"They Had Found their Parents Astray." (Quran 37:69)
Published in April 25, 2010
Translated by: Ahmed Fathy
Brief introduction: the Quran tackles one of the main features of polytheism; namely, the sanctification and deification of the forefathers and ancestors and following their footsteps. This leads to the rejection of God's Word (i.e., the Quran) in cases when Quranic verses contradict inherited centuries-old deep-rooted notions instead of correcting and reforming such notions using the Quran itself.
Natural instinct and the old covenant of humanity with our Lord God:
1- The covenant made by God with humanity within the Barsakh of souls before they descend into bodies on Earth contains the warning against following the footsteps of ancestors and imitating their misguidance; God warns us that when we meet with Him on the Last Day, we should not say we forgot about this covenant by imitating the misleading ways of the forefathers: "And when Your Lord summoned the descendants of Adam, and made them testify about themselves. "Am I not your Lord?" They said, "Yes, we testify." Thus you cannot say on the Day of Resurrection, "We were unaware of this. "Nor can you say, "Our ancestors practiced polytheism before; and we are their descendants who came after them; will you destroy us for what the falsifiers did?" We thus elaborate the verses, so that they may return." (7:172-174). This covenant is the natural instinct of monotheism within our innate, inner recesses of our minds; we are born with it: "So devote yourself to the religion of monotheism - the natural instinct God has instilled in humankind..." (30:30). Social inherited notions, customs, and habits make most people forget about this covenant of monotheism instilled inside ever human being and so does the devilish temptation; thus, the monotheism natural instinct is covered by whims, desires, and lusts. This way, minds/hearts of most people are being re-molded to be one of the herd in a given society that deifies and believes in notions and deities (inherited from the forefathers) without ever questioning them. Thus, deifying and sanctifying mortals and things/items is a practice made to appear 'natural' so it contradicts monotheism instinct instilled inside people. the hallowed items include idols, mausoleums, and sites. Sadly, the common devilish practice of worshipping ancestors and following their footsteps goes on within many human cultures; e.g., Arab Muhammadans, Red Indians, and African tribes.
2- When being on the verge of death and within illness, disasters, and calamities, one's dormant instinct of monotheism is revived and one remembers this covenant with our Lord God, and in such life-threatening situations, one implores the Almighty for help; yet, when one survives such situations, most people return to their polytheism and forget all about monotheism; see 17:67-69, 10:22-23, 39:8, and 39:49.
3- When each soul enters into its body in the timing preordained for it by God, it is tested during its lifetime on Earth, and within the preordained timing of death, the soul leaves the body; when all souls are tested after wearing and losing its body, this universe will collapse and come to an end, with its Earth and all its stars, galaxies, planets, moons, and heavens, and the Eternal Kingdom of our Lord God will come into being, and it will begin with the Day of Judgment of all humanity: "On the Day when the earth is changed into another earth, and the heavens, and they will emerge before God, the One, the Dominant." (14:48). On this Day of Resurrection, the Absolute Truth of life will be known; all human beings will be divided into two groups: a minority of human beings who devoted their faith and deeds to God, within real monotheism, and a majority of human beings who were deceived by devils and Satan within countless mottoes and notions, and they will know that during their earthly transient life, they have been unwittingly worshipping Satan, not God. This worship of Satan is polytheism in all types and forms; e.g., to worship carnal lusts and appetites, whims and (sexual) desires, and mausoleums (which are abominations of Satan's work as per 5:90), as well as worshipping and sanctifying devilish Satanist narratives/hadiths revealed by the devils, as per 6:112-114. Those among the wretched majority will hear God rebuking them, before they enter Hell, about the covenant of monotheism made with souls in Barsakh before they enter human bodies during lifetimes on Earth: "Did I not covenant with you, O Children of Adam, that you shall not serve the Devil? That he is your sworn enemy? And that you shall serve Me? This is a Straight Path. He has misled a great multitude of you. Did you not understand?" (36:60-62).
