for whoever associates partners with Allah has, in effect, likened the created to the Creator, and the most repugnant likeness of all is to compare the intrinsically powerless and needy with the One who is by His very essence all-powerful and self-sufficient, independent of every creature.
The Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—therefore warned his community against shirk and blocked every avenue that leads to it. Allah sent His Messenger Muhammad—peace be upon him—when the Arabs—in fact, the entire world save for a handful of the People of the Book—were in the worst imaginable state, as the Exalted says: “Allah has certainly bestowed a great favor upon the believers by raising among them a messenger from among themselves, reciting to them His verses, purifying them, and teaching them the Book and wisdom, while before that they were in clear misguidance” (3:164) 1.
At that time humankind was floundering in confusion. Some fashioned their deities out of carved stones and erected idols before which they devoted themselves, circumambulated, and to which they offered sacrifices from their finest wealth—even from their own children—as Allah says: “In this way their partners made the killing of their children seem fair to many of the polytheists, so as to ruin them and to confuse them about their religion” (6:137) 2.
Another faction—the People of the Book—were of two kinds: a perplexed Christianity that had strayed from the straight path, turning the One God into a trinity and taking its priests and saints as lords besides Allah; and a destructive Judaism that sowed corruption in the land, fanned the flames of discord, broke Allah’s covenant and pledge, and tampered with the texts of its scripture until they distorted them from their proper places.
A third group were the Magians, worshippers of fire who claimed two gods—one, they said, the creator of good, and the other the creator of evil.
A fourth group were the Sabeans, worshippers of the planets and stars who believed these heavenly bodies influenced events on earth. And a fifth were the dahriyya (materialists), who followed no religion whatsoever and denied both resurrection and reckoning.