A Quranic Journal

"So pray to your Lord and sacrifice to Him." Having assured the Prophet of this munificent gift, which disproves what the calumniators and conspirators say, Allah directs the Prophet to be completely and sincerely thankful to Him for His bounty; to devote himself to Him alone in worship and ritual slaughter, taking no heed whatsoever of all forms of polytheism and refusing to participate in the worship of the poly theists, especially when they pronounce any name other than that of Allah in their offerings. Islam frequently lays emphasis on the pronouncing of Allah's name when slaughtering animals. It prohibits anything that is consecrated to any other being, which indicates the importance Islam attaches to the purification of human life from all forms of polytheism and all that leads to it. Islam does not aim merely at purifying the imagination and conscience, for it is the religion based on the unity of Allah in every sense. It pursues polytheism in all its manifestations, striving to eliminate its marks in the conscience of man, in his worship and rituals, and in his behaviour generally. Life, Islam says, is one indivisible entity and must be treated as such. It must be cleansed inside out and completely oriented towards Allah, in all its aspects and spheres - worship, tradition and social behaviour.