Islam Creator of the Modern Age
2. Holding Sacred that which is not Sacred
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bow before something, which he regards as sacred.
There are two forms in which this feeling finds
expression: one is monotheism, the other
polytheism.
When man holds one God sacred and worships him
as his Deity, he directs his feelings to the proper
place. It is, in reality, God who possesses the
attribute of sacredness. ‘Holding the one and only
God sacred is, therefore, to acknowledge a great
truth.
But the mistake man makes is to worship and
revere whatever object he finds outstanding in this
world, or whatever he finds different from himself,
imagining it to be sacred. This is the wrong use of
the right feeling. This is giving to a non-god what is
due to the one and only God. In religious
terminology this is known as polytheism or, in
common parlance, superstition.
It was this error of sanctifying mere things instead
of God Himself, which prevented the emergence of
science for thousands of years in the past. When we
believe in one God, no scientific or intellectual
problem arises in doing so, for God is beyond our
