“Say, ‘Come, and I will recite to you what your Lord has forbidden for you: that you associate nothing with Him, that you show kindness to parents, and that you do not kill your children out of poverty…’” (Q 6:151).

This verse is evidence— as will be shown— that the gravest thing Allah has forbidden is shirk⦗18⦘. If the greatest command is tawḥid, then a person must begin with learning the creed before everything else. Creed is the foundation; it must be the starting point of both learning and teaching, and one must persevere in teaching it and explaining it to the people, because it is the most important matter Allah has enjoined. It is therefore unfitting to leave it until the end or to treat it lightly. Nowadays there are preachers who discourage studying tawḥid and creed, and some people have fallen into this error. Since neglecting tawḥid amounts to neglecting the entire religion, it deserves the highest priority.

What, then, is tawḥid? Is it simply to acknowledge that Allah is the Creator, the Provider, the Giver of life and death? No; tawḥid is to single out Allah alone for worship. Allah says, “I did not create jinn and humankind except to worship Me” (Q 51:56). The exegetes explained “to worship Me” as “to affirm My oneness,” thus equating worship with tawḥid.

Therefore, tawḥid is to devote all acts of worship exclusively to Allah; it is not merely to affirm that He is the Creator, the Provider, the One who gives life and causes death and directs all affairs, because this