As for the former, there is no doubt that it is part of the obligatory affirmation of Allah’s oneness: acknowledging that the Creator of the world is one. Yet it is only part of what is obligatory, not the obligation through which a person passes from associating partners with Allah to affirming His oneness. Indeed, the polytheists whom Allah and His Messenger called polytheists, and whom the messengers declared Allah would not forgive, acknowledged Him as the Creator of all things.

This is a fundamental principle that everyone must understand, for through it one understands tawhīd, which is the foundation and foremost principle of the religion.

These people fell short in understanding tawhīd, then proceeded to establish it through proofs which, even if sound, establish an aspect of tawhīd that no nation has disputed. Moreover, the methods set forth in the Quran are not their methods, just as the Quran’s purpose is not merely to establish what they understood tawhīd to mean.

Ibn Rushd said:

“It has thus become clear from this discussion what methods the revealed Law uses to call people to acknowledge the existence of the Maker, exalted is He, and to deny divinity to all besides Him. These are the two meanings encompassed by the declaration of tawhīd, namely, ‘There is no deity but Allah.’ Whoever utters this declaration and affirms the two meanings it encompasses through the methods we have described is the true Muslim, whose creed is the creed