What is tawhid al-ittiba' (the oneness of following)?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Yes. And what is troubling you?
The Shaykh : There is one.
The questioner : Shaykh, may Allah preserve you. One who divided tawhid into four categories of tawhid, including the love of the Messenger and following him. Many of the Sufis cloak themselves with the love of the Messenger and made this fourth category specific.
The Shaykh : This is also a mistake. This is not called tawhid al-'ibadah (oneness of worship) or tawhid al-rububiyyah (oneness of lordship), because tawhid al-ittiba' does not mean that the Messenger is a god, for example, or a Lord. The meaning is that he only indicates the path.
The Shaykh : There is one.
The questioner : Shaykh, may Allah preserve you. One who divided tawhid into four categories of tawhid, including the love of the Messenger and following him. Many of the Sufis cloak themselves with the love of the Messenger and made this fourth category specific.
The Shaykh : This is also a mistake. This is not called tawhid al-'ibadah (oneness of worship) or tawhid al-rububiyyah (oneness of lordship), because tawhid al-ittiba' does not mean that the Messenger is a god, for example, or a Lord. The meaning is that he only indicates the path.
Source
قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، 521 - ما هو توحيد الاتباع؟ شرح تقريب التدمرية - ابن عثيمين — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.