Muslims worship Allah and venerate Muhammad. According to their theology, only Allah is worthy of worship, and no other deities exist.

Muslims venerate Muhammad as the Seal of the Prophets in the Abrahamic tradition. They view Muhammad as the moral exemplar for all humanity to follow in terms of how one should submit to Allah faithfully and exercise the practices of the obligations of prayer, charity, pilgrimage, and fasting.

Islamic theology forbids associating Allah with human beings or lesser things (Q4:48). Although Allah is closer to all people than one’s own jugular vein (Q50:16), he is absolutely transcendent and beyond all things, which is affirmed in Allah’s absolute Oneness (the doctrine of tawhid). Therefore, to associate lesser things with Allah is to commit shirk, an ultimate sin that leads to one’s damnation on the Day of Judgment. Muhammad witnessed this in Mecca, where many pagan gods were worshiped in the Kaaba, and did not like the idea, which is why he would eventually destroy the blasphemous idols in the wake of conquering the city in 630 CE.

Shirk is the theological crime for which the Quran condemned Christians in Muhammad’s day. Muhammad mistakenly thought the Christians affirmed polytheism or tritheism, which is what he condemned the Meccan tribes for. He also strongly opposed the Christian belief that Jesus Christ is God. Muslims maintain that despite being the exemplar prophet, Muhammad was a human being who was not to be worshiped.

The Islamic profession of faith makes this clear by drawing a clear distinction between Allah as the supreme deity and Muhammad as a messenger: “I bear witness that there is no deity but God, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God”.