Allah Most High has thus described them as liars and disbelievers. Indeed, He used the intensive form kaffār (hardened disbeliever), just as one says dārib (one who strikes) and darrāb (one who strikes repeatedly).

How, then, can they be called monotheists with respect to lordship when Allah Most High has explicitly described them as disbelievers?!”

I say: No scholar has described someone who affirms Allah’s oneness in lordship as a monotheist in this unqualified sense. Rather, they describe as a monotheist only someone who upholds all three categories of tawhīd. When scholars speak of someone who affirms Allah’s lordship—that He alone is the Creator, Provider, Sovereign, and Disposer of all affairs, with no partner—yet does not worship Him alone, they say that he acknowledges or recognizes Allah’s oneness in lordship, or use similar expressions. They do not consider this sufficient to save him from Allah’s punishment or mean that he is no longer a disbeliever.

Shaykh al-Islām said: “As for affirming Allah’s oneness in lordship, which people acknowledge and speculative theologians have expounded, this alone is not sufficient. Rather, it forms part of the proof against them.”1.

Ibn al-Qayyim said: “As for affirming Allah’s oneness in lordship, which Muslims and disbelievers alike acknowledge and speculative theologians have expounded in their books, this alone is not sufficient. Rather, it is the proof against them, as He, glorified be He, has explained in several places in His Book …”2.

Al-Sanʿānī said in the introduction to his book Tathīr al-Iʿtiqād (Purifying Belief): “All praise is due to Allah, who does not accept His servants’ affirmation of His oneness in lordship until they devote their worship entirely to Him alone, taking no rival to Him, invoking no one alongside Him, and placing their trust in Him alone …”