“The likeness of those who take to themselves Tutelars instead of God is as the likeness of the spider, which maketh for herself a dwelling; and the frailest of dwellings surely is the dwelling of the spider! If they knew——!
“Verily God knoweth whatever thing they invoke in His stead; and He is the Mighty, the Wise.
“And these parables we propound unto men; but none understand them except the wise.
“God hath created the heavens and the earth in truth: verily therein is a sign unto the believers.”
Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah. [Chapter ii. 157–160].
(Given at al-Madīnah.)
“And your God is One God: there is no god but He, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
“Verily in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the varying of night and day, and the ships that course upon the sea laden with what is profitable to mankind, and the water that God hath sent down from heaven, quickening the earth thereby after its death, and scattering about it all kinds of beasts; and in the changing of the winds, and the clouds that are compelled to do service between heaven and earth, are signs unto a people who understand.
“Yet among men are those who take to themselves, beside God, idols, which they love as with the love of God: but those who have believed are more loving towards God than these towards their idols.”