Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.  (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

Hindus do not worship idols. Is that strange? Please be tolerant. Their idols are simply pointors to Paramatma, the ineffeble, omnipotent God. We have such a pointer in Islam. It is the Kabaa. We prostrate in its direction. But of course Allah is everywhere and truly we could worship in any direction. It is just our observance of Allah's command to face the Kabaa that we respect. You have obviously adopted Wahabi views on paying respect to the graves. Bohras do not think graves are Allah any more than they think that Kabaa is Allah. You completely reject the doctrines of baatin and Quraan's insistence that there is such batinic knowledge which is available to 'men of understanding'. Please be tolerant of all religions. Do not indulge in fanaticism. Your Utopia of pristine Islam as it existed during the time of Nabi (saw) is not coming back. Muslims are a backward people and 5 billion people on earth will have nothing to do with their religion. In 1500 years, Muslims have not established a society where ordinary Muslims can live in safety and be free from corruption. This includes Bohras.

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ANSWER:

Is worshipping the Kaa’ba similar to Hindus worshipping idols?

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and who-ever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no person, no grave, no prophet, no imam, no dai, nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

The act of ‘sajdah’ or prostration, whereby we touch our foreheads and knees on the ground in submission, is due to none other than Allah Alone! This is the exclusive Right of Allah Subhanah Alone. If done to anybody or anything else, it will be an open and manifest act of ‘shirk’, which is the absolute biggest sin in Islam! And the punishment for one who dies in ‘shirk’ is the confirmed eternal fire of Hell.

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 41 Surah Fusselat verse 37: Do not do ‘sajdah’ to the sun and the moon, but do ‘sajdah’ to that Allah, Who Created them, if you really are indeed His worshippers.

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 5 Surah Maidah verse 72: Whoever commits ‘shirk’ (invoking anything with Allah), Allah shall forbid for him Paradise, and Hell shall be his abode. And for such wrong doers there will be no one to help.

Allah says in the Quran: Chapter 4 Surah An-Nisa Verse 48: Shirk (associating other deities with Allah) is the only sin that Allah does not forgive, and He forgives, whomsoever He pleases, sins other than this. For whosoever associates any other partner with Allah, does indeed forge a big lie and commits the most heinous sin.

The truth is that we muslims do not do ‘sajdah’ to neither the Kaabah nor the Black Stone! We do ‘sajdah’ only to our Lord and Creator, Allah Alone. Allah has commanded us in the Holy Quran to make His Sacred House, the Kaabah, the direction for our prayers.

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 2 Surah Baqarah verse 148: Everyone has a direction towards which he turns in Prayer. So try to excel one another in good works. Allah will find you wherever you may be, for nothing is out of Allah’s reach.

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 2 Surah Baqarah verse 144: We have seen you, (O Mohamed), turning your face over and over again towards the heaven! Now, therefore, We turn you towards the Qiblah that you like best. So turn your face towards the Masjid-e-Haraam! Henceforth, wheresoever you may be, turn your face at prayer towards it.

And when Allah and His Messenger (saws) command us to do anything, we must consider it our duty as true believers to follow their commandments. If anybody other than Allah and His Messenger (saws) command us to do anything in Islam, without evidence from the Quran and Sunnah, we are not to obey them! We are commanded to obey only Allah and His Messenger (saws) explicitly in the Holy Quran!

We only turn our direction towards the Masjid-e-Haraam as commanded by Allah directly in the Holy Quran. We do not worship the Masjid-e-Haraam, we do not worship the Kaabah, nor do we worship the Black Stone! We worship none but Allah, the Lord of the Worlds!

The Hindus on the other hand, worship their gods, and bow down to their idols in prostration, etc. Similarly, some ignorant muslims also bow down in prostration to human beings who are alive, and also to those who are buried in the graves. If you realize, each of these idols or graves have a ‘personality’ behind them! The idols are fashioned in the names of Ram or Shiva or Jesus or Mary or whatever. And similarly, these graves are also over the buried body of some personality! These people thus, in fact, worship these ‘personalities’ and invoke them to do them favors in this world and the next. Some ignorant muslims even invoke those dead in the graves to help them in the hereafter by becoming their ‘intercessors’ with Allah! All these above are nothing but different manifestations of the heinous crime of ‘Shirk’!

There is no personality behind the Kaabah… It is only a cubicle, built as a direction for every muslim to turn his face in prayer. We worship and invoke none but the Lord of the Worlds, Allah Subhanah Alone! We do not ask the Kaabah or the Black Stone for any favors or anything else… They are nothing but a direction of prayers as commanded by Allah clearly in the Holy Quran!

The Prophet (saws) used to kiss the Black Stone when he did his ‘tawaaf’ or circumambulating of the Kaabah. After his death, one of the closest friends and companions of the Messenger of Allah (saws) came near the Black Stone and said this before kissing it: “You cannot harm me, nor profit me in anything. And I swear by Allah, if I had not seen the Messenger of Allah (saws) kissing you (The Black Stone), I would never kiss you.”

Also please note that the Kaabah is only in Makkah. When we pray away from Makkah, in our mosques, in our homes, in our countries, there is no Kaabah. We only face the direction of the Kaabah when we perform our prayers. But the Hindus and ignorant Muslims who worship their ‘personalities’ only bow down and perform their religious rites, when they go to their idols and the graves! Worshipping other deities or personalities is called ‘shirk’, but the true muslims worship none but Allah Alone, and that is termed ‘Tawheed’.

It is a great misunderstanding that the ‘mushriks’ are those who do not believe or worship in Allah. The ‘mushriks’ are those who worship OTHER BEINGS ‘WITH’ ALLAH!!! They believe in Allah, they worship Allah, but they also worship their personalities and the graves of their pious holy men!!!! This is precisely what the Holy Quran calls ‘mushriks’!!! Allah says that having invoked Allah with anybody in between or invoking Allah along with anybody else, is like not having invoked Him at all!!!!!

And Allah Alone Knows Best and He is our Only Source of Strength.

May Allah guide you and us all to the Siraat al-Mustaqeem

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

Your brother and well wisher in Islam,

Burhan