I have a question in connection with a former question about Hashrat Ibrahim A.S. Some Muslims say that it’s a virtuous act to attack Hindu temples and destroy the idols and they give the example of Hashrat Ibrahim A.S. Right. Did you ask this question before? Who did? I don’t know, exactly the same question was asked here in one of the sessions earlier and I answered that. The fact is that to number one, Islam is a more developed religion in every respect than the earlier religions revealed.
And there are certain things, certain attitudes of largesse and large heartedness adopted by Islam which were not adopted earlier because the society in those days was much cruder and the message suited the time but it did not suit all times. So the incident which is mentioned here is relating to a much earlier period than Islam. That is one thing. There is another point now which has to be solved and I will discuss both together. Prophet Muhammad S.A.W. when he was given access to Kaaba and he entered Mecca as conqueror, he himself broke the idols and all the idols were broken and removed from Kaaba.
That is the second incident. So if you read both together, what should be the explanation? Number one, as I mentioned, Prophet Ibrahim S.A.W. is known to have destroyed those idols yet we know positively that at that time he was of young age. His Sharia had not been revealed to him. He was made a prophet earlier than the Sharia which he followed because according to the Holy Quran, previously he followed the Sharia of Hazrat Nuh, the law of Hazrat Nuh and at about 50 years of his age when Sharia of Nuh ended, according to the Holy Quran, it ended in 950 years. At that time, according to historical facts, Hazrat Ibrahim must have been 50 years old.
When the first Sharia ended, a new Sharia must have been revealed to him and that was at the age of 50 and this incident which is reported is of a much earlier time when he was young and we have no traces of Nuh’s Sharia. So we don’t know the circumstances whether at that time he was acting within the four walls of the Sharia or acting like a youth who was just filled with the love of unity and he did it by way of argumentation, whatever you may call it. So we are not responsible for that act which occurred long, long ago, even before the Sharia of Ibrahim was revealed to him.
And we know from the Holy Quran that sometimes before the revelation of Sharia, a prophet can do something which Allah would not approve. But when it is told to him, made clear to him, then he repents. Holy Quran tells us that Allah does not permit his dear ones, those who follow him, to pray for their idolater parents, deceased idolater parents. Yet Ibrahim did pray because he had promised his uncle or parents that he would pray for them. But when Allah revealed to him that Allah did not like this, he immediately ceased praying for them and repented his act. So this is the same Ibrahim.
Before Sharia, he thinks in his own terms and indulges in certain acts as he thinks good, pious acts. Because praying for deceased parents appeared to be pious to him, otherwise he should never have vowed for this. And similarly this act appeared to be pious to him before the Sharia was revealed to him. That also proves the fact that in Noah’s Sharia, there was no mention, or at least he didn’t know, that prophets are not permitted to pray for their deceased elders who indulge in idol worship.
So both the incidents are of similar nature. So that much for Ibrahim’s act of breaking the idols. As far as the Holy Prophet is concerned, the reason is very obvious, there is no confusion about it. The fact is that Khana Kaaba was the first house of worship for Allah, not for idols. And this was misappropriated for a usage for which it was never built. It was reinstated.
The Holy Prophet did not indulge in the large scale massacre of idols, because we hear no mention of the Holy Prophet breaking other idols in Arabia or telling people to break idols. What he did was, he established the sanctity of places of worship, whether they were right or wrong, as such. And the Holy Quran very clearly joins upon Muslims to do that. So his own act of breaking the idols was a limited act pertaining to that situation of Khana Kaaba having been filled with idols where they did not belong. And it was a wrong committed against the first house of Allah’s worship. So it had to be rectified.
