Slaughter Your Gods

It is narrated that during the idol worshiping period of the Arabs before Islam, they used to make idols from edible materials and worship them. Later, when they got hungry, they would eat them. So, expressions like make your god, carry your god, break your god, eat your god were completely rational for them. A similar situation occurred for the Israelites both before and after they escaped the grip of pharaoh with the help of God. When they were under the rule of the pharaoh, they treated him as their ultimate protector and lord, although he treated them as disposable slaves. After they witnessed so many miracles and were saved from the oppression, the Israelites reverted to an idol. Despite being narrations of the past, Quran repeatedly reminds its readers these and similar events as timeless realities (for example 6/74; 7/138; 29/17,25; 53/19-20). Why?

Although the word god is being used excessively in cartoons and movies, implying a human-like nature with only superior properties, one actually does not become a god. You are either god, or you are not. That is growing and improving are aspects for those other than God, because there is no end to the attributes of God. Plus, if you are God, you are the god whether the creatures call you so or not. Therefore, there is an unbreachable gap between god and God (112/1-4). Why am I telling these obvious facts? Simply because in daily life, we humans ascribe a status of "functional deity" to things other than God. If this sounds too far-fetched to you, know that the same phenomenon is traditionally referred to as shirk in the attributes of God, which is classified as minor shirk. So, let's explore this concept a little more.

A believer is someone who admits the unity of God with conviction. Conversely, a person who admits multiple creators at work is one who commits shirk in the person of God, hence the major shirk. It is very easy to determine this major problem. Minor shirk, on the other hand, is not as easy to determine, because on the outside, you see a believer! Inside that believer's heart, however, there is the insidious disease of minor shirk.

Why do we need to reveal something that is hidden in the hearts? Well, this is, indeed, an issue primarily for the involved people, themselves. Nevertheless, actions committed by such people affect us in our lives. Plus, how do we know that we are completely free from such flaws? So, we need to be aware of this situation in order to protect ourselves and to help each other in our belief journeys. And that's perhaps why the Quran is constantly talking about the hypocrites and the hidden diseases of the heart, and giving the examples of Arabs and Israelites as timeless facts. Accordingly, even if you are not a conscious and/or deliberate idol worshiper, in order to avoid the various forms of minor shirk, you need to monitor yourself and your actions. If you determine something alarming, relieve your heart of the burden of holding onto entities other than God; hence the title of this article.

And he who rejecteth false deities and believeth in Allah hath grasped a firm handhold which will never break. Allah is Hearer, Knower. (2/256)

Whoever submits his whole self to Allah, and is a doer of good, has grasped indeed the most trustworthy hand-hold: and with Allah rests the End and Decision of (all) affairs. (31/22)

And whoever fears Allah - He will make for him a way out. And He provides for him from (sources) he never could imagine. And if any one puts his trust in Allah, sufficient is (Allah) for him. For Allah will surely accomplish his purpose: verily, for all things has Allah appointed a due proportion. (65/2-3)

Now, let's read from the Quran the part of the Israelites' story about the idol worshiping. It begins with Moses pbuh meeting with God, where He tells Moses that his people went astray during his absence. Disappointed and angry about his people, he returns and sees them with the calf statue.

And Aaron had already told them before [the return of Moses], "O my people, you are only being tested by it, and indeed, your Lord is the Most Merciful, so follow me and obey my order." They said, "We will never cease being devoted to the calf until Moses returns to us." (20/90-91) Then Moses returned to his people in a state of anger and sorrow. He said: "O my people! Did not your Lord promise you a fair promise? Did then the promise seem to you long in coming? Or did you desire that wrath should descend from your Lord on you, so you broke your promise to me?" They said, "We did not break our promise to you by our will, but we were made to carry burdens from the ornaments of the people, so we threw them [into the fire], and thus did the Samiri throw." And he extracted for them [the statue of] a calf which had a lowing sound, and they said, "This is your god and the god of Moses, but he forgot." (20/86-88)

 At this point, God introduces a litmus paper that functions as a timeless lesson to clarify and educate the hearts:

Did they not see that it could not return to them any speech and that it did not possess for them any harm or benefit?  (20/89)

Later, in order to teach this lesson and to reduce the chances of return to misguidance, God orders the Israelites to slaughter a cow. This order weighs extremely heavy on them, because they are expected to destroy by their very hands something, which until a little ago they treated as god.

And [recall] when Moses said to his people, "Indeed, Allah commands you to slaughter a cow." They said, "Do you take us in ridicule?" He said, "I seek refuge in Allah from being among the ignorant." They said, "Call upon your Lord to make clear to us what it is." [Moses] said, "[Allah] says, 'It is a cow which is neither old nor virgin, but median between that,' so do what you are commanded." They said, "Call upon your Lord to show us what is her color." He said, "He says, 'It is a yellow cow, bright in color - pleasing to the observers.' " They said, "Call upon your Lord to make clear to us what it is. Indeed, [all] cows look alike to us. And indeed we, if Allah wills, will be guided." He said, "He says, 'It is a cow neither trained to plow the earth nor to irrigate the field, one free from fault with no spot upon her.' " They said, "Now you have come with the truth." So they slaughtered her, but they could hardly do it. And [recall] when you slew a man and disputed over it, but Allah was to bring out that which you were concealing. So, We said, "Strike the slain man with part of it." Thus does Allah bring the dead to life, and He shows you His signs that you might reason. Then your hearts became hardened after that, being like stones or even harder. For indeed, there are stones from which rivers burst forth, and there are some of them that split open and water comes out, and there are some of them that fall down for fear of Allah. And Allah is not unaware of what you do.(2/67-73)

Of course, with the death of that cow, an artificial wall between God and people was removed. What's more, people did this destruction themselves, and God granted them power and authority on the land after this event. Such chain of events is quite interesting. God, Himself, can destroy the idol (be them human or non-human), but He wants the humans to abandon them, because only then, their hearts are going to truly find God and build trust towards Him (also read Causality Worshiping). Otherwise, if people don't take any action and if God destroys the idols, this means:

1. people failed to do what's expected of  them;
2. since God gives respite to people, He is going to wait until an appointed time, and until then, people are going to suffer the consequences of clinging to false and/or functional deities; 
3. they lost the chance of great rewards both in this world and in the next;
4. the only gain for people when God destroys the idols is a temporary freedom from false gods. It is temporary, because they still have the instinct to make or acquire idols, which is going to manifest itself sooner or later.

In short, anything and everything that is assuming a position between you and God needs to be removed from your heart and mind so that you are purified in your faith and so that your actions are reflective of that purity in faith. Otherwise, you are going to be creating your own hell in the hands of "your gods". Last but not the least, if you abandon false gods, make sure that you take irreversible actions in your life so that you can not revert to those other than God.