The Messenger of Allah: Islam's subtle yet blatant shirk

In Islam, Shirk is the sin of idolatry or polytheism. Islam teaches that God does not share His divine
attributes with any partner. Associating partners with God is disallowed according to the Islamic
doctrine of Tawhid. -- Wikipedia

The title sounds helplessly provocative as you would expect when arguing about such matters, so I
apologize for offending anyone and I hope we may have a civil discussion. I will try to make my point
as clear as possible.

The Qur'an and Hadith without a doubt put a great emphasis on a pure, uncorrupted, original,
natural, universal Monotheism. It is the fundamental proposition of Islam. But, surprisingly, Islam as
a whole religion and culture is inconsistent with its own sensitive standards of Monotheism, and I
will show why. Another example of such blatant contradiction and hypocrisy against its own primal
principle is in Christianity, as it argues in favor of a single Creator God, and vehemently opposes all
"paganism", yet it attributes a literal, physical genealogy to Godhead, or outright deifies a human
being. A Trinity apologist will put forward rhetorics like that Jesus is only one of the three
"manifestations" of the same, single Divinity. But the apologetic rhetoric will not satisfy anyone
except the apologist and the believer. Someone who relies on his God-given reason and common
sense can not be content with mind-dazzling rhetorics or conjecture if he is after the truth, or at
least something close to it.

I was raised in a Muslim country and environment and I'm well versed with Islamic knowledge,
creed, and terminology. Islam's two main tenets are, La ilaha illa Allah, Muhammad Rasul Allah. The
first sentence is a profession of Monotheism, the second one is an assertion about Revelation and
Prophethood. By definition, Monotheism is not dependent upon Revelation/Prophethood, and the
latter is only optional for the former, if at all permitted.

Monotheism, very superficially, is belief that a God exists, and It is numerically and qualitatively
singular. God is the creator and master of the universe and source of all moral authority. Oneness
and unity of God means that He possesses Unique, Matchless attributes that are far above and
beyond creatures. These Sublime qualities constitute His Divinity, thus they can not be "shared" with
humans or other creatures. In other words, there are no "partners" in His exclusive attributes. He is
the Supreme Being, All-Powerful, All-Knowing, the Highest Source of Justification etc. He is the Rab
(Arabic for Sovereign, Master, Lord, Sustainer): He ALONE has unchecked power over His subjects,
and His commandments ALONE are to be obeyed without a second thought. He is transcendental;
i.e. above time, above physical needs and weaknesses, and He does not have an observable
presence in nature etc., but He is not only unique in His nature or essence. He does not only deserve
glorification, supplication, and rituals. He can not be confined to the masjid alone. He owns life,
death, and the afterlife, He owns the heavens and the earth, therefore He is also the Authority over
men's earthly affairs. He is not only unique in His essence, He is unique in being a Master over our
lives too. In other words, He ALONE is unquestionable. He ALONE is unaccountable. He ALONE is
undisputable. There are no Gods, and no Masters except God, or Allah. He has no equals, assistants,
partners, rivals. He is the One and Only Owner of Dominion. The highest appeal.
1:2-7 “Praise be to Allah. The Lord of all being, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, the Master of
the Day of Judgment. We worship you alone, we seek aid and legitimacy from you alone. Guide us to
the straight path. The path of those on whom you bestowed grace, not those who deserved wrath,
or those astray.”

112:1-4 “Say: He is Allah, the One, the Samed (Sovereign, Needless, Sustainer, Sanctuary, and Source
of Legitimacy), Neither has He begotten, nor was He begotten, and there have been nothing equal to
Him.” 114:1-3 “Say: I seek refuge with the Master of men, the King of men, the God of men.”

35:13 "...To Him belongs dominion. Those you serve instead of Him have not the least power.”

2:256-8 “There is nothing undesirable in the religion. Truth is distinguished from error. Whoever
disbelieves in the Tyrant and believes in Allah, he has held on to an unbreakable support. Allah is the
patron of those who believe, He leads them out from darknesses into light. As for the disbelievers,
their patron is the Tyrant, he leads them from light into darknesses. They are people of hell, they
dwell therein forever. ..."

12:106 “Most of them do not believe in Allah without being associators (mushrikun).”

This is Qur'an's idea of Tawheed as opposed to Shirk, which is attributing equals/partners to Allah, or
attributing divinity to things other than Allah. Now I will present the contrasting ayats where I
believe the same Qur'an itself wages war on this basic description of monotheism.

1. The Prophet is an object of faith alongside Allah. Believing in the Prophet is as much a priority as
believing in Allah, denying the Prophet is as grave as denying Allah.

4:136 “O believers! Believe in Allah and His Messenger…”

9:62 “If they are truly believers, it is more fitting that they please Allah and His Messenger.”

