Maryam · Makki · ayah 81 of 98

Maryam 19:81

وَٱتَّخَذُوا۟ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ ءَالِهَةً لِّيَكُونُوا۟ لَهُمْ عِزًّا

“And they have taken besides Allāh [false] deities that they would be for them [a source of] honor.”

Saheeh International

Essence

People did not take other gods out of stupidity but out of hunger for strength, and the ayah names that hunger precisely.

A reflection

Not stone idols, but the hunger behind them

A modern reader meets they took gods besides Allah and quietly files it away. Carved statues, ancient temples, nothing to do with me. That reading misses half the sentence, and the more important half.

The ayah does not only report what they did. It states why: so that they would be for them a source of ʿizz. Strength, standing, protection, the kind of backing that makes a person hard to push around. The commentaries spell it out. Helpers and protection. Supporters who would save them from punishment. Intercessors who would put in a word for them with Allah. A linguistic commentary calls them a hoped-for link to Him.

So the act was idolatry, but the motive was utterly ordinary. They wanted to feel secure, important and covered. Every human being wants that.

Picture a trainee solicitor who spends her first bonus on a watch, so that the partners will take her seriously. She is not worshipping the watch. She is asking it to give her weight in rooms where she feels light. If it fails, she will feel exposed in a way that has nothing to do with time.

A classical spiritual writer names the general rule. The foundation on which all associating of partners with Allah is built is attachment of the heart to something other than Him. The statues of Makka were one form. The form changes; the attachment does not.

The honest question the ayah leaves is not have I carved an idol. It is what am I asking to make me strong?

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.