Prophet Abraham (as) Entraps the Idols

 According to the Qur’an, Allah gives those who fear and hold Him in awe the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. This great kindness and superior blessing is restricted to the believers. The methods Prophet Abraham (as) used to call his tribe to belief, as well as his decisions and styles of presentation, are all important examples of this great blessing.

One example is the trap he laid for his tribe’s idols. Given that he was all alone and operating in a dangerous environment, he took certain precautions to prevent bodily harm and to make sure that Allah’s message would be heard. For example, he told the unbelievers around him that he was ill so that they would go away:

And [Abraham] asked his father and his tribe: “What are you worshipping? Is it falsehood—deities besides Allah—that you desire? So what are your thoughts about the Lord of all the worlds?” He looked at the stars and said: “I am sick.” So they turned their backs on him. (Surat as-Saffat: 85-90)

After sending the unbelievers away, he went up to the idols and smashed them:

He turned surreptitiously to their deities and asked: “Don’t you eat? What is the matter with you that you don’t speak?” He turned on them, striking out with his right hand. (Surat as-Saffat: 91-93)

He broke them in pieces, except for the largest one, so that they would have it to consult! (Surat al-Anbiya’: 58)

Leaving the largest idol untouched shows great wisdom. When his tribe saw what had happened and that only the largest idol remained, they immediately began looking for the person who had done this. Since they were aware of Prophet Abraham’s (as) opposition to their idols and paganism, they quickly realized that he was responsible and so sought him out to take their revenge:

They exclaimed: “Who has done this to our deities? He is definitely one of the wrongdoers!” They said: “We heard a young man mentioning them. They call him Abraham.” They ordered: “Bring him before the people’s eyes so they can be witnesses!” They asked: “Did you do this to our deities, Abraham?” (Surat al-Anbiya’: 59-62)

That question revealed why Prophet Abraham (as) did not destroy the largest idol:

He said: “No, this one, the largest of them, did it. Ask them, if they are able to speak!” (Surat al-Anbiya’: 63)

Hearing this response, the unbelievers inevitably began thinking and understanding that their idols would never have the power of speech. And so his plan succeeded, for it caused them to question their pagan belief system. The Qur’an states:

They consulted among themselves and said: “It is you yourselves who are wrongdoers.” (Surat al-Anbiya’: 64)

However, their regret did not last long. Despite having understood the truth, they again decided to oppose Prophet Abraham (as) in order to maintain their traditional pagan belief system, which was in line with their own transitory worldly interests:

But then they relapsed back into their disbelief: “You know full well these idols cannot talk.” He said: “Do you then worship, instead of Allah, that which cannot help or harm you in any way? Shame on you and what you worship besides Allah! Will you not use your intellect?” They said: “Burn him and support your deities, if you are resolved to do something.” (Surat al-Anbiya’: 65-68)

Prophet Abraham’s (as) approach reveals a finely calculated plan and wisdom. Sending the people away by telling them that he was ill, he then smashed all but the largest idol in the hope that they would respond as he expected. This trap shows that he acted under Allah’s inspiration and had superior intelligence and foresight. Under divine inspiration, he devised a brilliant trap and, by Allah’s will, achieved a most pleasing success. After smashing the idols, he tested his tribe’s belief system by saying that the largest idol had destroyed the others.

One aim of this plan was to make his tribe realize just how irrational their belief system actually was. If they failed to comprehend the irrational and illogical nature of their deeds, he knew that they would just make new idols and persist in their paganism. The important thing, therefore, was to make them understand that such superstitious worship was contrary to faith in Allah and His revelation.

