The first of such a cry...

The first of such a cry, motivated with the vicious object mentioned above, was raised by some opportunists aspiring for power and authority, immediately as the Holy Prophet departed from this world, saying: “Man kana Ya'budu Muhammadun faqad maat.” ‘Let everyone who was worshipping Muhammad now know that he is dead (and gone).' This satiric cry was raised against the devotees of the Holy House, to declare them as 'Kafirs' Infidels i.e., those who worshipped the Holy Prophet instead of God, terming their 'Mawaddat' to the holy ones, which means only love and devotion, as 'Oboodiat' i.e., worship, and thus to declare the attachment to the Ahlul Bayt as 'Shirk' or 'Kufr' , whereas only the devotees to the Ahlul Bayt are Muslims in the true and the strict sense of the term, as they worship none but the One and the Only True God, and love the Holy Prophet and his Ahlul Bayt and remain devoted to them under the divine ordinance: “Say unto the people O' Apostle Muhammad!'I seek not of you any 'Ajr' (compensation) for it (the service of the apostleship) save love of my relatives.” (Holy Qur’an 42:23) Under the above ordinance from the Lord, none who does not pay the Holy Prophet the 'Ajr' (i.e., recompense) in the love and devotion to the Ahlul Bayt, demanded him, can never be a Muslim at all.

In short, 'Mowaddat' i.e., the love towards the Holy Ahlul Bayt, is purposefully termed as 'Oboodiat', i.e., worship, to blackmail their devotees, the Shias as 'Musrikeen' (i.e., the Polytheists) and 'Kuffar' (the infidels), and to dissuade people from attachment to the Holy Ones.

It must first be remembered that 'Shirk' means associating anything with God and these things which are held sacred by the Shias are never at all held as God, or gods, or in place of God, or that of holy ones to whose memory they are the dedicated. They are mere Emblems and Memorials, dedicated to their memory. This fact has already been made clear and it is once again repeated here for the information of the new uninformed or misinformed critics.

The move against respecting these sacred memorials of the dedicated tokens is only to dissuade the public from their devotion to the Ahlul Bayt, in the guise of preaching 'Tauheed', i.e., the Unity of God, and warning against 'Shirk' which is the most abhorred thing in Islam, particularly in Shia’ism which is the Islam-Original.