Explanation of the saying of Allah the Exalted: “And they were not commanded except to worship Allah, being sincere to Him in religion, inclining toward Him, and to establish prayer and give zakah. And that is the religion of righteousness.”

The Shaykh : Then he began this chapter, as he stated in the previously mentioned introduction, with verses. He said: Allah the Exalted said: The truth is that this verse is the foundation of tawhid (the oneness of Allah), the foundation of what some of the accurate scholars call tawhid al-uluhiyyah (oneness of worship). So if a Muslim unites his Lord in worship, his tawhid, though it is tawhid al-uluhiyyah, will not be sound unless he is completely sincere to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in it, with no trace of desiring anyone else, whether that is desiring fame, wealth, or any meaning that is not connected to the worship of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) alone, having no partner with Him. So this verse: , in my opinion as well, includes a reference to the two testimonies: "There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah." That is because the first testimony, the testimony of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) with oneness, includes, as we mentioned, worshipping Allah alone, having no partner with Him. So the second testimony includes following the Messenger (peace be upon him) in what He commanded us. So when Allah says in this verse: they were commanded either by the way of the Book or by the way of the Sunnah, either by the way of believing in Allah alone, having no partner with Him, or by the way of following the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) alone, having no partner with him in this following. So the verse refers to the two testimonies: the first testimony is in His saying (the Exalted): ; because the command, as it comes from Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), often comes from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). So a person's Islam is not complete except with these two testimonies, which include worshipping Allah alone, having no partner with Him on one hand, and worshipping Allah in terms of following the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), because he is the one who brings the command either directly from Allah or from Him, and he receives it by one of the known ways of revelation in the books of the Sunnah. So His saying (the Exalted): at the time that this noble verse included a warning about the obligation of sincerity in religion and worship to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), it contains a reference to tawhid al-uluhiyyah and to the tawhid of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) in following him in worship. Perhaps we will add to this clarification in the next lesson, if Allah wills. We stop here to remind you that in our upcoming lessons, our system will be to study what Allah (Mighty and Majestic) facilitates of the hadiths and verses in this book of ours, between the Maghrib prayer and the 'Isha' adhan, then we will pray in congregation here or in the mosque for those for whom it is facilitated, and after the prayer we will begin by answering or receiving questions from our brothers to answer them in about half an hour of time, provided that these questions are written in clear handwriting so that we may avoid the chaos that may occur in such a gathering due to the pushing and shoving of the people present in directing questions. This is on one hand, and on the other hand, we notice often that the questions.