48:13 “Whoever does not believe in Allah and His Messenger, we have prepared for the disbelievers
a blazing fire.” 57:21 “…a Paradise…for those who believe in Allah and His Messenger…”

4:150-151 “Those who…seek to separate Allah from His Messengers, saying, ‘We believe in one
(Allah) but disbelieve in the other (Messengers)’, seeking a compromise between the two…they are
truly disbelievers.” [Check “the munafiqun (hypocrites)” throughout the Qur’an. Why is their
profession of faith not recognized?]
So, how can disbelief in a HUMAN BEING be as sinful and blasphemous as disbelief in Allah? "Faith",
in a theological context, is the relationship between a Divine Authority and a creature, believer,
servant. How can the relationship between two CREATURES OF ALLAH be called "faith"?

But, for Qur'an, disbelief in Prophethood is perceived as disbelief in monotheism generally. Or/and
the Prophet is also a member of the divinity that is worthy of belief.

Throughout Qur'an, faith in Allah is rarely expressed without faith in the Messenger too, countless
times. And if someone denies the Messenger, his faith in Allah is not significant at all.

2. The Prophet is a Moral Authority, Measure of Legitimate and Illegitimate, Promulgator of haram
and halal.

4:59 “Obey Allah, and obey the Messenger, and those charged with authority among you. If you fall
into dispute on any matter, appeal to Allah and the Messenger about it. … That is best for final
decision.”

4:65 “No! By God! They have no faith until they make you judge in all disputes between them and
there is no resistance in their souls against your verdict and they submit with utmost conviction.”

24:50-1 “Is there a disease [of hypocrisy] in their hearts, do they doubt and fear that Allah and His
Messenger will deal unjustly with them? … When summoned to Allah and His Messenger for
judgment…the believers say nothing but, ‘We have heard and obeyed.’ They are those who attain to
salvation.”

33:36 “It is not for a believing man or woman that they should have any option when Allah and His
Messenger have decided upon a matter.”

9:29 “Those who do not accept as forbidden what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden…”

I wonder what happens if a person falls into dispute with the ‘Messenger’ himself? Resistance to his
verdict is faithlessness… in whom? What would happen if people thought his judgment was wrong?
Where would they go, in which court would they seek their rights?

Is there an assumption that his judgment can never ever be wrong anyway? Is Muhammad
guaranteed not to err? Where does he derive his justification from? Can the legitimacy of his
government/jurisdiction be questioned? Is there any authority ABOVE Muhammad to appeal to?
Also, I request you to contemplate on these ayats comparatively with this one:

9:31 “They take their rabbis and priests as masters in Allah’s stead, and the Messiah the son of Mary.
Yet they were only commanded to serve a single God, no gods but He, above and beyond whatever
they associate with Him.” [9:29: Messenger as prescriber of prohibitions]

There is also a Hadith on this topic. Note that Jews or Christians did not "worship" their clergymen
per se. But they took them as Moral Authorities, Measures of Legitimate and Illegitimate,
Promulgators of what is haram (forbidden) and halal (permitted). And EVEN THAT was enough as
shirk in Islam's eyes! Rightfully so. Because "worshipping" is not just about prostrating or praying to
something. That is such a narrow take on what constitutes religiosity. It's also about SERVING that
authority, taking him as a Master over your entire life. Even modern atheistic-materialistic ideologies
had "gods", despite claiming to reject all. Their veneration of their dictators and visionaries was
nothing less than worship.

3. The Prophet is Self-Righteous. He does not have to prove that he is right. If he does or commands
something, that thing is right by default.

4:80 “Whoever obeys the Messenger obeys Allah.” 48:10 “Those who pledge loyalty to you have but
pledged loyalty to Allah.”

5:33 “The punishment of those who wage war on Allah and His Messenger…” 9:63 “Do they not
know that, for those who oppose Allah and His Messenger, is the fire of hell wherein they dwell
forever?”

4. The inevitable consequence is a cult of personality, resembling modern authoritarian leaders such
as Joseph Stalin, Mustafa Kemal, Adolf Hitler etc.

33:56 “Allah and His Angels sanctify the Prophet. O thou believers! Sanctify him and salute him
without any defilement.”

33:40 “Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, he is the Messenger of Allah and the seal of
the Prophets.”

49:2 “Do not raise your voice above the Prophet…like you call unto each other.”

33:6 “For the believers, the Prophet comes before their own lives. And his wives are their mothers.”
33:53 “You can not ever wed his wives after him. This is a tremendous thing in Allah’s sight.”

I conclude with a remarkable message from Qur'an, and invite you all to contemplate on its contrast
with the ones above.

3:64 “Come to a common word between us and you. Let us serve none but Allah. Let us not
associate anything with Him. Let us not take each other as masters in Allah’s stead. If they turn
away, say: witness, we are those who surrender (muslimun).”