Invitation to Ahmadiyyat — Page 239
239 Argument 8—Adored by Angels We know from the Holy Quran that God created Adam and com - manded the angels to prostrate before him. Prostration ( sajdah ) is a form of worship and it is not permissible to offer it to any - one or anything other than God, neither to Prophets nor even to Muhammad, the Chief of the Prophets sa. Not only is it not per - missible, it is a mortal sin and anyone guilty of it is deprived of God’s grace. Therefore, the word sajdah in this verse cannot mean ‘to worship’. It is also wrong to say that this was permissible in ear - lier times and forbidden afterwards, because Shirk is not the kind of sin that can be allowed at one time and disallowed at another. Tau hi d is the most fundamental of principles and it can never be altered. If we were to assume that it was allowed at that time and forbidden later, then Satan would be entitled to claim that God ultimately had to accept what he had been saying all along, which was that it is not permissible to prostrate to anyone other than God. Since prostration to anyone other than God has never been and can never be permissible, the Divine command to the angels to prostrate before Adam has to have another meaning. According to the Arabic lexicon, another meaning of sajdah is ‘obedience’. In the Arabic lexicon Lis a nul-‘Arab , we have: He who shows perfect obedience to another may be said to have performed sajdah. 1 The command to angels to perform sajdah to Adam was but a