Divine Planning

An article titled, ‘Islam’, penned by a Christian writer and published in an American encyclopaedia, has this to say: Its advent changed the course of human history. It is quite true that after the Islamic revolution of the first phase (of Islam), human history saw such tremendous changes as had never before been seen. The actual reason for all these changes was that the continuity of polytheism came to an end, yielding place to the continuity of monotheism. Shirk (polytheism) was and is the root cause of all evils, while monotheism was and is the source of all virtue. Hence the occurrence of this fundamental change opened for man the door of all virtue, which had hitherto remained locked. Now the age of superstition gave way to the age of science. The foundation of human discrimination collapsed, giving place to human equality. Dynastic rule was replaced with democratic rule. Where natural phenomena all over the world had become objects of worship, now for the first time they were treated as subjects of research and investigation. This paved the way to the revelation of nature’s secrets to man. It was indeed the monotheistic revolution which laid the foundation for bringing about the modern age of advancement. Abraham’s prayer, “Lord, preserve me and my descendants from serving idols. Lord, they have led many men astray” (14:36), had been answered. Now the question arises as to how people were misled by these idols. What qualities did these inanimate objects possess which helped them in this regard? We can understand this secret if we have a look at the idols prevalent during Abraham’s time and referred to in Abraham’s prayer. The idols were of the sun, the moon and the stars. It has been proved historically that these bright, heavenly bodies were objects of worship everywhere in the civilized world of Abraham’s time. This gives us a clue as to how and why these idols managed to lead the people astray. Although God is the greatest reality, He is invisible to the eye. On the contrary, the sun, the moon and the stars, shining brightly, are visible to every eye. Due to their illuminative properties, people came under their spell and began worshipping them. These brilliant bodies captured human thought to such a degree and so dominated people’s minds that even governments, nay, empires began to be founded on their basis. The emperors of that age ruled over people by declaring themselves to be the descendants of the sun and moon.