—other gods whom they took as intercessors with Him. They would say, “We worship them only so that they may bring us nearer to Allah.” And they loved them as they loved Allah.

Associating partners with Allah in love, worship, supplication, and petition is distinct from associating partners with Him in belief and acknowledgment. As the Exalted said:

“Yet among people are those who take others as equals to Allah, loving them as they love Allah. But those who believe are stronger in their love for Allah.”

Whoever loves a created being as he loves the Creator has associated that being with Him: he has taken others as equals to Allah, loving them as he loves Allah, even though he acknowledges that Allah is his Creator. For this reason, Allah and His Messenger distinguished between someone who loves a created being for Allah’s sake and someone who loves a created being alongside Allah. For the former, Allah is the One he loves and worships, the ultimate object of his love and worship; he loves no other alongside Him. Yet because he knows that Allah loves His prophets and righteous servants, he loves them for His sake. Likewise, because he knows that Allah loves the fulfillment of His commands and the avoidance of His prohibitions, he loves these things. Thus, his love for what Allah loves follows from his love for Allah, branches out from it, and forms part of it.

This is unlike someone who loves another alongside Allah, making that being an equal to Allah: he places his hopes in him and fears him, or obeys him without knowing that obedience to him constitutes obedience to Allah. He takes him as an intercessor for himself without knowing that Allah permits that intercessor to intercede on his behalf. The Exalted said:

“They worship besides Allah that which neither harms nor benefits them, and they say, ‘These are our intercessors with Allah.’”