Hamzah Yusuf
The bizarre, extra boring Christian reasoning we quoted above, confirms the fact that, Christians are idolaters who worship images, pray to icons of saints, and erect idols in their churches and religious ceremonies and gatherings. They pray to these objects and invoke them.
In addition, examine the clear shirk in Christian practices and the striking resemblance of their reasoning for venerating, adoring, and worshipping idols, to the reasoning Arab and other idolaters gave for worshipping idols.
Christians say, “Relative worship is paid to a sign, not at all for its own sake, but for the sake of the thing signified. The sign in itself is nothing, but it shares the honour of its prototype … we honour the prototype by honouring the sign.” Allah said in the Quran about Arab and other idolaters, {Surely, the religion (the worship; the adoration; the obedience) is for Allâh only. And those who take Auliyâ’ (protectors; helpers; gods) besides Him (say): “We worship them only that they may bring us near to Allâh.” Verily, Allâh will judge between them concerning that wherein they differ. Truly, Allâh guides not him who is a liar, and a disbeliever.} (39:3)
Indeed, ‘a liar, a disbeliever,’ is the description of a person who worships idols and images as most Christians always did and still do.
Compare the argument Hamzah Yusuf gives on behalf of Christians, to the hadeeth of Muhammad, Allah’s mercy and blessings on him, as reported by Umm Salamah.
“Muhammad, Allah’s Prophet, rejects erecting images, especially in places of worship. Bukhari, and, Muslim reported that the Prophet’s wife, Um Salamah, mentioned a church she saw in Abyssinia to Allah’s Messenger, blessings and mercy on him, and described the pictures she saw in it. The Prophet, blessing and mercy on him, replied, ‘They are a people who, when a righteous slave of Allah among them died, would build a place of worship on his grave and make therein those images. They are the worst creation with Allah.” (Jalal Abualrub. 50 Righteous Concepts Brought by Muhammad, Pg., 77)
Examine the claim Christians make here, that, “The sign in itself is nothing, but it shares the honour of its prototype … we honour the prototype by honouring the sign. In this case all the outward marks of reverence, visibly directed towards the sign, turn in intention towards the real object of our reverence … The sign is only put up as a visible direction for our reverence, because the real thing is not physically present. … For as often as they are seen in their pictorial representations, people who look at them are ardently lifted up to the memory and love of the originals and induced to give them respect and worshipful honour.”
Also examine the origin of idol-worship mentioned in this hadeeth. Bukhari narrated that, Abdullah Ibn Abbas, the Prophet’s paternal cousin, said, “All the idols which were worshipped by the people of Noah were worshipped by the Arabs later on. … The names [of these idols] formerly belonged to some pious men from the people of Noah. When they died, Satan inspired their people [to make and] place idols at the places where they used to sit, and to call those idols by their names. The people did so,” that is, to remember righteousness whenever they looked at the images of these righteous persons, “but the idols were not worshipped, until those people [who initiated them] died and the origin of the idols became obscure, whereupon people began worshipping them.”
Christians acknowledge what the ‘heathen’ do with their idols and pretend to reject their belief. Yet, they do the same thing which they criticize the ‘heathen’ for, {Their hearts are alike} (2:118).
We sincerely advise Hamza Yusuf to go back to the creed of the Salaf, which he often seems to despise, and learn the basics and the foundations of the Islamic creed. He and his likes and supporters need to be saved by embracing the true Islamic creed, which the Salaf understood, practiced, and duly transferred to the world.
Jalal Abualrub (www.islamlife.com)
August 17, 2019