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wa-lā tadʿu maʿa llāhi ʾilāhan ʾākhara lā ʾilāha ʾillā huwa kullu shayʾin hālikun ʾillā wajhahū lahu l-ḥukmu wa-ʾilayhi turjaʿūna
And do not invoke another god besides Allah; there is no god except Him. Everything is to perish except His Face. All judgement belongs to Him, and to Him you will be brought back.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah Al-Qasas - Verse 88
88. “And do not call upon another god with Allah, there is no god but He. Every thing is perishable but He. He is the Authority and unto Him shall you be returned.”
The true monotheist is the one who is free from all objects of worship, great powers, deviated parties, and tyrants:
This holy verse is a second emphasis on the negation of any polytheism, when it says:
These consecutive instructions, each of which emphasizes on one another, make clear the importance of the subject of Monotheism in Islamic programs without which every thing is lost. Next to these four instructions, the Qur’an qualifies Allah by four attributes all of which are some repeated emphasis on the subject of Monotheism. At first, it says:
The Judgment and Sovereignty in the world of creation and the world of religion both are specific to His Pure Essence. The verse says:
And the return of all of you is toward Him (s.w.t.):
These recent three qualities can be a reasoning upon proving the Monotheism and abandoning any kind of idolatry which is inside of the first quality, because: When we are all perishable and existence is allocated to Him; When the administration of the system of existence belongs to Him; And when the return of all of us in the Hereafter is toward Him, what kind of function can other objects of worship have? And except Him, what is appropriate to be worshipped?
The great commentators of the Holy Qur’an have delivered different matters upon the sentence:
which turn on the axis of commenting the Qur’anic term: /wajh/ and the Arabic word /halik/. Philologically the Arabic word /wajh/ is applied for a part of the body which is located on the face of man, but when it is used concerning Allah, it means ‘His Pure Essence.’ The Arabic term /halik/ is derived from /halak/ which means ‘death’ and ‘destruction’. Therefore the abovementioned sentence refers to the destruction of all beings except His Pure Essence.
They are perishable not only after the end of this world, but also they are perishable before Him just now, because all beings are dependant on His Pure Essence and in all moments they take their own possibility of being from Him and they have nothing from their own essence but that which is from Allah. Moreover, all beings of this material world are variable and are in the expose of variations, even according to the belief of transubstantiation, the essence is the object of change, and we know motion and variation means perishing into a new thing permanently.
In any moment the beings of the world of matter die and are quickened. Therefore, just now they are perishable and destroyed. The only Essence that does not change, has not destruction, and is absolute independent is His Holy Essence. We also know that at the end of this world destruction will have a more clear manifestation and, as the Qur’an says:
Not only the beings on the earth, but also those who are in heavens will perish. The Qur’an says:
This is a commentary consistent with the apparent of this noble verse and other verses of the Qur’an. But some other commentators have delivered some other commentaries on it, too, including as follows: The objective of the Qur’anic word /wajh/ is ‘righteous deed’, and the concept of the verse is that all deeds will perish save the deed which has been done for the Pure Essence of Allah. Some others have said that the objective of the Qur’anic word /wajh/ is that very relation of the things to Allah. Thus, the concept of the holy verse is that everything is naturally perishable except for its relation to Allah.
Some commentators have said that the Qur’anic word /wajh/ means ‘religion’ and the concept of the verse is that all religions are perishable and nullified, except the religion of Allah. They have taken the Qur’anic phrase /la hul hukm/ in the sense of religious sovereignty and considered it an emphasis upon this commentary. They have also commented the Qur’anic sentence:
in the sense of returning to Allah in choosing religion and a second emphasis on this meaning. These interpretations, in fact, do not contrast to what was said in the above, because when we accept that the only thing that will remain in this world is the Pure Essence of Allah, it will become clear that whatever is somehow related to His Pure Essence, that thing will also take the colour of existence and eternity to it. The religion which is from His side is eternal; the righteous deed that is done for Him is eternal; and the Divine leaders who relate to Him, from this point that they are related to Him, are eternal. In short, everything that is somehow related to the Pure Essence of Allah, from that point is not perishable and has not destruction.
At the end, some ‘fanatic sects’ of Sunnite people say that whoever calls upon other than Allah will become a polytheist, since Allah has said:
Therefore, those who call the saints of Allah in their supplications are polytheists. But this verse explains that polytheist is the one who calls upon other than Allah as another god:
And it is evident that the Shi‘ite people do not call any rank as Allah, but they call the one as a person who has honour with Him, the honour that has been given him from the side of Allah, such as prophets, the friends of Allah, not any illusive intercessor and honoured, since the idol-worshippers in their imagination also consider an honour for their idol. In this holy verse, wiping polytheism has been stated with different phrases: 1- Do not call upon another god with Allah.
2- There is no god but He. 3- Everything is perishable but He. 4- He is the Authority. 5- Unto Him shall you be returned. Every year, the king of Sa‘udi Arabia invites the scholars of Islamic sects to entertain them on the Day of festival of sacrifice. One year ‘Allamah Sayyid Sharaf-ud-Din Jabal-‘Amili (one of the outstanding scholars of Lebanon) was invited to that festival. As soon as ‘Allamah entered the meeting, he gave a Qur’an with leather cover as a gift to the king. The king took it and kissed it.
‘Allamah told him he was a polytheist. The king became inconvenient that why ‘Allamah accused him like that. ‘Allamah answered him that it was so because the king kissed a piece of leather which was an animal’s skin and respecting the skin of an animal is polytheism. The king said:
“I do not kiss any skin. My shoe is made of leather and the skin of animal, but I never kiss it. This piece of leather has been used as the cover of the Qur’an.”
‘Allamah said:
“We do not kiss any piece of iron, either. We kiss the iron which has been used as the box, or burial chamber, and the door and window of the grave of the Prophet (S) or that of our Immaculate Imams (as).”
Yes, polytheism is the case when we take someone or something as god instead of Allah, and consider an independent might for that. The Shi‘ite do not consider the might of the friends of Allah as an independent might, but they consider it a power dependent to the power of Allah. Therefore, if the Shi‘ite make a dome, or build a shrine, it is for the sake that they inform people that there is a monotheist buried here, or the one who is buried here is a martyr in the way of Allah and has been devoted for Unity. Thus, a dome and an Islamic shrine usually means a center under which the call of Unity is heard, not a center opposite to mosque.
Imam Rida (as) said:
“The prophet of Allah and His Authorities on the earth are /wajhullah/ by whom Allah, religion, and His cognition are paid attention to.” 19
We recite in Nudbah Supplication about the Expected Imam (May Allah hasten his glad advent):
“Where is the Authority of Allah that will come?”
And also we read in it:
“Where is the Authority of Allah who pays attention to the saints?”
O Lord! Do taste us the sweetness of recitation of the Qur’an, contemplation in it and being advised by it!
O Lord! Enlighten our hearts with the Light of the Qur’an, and set our entity a light giver!
O Lord! Cause our manner and speech to be emerged from Qur’an and from the manner and life of Prophet Muhammad (S) and his Immaculate progeny (Ahl-ul-Bayt) (as)
Amen, O the Lord of the Worlds!
Footnotes