THE OBLIGATION OF TAWHEED, PT2

As has preceded the whole of mankind use to be one nation united upon Tawheed and after that they differed so some disbelieved and some believed we will now discuss what brought this difference about, Allah The Mighty And Sublime says: (And mankind was but a single nation then they differed and were it not for a word that preceded from your Lord that matter would have been settled between them in that which they differ). {Yunus, 19} Hafith Ibn Katheer mentions concerning this Ayah: Allah informs that this Shirk (Polytheism) took place between the people after not being present, and that all of the people were upon one religion and that is The Religion of Islaam, Ibn Abbas said: There were ten centuries between Adam and Nuh all of them upon Islaam then there appeared differing between the people and idols, statues and false deities began to worshipped, so Allah sent messengers with his signs and evidences and his outstanding proofs (So that whoever is destroyed is destroyed upon clarity and whoever is given life is given life upon clarity) {Al Anfal,42}. So Shirk first to place in the people of Nuh (Peace be upon him) After one thousand years of Tawheed and Allah explains how it happened, Allah says: (And they said: Do not abandoned your gods, do not abandoned Wadd nor Suwa nor Yaguth nor Ya'uuq nor Nasra). {Nuh, 23} Al Hafith Ibn Katheer mentions concerning this Ayah: These are the names of the idols that they were worshipping besides Allah as was reported by Al Bukhari on the authority of Ibn Jurayj that A'taa reported from Ibn Abbas: And these are names of righteous men from the people of Nuh (Peace be upon him) when they died Shaytan inspired them to mimic the sittings that those men use to have and to name those sittings after each one of them, so they did it but they didn't worship them. Until after the first generation passed and knowledge was lost then they began to worship them. It is clear from what has preceded that the origin of mankind is Tawheed and that Shirk is an innovation and distortion of mans nature and Shirk like all other innovations takes place as a result of knowledge decreasing and ignorance spreading. So the first type of Shirk that took place involved going to extremes in the praise and love of righteous people and this same Shirk repeats itself over and over throughout history with the help of Shaytan and those who have been fooled by him. This Shirk has been disguised by Shaytan as love for the righteous when in reality it is having love for the Creation more than the Creator and Allah says: (And from mankind are those who love false deities with love that it only due to Allah, yet those who believe have severe love for Allah, if only the wrongdoers knew when they see the punishment that all power belongs to Allah) {Al Baqara,165} In order for this misplaced love to be realized it is a must that we understand what is the meaning of love and what are the types of love.
Love means: The heart being filled with affection, desire and a need for closeness to a person or thing. And it is often accompanied with the belief that that person or thing can bring about benefit or prevent harm. Likewise love takes place as a result of benefit received from a person or thing. So as a result love is of two types 1.Natural Love 2. Worshipping Love, as for Natural Love it is that which takes place between spouses and relatives and friends due to that which has resulted from them comforting one another and protecting one another and other than that from the things that causes the heart to incline toward a thing or individual. As for Worshipping Love: Then it results from glorifying and recognizing the greatness of the beloved and his ability to bring about or prevent all physical and spiritual benefits as well as prevent or cause all spiritual and physical harm, as well recognizing his many favors and bounties that he has given and knowing that his knowledge, power and grasp are unrestricted. As a result Natural Love is not necessarily accompanied by fear or hope, however Worship Love is a must to be accompanied by fear and hope or it is deficient. This Worship Love increases as the knowledge of the beloved increases unlike natural love it only increases due to benefit comfort or safety resulting from the beloved. For indeed a person could study about individuals or things and know all about them however if that individual or thing do not bring them any benefit nor prevent them from harm this knowledge would not cause love to take place in the heart. As for knowledge of Allah it results in the individuals' realization that all benefit received physical or other than that as well as all harms prevented physical or other than that are from Allah and this realization causes the Love of Allah to increased and root firmly in the heart of the individual. As Allah says: Indeed in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the differing of the night and the day and the ships that sail the seas with that which benefits mankind and the water that Allah sends down from the sky and thereby gives life to the earth after it being dead and all of the animals which he caused to spread out through the earth and the changing of the winds and the clouds being dragged between the earth and the sky are indeed signs for those who have intellect.) {Al Baqara, 163}

To be continued...