a created being with the Creator in any of these respects has set up an equal to Allah and is among those who equate others with their Lord. He has taken another god alongside Allah, even if he also believes that Allah alone created the heavens and the earth.
The Arab polytheists acknowledged that Allah alone created the heavens and the earth, as He Most High says:
“If you ask them who created the heavens and the earth, they will surely say, ‘Allah.’”
Yet they were polytheists who took other gods alongside Allah. He Most High says:
“Do you truly testify that there are other gods alongside Allah? Say, ‘I do not testify to that.’”
He Most High also says:
“Among people are those who take others besides Allah as equals, loving them as they love Allah. But those who believe are stronger in their love for Allah.”
They became polytheists because they loved those beings as they loved Him, not because they claimed that their gods created as He creates. As He Most High says:
“Or have they assigned partners to Allah who created as He creates, so that their creations seemed alike to them?”
This is a rhetorical question expressing denial, with the force of a negation: they did not assign partners to Allah who created as He creates, for they acknowledged that their gods did not create as He creates.
Rather, they took them as intercessors and intermediaries. He Most High says:
“They worship besides Allah what can neither harm nor benefit them, and they say, ‘These are our intercessors with Allah.’ Say, ‘Do you inform Allah of something He does not know in the heavens or on earth?’ Glory be to Him, and exalted is He above what they associate with Him.”
The man mentioned in Surah Yā Sīn said:
“Why should I not worship the One who created me, and to whom you will be returned?”
“Should I take other gods besides Him? If the Most Merciful intends harm for me, their intercession will avail me nothing, nor can they rescue me.”
“Then I would indeed be clearly astray.”
“I have believed in your Lord, so listen to me.”
(The second foundation is that we worship Him according to what He has prescribed through His Messengers. We worship Him only through acts that are obligatory or recommended. Permissible acts also fall within this when undertaken with the intention of obeying Him.