…is not truly worship unless it is free from both major and minor shirk. As the Exalted has said: “They were commanded only to worship Allah, dedicating the religion to Him alone, as hunafa’” (Q 98:5). Hunafa’ is the plural of hanif, meaning one who devotes himself exclusively to Allah. This worship is what Allah has enjoined upon all creatures, as He said: “I did not create jinn and mankind except that they should worship Me” (Q 51:56), i.e., single Me out in worship. The wisdom behind creating the universe is therefore that people worship Allah, sincerely dedicating their religion to Him. Some have complied, others have not, yet that remains the purpose. Whoever worships anyone besides Allah contradicts the very wisdom of creation and opposes the divine command and law. Ibrahim is the forefather of the prophets who came after him, for they all descend from him. The Majestic said: “We placed prophethood and scripture among his descendants” (Q 29:27). Thus all of them are from the Children of Israel—descendants of Ibrahim—except Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, who is from the line of Ismail. Every prophet after Ibrahim is therefore one of his sons, as an honour granted to him. Allah also made him an imam for humankind, meaning a model to be followed: “I am appointing you as an imam for the people” (Q 2:124); and “Ibrahim was indeed an ummah” (Q 16:120), i.e., a leader whose example is emulated. This is what Allah has enjoined upon all creation, as He said: “I did not create jinn and mankind except that they should worship Me” (Q 51:56). Ibrahim therefore called people to worship Allah, just like the other prophets. Every prophet summoned his people to worship Allah and to abandon the worship of anything else, as He said: “We have raised up in every community a messenger who declared: Worship Allah and avoid taghut” (Q 16:36).