“…to the truth about which they had differed, by His permission; and God guides whom He wills to a straight path.” (Q 2:213)

Accordingly, every messenger—may God’s blessings be upon them all, the first of them and the last—was sent with the religion of Islam: worshipping God alone with no partner, and worshipping Him at each moment with whatever He has then commanded. Thus, facing Jerusalem in prayer was part of Islam for as long as God commanded it; when He forbade that and ordered prayer toward the Kaʿbah, turning to the Kaʿbah became Islamic worship, and turning toward the Rock ceased to be so.

The variation among the prophets’ laws is therefore a diversity within a single law. About this the Most High says:

“To each of you We have appointed a law (sharʿah) and a clear way (minhāj).” (Q 5:48)

Here the sharʿah is the statute itself, while the minhāj is the road and path: the sharʿah is like the gate one enters, the minhāj like the route one travels. The ultimate goal, however, is the very essence of religion—that God alone be worshipped, without partner. This doctrinal reality on which all the messengers agreed is God’s religion, and He accepts no other from anyone. As for the idolatry forbidden on the tongues of His messengers, it is to worship anything alongside God.

Whoever does not worship God at all—such as Pharaoh and those like him, about whom God said, “Indeed, those who wax arrogant concerning My worship shall enter Hell humiliated” (Q 40:60)—are the muʿaṭṭilah, the deniers, and they are the worst of the unbelievers. Yet even they have objects they worship besides God, as He said of Pharaoh’s people: “Will you leave Moses and his gods?” (Q 7:127). More than one of the early authorities said, “Pharaoh had gods that he worshipped.”

And whoever worships another deity alongside God is a polytheist committing major shirk, which God does not forgive, even