—though their doctrine is among the gravest forms of unbelief—no one said that created beings themselves are part of the Creator, or that the Creator is creation, or that the Real, who is beyond all likeness, is creation, which is subject to likeness.

Likewise, his statement, “If the polytheists were to abandon idol worship, they would be ignorant of the Real in proportion to how much of it they abandoned,” constitutes unbelief that is indisputably recognized as such in all faiths. For the adherents of all faiths agree that all the messengers were forbidden to worship idols and declared those who did so disbelievers, and that a believer cannot truly be a believer until he renounces the worship of idols and everything worshipped besides Allah. As Allah Most High says:

“You have an excellent example in Abraham and those with him, when they said to their people, ‘We disavow you and whatever you worship besides Allah. We reject you, and enmity and hatred have arisen between us and you forever, until you believe in Allah alone.’”

And Allah’s intimate friend said:

“Have you considered what you have been worshipping—you and your forefathers? They are enemies to me, except the Lord of all worlds.”

And Allah’s intimate friend said “to his father and his people, ‘I disavow whatever you worship, except the One who created me, for He will guide me.’”

And Allah’s intimate friend—the leader of those devoted to pure monotheism, in whose descendants Allah placed prophethood and Scripture—made the declaration for which the adherents of all faiths agree to venerate him:

“O my people, I disavow whatever you associate with Allah. I have turned my face towards the One who created the heavens and the earth, devoted to pure monotheism, and I am not one of the polytheists.”

This is too widely established and too evident among the adherents of the faiths—the Jews and Christians, let alone the Muslims—to require support from any particular text. Thus, whoever says, “If those who worship idols were to abandon them, they would be ignorant of the Real in proportion to how many of these idols they abandoned,” is a greater disbeliever than