Polytheism is believing that there are many gods while monotheism puts forward faith in Oneness of Allah.
People believe that just believing in many gods other than One true God is Shirk. Shirk is a sin, that Allah says, would never be forgiven, rest Allah is merciful.
Nonetheless, the definition of polytheism goes deeper for Muslims. A Muslim who believes that things are to be done because power except Allah’s does them is Shirk.
In one of the Ahadis where the prophet Hazrat Muhammad peace be upon him reminds people that an era would come in which Muslims would be unabashedly polytheists that they would do shirk even they would say if they didn’t have a dog, robbers would have broken into their house. They would believe that it was not Allah’s protection but a dog’s surveillance that saved their lives and property.
I was stunned by reading the Hadith. I recalled there are so many incidents where we Muslims do shirk all the time. We believe things; bad or good, happen to us because of human force, reasons, planning, or people’s conspiracies, jealousy, hatred etc. Our faith has weakened to the point that we have become restless that people may harm us, block our ways to success, or do something that hinders our progress.
Whereas, Allah says nothing happens without His will and when He ordains things to be.
Our disconnection with Deen and our roots has degraded us in all forms. We have become man of fear for we fear everything except Allah.
We believe if we would say the truth or support what is true in a decent gestures and postures, people would humiliate us, disconnect ties with us, our relationships with the world would be affected that we cannot afford. Deen makes us beautiful in adopting beautiful manners but we accept the manners that society approves of: being rude to others, humiliate those who we think are lower to our societal status, disrespect who do not match our so-called standards.
Before knowing this Hadith, I believed that we Muslims are monotheists; we believe in none but Allah’s power and His commandments. But it is an eye opener.
May Allah forgive us and save us from being the polytheists in any thought and action knowingly or unknowingly. Ameen.
By: Rahmana Ghafoor
Key: #polytheists #monotheists #Hadith #Ahadis #beauty #beautyofDeen #status #societalpressure
#PolytheisminModernWorld
Your reflection is heartfelt and eye-opening, showing how shirk isn’t just about worshiping idols but can slip into our daily thoughts and actions when we rely on people or things instead of Allah. It’s a gentle but powerful reminder to place our trust fully in Him and be mindful of where our faith truly lies.
knowledgeable and True lines that everyone knows but none of them say because of our so called society.
Really a good write-up. It shows how we can be indulged in polytheism without even realizing it. While reading this reflection, a bunch of incidents came to my mind where we were committing shirk unknowingly. Shirk is not only worshipping idols — it is also believing that any creation can do anything without Allah’s permission.