Muhammad called his people to reject misguiding inherited deep-rooted notions:
1- All celestial messages of God descended to rectify and correct and for the sake reform, so that things are set right again by rejecting the falsehoods and lies that people accepted for a long time without discussion and made such lies and falsehoods spread and dominate till other generations felt bound to follow them as part of following the footsteps of the 'good' deified ancestors within inherited, deep-rooted notions and practices.
2- Muhammad preached his people who distorted the religion of Abraham; he called them to correct their faith tenets using the Quran, but most of Arabs at the time rejected the Quranic Truth as they adamantly adhered to inherited notions of their forefathers, while God has reminded them that such an attitude is from Satan who urges people to follow footsteps of their misguided ancestors: "And when it is said to them, "Follow what God has revealed," they say, "Rather, we follow what we found our parents devoted to." Even if Satan is calling them to the suffering of the Blaze?" (31:21). This means that they rejected the Quran for the sake of their inherited practices and notions as they revered and sanctified their ignorant, misguided forefathers, following blindly their footsteps like herd of cattle: "And when it is said to them, "Follow what God has revealed," they say, "We will follow what we found our ancestors following." Even if their ancestors understood nothing, and were not guided? The parable of those who disbelieve is that of someone who calls upon someone who hears nothing except screaming and yelling. Deaf, dumb, and blind-they do not understand." (2:170-171); "And when it is said to them, "Come to what God has revealed, and to the Messenger," they say, "Sufficient for us is what we found our forefathers upon." Even if their forefathers knew nothing, and were not guided?" (5:104). Of course, as we have mentioned in previous articles, the term (messenger) here means the Quranic message itself.
3- God makes this a general rule about the mentality of all polytheists in all eras and locations on Earth. We read the following about Qorayish tribe in its adherence to inherited, deep-rooted notions of their 'good' forefathers: "But they say, "We found our parents on a course (Umma), and we are guided in their footsteps."" (43:22). It is noteworthy that the term (Umma) is used by the Muhammadans as in 43:22 to justify sins and bad practices in their earthly, man-made religions as inherited items of their forefathers to which they stick. The very next verse asserts that this general (social and political) rule of corrupt societies goes on within any given society where a minority of the affluent ones confiscates all wealth, power, and authority while protecting its interests using clergymen that maintain the status quo and all injustices while resisting and eliminating all calls for justice and peace, the two main higher values of the Quran: "Likewise, We sent no warner before you to any town, but the affluent among them said, "We found our parents on a course, and we are following in their footsteps."" (43:23).
4- It is part of the miraculous signs of the Quran that it refers to such minority of those who confiscate wealth and power by the term "the affluent ones", as this class is the reason for the poverty of the impecunious, hungry majority of citizens in a given society. Such state of affairs is the sign of inevitable destruction of such a society as per the Quranic verses about smiting ancient nations by God for their injustices and disbelief, as we have explained in previous articles. Thus, when the culture of imitating and worshipping ancestors dominates in a given society, this is a clear indicator of the lowest levels of despicable conditions; following the footsteps of forefathers and imitating and preserving their ways is done to maintain the status quo so that the affluent ones who control everything would go on living luxuriously at the expense of the vast majority of poor citizens. People for such affluent class are mere numbers and inherited goods and sources of money! This is why such an affluent class resist ant change and reform to keep corruption and injustice that enable them to maintain their lifestyle based on ill-gotten money. This is the state of affairs in all the social and political aspects of life to Arabs and Muhammadans since the Arab civil war in Arabia in the 7th century A.D. and until now in the 21st century.
