far above what they attribute to Him—except for Allah’s devoted servants.
The Exalted also said in al-Nisāʾ: “Indeed the hypocrites will be in the lowest depths of the Fire, and you will find for them no helper—except those who repent, put things right, hold fast to Allah, and devote their religion purely to Him.”
In short, this foundational truth courses through Sūrat al-Anʿām, al-Aʿrāf, al-Nūr, the chapters opened by Ṭā Sīn Mīm and Ḥā Mīm, the Mufaṣṣal sūrahs, and many other Meccan revelations, as well as numerous passages of the Medinan chapters. It is the root of all roots and the cornerstone of the religion—even in the two sūrahs of Ikhlāṣ: “Say, O disbelievers” and “Say, He is Allah, the One.” The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—used to recite these two in voluntary prayers such as the two rakʿahs after ṭawāf and the sunnah of Fajr, and both of them encapsulate tawḥīd.
“Say, O disbelievers” conveys the practical, volitional tawḥīd: devoting the religion exclusively to Allah through conscious intention and will. This is the aspect to which the masters of Sufism most often give voice. “Say, He is Allah, the One” embodies the doctrinal and verbal tawḥīd. It is authentically reported in the two Ṣaḥīḥs from ʿĀʾishah that a man used to recite “Say, He is Allah, the One” in every unit of his prayer. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said, “Ask him why he does so.” He replied, “Because it describes the All-Merciful, and I love to recite it.” The Prophet said, “Inform him that Allah loves him.”
For this reason, the sūrah’s description of Allah—exalted is He—repudiates the claims of both the denialists and those who liken Him, so that it has become the primary text relied upon in discussions of the Divine Essence. We have explained this at length elsewhere and recorded the scholars’ dependence upon it, together with the explanations of al-Aḥad transmitted from the Prophet, the Companions, and the Successors, and substantiated by multiple proofs.
Our purpose here, however, is the practical tawḥīd, namely devoting all religion to Allah. Although the two categories are intertwined, you will not find a single adherent of the Jahmiyyah who negate the attributes, nor of the anthropomorphists who liken Allah to His creation, without some measure of practical shirk. The very basis of their doctrine sets up equals with Allah—either by equating Him with non-existent entities, as the denialists do through purely negative attributions that convey neither praise nor perfection, or by equating Him with deficient created beings through attributes of imperfection. Likewise, those among them—and among the anthropomorphists akin to them—who claim parity between Him and created things in their very realities may end up worshipping those things, setting up rivals to their Lord, and likening the created to the Lord of all worlds.
The Jews frequently equate the Creator with the creature and liken Him to it, to the extent that they describe Allah as incapable, poor, or miserly—deficiencies from which He must be exalted and which belong only to His creation. The Christians, on the other hand, equate the creature with the Creator, ascribing to a created being qualities of lordship and attributes of divinity, and permitting for it what befits none but the Creator. Exalted is He, far above what the wrong-doers allege!
And Allah, Glorified and Exalted, has commanded us to ask Him for guidance, saying: “Guide us to the straight path.”