How Prophet Abraham Introduced God to People
Ayatollah Seyyed Mostafa Mohaghegh Damad, in a session on Quranic interpretation, shared some insights about Surah Ash-Shu'ara. What follows are excerpts from his speech:
The dialogue between Hazrat Ibrahim with his tribe is very interesting. He chose a method that is instructive and has some points that one can learn from. Ibrahim asks some questions to make people think. Questioning is an important factor in thinking. His first question was what do they worship? Ibrahim is a preacher of monotheism but he starts from here. It seems that this question made them think, and they said they worship idols that love so much.
The second question that Hazrat Ibrahim asked was whether they communicate with these idols and ask them for something. Do they hear you when you call them and ask them for something? This is a challenging question. The third question was whether these idols can benefit from you or harm you if you do not worship them? “'Do they hear you when you call on them? ' He asked.” (Surah Ash-Shu'ara, verse 72)
The best way to worship God is to talk to Him through prayer. Prayer means calling and hearing an answer. A person should worship a god with whom he can talk. The Holy Quran emphasizes that people should be able to talk to God, so it says: “When My worshipers ask you about Me, I am near. I answer the supplication of the suppliant when he calls to Me; therefore, let them respond to Me and let them believe in Me, in order that they will be righteous.” (Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 186)
The Quran stresses that if someone wants to have strong faith, he should have a strong relationship with God through prayers.
The prophet then asks: do your gods hear your voice? If they hear, they should respond to your request and bring benefit to you. If you commit a sin, will they harm you? It is clear from the response of these people that they were engaged in deep thinking; they said that were doing this worship out of imitation and following their predecessors. “They replied: 'No, but we found our fathers doing so.'” (Surah Ash-Shu'ara, verse 74)
This is while worshipping should be done after deep reflection not based on imitation.
