the Qur’ān (14:52) states: “This is a message to all mankind. Let them be warned thereby, and let them know that He is the One and Only Allah. Let those who are endowed with insight take heed.”
This ayah comes in the form of an open and loud declaration, intended to inform all mankind. The essential purpose of this message and the warning it contains is that people should know that “He is the One and Only Allah.”
This is the basic concept of this religion on which its code of living is built. What is required here is not that we should merely acquire such information. The purpose is to inspire us to conduct our lives on the basis of this knowledge. It is that we should submit to Allah, the Exalted, alone, since He is the One and only Allah. It is Allah who deserves to be the Lord, i.e. the Sovereign, the Ruler and the Legislator.
Life would then be transformed and become totally different from every other type of life based on the lordship of creatures, which means that some submit to others who are considered sovereign over them. The difference involves faith, worship, morality, standards and values, behaviour and practices, as well as political, economic and social systems and every aspect of the life of the individual and society alike.
Believing in the One Allah is the basis of a complete system. It is not merely a matter of conviction. Faith comprises all aspects of life. In the Islamic perspective, sovereignty is a question of faith, as is morality. It is on the basis of faith that the code of life that comprises both moral values and legal matters is based. We cannot appreciate the extent which faith takes in the Islamic perspective unless we understand the full meaning of the basic declaration every Muslim must make in order to be a Muslim: “I bear witness that there is no deity other than Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad ﷺ is Allah’s Messenger.”
We must also be aware of the meaning of addressing all worship to Allah alone. This means that submission is only to Allah, the Exalted, not merely during prayer, but in every life situation. In his supplication, “And preserve me and my children from ever worshipping idols” (Ayah 35) Prophet Ibrahim did not want to adopt the primitive way which the pagan Arabs and other communities practised namely the worship of deities made of stones, trees, animals, birds, stars, fire or spirits.
To limit the concept of polytheism to this primitive form blurs our view so that we cannot see other forms which may bedevil humanity in different states of ignorance (jahiliyyah). We need to have a fuller understanding of the nature of associating partners with Allah, the Exalted, its relevance to idols, and the nature of idols and how they are represented in modern states of ignorance, or jahiliyyah.
Associating partners with Allah, the Exalted, may take any form and be represented in any situation where submission in all aspects of life is not to Allah, the Exalted, alone. It is sufficient that a person should submit to beings other than Allah in certain aspects of his life to be in a situation of associating partners with Allah, the Exalted, even though he submits to Allah, the Exalted, alone in the other aspects of his life. Worship is only one aspect of life where submission is reflected. But there are many other forms of submission in human life which give us practical examples of polytheism.
We may believe that divinity belongs completely to Allah, the Exalted, alone, and we submit to Him in our prayers, fasting, performing pilgrimage and other aspects of worship, but we might at the same time submit to laws other than Allah’s in our social, economic and political life. We might also be submitting to concepts other than those approved by Allah, the Exalted, in our social standards and to other human beings in our moral values, traditions, customs and style of dress. Such a person practises polytheism in its essence, in full breach of the meaning of the declaration that “there is no deity other than Allah and Muhammad is Allah’s Messenger”. This is what we overlook. We take all such matters carelessly, failing to realise that they demonstrate the same paganism that has been practised by different communities throughout history.
The role of Islam is not only to destroy wood or stone idols. That was not the purpose of all the efforts and sacrifices made by Allah’s Messengers and their followers in history. Islam aims rather to establish in a very clear way the difference between submission to Allah, the Exalted, alone in all matters and affairs and submission to other beings or entities. It is necessary to look carefully at forms and appearances in every situation to establish whether the existing order conforms to the concept of Allah’s oneness or to a form of paganism.
We may imagine ourselves to be following the faith revealed by Allah, the Exalted, because we declare, “There is no deity except Allah, and Muhammad is Allah’s Messenger”, and submit to Allah, the Exalted, in all matters of worship and in marriage, divorce and inheritance. Yet when matters go beyond this aspect, our submission is to other beings. We follow laws that are in clear conflict with what Allah, the Exalted, has legislated. We even sacrifice our lives, property, honour and morals, willingly or unwillingly, to fulfil what this neo-paganism requires of us, even when it is in conflict with what is acceptable to Allah, the Exalted. We are thus totally mistaken when we imagine that we follow Islam. We should wake up and realise that ours is a situation of clear paganism.
Divine faith is not as hollow as it is imagined to be by some of those who claim to be Muslims. It is a complete way of life that comprises all the necessary details of daily life. Submission to Allah’s law in the details of daily life, as well as in basic principles and concepts, is the core of the divine faith. It is Islam in its true sense, which is the only form acceptable to Allah, the Exalted. Polytheism does not only take the form of believing in multiple deities and claiming that they are Allah’s partners. It is instead the acknowledgement of other lords alongside Him. We then must examine our lives to determine whom we actually submit to. If we submit totally to Allah, the Exalted, obeying His orders and laws to the exclusion of any other then we follow the divine faith. If not, we have a religion based on idol worship. This is a terrible situation indeed. “This is a message to all mankind. Let them be warned thereby, and let them know that He is the One and Only Allah. Let those who are endowed with insight take heed.” (Ayah 52)