Chapter: An exposition of tawhid and the testimony that there is no deity but Allah

Allah the Exalted says: “Those whom they invoke are themselves seeking a means of nearness to their Lord—who among them will be closest to Him. They yearn for His mercy and fear His punishment. Indeed, the punishment of your Lord is truly dreaded.” [Al-Isrāʾ 57]

Relevance of this chapter to the Book of Tawhid: After the author—may Allah have mercy on him—outlined in the previous chapters the reality of tawhid, its merits, the call to it, and the danger of its opposite, shirk, he proceeds here to clarify its true meaning. Some people misunderstand tawhid, imagining that it is limited to acknowledging Allah’s sole Lordship. That is not what tawhid intends. Rather, as the texts the author quotes in this chapter demonstrate, tawhid means dedicating all worship exclusively to Allah and being free of every form of shirk.

The author joins the phrase “the testimony that there is no deity but Allah” to tawhid in order to show that the two expressions convey one and the same reality, with no divergence between them.

“Yadʿūn” (“they call upon”): the pronoun refers to the unbelievers who call upon angels, prophets, the righteous, and others besides Allah.

“Yabtaghūn” (“they seek”): the pronoun refers to those who are called upon—the angels and the like—who themselves seek closeness to Allah.