Page 30 - The Struggle Against the Religion of Irreligion

“[Mention] when he said to his father, 'O my Father, why

do you worship that which does not hear and does not see

and will not benefit you at all?” 20

“When he said to his father and his people, 'What are

these statues you are devoted?' they said, 'We found our

fathers worshipping them.' He said, 'You were certainly,

you and your fathers, in manifest error.'” 21

As stated in the verses above, Prophet Abraham's father and

people embraced lifeless matter as deities which they themselves

made with their own hands and which lack any power to create.

Considering anything to be a deity means the attribution to it (either in

part or in full) of the powers of creation, sustenance, blessing, healing,

reckoning, and controlling natural occurrences. The idolaters at the

time of Prophet Abraham believed that the lifeless statues carved by

their own hands possessed such faculties and prostrated before them

in worship.

The Idolatrous Belief That Dominates Societies of Today

Idolaters of the past claimed that lifeless statues carved from

wood and stone, unable to speak or move, possessed power and even

20 Surah Maryam, 19:42.

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