A key point that Ibn Taymiyya repeatedly makes in developing his dichotomy of tawḥīd concerns the unbelievers in Arabia at the time of the Prophet Muḥammad. In Ibn Taymiyya’s view, these pagan Arabs were not in fact polytheists (mushrikūn) in the full sense of the word, even though they are described as such in the Qurʾān. Rather, they were monotheists, believers in one God, who failed to worship Him alone. In other words, they confessed tawḥīd al-rubūbiyya but not tawḥīd al-ulūhiyya.
