idolatry
Editorial introduction
Whatever keeps a person from God is an idol, Bahá’u’lláh declares, even were it the highest thing in existence; and the idols, He adds, are vain desires and idle fancies. A deity assembled in a finite mind, a name clung to in place of the living authority it once pointed to, flattering words fashioned by one’s own hands and then bowed before, a self that becomes its own object of devotion: each is an image taking the place of truth, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s distinction between a photograph kept for remembrance and one given extraordinary homage shows how fine the line can be. Most unsettling is the servant who worships idols while imagining he believes in God. The tale of Abraham’s rebuke of an idolatrous guest, and the divine patience that corrected him, pairs naturally with the Qur’án’s prohibition on reviling what others worship [1]. The journey leads on into the oneness of God, the temptations of anthropomorphism, the subtle lure of pantheism, and the heedlessness that lets any image quietly become a god.
Say: Today, whatsoever preventeth you from God is an idol, even were it to be of the highest existence. For the excellence of every possessor of excellence lieth in his acknowledgment of God, his recognition of His Self, his entry beneath His shadow, and his prostration before His exalted and mighty Countenance.
Break the idols by My power and sovereignty - thus have ye been commanded by One Mighty, All-Wise. Say: The idols are your vain desires, did ye but know, and then your idle fancies, did ye but perceive.
How long will ye worship idols while ye perceive not? Say: The idols are but your vain desires, did ye but know.
O Ahmad! Speak forth the truth, and be not the cause of the people’s delusion. The world is unworthy of falsehood. Be not of those who fashion idols with their own hands and then bow down before the work of their own making. What difference is there between such as these and those who utter fabricated words in praise of one in whom naught is to be seen but the promptings of vain desire -- words whereby they seek to exalt themselves amongst men -- and then fall prostrate before that which their own tongues have contrived?
By God! They worship names and perceive it not. Nay, were ye to ponder upon them, ye would find them to be worshippers of their own names.
Say: O people, open your eyes! This is your Lord, the Chosen One, Who calleth you from the most exalted station with a wondrous tongue saying: Abandon the people and what they possess. They have clung to the idols of their own selves and are not among those who perceive.
One worships illusion, another imagines a god in his limited mind and worships that, when whatever fits in the mind is merely imagined. One worships the sun, another worships trees and stones. In ancient times many worshipped wind, worshipped the sea, worshipped plants.
All nations worship their images of a god and these imaginary gods are superstitious phantoms. Hence they are worshipers of superstitions.
If we keep a photograph just for memory's sake no harm is done but if we offer to it extraordinary homage it is pure idolatry.
When either one of the two adores the other instead of God, then each will prevent the other from entering into the Kingdom of God.
It is related that an aged and decrepit man became the guest of His holiness Abraham. He exercised toward his guest the utmost hospitality and courtesy. When dinner was served, his holiness Abraham uttered the Name of God and then started eating. On the other hand the guest uttered the name of an Idol and began to eat. His holiness was grieved, arose in wrath and rebuked his guest most severely.
But even, as he did so, God's revelation descended upon him:- "O Abraham! For a hundred years this man has been an idol worshipper and I have been patient with him.
How many a servant hath worshipped idols while imagining he believed in God, Lord of all mankind.
We see most people as idol worshippers though they imagine themselves to be guided.
The smoke of vain imaginings hath enveloped the world, and the veils of idle fancies have prevented the people from beholding the lights of the supreme horizon. They worship idols, supposing themselves to be worshipping the Truth.
They who have taken as friends others besides God - these have been prevented by following vain imaginings. They worship idols while supposing themselves to be among the choicest of creation in the sight of the sublime Truth.
They make mention of God with their tongues while their hearts tell of images and idols.
It is as though they worship names for which God hath given no authority, and thus do they cleave to idols within themselves while perceiving not. They mention God without His authority being manifest to them, yet when it is manifested they turn back on their heels.
Eyes are veiled, ears deprived, for most are observed to be worshippers of names, cleaving to them while remaining bereft of God, glorified be His majesty. The former people for years were worshippers of names and idols, unknowingly.
They who worship names instead of Me, these are indeed idolaters in the sight of thy Lord, the Almighty, the Powerful. Say: Do ye take names as lords for yourselves besides God and forsake the Most Excellent of Creators? Fear ye God, then sanctify yourselves from the veils of fancy and be ye of them who take none besides God as their helper or protector.
Say: Have ye turned to temples made by the hands of Our servants while setting aside the Temple of God? This is naught but manifest wrong. Do ye imagine ye worship God your Lord? Nay, rather your vain imaginings, were ye of the perceiving ones.