The companions and other generations after them had returned to the pre-Islamic practices and sanctification of inherited deep-rooted notions:
1- The Muhammadans of the earthly, man-made religions fulfill – unwittingly – the miraculous prediction of this verse: "Likewise, We sent no warner before you to any town, but the affluent among them said, "We found our parents on a course, and we are following in their footsteps."" (43:23). Thus, the term (Umma) is used by the Muhammadans to justify their blindly following whatever 'agreed-upon' notions they have inherited from their ancestors, and the bigots among them call themselves (Salafists) which literally means in Arabic (those who follow the ancestors, or Salaf in Arabic). The Quranic term (Salaf) always refers to something negative or sinful in the past, and in one Quranic verse, it refers to misguided ancient people of Moses' Pharaoh: "And when they provoked Our wrath, We took retribution from them, and We drowned them all. Thus, We made them a precedent/Salaf and an example for others to avoid." (43:55-56). Hence, Moses' Pharaoh is the real 'good' ancestry of all Muhammadans in their earthly, man-made religions in all eras and locations; as they sanctify and deify all inherited religious notions and their class-distinction as well as political groups that maintain the status quo of grave injustices and based on corruption; besides, such corrupt, affluent ones depend on clergymen that serve tyranny, injustice, and corruption and allow the affluent ones to dominate over the vast majority of the poor citizens. This is why the tyrannical affluent ones adamantly refuse any change or reform; e.g., Moses' Pharaoh and his retinue members stuck to their inherited, ancestral notions and rejected Moses and his message: "They said, "Did you come to us to divert us from what we found our ancestors following..." (10:78). Likewise, the Qorayish tribe said the same to Muhammad when they rejected Islam to preserve their financial and political interests: "We never heard of this in the former faith. This is nothing but a fabrication." (38:7). In the same vein of misguidance and ignorance, clergymen (and their tyrants, henchmen, and followers) of the earthly, man-made religions of the Muhammadans assert that whatever questionable notion is not to be doubted as it has been 'agreed upon' by the Umma (or Salaf: ancestors), and they take pride in ascribing themselves to so-called 'saints' who are the 'good' forefathers! Thus, Satan has misguided those Muhammadans, dulling their senses and blinding their eyes, till they will be told in Hell: "Did I not covenant with you, O Children of Adam, that you shall not serve the Devil? That he is your sworn enemy? And that you shall serve Me? This is a Straight Path. He has misled a great multitude of you. Did you not understand?" (36:60-62).
2- The Affluent, corrupt ones dominate their societies by spreading the worship of ancestors and traditions; this is typical of them in all eras as they reject the True Religion of God that calls for equality, justice, and the rest of the higher values: "We sent no warner to any town, without its affluent ones saying, "We reject what you are sent with." And they say, "We have more wealth and more children, and we will not be punished."" (34:34-35). The term ''town'' here is repeated in the Quranic text to denote any given society in general. We notice in 34:34-35another feature of the affluent corrupters who worship ancestors and sanctify traditions; namely, they assume wrongly that they shall enter into Paradise in the Hereafter and avoid entering Hell using their money. Thus, their ill-gotten money is stolen by them as they deprive the poor of all rights by committing many injustices; they share some of their wealth with clergymen to atone for sins and to buy 'lands' and 'palaces' in Paradise as per falsehoods of hadiths/narratives of their earthly, man-made religions. Thus, when they assume they can buy Paradise with money and building mosques etc., they no longer need acts of worship and faith brought by preachers of the Quranic Truth, especially when real Islam (Quranism) is calling to applying justice on all levels, which in turn entails radical change in the structure of society and the mentality of citizens. Such reform will undermine interests of the affluent corrupters who assume that with the passage of time, their confiscated money and power is their 'acquired right' to be bequeathed to their children!
