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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books A Study of Polytheism and Idolatry in the Qur’an Chapter 8: Categories of Polytheists In this discourse, we will refer to some of the categories of polytheists which have been mentioned in the Glorious Qur’an. The first category: calf-worshippers “The People of the Book ask you to bring down for them a Book from the sky.

Certainly, they asked Moses for [something] greater than that, for they said, ‘Show us Allah visibly,’ whereat a thunderbolt seized them for their wrongdoing. Then, they took up the Calf [for worship], after all the manifest proofs that had come to them.

Yet We excused that, And We gave Moses a manifest authority.” [^1] Even if the above quoted verse does not explicitly state that they took up the Calf for worship, but still interpreters of the Holy Qur’an have asserted that they had taken the Calf for a god.

It has thus been written in “ Majma‘ al-Bayān ”, “They used to worship the Calf and used to believe that it was a god.” It has thus been written in “ Tafsīr al-Mīzān ”, “This was idolatry, and the Calf had been taken for a god.” The second category: worshippers of Jesus Christ and Mary There have been people who used to worship Jesus Christ and Mary and the following verse denotes this assertion: “And when Allah will say, ‘O Jesus son of Mary!

Was it you who said to the people, ‘Take me and my mother for gods besides Allah’?’ He will say, ‘Immaculate are You! It does not behoove me to say what I have no right to [say]. Had I said it, You certainly would have known it: You know whatever is in my self, and I do not know what is in Your Self. Indeed, You are knower of all that is Unseen’.” [^2] It can be deduced from the above quoted verse that Christians used to believe that Jesus Christ and Mary were gods.

It has thus been stated in “ Tafsīr al-Mīzān ”, “This verse means that besides Allah, they had taken Jesus Christ ( ‘a ) and Mary ( ‘a ) for gods; [this verse does] not [mean] that they had opted for Jesus Christ ( ‘a ) and Mary ( ‘a ) instead of Allah. In other words, some people imagine that Christians have forsaken Allah and only worship Jesus Christ ( ‘a ) and Mary ( ‘a ), but this is not what this verse means.