(15) His words, “and with that Allah commanded,” refer back to the phrase “that you worship Allah, devoting the religion sincerely to Him.” In other words, Allah has enjoined upon every created being—Arab and non-Arab, white and black, from the time of Adam to the last human on earth—to worship Him with undiluted sincerity. The Almighty says: “O mankind, worship your Lord who created you and those before you, that you might become God-fearing—the One who made the earth a resting place for you and the sky a canopy, and sent down water from the sky and thereby brought forth fruits as provision for you. So do not set up rivals to Allah while you know” (al-Baqarah 2:21-22). This verse affirms that He has no equal, likeness, counterpart, or peer, and therefore forbids both major and minor shirk. Allah issued this command to all people, first to last. His words, “and He created them for it,” mean that they were created solely to worship Him without partner, as in: “I did not create jinn and humankind except to worship Me” (adh-Dhariyat 51:56). He reiterated this command in: “O mankind, worship your Lord who created you” (al-Baqarah 2:21).