The idolaters were well aware that to say, “lā ilāha illā Allāh” obliges one to disavow the worship of anything besides Allah. Most Muslims today, however, have re-interpreted this blessed phrase to mean merely, “There is no Lord except Allah!” Consequently, if a Muslim recites “lā ilāha illā Allāh” yet worships along with Allah another being, then—at the level of creed—he and the pagans are the same, even though outwardly he appears Muslim; for by uttering the words “lā ilāha illā Allāh” he is a Muslim only in a verbal, external sense.

This fact lays a duty on all of us—as callers to Islam—to summon people to tawḥīd and to present the proof to anyone who is ignorant of the meaning of “lā ilāha illā Allāh” while acting in opposition to it. The manifest polytheist is different: he refuses to say “lā ilāha illā Allāh,” and therefore he is not a Muslim, neither outwardly nor inwardly. As for the great masses of Muslims today, they are counted as Muslims, for the Messenger ﷺ said, “When they say it, they have secured from me their blood and their property, except where its rights demand otherwise; their reckoning is with Allah, Exalted is He.” (1)