Principles of Islam
54. Tawheed
~ 164 ~
It was in later generations that this religious system
began to change. This happened principally because
people began to make the assumption that divinity
was inherent in natural phenomena. They
wondered at the loftiness of the mountains, the
unceasing flow of the rivers, and the extraordinary
brilliance of the sun and moon, and took it that
things possessed of such awesome attributes must
necessarily share in God’s divinity. Men gifted with
special talents likewise came to be included in the
category of the divine; they were supposed to be
incarnations of God Himself. It was in this manner
that the concept of polytheism crept into the
religious system.
In consonance with the view that human religions
began with
tawheed –
with polytheism as a later
development – the basic mission of all the Prophets
who made their appearance at intervals in this
world was to lead people away from the worship of
many gods and back to the worship of the One God.
In other words, to turn them away from the
adulation of creatures and towards reverence for
the Creator.
