Prohibition of Shirk in Worship (4/4)

Worshipping the places of saints is an act of the worst people:

It is narrated by Abdullah bin Umar (May Allah have mercy on him) that the Prophet (Peace be upon Him) said:

 "At the advent of Ad-Dajjal (the Antichrist), Allah will send Jesus (Peace be upon Him) to this earth who will trace him out and do away with him. Then Allah will cause a cool breeze to blow, originating from the direction of Syria, which will take away the lives of all those who cherish even a minute particle of Faith in their hearts. Only the vice-ridden people who would be as insensible as birds and as ferocious and blood-thirsty as beasts shall be spared to live on. They will be absolutely deprived of the capability of discerning good from bad. Satan will approach them in a human guise and say to them, "Don't you feel shy?" People will enquire of him as to what he really means by it. Then he will instruct them to practice idolatry and worshipping the places. The people would then be engrossed in these acts of vice and shall be enjoying an abundant supply of their livelihood and leading a life of a perfect ease and comfort." (Reported by Muslim)

It means that during the last stage of the world's existence, the faithful will cease to exist and the unfaithful and the foolish will thrive who will have no scruples about brazenly usurping the wealth of other people. They will be totally devoid of the quality of discerning good from bad. Then Satan will appear to them in the guise of a saint and shall sermonize them by telling them that since being irreligious is a disgrace, they should turn religious. His exhortations shall eventually be heeded and the people will be rather enthused and inclined towards learning religion, but instead of following Qur'an and Hadith, they will be misled into concocting and fabricating what they shall presume to be as religious norms. They will do so by exercising their own judgment (banking purely on their own alleged and so called wisdom) and thus they shall be entangled into committing Shirk (polytheism), but they shall be awarded a further abundance in their livelihood and prosperity and shall be leading an extremely comfortable and easy life. They will be under the impression that since they are on the Right Path, Allah is pleased with them and hence they are prosperous and well-off. As a consequence, they shall be steeped into Shirk more and more on the pretext that the more we believe in these rituals and follow them, the more our desires get fulfilled. Therefore, a Muslim should fear Allah that He at times gives a long rope to His slaves. It does happen on many occasions that someone gets involved in Shirk (polytheistic acts), asks the entities other than Allah to grant him his wishes, but Allah Gust for the sake of giving devil his due share), grants him his wishes. And this person erroneously believes that so long as I am on the Right Path, there is nothing wrong in believing other deities (to the exclusion of Allah), and had it been otherwise, how could I be granted my wishes? Therefore, one must never depend on the fulfillment or non-fulfillment of one's desires and must never forsake the true religion of Allah, (due to these trifles) which is Tauhid (Islamic Monotheism). This Hadith makes it clear to us that however thick-skinned and callous a man becomes, however does he get immersed in sins, however he becomes shameless and brazenly in having no qualms about unlawfully devouring the wealth of others or in the matter of not differentiating between good and bad; he is still better than the one who commits Shirk and believes in the (so-called) deities to the exclusion of Allah, because the Satan instructs people to believe in these things (i.e. acts of Shirk) by weaning them off the above vices and depravities[1].

Performing Tawaf of the idols:

 It is narrated by Abu Hurairah (May Allah have mercy on him) that the Prophet (Peace be upon Him) said:

 "The Doomsday shall never be heralded until the posteriors of the women of Daus tribe do not start throbbing and wobbling around Dhul-Khalasah (an idol) (i.e. unless they do not circumambulate it)." (Agreed upon)

There was a certain clan among the Arabs who were known as 'Daus'. During the days of Jahiliyah (pre-Islamic period), they used to worship an idol which was called Dhul-Khalasah. During the days of the Prophet (Peace be upon Him) it was demolished. The Prophet (Peace be upon Him) made a prediction that just prior to the Doomsday, people will renew their Faith in it and the women belonging to the clan of Daus shall go around it. The Prophet (Peace be upon Him) (by dint of a clairvoyance conferred on him by Allah) sighted their posteriors shaking about to and fro (around this idol). Thus it becomes clear to us that circumambulating any place other than the House of Allah is an act of Shirk and a ritual peculiar to disbelievers