Forty Gems of Beauty — Page 101
101 God alone deserves to be loved, or fearing someone as God alone deserves to be feared. The hidden Shirk of this variety is, unfortunately, found in many Muslims in our times. But Islam teaches perfect unity and emphatically warns us of both the manifest as well as the hidden Shirk. Another tradition indicates that in the connotation of shunning Shirk, in other words, in the concept of unity, belief in God includes belief in the Holy Prophet (May peace and blessings of Allah be on him), for it is through prophethood that real unity is established in the world. In short, there is extreme stress in the teachings of Islam against Shirk and it is the duty of every true Muslim to shun both its hidden as well as its manifest variety. In respect of hidden Shirk, the Promised Messiah (May peace be on him) says in a captivating style: “All that has abode in your heart besides God is an idol of thine, O ye of weak faith. Be wary of these hidden idols and keep the apron of thy heart clear of them. ” The second evil mentioned in this Hadith is si h r. It stands in Arabic for something illusory, an object which is projected in a different shape, its reality being covered up, and showing a lie as a truth. This type of si h r is the worst kind of falsehood, for in addition to a lie, it partakes of an element of cheating and cunning. Therefore, gilding is also called si h r in Arabic. As, for instance, if a silver article is gold- plated and offered as a gold article, it will be termed si h r in Arabic idiom. Anything underhand or surreptitious, having an element of secrecy with the object of deception, will be called si h r in the Arabic language. Islam declares all these things unlawful as they affect morals adversely and tend to breed an involved and crooked habit of mind,