—both its theoretical and its practical dimensions.
Knowledge-based tawḥīd rests on affirming the Lord’s attributes of perfection, declaring His absolute distinctness from His creation, and exaltedly clearing Him of every defect, deficiency, or resemblance. Practical tawḥīd, on the other hand, is founded on singling Allah out in one’s intention—loving Him, fearing Him, hoping in Him, relying upon Him, penitently returning to Him, seeking His aid, crying out to Him in distress, and worshipping Him with heart, tongue, and limbs, for Him alone with no partner (1).
Everything for which Allah sent His messengers and revealed His books turns upon these two forms of tawḥīd, and the creatures nearest to Allah are those who uphold them most perfectly in knowledge and in deed. For this reason the messengers—may blessings and peace be upon them all—⦗ق21أ⦘ are the closest of creation to Allah; nearer still are the possessors of firm resolve among them, nearer yet the two khalīls (Abraham and Muhammad), and the very closest is their seal, the master of the children of Adam, the most honored before Allah through the completeness of his tawḥīd and his servitude to Him.
These two principles are the axle around which the Qur’an revolves, and clarifying them is among the weightiest of matters. Allah, exalted is He, has explained them with ultimate clarity—through innate disposition, rational proofs, reflective arguments, and striking parables. He has diversified the ways of establishing them most perfectly, so that for sound hearts and unspoiled natures their reality is as evident as the sight of unimpaired eyes (2) beholding the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, and the sky; such inner sight stands to the heart just as that vision (3) stands to the eye.
If forced reinterpretation is unleashed upon informative, knowledge-based tawḥīd, it will be even easier to direct it against volitional, practical tawḥīd; the very landmarks of tawḥīd would then be effaced and the features of negationism and polytheism erected. For this reason, shirk and taʿṭīl are inseparable; neither of them is ever