other than Allah, and regarded their worshippers as worshipping something other than Allah, associating partners with Him, setting others on an equal footing with Him, and assigning Him a rival. For they called humanity to worship Allah alone, without any partner. This is Allah’s religion, with which He revealed His Books and sent His messengers. It is Islam in its universal sense: Allah accepts no other religion from earlier or later generations, and He does not forgive anyone who abandons it after the message has reached him. As He said:
“Indeed, Allah does not forgive associating partners with Him, but He forgives anything less than that for whom He wills.”
This is what distinguishes the people of Paradise from the people of the Fire, and the blessed from the wretched. As the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:
“Whoever’s last words are ‘There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah’ is assured of Paradise.”
He also said:
“Whoever dies knowing that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah is assured of Paradise.”
And he said:
“I certainly know a declaration which no servant utters at the time of death without his soul finding comfort in it; it is the foundation of the religion.”
Likewise, he said:
“I have been commanded to fight the people until they testify that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah and that I am Allah’s Messenger. When they say this, their lives and property are protected from me, except as required by its rightful demands, and their reckoning rests with Allah.”
The virtues of this declaration, the truths it embodies, and its place in the religion surpass what anyone can describe or comprehend. It is the essence of the entire matter. As Allah Most High said:
“And We sent no messenger before you without revealing to him: ‘There is no deity worthy of worship except Me, so worship Me.’”
He, glorified be He, thus states that He reveals to every messenger the denial of divinity to anything besides Him and its affirmation for Him alone. Yet these heretical polytheists claim that everything is as entitled to divinity as Allah is. Allah Most High said:
“Ask those of Our messengers whom We sent before you: Have We appointed, besides