Whom to worship: a dilemma story

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The person who does not accept and believe in one god has to accept all the other things as his gods, and worship them; but the one who believes in the owner of the universe and just worships Him, in contrast, is safe from worshipping any other things. Understanding that all the creatures are servants bestowed to him by God for His mercy’s sake, he ascends to the position of The Caliph of the World.

With an example, I want to explain the fact which was stated in the following sentence of the First Word: “Take the name of the Pre-Eternal Ruler and Post-Eternal Lord of this desert!” namely believe in Allah and conform to His orders and restrictions. With this faith “be saved from begging before the whole universe and trembling before every event”.

I want to tell my conversation with an Indian merchant about this subject that I made in Turkey in the office of a businessman. This man was graduated from two different universities.

With the help of an interpreter, we had the following conversation:

“Could I ask a question to you not to contempt just out of desire to learn?” I asked him.
“Sure,” he said.
“Why do you worship cow?” I asked.
“We worship cow because we benefit from its milk, meat and lots of other products. In exchange for these benefits we should worship them.” he replied.
“We use the products of sheep, too.” I said.
“We have to worship sheep, no doubt. Even we have to worship the earth and all the creatures on it from the air we breathe to the plants, animals, sun, etc, because we benefit from all of them. In accordance with our benefit we have to worship them,” he explained.

Indeed, he was trying to say:

“You go to a market and buy all sorts of products you want and you have to pay for as many products as you buy. In the same way, we came to the divine market which is called the world, and we make use of it and the things in it. Certainly, as a payment we have to worship as much as we benefit from them.”

However, he did not take into account the fact that when buying products in a market we do not pay to products themselves but to the owner of the market. Even though he knew that the market has an owner, he could not think and understand that this Market of Earth has an owner, too.

I gave an example that he could understand.

“We are using this room now. Do you think we prepared the room for ourselves before coming here?” I asked
He said “No.”.
“So, do you think the material and the furniture in the room knew that we would come here and gathered the necessary things and prepared the room for us? And do these materials have the power and consciousness to do this work?” I continued.
“No, never.” he said.

And I started to explain, “They are not aware of this work let alone having the necessary consciousness and power to do this work. As we did not prepare this room and the materials in it can not achieve it. So, how this room was provided with furniture and it could be completely suitable for us?”

He was listening attentively. And I continued.

“This reality means that this room has an owner and was prepared by Him and given to our service. We used the room and its furniture. Shall we thank the room and its furniture or is it essential for us to show our gratitude to the owner who prepared it for us? If we do not recognize, believe in and thank its owner, but thank room and the furniture in it, for our very ingratitude we cannot hope to get such a gift again and we will deserve punishment that the owner will give us as a result of our fault.”

“Just the same as this example, our world is like a room. All the furniture in it is for us to use. We did not prepare this world before coming to world. Since these things are possible to occur just through boundless power, wisdom and knowledge, it is impossible that this world and the creatures in it know us and come together to prepare the world for our needs. The elements and creatures constituting our world are helpless and unconscious. It is impossible to think that they did all these things. Therefore, our world has an owner and creator who is All Powerful, Perfectly Wise, Knower of All and All Beneficent. Besides creating us, he also created the earth with everything on it and gave it to our service because of our needs. So, do you think one deserves the torments of the hell if he worships these creatures because of their benefits to him and not accept, worship and be servant of the Creator of the Universe and even deny the existence of Him and be ungrateful to Him? ‘The one who does not accept and believe in Allah has to accept all the other things as his god and worship them but the one who believes in the owner of the universe and just worships for Him, in contrast, is safe from worshipping any other things. Understanding that all the creatures are servants bestowed to him by Allah for His mercy’s sake, he ascends to the position of Caliph of the World.’”

When I finished my explanation, the Indian man became despondent, had a puzzled expression on his face and waited a while without uttering a word. He changed the subject and started to speak about business matters.

From the condition of this man, I understand how glorious the religion Islam is and by making us servants of only one god, it saves us from worshipping and being the slave of everything from cow to the sun and the moon; and it provides the honour that the human beings deserve. And I thanked Allah so many times.

When the sun rises, a reflection and a copy having all the features of it appears on all the mirrors, pieces of glass, water bubbles and all the transparent objects which are in front of the sun. The person who does not recognize the real sun in the sky have to admit that in each of those transparent objects is a real sun which is 1.306.000 times bigger than the earth and 149,6 million km deep in the mirrors. This is impossible for many reasons, no doubt. In the same way, the person who does not believe in and worship Allah Who created and made all the things with His Divine Attributes have to admit all creatures as his gods and worship them. However, the one who believes in All the Beneficent and worships Him gets rid of believing and worshipping all the creatures.

I thank Allah so much for the gift of Faith He bestowed upon us. Peace be upon the last prophet Muhammad who conveyed the Islam to us.

This story was modified from the article “Allah is the unique God to be worshipped” written by Muhammed Zakir Çetin in the second issue of The Pen Magazine.