RENAISSANCE SEPTEMBER 2020

Faith & Beliefs 29 Monthly Renaissance September 2020 declared to be God verbally, he cannot be God and the Lord, and unless he is worshipped ritually, he is not worshipped. The Prophet (sws) addressed this misunderstanding by clarifying that whether one called anyone Lord, if he was given the rights and powers that were the sole prerogative of God, he was being accepted as the Lord without saying so and he was being worshipped without being worshipped through standard rituals. Forming laws and the shar ī ‘ah were reserved for God. If anyone was given this status, he would become God and one would become his servant, whether or not he was called God or servant. This explanation is sufficient to understand the above verse. However, it would not be irrelevant to mention a few useful points here. Two aspects of shirk of the Jews and Christians have been mentioned in this verse: making scholars and rabbis their Lord and making Jesus their Lord. We shall discuss both briefly here. 1. Worship of Scholars We are aware of the fact that the Jews had forgotten many things about their shar ī ‘ah . “But they forgot a good part of the message that was sent them ...” (5:14). They had altered the Torah in many places, for example, where it mentioned the coming of a final prophet from within the Ishmaelites, or the place of sacrifice by Abraham (sws). They had also hidden many instructions, especially those related to adultery, theft and deliberate murder. They had obfuscated many instructions through excuses. They would write many fatwas contrary to God’s laws, merely for the sake of worldly needs and then declare that these were exactly according to the instructions in the Torah. These points are given in the Qur’ ā n. It is obvious that the rulings of God had been destroyed in all of these aspects of their shar ī ‘ah and replaced by the self made laws of their scholars and rabbis. Reading of the history of the Bible and the manner of law making of Jews shows that ijtih ā d was nonexistent. The q ā dh ī s who were assigned to deciding upon cases did not consider the instructions in the Torah, decisions made by their prophet and discuss and then make a decision for new issues for which clear instruction had not been provided. Instead, they would present the matter to their chief soothsayer who was considered to be the natural source for finding out the wishes of God. This person