Thus, the good word is tawhīd. It is like a tree, with deeds as its fruits at all times. Likewise, the evil deed is acting for other than Allah, and this is shirk (associating partners with Allah). For a human being is ever acting and intending: he must act, and he must have a purpose for which he acts. If he acts for Allah and for another, that is shirk. Sins are a form of shirk, for they constitute obedience to Satan.

He says:

“I disavow your former association of me with Allah”—to the end of the verse.

And He says:

“Did I not command you, O children of Adam, not to worship Satan”—to the end of the verse.

And in the hadith:

“and from Satan’s evil and his shirk.”

Yet if a person is a monotheist, committing certain sins diminishes his tawhīd, as the Prophet said: “The fornicator does not fornicate”—and so on. Whoever is not a believer is not sincere in his devotion. And in the hadith: “May the slave of the dinar perish”—and so on. And in the hadith of Abū Bakr: “Say: ‘O Allah, I seek refuge in You from knowingly associating anything with You’”—and so on.

But if he does not set up another as Allah’s equal, loving that other as he loves Allah—rather, Allah is more beloved to him, more feared by him, and the object of greater hope than any created being—then he has freed himself of major shirk.