Surah al-A`raf (The Elevated Places) 7 : 190

Overview (Verse 190)

Sophisticated Paganism

“Yet when He has granted them a goodly child, they associate with Him partners, particularly in respect of what He has granted them. Exalted is God above anything people may associate with Him as partners.” (Verse 190) Some reports mentioned in commentaries on the Qur’ān suggest that this is a true story that occurred to Adam and Eve, whose children used to be deformed when born. Satan came to them and persuaded Eve to call the child she was carrying `Abd al-Ĥārith, when al-Ĥārith was the name of Satan himself. He told her that she would then ensure that her child would be healthy and would survive. She did so, persuading Adam to agree with her. Needless to say, this report can only have an Israelite origin. Distorted Jewish and Christian concepts blame Eve for all human error. This is contrary to the correct Islamic concept.

We have no need for such Israelite reports to interpret this Qur’ānic statement. The Qur’ānic account describes the stages of deviation in human beings. The idolaters at the time of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), and prior to his time, used to pledge their children to serve their deities or be servants in temples and houses of worship. They did so in order to gain favour with God. Although at the beginning they used to turn to God alone, they then deflected from the summit of believing in God’s oneness and fell into the depths of abject idolatry. In their error,they used to pledge their children to such idols and deities, hoping that by doing so their children would have a healthy life and would be protected against dangers. It is the same as some people do today when they make pledges to saints dedicating to them certain parts of their children’s bodies. Some people may keep a boy’s hair to grow, pledging that his first hair cut will be undertaken at the tomb or shrine of a saint, or they keep the boy uncircumcised until his circumcision is undertaken at such a tomb or shrine. Yet these people acknowledge that God is one, but follow this acknowledgement with such idolatrous practices. Human beings remain the same. “Exalted is God above anything people may associate with Him as partners.” (Verse 190) Rejected is all the idolatry they believe and practise.

Today we see various aspects of idolatry practised by people who claim to believe in God’s oneness and say that they submit to Him. These practices provide an example of the stages of paganism depicted in the Qur’ānic verses. Today, people glorify certain gods which they may call, `the nation’, or `the motherland’, or `the people’, or a host of other names. These are no more than unshaped idols similar to the stupid forms of idols the pagans of old had. They are deities assigned a share of God’s creation and to which children are pledged in the same way as they were pledged to the old idols. Sacrifices are offered to these deities on a wide scale in the same way as sacrifices used to be offered in temples.

People acknowledge God as their Lord; it is true. But they then abandon His commandments and His laws while they consider the orders and requirements of their own idols and deities as sacred. For the implementation of the latter, God’s laws are contravened, and even totally disregarded. If such practices of later day jāhiliyyah are not to be considered as paganism, then what does constitute paganism? How are deities adopted? And how are they given a portion of people’s children? Indeed, ancient paganism used to be even more polite with God. It used to acknowledge certain deities to which offerings of children, crops, fruits and sacrifices were made only as a means for them to draw closer to God. Today’s jāhiliyyah considers the orders of its deities as having greater priority than what God commands. Indeed, it abandons His commandments altogether.

We deceive ourselves when we limit paganism to the stupid old form of having idols and statues, treating them as deities, and to the practices of worship which people used to offer to those deities, appealing to them for support. It is only the shape and form of deities and paganism that has changed, and practices of worship that have become more sophisticated, offered under different headings. The essence of paganism remains the same behind all these. We must not lose sight of this fact.

God — limitless is He in His glory — issues a clear commandment that human beings should observe chastity, dress modestly and lead a virtuous life. But the `motherland’ or `productivity’ requires women to go out revealing their beauty, all made up, and to work as hostesses in hotels in a way that is not much different from that of the geisha girls in pagan Japan. Which deity’s orders are those people following? Are they abiding by God’s commandments? Or by those of their false deities? God — most exalted is He — commands that people should come together with the bond of faith forming the basis of their community. But `nationalism’ or `the motherland’ orders that religion be totally disregarded and replaced by ties of race and nation. Do people then follow God’s orders or those of the partners they associate with Him? Similarly, God orders that His law should be implemented, but a single human being, or a group of people reject this and claim that human beings have the authority to legislate and whatever laws they enact must be implemented. Which orders then should people follow: those of God or those of their false deities?