The Shaykh’s clarification and explanation of the state of the polytheists before the call of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), what they believed about Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and where their shirk (associating partners with Allah) lay

The questioner : I would like to ask a question about 'aqidah (creed).

The Shaykh : 'Aqidah?

The questioner : Yes, what is your opinion regarding the statement of Imam Abu Hanifah in the text of Sharh al-Fiqh al-Akbar by Ali al-Qari, page 51: "That Allah the Exalted speaks without an instrument or letters, and the letters are created, while the speech of Allah the Exalted is not created," considering that if this statement is established from Abu Hanifah, it agrees with the fiqh of the Asha'irah in this issue, and that Abu Hanifah is from the Salaf (the earliest generations) without dispute?

The Shaykh : Your question opens a new door of knowledge for me that I must remind you of and draw your attention to: Islam, as you know, stated in the Noble Qur'an, and this is one of its distinctive features, that it warned the Muslims against falling into what the former people, the Jews and the Christians, fell into. So it said regarding these people: . When this verse was revealed, there was in the gathering an Arab man from the rare Arabs who, in modern terms, was an intellectual at that time, not illiterate. The Arabs were illiterate except for the rare few, and this man was among those rare few. He was an intellectual, he was educated, he had read the book known as the Holy Book, which contains the Torah and the Gospel. He found the Torah and the Gospel to be better than what he found his people worshipping, namely statues and idols. He found there some morals and some legislation, whereas he found absolutely nothing of that in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance (jahiliyyah) polytheism. So he became a Christian. When he came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) while he was still a Christian, he came with a cross hanging on his chest. So the Messenger (peace be upon him) denied that to him. Then Allah (Mighty and Majestic) guided him, and he embraced Islam, and his Islam was good. He began to study fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and sit in the gatherings of the Messenger (peace be upon him). One day, when this verse was revealed: , and he was one of those Christians, he said: . It immediately came to the mind of 'Adi ibn Hatim (may Allah be pleased with him) that the intended meaning of the verse was: they believed in their rabbis that they create, provide sustenance, cause death, and give life, and so on. He said: . He said: As for that, it used to happen. He said: .
The point is that Muslims, to this day, and praise be to Allah, still have among them those who preserve tawhid (the oneness of Allah) in its entirety. Because the tawhid derived from the Book of Allah and the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) differs completely from the tawhid found among the Christians and the Jews, and even—may it not be heavy on your ears—among some Muslims. The tawhid that came in the Qur'an and the Sunnah is unknown to many Muslims, let alone the people of other religions. This is because the tawhid to which all the messengers called, without exception, is the tawhid of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in His essence, meaning: He has no equal, no creator with Him, no provider with Him. This is a matter in which even the polytheists share. The polytheists to whom the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was sent believed that the Creator is One, with no equal in His creation. But despite that, they were described in many verses as polytheists, and Allah said to them: . So what are the equals (andad) that they made for Allah (Mighty and Majestic), which Allah denied for them, even though they were saying, in the clear text of the Noble Qur'an, as He (Mighty and Majestic) said: ? So: the creation of the heavens and the earth, they believed that He is One, with no partner. So where is their shirk, as long as they affirm the oneness of Allah in His essence? Here lies the ignorance of all the religions we mentioned earlier, and of some of the ignorant among Muslims, who understand the meaning of "La ilaha illa Allah" (There is no god but Allah) as: "There is no Lord but Allah"!!! This is a very, very wrong interpretation, such that a polytheist, whether Jewish or Christian, who says "There is no Lord but Allah" would not enter Islam. Because "There is no Lord but Allah" was what the polytheists, as you heard earlier from the Qur'an, were saying: the Creator is One, and the Lord of the worlds is One. So why was the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) sent to these polytheists to call them to believe that the Creator of the heavens and the earth is Allah alone, with no partner? No, this is called "achieving the inevitable" (tahsil hasil). Do you understand from me what "achieving the inevitable" means?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Yes?

The questioner : Before.

The Shaykh : Well done, meaning something that was present in the hearts of these polytheists.