Islam Creator of the Modern Age
2. Holding Sacred that which is not Sacred
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holy. The actual feeling of reverence for holiness,
which should have been directed towards the
Creator, finds its way instead towards some
creature.
The reason for this is God’s invisibility. Unable to
see his Maker, man gives his attention to whatever
else strikes him as most prominent in his immediate
surroundings; he then begins to invest it with
sanctity and to worship it as if it were genuinely
holy. It is this psychology, which produced, in
ancient times what is called polytheism in religious
terminology, and nature worship in academic
parlance. This basic urge to worship impelled man
from within to revere something, which was holy.
Consequently, he started worshipping anything,
which made a great visual impact upon him, e.g.
stars, rain, animals, plants, water and fire. The
concept of an exalted God existed as the prophets
had taught man. But this concept came to be
distorted to mean that God “was the Lord in heaven
who had withdrawn from the immediate details of
governing the world. This kind of high God, a
hidden, or idle God, had delegated all work on
