Continuation of the Explanation of: There is no god but Allah

The Shaykh : ...to its end, and what He sent down... And the meaning of *ilah* (god) is that which is worshipped, meaning the object of worship. The linguists say that *ilah* means one who is capable of creating things from nothing. In their view, *ilah* means *alaah*, which is the active participle, meaning one who is capable of creating things from nothing. There is no doubt that this explanation of *La ilaha illa Allah* is a false explanation; it is a false explanation. This is because the explanation they used is the one held by the polytheists, who say, "Shall I make the gods into one God?" If we said that *ilah* means one who decrees and creates, the polytheists would have established this, would they not? They say, "And if you ask them, 'Who created the heavens and the earth?' They will say, 'Allah'..." So *ilah* does not mean the one who is capable of creating things from nothing; rather, *ilah* is the one who is worshipped, the one who is worshipped. When this is the case, a difficulty arises in the heart: How do you say "There is no worshipped one but Allah" when we see the polytheists worshipping their idols? We say: Yes, if they call it a god, it is not a god in reality. Yes, or... This is like a man who has a son. When the leaf moves, the son runs, and when he hears the cat's voice, he runs away. The father says, "My son is a brave hero." What do you think? Can he be called a hero? No, it is not possible. If they call it a god, these people say it is worshipped, but it is not truly worshipped. Because if they worshipped it, when distress touches them, to whom do they turn?
The student: To Allah

The Shaykh : They turn to Allah. They worship them, yet they know and admit that they do not truly worship them except to draw near to Allah the Exalted. They made them merely a means and a path. With this analogy, the difficulty does not arise for us regarding the words of the messengers to their people: "Worship Allah; you have no god other than Him." If we said, "You have no worshipped one other than Him," and they are polytheists who perhaps worship [other things], there would be a kind of contradiction. But we say that these objects of worship are not truly worshipped. The god who is truly worshipped is Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He). As for these, they are not, even if they bow to them and prostrate to them, because they know that they do not benefit them; they know that they do not benefit them. The most they do is draw them near to Allah. Yes, in reality, they do not see any right for Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) in... This is because, in reality, they do not deserve to be called a god by the Shari'ah; they do not deserve it because they are worshipped but are not worthy. And here, does *La ilaha illa Allah* contain affirmation and negation? It contains negation and affirmation: the negation of divinity for other than Allah and the affirmation of it for Allah. That is why it came by way of restriction, by way of restriction. Yes, *La ilaha illa Allah*.
The student : Shaykh

The Shaykh : Yes