the monotheism brought by the Messenger. Despite their claim to be monotheists, their monotheism is not the monotheism described by Allah and His Messenger. Rather, the monotheism they claim as their exclusive preserve is false according to revelation, reason, and language.

The monotheism of the messengers and the believers consists in worshipping Allah alone. Whoever worships Allah alone, associating nothing with Him, has affirmed His oneness. Whoever worships anything besides Him associates partners with Him and is not a monotheist whose devotion is sincerely His alone—even if he also professes these doctrines which they claim constitute monotheism.

Even if he acknowledged that Allah alone is the Creator of everything, he would still be a polytheist. This is the oneness in actions which these speculative theologians claim amounts to acknowledging that there is no god but Him, and which they seek to establish through what they imagine to be the argument from mutual hindrance and other arguments. Such was the condition of the Arab polytheists to whom the Messenger was first sent. The Quran was revealed exposing their polytheism, and he called them to affirm Allah’s oneness and to devote