Qur’an about idolatrous societies should

first be reviewed.

One of the communities identified in the Qur’an is that of

Prophet Abraham:

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