3- The Quran describes the Qorayish disbelieving leaders as the affluent ones, as we have read in the verse quoted from the Quranic Chapter 43. God has told Qorayish: "Is it this discourse that you take so lightly? And you make it your livelihood to deny it?" (56:81-82). Thus, they had rejected the Quran for financial reasons only, as they desired to maintain their economic advantage; they had their winter and summer trade caravans (see the Quranic Chapter 106) that made the Qorayish tribe wealthy. Other tribes looted and waged war against one another at the time; only Qorayish enjoyed safety and security as no one dared to attack and raid its caravans. The reason: the Qorayish tribesmen in Mecca allowed idols of each tribe in Arabic to be put near the Kaaba to honor such deities. Such honor was in return for protection of caravans of Mecca. Thus, the affluent ones in Qorayish felt that the Quranic Truth posed a threat to their trade and wealth as well as high rank and status; they felt that Muhammad was endangering their clergy, stature, and trade and al tribes might attack them after feeling they were deceived by Qorayish that maintained idolatry; they said frankly to Muhammad: "And they say, "If we follow the guidance with you, we will be snatched from our land."..." (28: 57). Hence, their desire to maintain their affluence at the expense of the poor and the hungry drove the Umayyads (the faction of the highest leaders in Qorayish and in authority in Mecca at the time) who controlled the Qorayish trade and wars to persecute and fight early believers who converted to Islam; especially that most of those persecuted ones were among the weak and the poor. Typically, persecution leads to new status; all tribes that hated and envied Qorayish (e.g., the Najd tribes and the Yathreb tribes) converted to the new religion to spite the Meccans and to free themselves from the dominance, hegemony, and exploitation of Qorayish. When the persecuted ones immigrated to Yathreb, a city-state was created in the name of Islam. Qorayish sent its troops to crush Yathreb, and the early believers waited for months until the Quranic command of self-defense fighting reached them. This Quranic fact is never mentioned in all of the so-called biographies of Muhammad, written during the Abbasid Era.
4- The battles of Mecca and Yathreb ended in the decisive victory of the early Muslims; this drove the Umayyads to realize that in order to protect their financial and political interests, they must feign a conversion to Islam, the religion they fought for ten years, and they entered into peace (see the Quranic Chapter 110) shortly before the death of Muhammad. The renegades war during the reign of the first caliph, Abou Bakr, was caused by the Najd tribes, rivals of the Umayyads, who hated the Meccans for their controlling Arabia once more; they showed rebellion by rejecting Islam. After the Umayyads won the renegades war, and renegades re-converted to Islam, the Umayyads unified most Arabs within military endeavors to conquer other countries to form an Arab empire, using the banners of Islam, in violation of 2:190. Arabs conquered and ruled Iraq, the Levant, Persia, Egypt, and North Africa. They misused the name of Islam in such endeavors, within the reigns of caliphs, Abou Bakr, Omar, and Othman. The Umayyads ruled all Arabs behind curtains and such caliphs were mostly puppets; Othman obeyed the Umayyads all the time and he persecuted and tortured their foes and rivals (who were tortured before as early Muslims in Mecca by Qorayish!), and he helped the Umayyads confiscate all wealth and power, and rebels at last assassinated Othman after they revolted against him for months.
5- Most of these rebels were from the Najd tribes; they have been hypocrites who rejected Islam and converted to it so many times, within horrid fluctuation and hesitation in their changing, fickle stances; they were the renegades who were fought by Abou Bakr, and then disagreed to how spoils were distributed by the Umayyads, they were crushed by Omar who controlled them, and then, they revolted against Othman and assassinated him. they at first supported Ali in his wars against Mu'aweiya, as the latter sought to be a caliph, and then they turned against Ali and assassinated him as he accepted arbitration results, declaring him an 'infidel' who refused to 'repent' (though they forced him to accept arbitration in the first place!). the first four pre-Umayyad caliphs were all from Qorayish. Such wars of Ali vs. Mu'aweiya resulted in the emergence of the Sunnite and Shiite religions that contradict Islam. Those rebels named themselves afterwards as Al-Khawarij and they fought the Umayyads caliphate for decades till it collapsed. Thus, the Najd tribesmen changes stances and attitudes so many times within one generation, though they participated in Arab conquests; their rebellions and revolts in many times caused the death of thousands of people; this verse, revealed in Yathreb, applies to them within a miraculous Quranic prediction: "Those who believe, then disbelieve, then believe, then disbelieve, then increase in disbelief, God will not forgive them, nor will He guide them to a way." (4:137).
