Praise be to Allah The One (Al-Wahid), The Single (Al-Ahad), The Solitary/Unique (Al-Fard) & The Eternal Absolute (As-Samad).  He begets not, nor is He begotten, and there is none like unto Him.  May Allah’s blessings and peace be upon our Master Muhammad who is promised to reach the highest and most praised stage (Al-Maqam Al-Mahmoud); which none other than him will come near to.  May the blessings and peace be upon his family and companions; the lamps of guidance and evidence of consciousness.

Faith is what dwells in the heart (Al-Qalb) and evidenced by deeds (A’mal).  When faith resides in the heart it will not be affected by a say or an action which will not pluck it out of the heart.

It’s unreasonable to describe faith as a coward entity.  This is like saying that the faithful (Mu’min) would be unfaithful if he or she saw an image sculpture – a statue (Timthal), or saw an idol  (Sanam) which may be worshiped by someone to bring him closer to Allah, or saw an image of a godling (Wathan) which may have been worshiped as a God.

I say: he whose faith is affected by seeing Al-Ghayriyat (everything other than Allah) is not considered a true faithful.  On the same basis there is no need to investigate the status of sculptures to find out if they are lawful (Halal) or forbidden (Haram) since there is no fear on the believer’s faith from it.  We should not give any significance to those who worship it in this life because Allah does not attribute any weight to them in the Day of Judgment.

The significance that some people give to stone or metal sculptures is less problematic compared to other objects of worship.  They ask that these should be destroyed and eliminated for fear of being worshipped, but what about the cases where people worship planets, stars, the sun, the moon, trees or animals?  Should we eliminate these objects? And how should we destroy them?  Of course, it does not make any sense to destroy those useful objects just for the fear that they may be worshipped!

Should we not suspect the faith of a blind man who does not see any of these objects?

Is it true that idolatry (Wathanyiah) does not exist in the stones, trees, the sun or the moon, but exists in the hearts of humans?

Dear reader, the dwelling and resting place of faith is in the heart (Al-Qalb) it is Allah –SWT- Who grants and protects it.  When He protects faith in someone’s heart nothing can take it away, “And never would Allah make your faith of no effect” {Translation of Surat Al-Baqara:  143}

There is no power or might except with Allah

Al-Behira wal Akalim  journal issue #265

Filed under: Let It Be Good, O' Allah on October 16th, 2011