The Polytheist Does Not Fulfil the Purpose of Creation and Religion

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This statement is also clearly expressed in the Qur'an. Thus, it is stated in sura adh-Dhariyat:

Al-Bukhari himself explains this verse in one of the chapter headings of his Sahih collection with the following words:

{وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الجِنَّ وَالإِنْسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ} [الذاريات: 56]: «مَا خَلَقْتُ أَهْلَ السَّعَادَةِ مِنْ أَهْلِ الفَرِيقَيْنِ إِلَّا لِيُوَحِّدُونِ»

... only to make Me One. (illa li-yuwahhiduni)

In this explanation, once again, the word tawhid or the verb wahhada was used, expressing that Allah سبحانه وتعالى is to be made One in worship.

Al-Bukhari mentioned this statement – following his general approach in formulating chapter headings – in accordance with personalities from the salaf, from whom the same explanation has been narrated.

For example, Muqatil ibnu Sulayman (d. 150 AH) narrates this exact wording from an even earlier scholar of the salaf:

حدَّثنا عبد اللَّهِ قَالَ: حَدَّثَنِي أَبِي عَنْ أَبِي صَالِحٍ، قال: «إلا لِيوحِّدون»

This is also the reason why Islamic scholarship emphasizes that every command in the Qur'an to worship Allah is a command to tawhid, meaning monotheism in worship.

This is entirely clear because the entire Qur'an explains what is meant by this call to worship. It would be impossible for it to mean that one should believe in the existence of a Creator and worship Him while also worshiping other things or beings alongside Him. This would be the exact opposite of the central message of Islamic monotheism.

The call to worship, directed at the idolaters, without the accompanying monotheism, would also be absurd, since the pre-Islamic idolaters already worshiped Allah. As has already been explained, this is an undeniable theological and historical fact.

If mere worship, without tawhid and regardless of the worship of others, were what was meant, then the idolaters would have already fulfilled this command, making the entire message meaningless.

Thus, the exclusive worship of Allah is what the creation is meant to fulfil. This raises the question: How can a polytheist be considered a Muslim who attains Allah's pleasure and enters Paradise in the end, while failing to fulfil this fundamental purpose?

In this context, one should also recall the previously discussed verse, in which it is stated: