Welcome to our weekly program "Path towards Enlightenment" in which we present you a fluent and easy-to-understand explanation of the ayahs of the holy Quran. We start with ayah 14 of Surah Fatir.

“If you invoke them they will not hear your invocation, and even if they heard they cannot respond to you, and on the Day of Resurrection they will forswear your polytheism, and none can inform you like the One who is All-Aware.”

Last week we said God Almighty warns polytheists of the futility of worshipping idols or ascribing partners to Him, since no person or object has absolute power of its own, while the seemingly powerful things do not control so much as the husk of a date stone.

Here, the ayah we recited to you now means to tell the polytheists that the idols, imaginary deities or other objects your worship, first of all do not hear your invocations, and even if they were to hear – and that to by the Grace of the One and Only God – they do not have the power to answer you; and finally on the Day of Resurrection when empowered with speech by the Almighty Creator, they will renounce your polytheism, which is in fact nothing, except your wild imagination and satanic intention. The Lord Most High knows every minute thing and thought since He is All-Aware, and is the Only One to give you correct information. This is not something to be surprise about, since on the Day of Resurrection, God will makes every organ of the human being, including skin, to testify how they were used by that person in the world, whether in pursuit of virtue and the service of the Almighty or in pursuit of carnal desires, distortion of facts, and against what God had commanded.

From this ayah we learn that:

1. It is a pity the polytheists worship lifeless objects and conjecture of their warped minds, but fail to understand that the One and Only God, Who is the Creator of universe, hears and watches everything and is All-Aware of the even the minute details including thoughts that flash across minds.
2. Polytheism is an unpardonable sin and leads to the eternal fires of hell.
3. On the Day of Resurrection, everything, including our own bodily organs will be empowered by God with speech, to testify in favour or against us, depending on how we had used them while alive.
4. It is the heavenly scripture which informs us of the Day of Resurrection and Judgment.

Now we listen to ayahs 15, 16 and 17 of Surah Fatir:

“O mankind! You are the ones who stand in need of Allah, and Allah—He is the All-Sufficient, the All-Laudable.”

“If He wishes, He will take you away, and bring about a new creation;”

“And that is not a hard thing for Allah”

These ayahs mean to say that the Almighty Creator is not in need of our prayers and other acts of worship, and these acts are for our own benefit. In other words, He is needless, while we are in need. He is All-Sufficient and all praise is for Him. Yes, the One really free from need is the One and Only God, while all beings are thoroughly in need, since they have no independent existence.

God has the power to replace us with another form of creation, and we should not disobey Him. If He orders us to pray and perform other acts of worship, it is actually a grace from Him and a way to communicate with Him, since a true believer beseeches God and not fellow humans or objects.

From these ayahs we learn that:

1. God’s invitation to worship Him does not imply His need of us but is the sign of our need for Him, the Source of life and existence.
2. All praise belongs to God Who is aware of all things and has provided us with innumerable bounties, which we do not fully realize.
3. He has the power to annihilate us and replace us with another form of creation.

AS/ME