Diety Worship - A Muslim Perspective Clarified

A devotee named Balaji was travelling in a train on the
day of Gita Jayanti and it incidentally happened to be
the day of bakri-id. So many muslims were also traveling
in the train on that day. He got down at khandeshwar
station to catch the next train. Five to 6 muslim
youngsters also got down from the same bogie and followed
him. They had a spokesperson who seemed to be quite well
read amongst them. He stopped the devotee and then
the following conversation happened.

Muslim: Oh! You seem to be a well educated person. Have you
dedicated your whole life for this preaching mission?

Balaji: Yes.

Muslim: Oh! That's very nice. You are doing such a nice thing.
I am also very interested in knowing about your religion and
I have done quite a lot of study about your religion also.
Can I ask you a few questions?

Balaji: Sure.

The spokesperson's tone, which sounded very pleasant till now,
suddenly became sarcastic.

Muslim: So you people believe in idol worship?

Balaji: No, we believe in deity worship.

Muslim: What is the difference?

Balaji: The difference is like this. You see post boxes in
almost every street of Mumbai. When you post a letter
addressed to a person staying in Delhi or Chennai in the
post box it will eventually reach him even if there is a
slight mistake in the address. But if you yourself paint
a box in black and red, hang it outside your door and
post a letter in it, it will never reach the destination
even if it is addressed to the person next door. Why?
Because the postbox has been authenticated by the
government, letters posted in that box are regularly
cleared by postal department professionals and delivered
to their destinations. Similarly the deities are invested
with the complete potencies of the Lord Himself and hence
can be worshipped.

Muslim: Oh! Then, does it mean that if I am at a place
where there is no access to the deities I cannot worship
the Lord?

Balaji: No, You can worship Him through His holy names.
Holy Quran says that there are 100 names of Lord Allah.
The same way our scriptures also mention so many names
of the Lord which are invested with all the potencies.
So, we can always worship the Lord through His holy names.

Muslim: Oh! If the Lord can be worshipped simply through
His holy names then what is the need for deity worship?

Balaji: Ok. Now I will give you my cell phone and you have
unlimited free minutes for the rest of your life to speak
with your mother. Does it negate the need for having any more
personal interactions with your mother for the rest of your
life? Will you be satisfied by just speaking with her over
phone or would you want to personally have some interactions
with her and do some service to her when she is in need?

Muslim: I would definitely like to have personal interactions.

Balaji: Yes, the same way Deity worship gives us this nice
opportunity do personal service to the Lord. Moreover,
the many names of the Lord are actually named after their
form. For example, the Lord is called Keshava, meaning,
the one with beautiful hair. He is also called Padma
Lochana, meaning, the one with eyes as beautiful as
lotus petals. If just these names, which are named after
the forms of the Lord, are so much attractive,how much
more the forms themselves would attract the hearts of the
devotees?Hence the deities are there in order to
attract the devotees.

Muslim: But I have read in your vedic scriptures that those
who do Asambhuti worship go to the darkest regions of hell?
(Referring probably to the Isopanishad verse)

Balaji: Yes, it is Ishopanishad verse 12, "andham tamah
pravishanti ye asambhutim upasate".

His face had a completely shocked ex-pression when he heard me
actually quote the verse. May be he never expected any hindu
to know and what to speak of actually quoting the verse?

Balaji: Here the word asambhuti doesn't refer to deity worship,
but it refers to demigod worship. Anyways, you seem to be well
read in our scriptures. What do our scriptures mention about
the right process of acquiring vedic knowledge?

Muslim: I don't know.

Balaji: See (Opening the Bhagavad gita and showing Bg 4.34)
this is the process. First one should surrender to a spiritual
master, serve him nicely and then humbly question. Then the
spiritual knowledge flows. Did you receive your knowledge
by this process?

Muslim: No.

Balaji: Then, how did you learn?

Muslim: I read from the Oxford university press edition
of your Vedas.

Balaji: See, that is the problem. Neither the person who
wrote the book nor you who read his book understood the
Vedas in the way it is recommended.One cannot understand
the vedic scriptures by a mere knowledge of Sanskrit,
the same way a person with just a knowledge of English
cannot understand a chemistry or physics book, though it
may be written in the English language. But I see that
you have a genuine interest in understanding our scriptures
(with a pinch of sarcasm). Now, you want to take this
Bhagavad gita?

Muslim (With a completely confused look): No, No. I will
call you later. He hurriedly walked away with his
cheerleaders.