Know thou that those who have taken idols as their guardians instead of God adduce as proof that these are the manifestations of the Cause among us, and when asked by what evidence they speak thus, they say: "We have found this in our books, therefore we follow them," and they are among those who have strayed from the path and then transgressed.
… On that Day thou shalt find most of those on earth worshipping idols and rejoicing therein.
Break the idols of vain imitation by the power of your Lord, and should ye find in yourselves any weakness, seek ye strength through My sovereignty which encompasseth all the worlds.
The people have become familiar with vain imaginings and idols. Consider the people of Persia: for one thousand two hundred years they spoke of vain imaginings, clung to vain imaginings, and held fast to their hem.
This servant is astonished by those who, through heeding the foolish utterances of imaginary beings, remain deprived of the path of Divine unity. As to the baseness, degradation and paucity of understanding of mankind, this suffices - that for years they were worshippers of idols and even now exist upon the earth yet remain unaware; they worship the calf and perceive not; they follow Baal and know not; they bow before Al-Lat and comprehend not; they cleave to false gods and remember not.
Do ye worship the calf and forsake Him Who created you by His command, by Whose light all who are in the heavens and earth are illumined, if ye be possessed of insight?
They drink fetid water while imagining it to be the water of life. They worship the calf while deluding themselves that it is the Lord of creation.
Do ye worship the calf and forsake God, your Lord, and imagine that ye are numbered among the dwellers of the Paradise of refuge?
Follow not those who worship the calf instead of God - these are indeed far removed from the Tree of Nearness.
For most of the people of the Bayan are fit only to worship the calf rather than prostrate before the Truth, just as most people on earth today are idol-worshippers, as is recorded in certain books that half the people of earth worship idols while the other half comprise different religions.
The founder of the idol worship was Jeroboam. The rebellion grew, until war broke out between Jeroboam and Rehaboam, in which many people were killed. All their wise men failed to cure the evil; darkness upon darkness overtook them. The Israelites became degenerate; corruption reached such a point that they became worshippers of Baal.
If it was so then the noblest of all natural phenomena would be the sun. lack of knowledge in the past led people to the worship of the sun for to them the sun was of great importance and significance, they imagined that the visible light was one of the Divine Bounties and heavenly manifestations. As they observed that its center was the sun, they worshipped it.
One retrogrades to such a low level as to worship statues and stony forms which are devoid of spirit and reason, while God hath conferred upon him reason and adorned his shoulder with the mantle of spiritual attributes!
"Again, if we look at the Hindoos we see that they have made images and worship them as deities, and they have eight million such deities in their temples. It is evident that these are superstitions and imaginations.
The attributes of Divinity are assigned to the idols of India and today the likeness of Buddha is worshipped by several hundred millions of human souls. What benefit does he draw from this adoration? Nothing.
For example, the adornment of churches with images, self-mortification, abstinence, monks' habits, the lighting of candles in church, the ringing of the bell in the steeple and others. These are all from idolaters.
They regard the sound of copper and brass as the divine call, though it be but inanimate matter, and they hold it sacred and answer its summons, rushing forthwith to church. But they deprive their ears of the divine call and show the utmost aversion to hearing the Word of Truth.
Through God's grace - glorified be His majesty - thou must pass through the lands like the breezes of dawn in the divine springtime, giving the glad tidings of true unity to the servants, lest they become like the people of the Furqan who each day set up a new god and took hold of an idol.
God willing, they will drink from the hidden oceans within the revealed verses and hold fast unto the peerless Friend, unlike the former people who each day took a different god, carved an idol, and worshipped it.
Every soul hath taken unto himself an idol besides God. Thus have vain imaginings and idle fancies seduced them.
And among the people are those who follow their idle fancies and turn away from God, and are like unto them who worship idols and are devoted to them.
The seas have been set ablaze by the fire of the word of the Chosen One, yet the people, having followed every ignorant idol, remain heedless thereof.
They have cast God behind their backs, clinging to idols. They are indeed among the most lost in God's Book, the Lord of all worlds.
They have taken their idols and cast aside the Truth.
They are, verily, worshippers of idols in the sight of God, the All-Knowing, the All-Informed.
They are as nothing, heedless ones, asses, fools. Were they to know, they would surely cut themselves to pieces and sacrifice themselves, their souls, their spirits, but they perceive not and worship what they know not, and they have taken for themselves a partner with God, the One, the Single, the Alone, the Mighty, the Beloved.
