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qul ʾinnī nuhītu ʾan ʾaʿbuda lladhīna tadʿūna min dūni llāhi lammā jāʾaniya l-bayyinātu min rabbī wa-ʾumirtu ʾan ʾuslima li-rabbi l-ʿālamīna
Say, ‘I have been forbidden to worship those whom you invoke besides Allah, as manifest proofs have come to me from my Lord, and I have been commanded to submit to the Lord of all the worlds.’
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah al-Ghafir - Verse 66
66. Say: “I have been forbidden to worship those whom you worship besides Allah, since there have come to me Signs from my Lord and I am commanded to submit to the Lord of the worlds.
Believers may not suffice to believe in Allah in their hearts, but they are supposed to express their belief. Association with Allah’s friends and dissociation from His enemies should accompany each other. Having not warded all kinds of polytheism and disbelief, we may not be monotheists in the real sense of the word. The blessed Verse in question makes a conclusion of the foregoing discussions on Divine Unity and so as to render polytheists and idolaters desperate, the Noble Prophet of Islam (S) is thus addressed:
The blessed Verse impedes man from idolatry and produces manifest, sensible, intellectual, and narrational arguments which have come to him from his Lord. It is also an injunction as to submission against
which presents a sufficient argument for total submission against His Pure Essence. It is worthy of note that injunction (amr) and prohibition (nahy) are distinct in this Verse, injunction toward total submission before God Almighty and prohibition from idolatry. The reason lying behind the distinction may lie in the fact that in terms of worshipping idols, man worships what he is prohibited from it, but in terms of worshipping God Almighty, man, besides worshipping Him, is supposed to submit to His Commands.
It is attested elsewhere in the Holy Qur’an2:
It is worthy of note that the Verse is saying that I have received injunctions and prohibitions, namely you are supposed to take care of yourselves without provoking their sense of obduracy. The last word about the preceding Verses is that the Divine Attribute:
is reiterated in three consecutive Verses:
The logical sequence is evident: Divine Immortality and Bountifulness; all praises and thanks are devoted to His Pure Essence; His Sacred Essence as the only Object of worship.
Footnotes