Al-Anbiyaa (The Prophets)
Verse 57
Table of Contents
57. “And, by Allah, I will certainly plan against your idols after you go away turning your backs’.”
The commentators are divided in having the opinion that how Abraham (as) stated this sharp statement. Some of them, such as the authors of Tafsir-us-Safi and Al-Mizan, believe that this sentence was not stated openly and Abraham (as) said it in secret.
The reason for this is that they believe that the explicit claim of opposition against the small and big gods of a people, lonely and on the first day of the call, is opposite to precaution. But it seems that it is not so, because the accounts of the men of Allah are different from the ordinary accounts of ours, and nothing can prevent them to pave their clear way and to perform their Divine mission.
In the previous holy verses, we recited that Abraham (as) explicitly told his people:
“…Indeed you and your fathers have been in manifest error.”1 Did Hadrat Zaynab (as) not say to Yazid, when she was as a captive in Sham, “I belittle you”, and then she started criticizing earnestly upon him and his government?
Some believe that for conflicting the factors of mischief, those factors they must be struggled against in a negative manner. For instance, at the time of the tyrannical king of Iran, when the cinemas of the country were a serious means of deviation of the young generation, one of the dignitaries said:
“If people decide not to go to cinemas, the cinemas will automatically be suspended”.
But, the above-mentioned holy verse condemns this kind of thought, and it persists on the fact that the source of mischief must be eradicated. The example of it is the act of Moses (as) who burnt the golden Calf, and the Prophet of Islam (S) ruined the ‘mosque of dissension’ where was a base for the hypocrites.
Therefore, to prove that this proposition was one hundred percent earnest, and that he (as) was steadfast in his belief in a manner that he would accept heartily all its results and consequences in whatever form they might be, Abraham added:
“And, by Allah, I will certainly plan against your idols after you go away turning your backs’.”
Abraham’s purpose was to make them understand that he would finally use an opportunity and break the idols entirely.
But, perhaps, the greatness and dignity of the idols in their minds was so high that they did not take this statement for serious, and they did not show any reaction.
They might think that it was not possible that a person let himself play with the sacred things of a people and a tribe whose government was supporting them, too. With what daring could he do that? By which power was he able to afford it?
A Few Traditions Concerning Pictures
1- The holy Prophet of Islam (S) said:
“The intensive punishment of the people on the Day of Hereafter belongs to the drawers of pictures.”
(Perhaps, the purpose of it is: ‘those who painted the pictures of gods’.)1
2- Abi Basir has narrated from Imam Sadiq (as) who said:
“The Prophet (S) said: ‘Gabriel came to me and said: ‘Your Lord sends you regards and has prohibited you from ‘Tazwiq’ of the houses’.”
Abu Basir said:
“Then I asked what ‘Tazwiq of the houses’ meant; when he (as) said: ‘Painting pictures in the house’.”
(It should be thought what kinds of picture there were on those days regarding that the people had the belief of idol worship in them and every picture must be considered as that.)2
Muhammad-ibn-Muslim said:
“I asked Imam Sadiq (as) about the drawing of the pictures of trees, sun, and moon. Then he (as) said: ‘When there is not a thing (a face) of an animal, it does not matter’.”4