6- This way, Islam is lost until now because of struggles between Najd and Qorayish, and the shite-Sunnite rift goes on until this very day, since the Arab civil war between Ali and Mu'aweiya; indeed, Muhammadans of today are still confused between two types of Salafism (worship of ancestors and traditions): that of Najd and Hejaz sunniest and that of Shiites. But Najd Salafism is still dominant within the Wahabi religion of terrorism, bloodshed, and violence, as this religion is based on the extremist Sunnite Ibn Hanbal doctrine. In fact, Ibn Abdul-Wahab, the founder of the Wahabi religion, was born in Najd, and so was Musaylimah the Liar who claimed being a prophet once Muhammad died and led the renegades war against Abou Bakr of Qorayish. In fact, men of Qorayish ruled over Arabs and Muhammadans since the four pre-Umayyad caliphs, the Umayyad caliphate, till the collapse of the Abbasid caliphate in 658 A.H. Even the Fatimids claimed wrongly they were descendants of Ali and his wife Fatima (daughter of prophet Muhammad), and until now, the king of Jordan and some rulers of Iran (and Shiite high-rank clergy) claim they have the same ancestry of Ali and Fatima to justify their tyranny! This is silliest thing we ever heard in our life, because one's ancestry and lineage has nothing to do with Islam and judgment of God in the Hereafter; e.g., Muhammad cannot on the Last Day help his disbelieving relatives and so will be Abraham in relation to his father, Noah in relation to his son and his wife, and Lot in relation to his wife. One of the greatest and best of women in terms of monotheistic faith is the Pharaonic queen mentioned in the Quran as wife of Moses' Pharaoh, though her husband was a self-deified tyrant and the worst disbeliever. Thus, as for the Qorayish and Najd struggle, their enmity is still ever-present regionally inside Arabia and the KSA, where Shiites and Sufis are the rivals of Sunnite Wahabis. Such enmity and rivalry asserts that the civil war of Ali vs. Mu'aweiya reverberates still within the Muhammadans who worship their corrupt ancestors. The only remedy for such ailment is Qurnaism; this is real Islam rejected by Muhammadans for political reasons by those who worship the so-called companions of Muhammad and reject Quranists for their undermining such deities.
7- Satan has not tendered any resignation after the advent of Islam; Satan's mission of misguiding as many human beings as possible goes on till the end of days. Thus, Satan caused Arabs to fight one another for decades once Muhammad died and to commit the grave sin of conquering other nations. The Quran miraculously predicts such havoc and how the Quranic sharia will be ignored and discarded; Satan has managed to deceive those Arabs.
8- Most Arabs during Muhammad's lifetime are described in these verses "Then their return will be to Hell. They have found their parents astray. And they rush along in their footsteps. Even though We sent warners to warn them. So observe the end of those who were warned." (37:68-73). Some readers might claim that these verse refer to ancient Arabs only in a certain era; we beg to differ. The present tense here refers to all eras in which people worship Salaf (ancestors and forefathers) and ancient wrong religious traditions; the context in these verse is related to the Last Day. This means that in all eras, this rule is repeated: there are those Salafists who worship their ancestors and maintain the status quo of corruption and tyranny using clergymen to protect eh affluent classes. The real interpretation of these verses is that most Arabs suffered civil wars in their history since the 7th century A.D. till recently, and those who did not repent and make amends and reform before death shall enter Hell to be tormented for eternity. These verses apply in particular to those so-called companions who were hypocrites contemporary to Muhammad and rejected Islam (after Muhammad's death) by their participation in conquering other nations while massacring, looting, raping, and confiscating possessions of peaceful people who never fought Arabs in the first place. Their sins of violence and massacring and their eating ill-gotten money and causing the death of thousands of people will cause their eternal suffering inside Hell.
9- These are the so-called companions who are turned into saints/deities and imams of 'guidance' within the earthly religions of the Muhammadans. May God curse all of them!