﴿ أَلَا لِلَّهِ ٱلدِّينُ ٱلْخَالِصُ ۚ وَٱلَّذِينَ ٱتَّخَذُوا۟ مِن دُونِهِۦٓ أَوْلِيَآءَ مَا نَعْبُدُهُمْ إِلَّا لِيُقَرِّبُونَآ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ زُلْفَىٰٓ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَحْكُمُ بَيْنَهُمْ فِى مَا هُمْ فِيهِ يَخْتَلِفُونَ ۗ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يَهْدِى مَنْ هُوَ كَٰذِبٌۭ كَفَّارٌۭ ﴾

“Is it not to God alone that all sincere faith is due? And yet, they who take for their protectors aught beside Him [are wont to say], “We worship them for no other reason than that they bring us nearer to God.” Behold, God will judge between them [on Resur­rection Day] with regard to all wherein they differ [from the truth]: for, verily, God does not grace with His guidance anyone who is bent on lying [to himself and is] stubbornly ingrate!”

The Quran is a divine statement of facts. Its sagacious style of expression and the exceptional nature of its discourses allude to it being the Book of God. No man is capable of presenting such a sublime work. ‘So worship God with your total devotion,’ means to worship only God, praying to Him, revering Him and devoting oneself entirely to Him. (Safwat at-Tafasir, vol. III, p. 69 ). The instinct for worship and devotion is inherent in human nature, so he must consider a being as great and have feelings of awe for that being. Anyone for whom a man develops such feelings is considered most holy by him and man’s entire existence submits before him. He expresses superlative respect and veneration for him and, his soul derives pleasure from remembering him. That being becomes the greatest support in man’s life. This is true devotion and such worship is the exclusive, rightful due of the one and only God. But what man does is that while accepting the one God, he accords divinity to beings other than God and starts worshipping them. This is the real error into which man falls because just as the godhead or divinity is indivisible, worship cannot be divided either.