…so we say: The Messenger made no distinctions among them; he deemed them all polytheists, declared their blood and property lawful, and fought them without exception. Those who worship the Messiah—although the Messiah is a messenger of Allah—were fought by him. The Jews, who worship ‘Uzayr, one of their prophets or righteous men, were likewise fought by the Messenger, peace be upon him, with no differentiation. In matters of shirk there is no difference between worshipping a righteous man and worshipping an idol, a stone, or a tree, for shirk is the worship of anyone besides Allah, whoever that may be. Hence His words: “wa-abuduu Allah wa laa tushriku bihi shay’an” (Worship Allah and do not associate anything with Him, 4:36). The term shay’an, “anything,” is indefinite in the context of a prohibition, and therefore covers absolutely everything—angels, messengers, saints, allies, stones, trees, and the like. 9- His statement, “The proof is His saying, ‘wa-qatiluhum hatta laa takuna fitna,’” means that the Qur’anic command “Fight them” serves as evidence for fighting the polytheists without distinguishing between them according to what they worship. The verb “Fight them” is unrestricted and includes every polytheist, with no exceptions. The verse continues, “until there is no fitna,” where fitna means shirk, i.e. until every form of polytheism disappears, whether it concerns saints and the righteous or stones, trees, the sun, or the moon. “And the religion shall be for Allah” means that all acts of worship are due solely to Allah, with no share for anyone else whatsoever. Thus there is no difference between shirk involving saints and the righteous and shirk involving stones, trees, devils, or anything else. 10- This indicates that there are people who prostrate themselves to the sun and the moon, and for that reason he forbade…