Question: Assalam O Alaikum
Sir, I hope you are well. On YouTube, I heard a non-Muslim asking a question to Dr. Zakir Naik that your (Muslims) God consider it a great crime and sin to associate partners with Him. If we look at human beings, we are narrow-minded, but God is magnanimous, so why does God not tolerate anyone with Himself? We humans can be jealous. God forbid, is this also the case with God, even though He is the Most Merciful? What triggers His anger in this matter?
Shahzaib Abdul Sattar
Answer: Assalam O Alaikum. Hope you are well.
This is not the correct interpretation of the matter that Allah Almighty condemns polytheism out of a human emotion like jealousy and that is why He is so strict about it. Polytheism is an evil that has numerous kinds of moral problems. The principle is that a morally impure person cannot go to heaven. Against this background, polytheism is condemned in the Quran and is strictly forbidden.
Now understand what kind of moral issues are involved in polytheism. First of all, when we associate a non-God with God, it is not only the worst lie, but also an act of degrading God. It is to describe God as a creature. To associate a great being with an ordinary being. To make Almighty an absolute helpless. Therefore, polytheism is a process of lying, slander, blasphemy and insulting God at the same time. Therefore, by committing polytheism, a person becomes a liar, slanderer and blasphemer at the same time. On what moral ground can such a person be considered a superior human being?
Secondly, when a person associate partners with God, then he transfers all the rights of God towards non-God. He loves him, praises him, worships him, seeks his help and makes vows to him. The name of ‘the other’ remains on his tongue. From this point of view, polytheism is also the worst disenfranchisement. It is like giving God’s right to the others. Remember that God is the one who gives everything to man. His life, means of life, relationships, wealth, health and well-being are all given to human beings by God and no one else. From this point of view, this is also ingratitude.
Now imagine these gifts of God on the one hand and see what man is doing by associating partners with God in response. To understand the disgrace of this act, just imagine a person who lies, slanders, insults his father. Then he leaves his father and serves others, spend money on them and respects them. Where would you place such a person on a moral scale? However, the fact is that God is a thousand times more generous to human beings than the father. Therefore, it is this ingratitude of man that makes polytheism a great crime.
Therefore, the problem with polytheism is not that man does harm to God. The real problem is that by committing polytheism, a person proves to himself that he is a criminal on the scale of morality, whose abode is hell. Polytheism has been condemned to save man from this fate, not because it causes God a personal problem. Polytheism is an affront to oneself. If Allah forgives such a person on the basis of some excuse and ends his existence even then, by committing this crime, this person is forever deprived of the blessings of Paradise. This oppression is committed by a polytheist on himself and not on anyone else.
So dear! Polytheism does not harm Allah Almighty. The existence of God is grand. It doesn’t matter if He is worshiped or not or if He is considered alone or not. The existence of Allah Almighty is exalted and pure from every emotion like jealousy. Polytheism in itself is an immoral act which consists of vices such as lying, slander, disenfranchisement and ingratitude, and as a result man will inflict great harm on himself (committing it). That is why all the divine books, including the Quran, and all the prophets have taken a real stand against polytheism and have made a great effort to save humanity from it.
Abu Yahya