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A Parable That Cuts off the Heart’s Desire for Shirk’ by Imaam Ibnul Qayyim

Allaah (The Most High) said:

يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ ضُرِبَ مَثَلٌ فَاسْتَمِعُوا لَهُ ۚ إِنَّ الَّذِينَ تَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ لَن يَخْلُقُوا ذُبَابًا وَلَوِ اجْتَمَعُوا لَهُ ۖ وَإِن يَسْلُبْهُمُ الذُّبَابُ شَيْئًا لَّا يَسْتَنقِذُوهُ مِنْهُ ۚ ضَعُفَ الطَّالِبُ وَالْمَطْلُوبُ

 مَا قَدَرُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَقَوِيٌّ عَزِيزٌ

O mankind! A similitude has been coined, so listen to it (carefully): Verily! Those on whom you call besides Allah, cannot create (even) a fly, even though they combine together for the purpose. And if the fly snatched away a thing from them, they would have no power to release it from the fly. So weak are (both) the seeker and the sought. They have not estimated Allah His Rightful Estimate; Verily, Allah is All-Strong, All-Mighty. [Hajj: Ayah: 73-74]

Imaam Ibnul Qayyim (rahimahullaah) said:

It is obligatory that the slave makes his heart pay attention to this parable and ponder upon it as it should be truly pondered upon because it cuts off the desire of shirk from his heart. The gods that the idolaters worship besides Allaah cannot create (even) a fly, even if they all combined together to create it, then how about what is greater than it?  They are neither able to create a fly which is among the weakest of animals nor are they able to gain the upper hand against it to recover what it took away from them. There is nothing more disabled and feebler than them, so how can a sensible person deem it good to worship them besides Allaah.

This Ayah nullifies shirk and (shows) the ignorance of its people. It is a testimony that Satan plays about with them more than kids play with a ball due to the fact that they assign Godhood-which necessitates having absolute power over all the existence, having absolute knowledge of all sources of knowledge and having no need of all the creation, and (the creation being dependent) upon the Lord for their needs, (dependent upon Him) for relief from distress and relief from anxiety and (dependent upon Him to respond to (their) invocations etc.-to images and statues that are deprived of the ability to create the most insignificant creature of the True God, even if they (i.e. those statues and images) gathered and supported one another to do that.

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[Source: Badaa-i At-Tafseer Al-Jaami Limaa Fassarahu Al-Imaam Ibnu Qayyim Al-Jawziyyah: page: 221-222: Vol: 2..abridged and slightly paraphrased]

 

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