Many Polytheists Would Have an Even Greater Claim to Being Muslims than Those Who Profess Islam Today
According to this view, a person who calls upon various prophets or angels would, in fact, have an even greater claim to being a Muslim than someone who implores any other deceased person. This is because the prophets عليهم السلام, according to the unanimous agreement of the Muslims, were certainly better than all other human beings.
Thus, if a person who worships a non-prophet can still be considered a Muslim, then someone who worships a prophet would have to be even more excusable. In reality, however, it makes no difference what or whom these people worship. From the perspective of authentic Islamic teachings, such individuals can never be considered Muslims.
Here too, it is quite possible that the proponents of this distorted opinion would refuse to accept such consequences. However, the question remains: how could the distinction between these polytheists be defined, when all of them equally perform acts of worship for someone other than Allah?
The same would also have to apply to the various forms of worship. If a person's Islam could remain intact despite invoking the dead for things that only Allah سبحانه وتعالى can grant, then it would have to remain intact with every other type of shirk as well.
Thus, according to this view, a person who prostrates before idols, kisses them, and reveres and worships them in word and deed could certainly be a Muslim. The only conditions for this, according to this logic, would be a) that he is ignorant and b) that he professes Islam.
If someone claims that, in the case of a specific type of shirk, a person cannot possibly be considered an excused Muslim, but in another type it would be possible, then he must provide clear proof for this distinction. Otherwise, this would be an unequal treatment of two things that are essentially the same – a concept that Muslim scholars have classified under the term at-tafriqu bayna l-mutamathilayn and have completely rejected as irrational.
It was previously mentioned that some people actually, absurdly, accept all these consequences. For them, it is even possible that a person believes in a son of God or worships 'Isa / Jesus and is still considered a Muslim. There is no doubt that anyone who thinks such a thing is himself suffering from a serious problem in understanding the core principles of Islam.