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have any right to share in these things. He is the only Provider and Sustainer. The
seven heavens and seven worlds and everything they encompass are all under His
dominion and control. Even those so-called gods that they worshipped acknowledge
that they are under Allah’s dominion and control.
These are some strange things which you are saying, do you have any proof ?
There are many proofs. One is the saying of Allah (): “Say, ‘Who
provides for you from the heaven and the earth? Or who controls hearing and
sight. And who brings the living out of the dead and brings the dead out of the
living? And who arranges every matter?’ They will say ‘Allah’ so say ‘Then
will you not fear Him?’” [10:31]
Another is the saying of Allah: “Say: ‘To whom belongs the earth and
whoever is in it, if you should know?’ They will say ‘To Allah.’ Say, ‘Then will
you not remember?’ Say ‘Who is Lord of the seven heavens and Lord of the
Great Throne?’ They will say ‘To Allah.’ Say ‘Then will you not fear Him?’
Say ‘In whose hand is the realm of all things - and He protects while none can
protect against Him, if you know?’ They will say ‘To Allah.’ Say ‘Then how
are you deluded?’ Rather We have brought them the truth and yet indeed
they are liars.” [23:84-91]
These mushrikoon would say in invocation to Allah during the Hajj: “Here I am
at Your service, O Allah! Here I am at Your service. Here I am at Your service, and
You have no partner. Except for a partner whom You own. You own him and all
that he owns.”
Thus, the pagan Arabs used to acknowledge that Allah alone administers all
affairs of the universe, a belief known as Tawheed ar-Ruboobiyyah, but this
acknowledgement did not make them Muslims.
What made these people disbelievers was the fact that they supplicated to angels,
prophets, and other righteous people with the intention of seeking their intercession
and to draw near to Allah. Therefore, it is obligatory to direct all supplication,
vows, sacrifices, seeking of aid, and all other acts of worship to Allah alone.
If Tawheed does not only mean, as you say, acknowledging the
existence of Allah and his total control of everything in the universe, then
what is it?
The Tawheed for which Allah sent the Messengers and revealed the
Sacred Scriptures, and which the mushrikoon refused to accept was to single out
Allah in worship, directing worship to Him alone and none else. This Tawheed
entails that one does not direct any worship to beings other than Allah, whether it
be supplication, vows, offering sacrifice, seeking help and aid, or anything else.
This is the Tawheed which is intended in the phrase Laa Ilaaha Ill-Allah.
The mushrikoon understood that the word ilaah meant those objects to which
they directed worship, whether they were angels, prophets, saints, trees, graves or
jinns 1 . They did not understand the word ilah to mean the Creator, the Provider, or
1 The Jinn are a creation of the Unseen parallel to humans and have a free will. They are often
known in English as ‘spirits’.