Eagle contonued, "The Devil has deceived some people into worshiping fire. He made them believe that fire was the essence of things, and that world could not be without it. Sun worship stemmed from this idea as well. Al-Tabari said, 'When Qabil killed Habil, he went to Yemen to run away fom their father. lblis came to him and told him, 'Fire ate Habil's sacrifce and was accepted by Allah because Habil used to serve the fire and worship it. You should erect a house in which fire is worshiped. He was the first to build such a house and the first to worship fire.'
Al-Jahiz said, 'Zaradusht also known as Zarathustra or Zoroaster, the first Zoroastrian, came fom Balkh claiming that he had received revelation while he was on mount Ceylon. He told those living in cold areas that they may be punished by increased cold weather. He claimed that he had only been sent to people living on mountains. He made it permissible for his followers to use their urine for performing ablution, to have relations with their mothers, to glorify fire, as well as other silly things.' He said, 'Allah was alone for a long time. He contemplated about His loneliness, so lblis was generated fom this contemplation. Allah then wanted to kill lblis but lblis defended himself. When Allah saw this, he decided to give him a chance for sometime.'
Fire-worshippers built many temples. The first to design such a temple was Afridon. He established a temple in Tus and another in Bukhara. Bahman built one in Sijjistan. Zaradusht plotted a scheme to make his followers believe that a fire had come fom heaven to eat something they had sacrifced. He put an animal that was to be sacrificed inside a house in which there was a large mirror. He surrounded the animal with firewood and poured sulfur on it, He made an opening in the wall so the sunray could come through, become reflected by the mirror towards the firewood. When the fire started, Zaradush ordered his fllowers not to turn it off.
Yahya Ibn Bishr al-Nahawandi said, 'The first Zoroastrian king was Komorth, then came many who claimed to be Prophets including Zaradusht, he was the most famous of them.
They claimed that the lord was a spiritual being who appeared suddenly, and with his appearance, purely spiritual beings appeared as well. When this happened, the lord thought to himself: No one else could have created these beings. From this thought, developed a darkness because it entailed the denial of others' abilities. So this darkness began to battle Him.
Zaradusht prescribed fire worship, as well as praying to the sun because it was the owner of the world, as they claimed, the bringer of day, the eliminator of night, the reviver of plants and animals,
and the generator of heat.
They never buried their deceased out of respect to Earth because all living things grew fom it. They also never used water for bathing out of respect to it, the livelihood of all things. They utilized cow urine and never spat in it.
They considered it forbidden to kill or slaughter animals, and they used to wash their faces with cow urine in order to gain blessings. In addition, they considered it permissible for a man to have relations with his mother on the basis that a son was most worthy of fulfiling his mother's sexual urges. And whenever a man died then his son took over his widow. They also allowed a man to marry one hundred or one thousand women. And when a women used to perform ablution afer her monthly period, she would go to the temple, pay one dinar to the fire servant who would take her and bathe her with his index finger.
Mazdak propagated this matter (lewd behavior) during the days of Qubath. He made it permissible for women to have relations with whomever they willed, and Mazdak had relations with Qubath's wives in order for the public to fllow his example. He also allowed people to eat the meat of dead animals. When Anusharwan came to power, he abolished Mazdakism.
Zoroastrians believes that Earth had no limit fom its bottom (the down direction), that the sky was built fom the devils' flesh, that thunder was the sound made by the devis trapped in the upper hemispheres. Scholars said that Zoroastrians used to have holy books, but that these books were lifted because of what they had introduced into their religion.
The most amusing of Iblis's deceptions of Zoroastrians was to convince them that a good doer could never do evil, so this let them to believe that there were two gods, one god was a wise light that only did good, and the other was a devil who was darkness and only did evil acts. Some of them believed The Creator to be ancient and only did good, and that the devil was recent, and only did evil acts.
Al-Nubakhti said that some Zoroastrians claimed that the Creator had a doubt in something, so the devil was generated out of this doubt. Others claimed that God and the devil were ancient (preeternal) beings with a large space between the two of them. And that the world was purely good until Iblis penetrated the sky along with his soldiers and that God ran away fom them with His angels and fought them for three thousand years. This was only one of many of their hallucinatons that we do not want to waste time narrating.
What is strange is that they affirmed The Creator to be purely good but claimed that He had a dreadful thought!
Iblis deceived the Brahmans, Indians and others to deny prophecies and block their pathway to Allah. The Indians differed among themselves. Some of them were secular, others were dualists, others followed Brahmans and others only believed in the prophecy of Adam, and Ibrahim, alayhimussalam.