It is totally irrational to think that statues can eat, drink, move, or do any harm or good to any person. When those who believe in such fallacies encounter a problem or a difficulty, they seek their idols’ help and refrain from displeasing them. They do so due to their fear of their idols and their belief that lifeless idols created the universe and all living things, direct everything within the universe, and bestow health and plenty, as well as daily bread, power, and understanding, upon humanity. Allah describes their great mistake in the following terms:

… who are not capable of helping them and cannot even help themselves? If you call them [unbelievers] to guidance, they will not follow you. It makes no difference if you call them or stay silent. (Surat al-A‘raf: 192-93)

Do they have legs with which they can walk? Do they have hands with which they can grasp? Do they have eyes with which they can see? Do they have ears with which they can hear? Say: “Call on your deities, try all of your wiles against me, and grant me no reprieve.” (Surat al-A‘raf: 195)

Unfortunately, such a lack of understanding is not limited to Prophet Abraham’s (as) time alone. Paganism still thrives today under a wide variety of different names. The pagan beliefs of Prophet Abraham’s (as) time, for instance, bear a close resemblance to Darwinian claims.

 

Evolution: An Unscientific Faith  

Lord Solly Zuckerman is one of the most famous and respected scientists in the United Kingdom. For years, he studied the fossil record and conducted many detailed investigations. He was elevated to the peerage for his contributions to science. Zuckerman is an evolutionist. Therefore, his comments on evolution cannot be regarded as ignorant or prejudiced. After years of research on the fossils included in the human evolution scenario however, he reached the conclusion that there is no truth to the family tree that is put forward.

Zuckerman also advanced an interesting concept of the "spectrum of the sciences," ranging from those he considered scientific to those he considered unscientific. According to Zuckerman's spectrum, the most "scientific"—that is, dependent on concrete data—fields are chemistry and physics. After them come the biological sciences and then the social sciences. At the far end of the spectrum, which is the part considered to be most "unscientific," are extra-sensory perception—concepts such as telepathy and the "sixth sense"—and finally human evolution. Zuckerman explains his reasoning as follows:

We then move right off the register of objective truth into those fields of presumed biological science, like extrasensory perception or the interpretation of man's fossil history, where to the faithful anything is possible - and where the ardent believer is sometimes able to believe several contradictory things at the same time.1

Robert Locke, the editor of Discovering Archeology, an important publication on the origins of man, writes in that journal, "The search for human ancestors gives more heat than light," quoting the confession of the famous evolutionary paleoanthropologist Tim White:

We're all frustrated by "all the questions we haven't been able to answer."2

Locke's article reviews the impasse of the theory of evolution on the origins of man and the groundlessness of the propaganda spread about this subject:

Perhaps no area of science is more contentious than the search for human origins. Elite paleontologists disagree over even the most basic outlines of the human family tree. New branches grow amid great fanfare, only to wither and die in the face of new fossil finds.3

The same fact was also recently accepted by Henry Gee, the editor of the well-known journal Nature. In his book In Search of Deep Time, published in 1999, Gee points out that all the evidence for human evolution "between about 10 and 5 million years ago—several thousand generations of living creatures—can be fitted into a small box." He concludes that conventional theories of the origin and development of human beings are "a completely human invention created after the fact, shaped to accord with human prejudices," and adds:

To take a line of fossils and claim that they represent a lineage is not a scientific hypothesis that can be tested, but an assertion that carries the same validity as a bedtime story—amusing, perhaps even instructive, but not scientific.4

As we have seen, there is no scientific discovery supporting or propping up the theory of evolution, just some scientists who blindly believe in it. These scientists both believe in the myth of evolution themselves, although it has no scientific foundation, and also make other people believe in it by using the media, which cooperate with them.

1. Solly Zuckerman, Beyond The Ivory Tower, Toplinger Publications, New York, 1970, p. 19. (emphasis added)
2. Robert Locke, "Family Fights," Discovering Archaeology, July/August 1999, p. 36-39.
3. Robert Locke, "Family Fights," Discovering Archaeology, July/August 1999, p. 36-39.
4. Henry Gee, In Search of Time: Beyond the Fossil Record to a New History of Life, New York, The Free Press, 1999, p. 126-127.