Warning against falling into verbal shirk, such as saying "I have no one but Allah and you" or similar phrases.

The Shaykh : And among these etiquettes that Muslims have largely turned away from, first due to their ignorance of the Sunnah and second due to their neglect of the rulings of the Shari'ah, are expressions that the Wise Lawgiver has forbidden. For example, when a Companion saw in a dream that he was walking in one of the roads of Madinah, he met a man from the Jews, and the Muslim said to him: "You are a good people, O Jews, were it not that you associate partners with Allah by saying: 'Azir is the son of Allah.' The Jew said: 'And you are a good people, O Muslims, were it not that you associate partners with Allah by saying: What Allah wills and what Muhammad wills.' He said: Then he went on walking and met a man from the Christians, and the Muslim said to him: 'You are a good people, O Christians, were it not that you associate partners with Allah by saying: Jesus is the son of Allah.' That Christian said to the Muslim: 'And you are a good people, O Muslims, were it not that you associate partners with Allah by saying: What Allah wills and what Muhammad wills.' When the man woke up, he went to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and related the dream to him. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) stood up to address them and said: , or .
The majority of Muslims today have neglected this etiquette. How often we fall into this error without noticing or warning others. A man comes to his client and says to him, "I have no one but you and Allah" or "I have no one but Allah and you." This is what the Messenger (peace be upon him) rejected explicitly: . If one must mention the Messenger (peace be upon him) alongside Allah here, let him do so not with the conjunction "and" (waw) which joins and equates the Messenger with Allah, but with "then" (thumma), which indicates sequence and gives the meaning that the Messenger is below Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in rank. Therefore, when people today say "I have no one but Allah and you," this is what the scholars call verbal shirk. Of course, the one who says to the other, "I have no one but Allah and you," does not believe that this person he is addressing possesses the power to benefit or harm him; otherwise, if he believed that, he would be a disbeliever and would have apostatized from his religion. But he wants to seek his help in fulfilling his need as a means and a cause, and this is, of course, prescribed. However, he expressed what he intended poorly by saying "I have no one but Allah and you." If it is necessary, he must say...

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner: I have no one but Allah and your hands...

The Shaykh : Yes, "the hand of Allah and your hand." They also say "the hand of Allah and your hand." This is also an error. If it is necessary, say "I have no one but Allah, then you" or "the hand of Allah, then your hand," and so on. Also, another man agrees with him on a work, and when the agreement is concluded, he says, "We have placed our trust in Allah and in you." Allah the Exalted says in the Noble Qur'an: , . And when they made a partner to Allah in reliance, this is only verbal shirk because they do not mean what they say. Therefore, it is not permissible for a Muslim to say "I have placed my trust in Allah and in you" or "I have no one but you" or "I have no one but Allah and you," and so on. Either he does not mention anyone alongside Allah at all, and this is the most decisive way to cut off the root of verbal shirk, or if he mentions someone, he does so with the word "then" (thumma), not with the joining letter "and" (waw).

The questioner: Okay, is the one who mentions verbal shirk punished?

The Shaykh : He is punished after being warned, meaning after he is warned and informed, because the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade this. So when he does not stop, he is certainly punished. But before the explanation reaches him, he is not punished. That is why I said earlier in my speech that we often fall into such things without noticing or warning others, because no one warns people of this error, even though the hadiths on this matter are many, and very many. For example, when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) stood up to deliver a sermon one day, a man from the Companions stood up and said: "What Allah wills and what you will, O Messenger of Allah." He said: . And more than this, it came in "Sahih Muslim" that a man delivered a sermon and said in it: "Whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has succeeded, and whoever disobeys them has gone astray." He said to him (peace and blessings be upon him): . Do not combine them with one pronoun as you said: "Whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has succeeded." Say: "And whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger has gone astray." He erred when he said: . This is correct, but when he came to the second sentence and said: , he erred in this, and the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered him to say: . This is among the verbal etiquettes that the majority of Muslims today are ignorant of. From this category is what we are currently discussing: it is not permissible for a master to call his slave, i.e., his boy, "my slave of Allah." This is the speech of Allah to His servants. Similarly, it is not permissible to call his maidservant "my maidservant." The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) explained this with a clear and explicit meaning, saying: . So say "my boy" and "my girl," "my slave" and "my maidservant," and so on.