Thus, the nullifiers may be grouped under the following principal headings:

1. shirk (associating partners with Allah).
2. shakk (doubt).
3. iʿrāḍ (turning away).
4. ibāʾ wa istikbār (refusal and arrogance).
5. takdhīb (denial).
6. juḥūd (obstinate rejection).
7. tanaqquṣ (disparaging Allah, His verses, or His Messenger); that is, reviling Allah’s very essence or His attributes, or reviling the Messenger ﷺ or what he brought.
8. nifāq (hypocrisy) in all its forms.

These constitute the sum of the nullifiers, and they all return to contradicting the testimony that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. Denial may target Allah’s oneness, His lordship, or His divinity; one may harbor doubt concerning any of these, or turn away from the Messenger’s call in one’s heart, or refuse outright. Indeed, many of the unbelievers know that the Messenger ﷺ is true—“Those to whom We gave the Scripture recognize him as they recognize their own sons” (2:146)—and they acknowledge his veracity, yet what prevents them from yielding to his summons and responding to him is arrogance. This is made clear in the story of Heraclius, emperor of Byzantium: when he proclaimed his recognition of Muhammad’s prophethood ﷺ, arrogance and miserliness regarding his throne kept him from submitting. Likewise al-Muqawqis, ruler of the Copts, openly admitted the Prophet’s truthfulness ﷺ but refrained from