you were to ask them, ‘Who created the heavens and the earth?’ they would surely say, ‘Allah.’” (1)

Yet that affirmation of His Lordship did them no good, because they disbelieved in the monotheism of divinity and worship, and vehemently rejected it when the Prophet ﷺ called them to it, saying—as Allah reports of them—“Has he made all the gods into one God? This is indeed an astonishing thing!” (2)

Among the requirements of this very monotheism that they denied is to abandon seeking rescue and assistance from anyone other than Allah, to refrain from supplicating or offering sacrifices to anyone besides Him, and to withhold every act of worship that belongs exclusively to the Almighty. Whoever assigns any of these acts to someone other than Allah, blessed and exalted is He, has associated partners with Him and set up a rival to Him, even if he professes His Lordship. The faith that truly saves is only that which combines the affirmation of Lordship with the affirmation of divinity, directing both exclusively to Allah. The details of this are expounded elsewhere.

Once this is understood, you will realize that genuine faith is not firmly rooted in