…This constitutes a rebuttal of those grave-worshippers who try to draw such a distinction. It refutes those who claim that shirk (polytheism) is confined to idol-worship and therefore refuse to treat equally the one who worships idols and the one who worships a saint or a pious man. They insist that shirk applies only to idols, yet this is a manifest fallacy for two reasons: 1. In the Quran, Allah condemned all of them and commanded that they all be fought. 2. The Prophet ﷺ made no distinction between someone who worships an idol and someone who worships an angel or a righteous man. 13 – “The proof concerning the righteous,” i.e., the evidence that people have worshipped righteous human beings, is His statement: “Those whom they invoke are themselves seeking a means of nearness to their Lord, as to which of them will be closest” (al-Israʾ 17:57). It is said that this verse was revealed about those who worshipped the Messiah and his mother, and Uzayr. God—exalted is He—declares that the Messiah, his mother Mary, and Uzayr are all servants of Allah, seeking nearness to Him, hoping for His mercy, and fearing His punishment. As needy servants who supplicate Allah and draw near to Him through obedience—“they seek the means (wasila) to their Lord” (al-Maʾidah 5:35), i.e., closeness through worship—they are unfit to be worshipped. Anyone who is himself dependent on Allah, calling upon Him and fearing His punishment, cannot rightly be worshipped alongside Allah.