(76) There have always been numerous pretenders to prophethood, yet Allah unfailingly exposes them, tears away their disguise, and makes their disgrace plain to people. Whoever believes such impostors has fallen into disbelief, for he denies Allah, His Messenger ﷺ, and the unanimous consensus of the Muslims that prophethood was conclusively sealed with Muhammad ﷺ. The phrase, “And to every nation Allah sent a messenger,” means that to every human community Allah dispatches a messenger so that the proof is established against them and they cannot plead, “No bearer of good news or warner ever came to us.” Allah says: “We never punish until We have sent a messenger” (al-Isra 17:15). Thus every past nation received a messenger, as He also states: “There is no nation but a warner has passed among them” (Fatir 35:24). What, then, was the content of the messengers’ call? From the first to the last their mission centred on tawhid (pure monotheism). Allah declares: “We certainly sent into every community a messenger proclaiming, ‘Worship Allah and shun the taghut’” (al-Nahl 16:36). Everything worshipped instead of Allah is a taghut; one category, as will be discussed, consists of those beings who are worshipped besides Allah and are pleased with that worship. Hence the divine command “and shun the taghut” means: keep away from the worship of idols, images, graves, and shrines—this is…