usury.” This analogy originates with the polytheists who set up equals to Allah and rivals whom they placed on a par with the Lord of all worlds by worshipping them or taking them as gods. The same applies to anyone who equates His Messenger with a lying claimant to prophethood, such as Musaylima the Liar; who equates His Book, its recitation, or listening to it with some other speech, its recitation, or listening to it; or who equates the religion He has prescribed with another religion prescribed for him by those he associates with Allah. All of this belongs to the conduct of the polytheists, even if some believers fall into certain aspects of it through mistaken interpretation. People are as Allah Most High says:

“And most of them do not believe in Allah without associating others with Him.” [Surah Yūsuf 106]

Associating partners with Allah within this community is subtler than the creeping of ants. This is a matter on which believers ought to reflect, for Allah’s religion has been altered, both among earlier nations and within this community, only through analogies of this kind. Hence it has been said, “The sun and moon were worshipped only through analogies.”

The root of associating partners with Allah is to place His creatures on a par with Him in some matter that is His exclusive due. No one has ever equated any created being with Allah in every respect. Whoever worships another or places his trust in another associates a partner with Him, as does someone who takes Allah’s speech—which He revealed and commanded people to listen to—and places listening to certain poems on a par with it.

It has been narrated that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: “The superiority of the Quran over all other speech is like the superiority of Allah over His creation.” This was narrated by al-Tirmidhī and others.