There is no deity except Him
لا إله الا هو
This is tawhid al-uluhiyyah (oneness of worship)
This sentence—as you can see—is composed of a negation and an affirmation, a negation of the most eloquent types of negation, because it is prefixed with
No.
لا
the negator of the genus, and
No.
لا
the negator of the genus: scholars of grammar and rhetoric say that it is explicit in generality, meaning it is not merely apparent in generality, but it is more eloquent than the apparent: it is explicit in generality. For this reason, it is said of it: it negates the genus, not the unit: the entire genus. Thus, there is no god except Allah. But we must know that what is negated here is the true god, meaning: there is no true god except Allah. As for the false gods, they exist, as Allah the Exalted said:
they were not availed at all by their gods which they invoked other than Allah
فما أغنَتْ عنه آلهَتُهم التي يدعون من دون الله من شيء
their deities
آلهتهم
so He named them gods, and He the Exalted said:
And do not invoke besides Allah any other deity
ولا تدعُ مع الله إلهًا اخر
any other deity
إلهًا اخر
so He named it a god, but it is a false god, as He the Exalted said:
That is because Allah is the Truth, and that which they call upon other than Him is falsehood
ذَلِكَ بِأَنَّ اللَّهَ هُوَ الْحَقُّ وَأَنَّ مَا يَدْعُونَ مِنْ دُونِهِ هُوَ الْبَاطِلُ
If someone asks us: Is there a god with Allah? The answer requires detail: if you mean a true god, then no; but if you mean a false god that is called a god but is not a god, then that exists. And His saying:
There is no deity except Him
لا إله الا هو
If someone says: Where is the predicate of
No.
لا
Is it
He.
هو
Or what? We say: It cannot be the predicate of
No.
لا
He.
هو
, because
No.
لا
the negator of the genus does not operate except with indefinite nouns. Ibn Malik said:
It operates
Indeed
إِنَّ
Make
No.
لا
in an indefinite
It does not operate except with indefinite nouns, and
He.
هو
? is a definite noun. So where is the predicate? We say: The predicate is omitted, and its estimation is: there is no true deity except Allah. This is how it must be. And he who said: there is no existing deity except Allah, has erred, because this entails a contradiction. Indeed, if you say: there is no existing deity except Allah, you have made the existing deities Allah, and this is a great error. Rather, it is obligatory to say: there is no true deity except Allah. As for the verse, "except Him," so what is the grammatical position of
He.
هو
? It is a substitute (badal), a substitute for the omitted predicate. Good, he says:
So how are you being diverted
فأنى تصرفون
How
أنى
is a question word, and the intended meaning is rebuke and wonder, meaning: How are you being diverted from the worship of Allah Mighty and Majestic, while you know that there is no deity except Him? This is an error of folly in the mind and misguidance in the religion. Good, and regarding his saying:
So how are you being diverted
فأنى تصرفون
The commentator said:
"from His worship to the worship of others" Good, if this is a question, what did we say?
The student: ...
The Shaykh : And what? And wonder, for it necessitates that this diversion be forbidden, or that this turning away be forbidden, because one is not rebuked except for something forbidden. And Allah knows best.
