god other than Him. You are nothing but fabricators.” Thus, He described them as fabricators before issuing a ruling that they would contravene, because they had set up another god alongside Allah. The designation “polytheist” therefore applies before the coming of the message: a person associates partners with his Lord, sets others equal to Him, takes other gods alongside Him and assigns rivals to Him before the Messenger comes. This establishes that these designations precede the message. Likewise, the terms “ignorance” and “the state of ignorance” apply: one may speak of a state of ignorance and describe someone as ignorant before the Messenger comes. Punishment, however, does not apply before then.

As for turning away from obedience, as in His words:

“He neither believed nor prayed, but denied and turned away,”

this can only occur after the Messenger comes. An example is His statement about Pharaoh:

“But he denied and disobeyed.”

This was after the Messenger had come to him, as Allah Most High says:

“He showed him the greatest sign, but he denied and disobeyed.”

And He says:

“But Pharaoh disobeyed the Messenger.” (1).