“Do you consider providing water for the Pilgrims and tending the Sacred Mosque equal in worth to believing in Allah and the Last Day and striving in the cause of Allah? The two are not equal with Allah. Allah does not guide the wrong-doing folk. The higher rank with Allah is for those who believed and migrated and strove in His cause with their belongings and their persons. It is they who are triumphant.”
(Al-Qur’ān – 9:19-20)
To act merely as caretakers of a religious shrine and to ostentatiously perform a few religious rites with the intent of creating the impression of piety for the sake of superficial observers is of no value in the eyes of God. A man’s worth in the sight of God depends on his faith and the sacrifices he makes in this cause. Whoever is in possession of such qualities, regardless of his lineage, is of value to God. Conversely, those who enjoy an illustrious lineage and ceremoniously perform religious rites on appointed occasions but who are devoid of the qualities outlined above, deserve no respect whatsoever. Nor is it proper to allow the custodianship of holy places and religious institutions to remain in the hands of such worthless people merely on the basis of their hereditary claims to them.
History bears witness that the service proffered by polytheists as caretakers of the House of God had gone to waste for they had tainted it with polytheism together with other practices of Jāhiliyah. The little good they did was outweighed by the sins they committed.