Man’s Craving for
an Object of Worship
A believer sees the beauty of the Creator in the beauty of creation and surrenders himself totally to God, prostrating down before his Creator.
When the Russian cosmonaut Andrei Nikolai returned to the earth after his space flight in 1962, he said at a press conference in Moscow on August 21, “When I landed on the earth, I felt like kissing the ground.”
Among all parts of the known universe, there is no place other than the earth where such an enormous number of things have been gathered to meet man’s requirements. When the Russian cosmonaut went into space, he discovered that in its incredible vastness, there was nothing for man but astonishment and confusion. There was nothing to provide either for his physical or mental comfort. After this experience, when he landed back on earth, he realized his planet’s pricelessness, just as a man understands the value of water when his throat has been parched with thirst for a very long time. The earth, with all its favourable circumstances, appeared so dear to him that he felt like embracing it to express his feelings towards it.
The shariah describes this action as turning something into a deity (ilah) or object of worship. Unable to see his Creator, man makes His creation his ilah or object of worship. A momin or a true believer discovers reality by passing beyond appearances, having learned that all the things visible are God’s bequest to humanity. For him, whatever is present on this earth has been created by the Supreme Being. He sees the Creator in His creation and makes him his all. All his best feelings are then offered to God.
When a man finds God, his feelings towards his Creator are similar to those of the Russian cosmonaut on his return to the earth; only they are on a far superior plane and of a much greater intensity. The true believer sees in them the light of God on being touched by the sun’s rays. He should be able to find God in the very fragrance of the flower. He should see the incredible mercy of God in the flowing waters of rivers and streams. In the infinitude of space, he should see the infiniteness of his Creator.
The difference between a believer and an unbeliever is that the latter’s vision stops short at the surface of creation, while a believer’s vision passes straight through creation to its Creator. An unbeliever becomes lost in the beauty of creation because he imagines this beauty is inherent. However, the believer sees the beauty of creation and its Creator and surrenders himself to God. The unbeliever prostrates himself before mere things. The believer casts himself down before his Creator.
