Chapter 2: Surat Al-Baqarah (The Cow), verse 168-171
Translation:
You people! Eat of what is lawful and wholesome on the earth and do not walk in Satan's footsteps, for he is your inveterate foe. He enjoins on you evil and lewdness, and bids you assert about God what you know not. When they are told: 'Follow what God has revealed,' they reply: 'We will follow what our fathers practised,' even though their fathers understood nothing and had no guidance. The unbelievers are like beasts which, call out to them as one may, can hear nothing but a shout and a cry. Deaf, dumb, and blind, they understand nothing. (168-171)
Commentary:
What is idolatry?
It is to focus on something other than God to satisfy one’s feelings of
devotion and veneration. God is the greatest and most essential need of man. The
urge to worship God is so integral to human nature that no one can live without
Him. Man’s going astray does not mean that he abandons God altogether. What
actually happens is that the real God is replaced by a false god. That is why
the shariah holds unlawful all those things which, in any degree, lead to
deviation, i.e. diverting man’s natural desire for God in some other
direction.
The
idol-worshippers set certain animals free in the name of their idols. These
animals are not used for food or service. This is akin to a accrding divinity to
object; a divinity which is a prerogative of none save God. It is akin to
diluting man’s natural feelings of reverence and devotions meant only for God,
and which should be exclusively reserved for God alone. Satan encourages human
beings to channel their feelings of awe and reverence onto different paths in
order that their attachment to God may be weakened.
Once an object,
which is not God is accepted as God as a result of man’s superstitious
attitude, many other accompanying evils ensue. An animal may come to be regarded
as possessing supernatural powers—something possessed only by God. That animal
is then held to be a means of achieving proximity to God and is expected to be a
source of blessings.
In the next generation all these superstitious beliefs become firmly rooted in the human psyche and are upheld with great zeal and fervour as the Sacred way of the forefathers. At this stage, people become resistant to any rational analysis of these superstitious beliefs. The situation deteriorates further with succeeding generations. People reach a level where they are totally unable to hear or understand any argument put forward to them. They act as if they have neither eyes nor ears to see and hear, nor brains to give thought to any argument presented to them.