قُلْ هَٰذِهِ سَبِيلِي أَدْعُو إِلَى اللَّهِ عَلَىٰ بَصِيرَةٍ أَنَا وَمَنِ اتَّبَعَنِي ۚ وَسُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ وَمَا أَنَا مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ166

Say [O Muhammad], “This is my way; I invite to Allah with insight, I and those who follow me. And exalted is Allah; and I am not of those who associate others with Him.”166

لم يطلب النبي محمد ﷺ من الناس قط أن يعبدوه، ولم يسمح لهم حتى بإظهار التعظيم المفرط له، وكان يفرّق بوضوح تام بين الجانب الإلهي وطبيعته البشرية، وكان ينهى الناس عن أن يقوموا له عند دخوله المجلس (انظر الفصل الثاني). واعترض ﷺ على أن يسوّي الناس بينه وبين الله في أقوالهم ضمنًا،[167] وحذّر في مرض موته من أفعال أقوام سابقين حوّلوا قبور أنبيائهم إلى مزارات معبودة.[168] ولم يكن هناك أعظم من حفظ أسمى صور التوحيد في قلوب الناس، وإزالة كل حاجز بين الفرد وصلته المباشرة الشخصية بالله، ركيزةً في رسالته.

The Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم never asked people to worship him. He did not even allow people to display excessive reverence to him, would always make a sharp distinction between the Divine and his own human nature, and would stop people from standing for him when he entered a room (see Chapter 2). He صلى الله عليه وسلم objected to people implicitly equating him and Allah in their statements,167 and warned on his deathbed about the actions of past people who had turned the graves of their prophets into shrines.168 There was no greater keystone of his message than protecting the purest understanding of monotheism in people’s hearts and removing any barrier between individuals and their direct and personal connection with God.