Thread by @ClassicalMuslim

[THREAD] UNDERSTANDING PAGAN GODS... AND WHY IBN ABDUL WAHHAB DIDN'T UNDERSTAND SHIRK

A polite Salafi brother sent me this hadith (online Salafi edition) as evidence the Jahili Arabs believed in Allah's sole rububiyyah (Creator, Sustainer, etc)

Let's break this down inshallah

1) The mushrikun said Allah had no partner. The Prophet ﷺ then condemns them. Why? Because they also said Allah DOES have a partner but that partner has no mastery over Allah. I.e. there's another being like Allah (co-sharer in His attributes) but Allah is stronger than him.

2) Even so, they still worshipped Him because they believed he shared in Allah's rububiyyah. Remember, an ilah ("god" or "one you worship") in the Al-Lisānul-Arab is the one you believe possesses rububiyyah. If they didn't possess rububiyyah they wouldn't be WORTHY of worship.

3) This standard in paganism. For example, Zeus is the king of the Olympian gods. He has relatives & children (like Hercules) who are also gods. Hercules is strong, but not stronger than his father. Yet he's still worshipped as a god [ilah], because he has his own power.

4) In Greek mythology when, during the harvest festival, king Oeneus made sacrifices of gratitude to many gods, but neglected to show gratitude to Artemis (Zeus' daughter and the goddess of the wild countryside) she took her revenge & sent a gigantic boar to ruin the land...

5) Paganism & monotheism works like this:

Monotheism: the house is owned by ONE lord and everything in it & without whose sustaining power everything falls apart.

Polytheism: even IF one god built the house, different rooms and furniture are owned and maintained by other gods.

6) So what you have in paganism is a COMPARTMENTALISED MAINTENANCE of the universe:
You have different gods who manage different aspects of life: a god of love, a god war, a god of health, etc. The original creator-god has his own distinct role or simply retires from everything.

7) The Jahili Arabs were no different. Read the following screenshot from my book regarding why the mushrikun did not give up their gods easily. The tafsir is from Sheikhul Islam Ibnul Jawzi who narrates the commentary from the great tabi'in and exegete, Qatada.

8) So the atheists are right about one thing: in most ancient religions god was made up by people. MAN MAKES GOD, and every inventor leaves a signature of his own subjectivity in what he creates. So if people have families, their gods have families. If people fight for power...

8b) ... their gods fight each other. If people marry, gods marry. If people have children, so do gods. If the prince can make intercession with the king for his people, so can a god make intercession with his divine father. Pagans created myths that reflected human experience...

8c) ...their sacred myths sometimes mirrored their own social development. The marriage of Gula, the Babylonian goddess of healing and patroness of doctors, to Ninurta, the god of agriculture, probably reflected that society's discovery of the medicinal use of plants.

9) For someone to say a Muslim asking a wali (whom Allah said in the hadith qudsi he does not hesitate to answer his prayers) to make du'a for them is shirk, has a disease in his heart. Did he bother to ask the Muslim if he believes the grave dweller is an ilah with Allah?

10) This is why I don't pray behind them, befriend or call them brothers. In Hanbali fiqh at least, its haram to pray behind a person of innovation. And Imam Ahmad made said he'd eat and socialise with a Christian or Jew, but never with a member of a cult.

In the next thread, inshallah, I'll show you Ibn Abdul Wahhab's most shocking reform: when he changed the meaning of LAA ILAHA ILL-ALLAH.

Salafi visitors, please read for more info:

https://twitter.com/ClassicalMuslim/status/1288391206083473409?s=20

https://twitter.com/ClassicalMuslim/status/1289580123570675712?s=20