And he who calleth the people unto the idol verily is to be numbered among the denizens of the coffin, and is thus recorded before the Throne.
Say: Do ye worship the idol instead of God? Woe unto you for what your passions bid you do. Fear God and take not the idol as your helper.
Say: Where is your goal, O company of vain imaginings? By God! If ye seek other than Me, it is but an idol unto you, did ye but know.
Fear ye nothing - open your eyes and follow not those who have taken their vain imaginings for their god and who cleave fast unto them.
Say: Fear God, O peoples of the earth, and follow not those who have clung to the idols of fancy and vain imaginings.
Leave the idolaters and what they possess. Verily, We have found some of them upon the hill of turning away, and some upon the hill of questioning, and some upon the hill of hatred, and some upon the hill of ignorance.
Shatter the idols of vain imaginings by the command of your Lord, the Mighty, the All-Knowing. Then cut yourself off from every sinful misbeliever.
Say: How long will ye sport with your idle fancies? How long will ye cleave to your idols? Cast away vain imaginings.
Shatter the idols of fancy and vain imaginings in the name of your Lord, the Mighty, the All-Knowing.
Shatter the idols of vain imaginings in the name of the Lord of all men.
They who were held back by vain imaginings are truly the worshippers of idols, though they perceive it not. Break the idols by the command of your Lord, the Lord of all mankind.
O Muhammad-Qasim! Shatter the idols of vain imaginings through the name of thy Lord, the Master of all beings, and remind the people through this Remembrance, before which all remembrances bow down when it appeareth.
Break the idols by My sovereignty and turn to the Dawning-Place of My signs - this is better for you, did ye but know.
Say: Shatter the idols by the name of your Lord, the Mighty, the All-Knowing. Beware lest allusions hold you back; cast them behind you and hold fast unto this Cord whereby the worlds have been moved.
Beware lest you take the Evil One as your lord instead of God. Break the idols by the power of your Lord, the Master of all necks.
Behold and call to mind when the Friend, through the power of the Glorious One, turned toward the abode of the idols in the name of His Lord, the Lord of all mankind. Blessed is the hand that shattered the idols of fancy and vain imaginings through this Name whereby all who are in earth and heaven were thunderstruck, save those whom God, the Almighty, the Unconstrained, willed otherwise.
Blessed is he who hath shattered the idols of vain imaginings and delivered the Abraham of faith from the hosts of wicked unbelief.
God willing, with the power of Abraham mayest thou shatter the idols of vain imaginings that have caused men to be veiled from the Dawning-Place of the Light of Divine Unity, and mayest thou soar in the atmosphere of the love of the All-Merciful on the wings of detachment.
Though thou art a woman, arise like unto a man and break the deity of idle imagination with the might of Abraham; render asunder the intervening veils with the power of the All-Glorious One; receive the Kawthar of meaning from the hand of the divine Youth and quaff it, and close thine eye to the whole world, for sight is created to behold the beauty of the Beloved, and heart has been brought into being for His recognition.
We make mention of the people of Khadra who have turned towards the Most Exalted Horizon, who have shattered the idols of desire in the name of their Lord, the Almighty, the Powerful.
May His bounty be upon those who have shattered the idols by the power of their Lord, the Lord of all mankind, and have turned with their hearts to the court of their Lord, the Almighty, the Powerful.
The glory be upon you, O My handmaidens, and upon every handmaiden who hath broken the idols in the name of her Lord, the Possessor of all names, and hath acknowledged that which God acknowledged before the creation of the heavens and earth: that there is none other God but Him, the Powerful, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.
Make mention of thy Lord's favor unto His servant who took God as his Helper and recognized Him in days when all turned away from Him and took idols for themselves as protectors besides God.
Among the people are those who turned away from it and took idols as their objects of worship; and among them are those who turned toward it and were caught up by the breezes of grace from a holy and resplendent direction.
Drink ye the Kawthar of gladness from the hands of the mercy of the Manifestation, and turn not unto those who worship idols and imagine themselves to be among the believers. Break ye the idols of vain imaginings through My name and My sovereignty, and be not disturbed by any oppressive tyrant.
Break ye the idols of idle fancies by the arm of certitude, then make mention of your Lord with joy and fragrance.
O Qurratu'l-'Ayn! Say to the idolaters: "If you worship not God, your Creator, besides Whom there is no other God, then by the Lord of the House, He is the Truth, and I have not worshipped and will never worship any but God, our True Master. To you be your religion, and for us the pure religion around the water, through truth upon truth, ordained."
For thought and discussion