A Polytheist Can Only Enter Islam Through Tawbah from Shirk

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In the following verse of the Qur'an in sura at-Tawbah, it is described in what manner an idolater can enter Islam:

Accordingly, mushrikun, meaning idolaters, can only become brothers in faith to the Muslims “if they make tawbah.”

The Arabic word tawbah describes the sincere repentance from a sin. This repentance requires the complete abandonment of that sin. The sin referred to here is polytheism.

This is also explicitly narrated by the early tafsir scholars. For example, Ibnu Abi Hatim narrates in his tafsir from Muqatil ibnu Hayyan and ad-Dahhak the following explanation of this verse:

فَإِنْ تَابُوا مِنَ الشِّرْكِ ...

That is: “If they make tawbah from shirk …”

Worshiping only Allah سبحانه وتعالى and abandoning the worship of others is the most fundamental essence of Islam. The Islamic testimony of faith carries precisely this meaning.

A person can only enter Islam if he is free from shirk. How could it then be possible that a person does not fulfil this prerequisite for Islam, yet is still considered a Muslim?

The same meaning can also be derived from the following verse:

If a mushrik testifies to the Islamic creed, prays, and fasts but does not abandon shirk, he cannot enter Islam, according to consensus.

For example, if one of the pre-Islamic Arab idolaters at that time had testified to Islam but continued worshiping the well-known idols among them, such as al-Lat, al-'Uzza, and Manat, it would have been unimaginable for the Muslims to consider such a person a Muslim.

According to the statement in the previously discussed verse, they knew that brotherhood in religion is conditional upon the abandonment of shirk: If they then make tawbah … they are your brothers in din.