Allah The Exalted — Page 136
1 3 take up this challenge and, standing in opposition, would exhibit blessings and signs as an answer !!! [ A ’ i na-e-Kam a l a t-e-Isl a m, R uha n i Khaz a ’in, Vol. 5, pp. 223-224] Evils of Associating Partners with God I regret that I have not found words in which I should set out the evils of leaning towards anyone except God. Peo- ple cringe before others and flatter them, which envokes the jealousy of God Almighty, and is tantamount to pray- ing to people, from which God withdraws and which He casts aside. I set out the matter in a crude way, though it is not its true reality and yet it is easy to follow. A self- respecting man's jealousy would not tolerate another per- son establishing a relationship with his wife, as in such a case, he would consider his wretched wife worthy of being killed and very often that is what happens in fact. Similar is the jealousy of the Divine. Servitude and prayer are reserved for His Being. He does not approve that anyone else should be worshipped or should be called on in supplication. So remember well that to lean towards any beside All a h is to cut asunder from Him. Prayer and Unity—for Prayer is the name of the procla- mation of Unity in practice—are without blessing and vain when they are empty of humility and nothingness and are not pursued with a single-minded heart! [Malf uza t, Vol. I, pp. 167-168] Associating others with God takes many forms and is called shirk. There is the obvious shirk in which Hind u s, Christians, Jews and other idol worshippers indulge, in which a man or stone or lifeless things or faculties or fictitious deities are worshipped as God. Though this form of shirk is still current in the world, yet this is the age of light and education, and reason is beginning to