Abu Muhammad al-Nubakhti said in his book 'Opinions and Cult' that some Indian Brahmans affirmed the creator, messengers, heaven and hellfre. And they believed that their messenger was an angel who came to them in human form without a holy book. He had four hands and twelve heads: a human head, a lion's head, a horse's head, an elephant's head, a pig's head and so on. They say that he ordered them to glorify the fire and forbid them from committing murder and from eating from any animal that was not slaughtered in the name of the fire. He also forbid them fom lying and from drinking liquor. But he made it permissible for them to commit adultery, and ordered them to worship cows. Whoever left his religion and then came back to it, had his head, beard, eyebrows and eyelashes shaved, and was to bow to the cows.
lblis has deceived some Indian Brahmans to burn themselves as a form of getting closer to god. What they do is that they dig a trench, and people gather around it. Then the man who is about to burn himself arrives wearing a lot of perfume. They beat on their drums chanting "glad tidings to this soul that has been attached to paradise." He responds, "let this sacrifce be accepted and let my reward be paradise." Then he sits inside the burning trench. Afterwards, if he attempts to escape they shun him until he returns to the fire again.
Some of them worship water claiming that it is the source of life. They prostrate to water. And some of them jump into fire then into water. They continue to do so until they die. Some of them die fom self inflicted hunger and thirst. They first fall down out of weakness, then loose the ability to talk, then looses their senses, and die. Others wander off in the lands until they die, others drown themselves, and others have no relations with women, and cover only their private parts.
What is strange is that Indians were considered sources of wisdom. Glory to He who blinded their hearts to the point that Iblis became able to lead them this way.
Iblis also deceived some people into worshiping the moon, he caused others to worship the stars. Ibn Qutaybah said, 'During the period ofJahiliyyah, some people used to worship planet Sirus (Shi'ra). They were fascinated by it. The first to worship it in spite of Quraysh was Abu Kabshah. When Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) called for worshipping Allah and the rejection of idols, they called him: the son of Abu Kabshah. Meaning that they both were similar in going against Quraysh. There are two stars of the name, one above (Canis Major), the other Canis Minor, which faces it; between the two is the Galaxy. Canis Minor belongs to the stretched out arm in the constellation of the Lion, whereas Canis Major is the Gemini.
Abu Muhammad Al-Nubakhti said that some people believed that celestial bodies were pre-eternal with no creator. Others claimed Saturn to be the only pre-eternal planet. They claimed that celestial bodies had no heat, coldness, brittleness nor softness, and that they were neither heavy nor light. Others claimed planets to be made from clouds that were lit during the night and turned off during the day. They claimed the moon to be made fom fire and air.
Some claimed that planets were made fom water, wind and fire, and that they were spheres that moved fom east to west and west to east. They said that Saturn completed a cycle around the sun in about thirty years, Jupiter in twelve years, Mars in two, and the sun, Venus and Mercury in one year. The moon completed its cycle in thirty days.
Some said that there were seven planets: the nearest to us was the moon, then Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars,Jupiter, and Saturn. The remaining planets were stationary.
Practitioners of Astronomy estimated the sizes of the planets as well. The largest was the sun, one hundred and sixty six time the size of Earth. Stationary planets were each ninety four time the size of Earth. Jupiter was eighty two times the size of Earth and Mars was one and a half times the size of Earth.
Some claimed that there was life on each of the planets. And that stars were living and active. Some stars did good and evil deeds according to their nature of fortune or misfortune, and they affected humans.
Iblis has deceived some to believe in soul reincarnation, and that the souls of good doers depart their bodies at the time of death to enter bodies of good people again. While the souls of evildors exit their bodies to re-enter evil bodies. This belief became prevalent during the time of the Pharaoh.
Abu'l-Qasim al-Balkhi stated that when some people saw children and animals go through pain or suffering, they would conclude that this pain of calamity must have been due to sins committed during previous lives.
Abu Bakr Ibn al-Pallas said, 'I once visited a man who used to be a Shi'ite, he then became a believer in reincarnation. He was rubbing and scratching between the eyes of a black cat. The cat had tears come down fom its eyes and the man petting it was crying heavily.' I asked him, 'Why are you crying?' He responded: 'This cat cries each time I rub it.' This is certainly my mother crying out of sorrow when she sees me. Then he began talking to her as if she understood what he was saying. The cat was making noises every now and then, so I asked him, 'Does the cat understand what you tell her?' He answered, 'Yes.' I replied, 'Do you understand what it is saying?' He said, 'No.' So I said, 'Then it is you who was reincarnated, and the cat is the human.'
Iblis deceived others into worshiping angels and claiming them to be Allah's daughters. Allah is Most Exalted. Others were deceived into worshiping horses and cows. Al-SamirI was fom a people who used to worship a calf. This was why he formed a calf. Commentators tell us that Pharaoh used to worship a buck.
Among all these was no one who exercised his intellect or made use of his reason to ponder over what he was doing. We ask Allah to save us in this world and the next.
[The Sabians]
