The Weak Imitate the Strong

Banū Isrāʾīl knew about Allah, and they believed in Allah. Do not understand this wrongly. Do not think that Banū Isrāʾīl wanted to replace their religion with something else — no. They believed in Allah, and they knew that Allah was the One who had helped them and assisted them. But when they saw what the other people were doing, they wanted to have something similar. They were not satisfied with what they had. They had an inferiority complex. So they thought these gods were going to bring them closer to Allah (swt), or something like that.

Ibn Khaldūn says something interesting. He says that weak nations always imitate strong nations: the weak imitates the strong. Banū Isrāʾīl had been weak in Egypt. They had come out of Egypt; now they were in freedom, but they were still thinking with the weak mentality. So they always thought that the others had something better than them.

And you find among the Muslims who are weak today — those of them who are not proud of what Allah (swt) has given them — that they are always trying to find ways to imitate the others. And whom are they imitating? They are imitating the West, because the West is strong. So you find that the Muslim wants to look like the non-believers, he wants to act like the non-believers, he wants to celebrate like the non-believers; he wants to do everything the way the non-believers do.