Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah. To proceed:
Tawhid al-Uluhiyyah (the Oneness of Worship) means devoting all worship exclusively to Allah Almighty. Therefore, directing any act of worship to other than Allah is considered shirk. For an act to be considered shirk, it is not necessary for the worshipper to believe that the object of worship besides Allah creates, provides sustenance, or controls the universe.
Allah says:
“So whoever hopes for the meeting with his Lord, let him do righteous deeds and associate none in the worship of his Lord.”
[Al-Kahf 18:110]
And He says:
“Say, ‘Indeed, my prayer, my sacrifice, my living and my dying are for Allah, Lord of the worlds. He has no partner.’”
[Al-An‘am 6:162–163]
These texts command that worship be devoted sincerely to Allah and do not make the ruling of shirk in worship dependent upon believing that another object of worship possesses any of the characteristics of Lordship.
Not all polytheists believed that the beings they worshipped independently possessed the powers of creation, ownership, and control. Some of them acknowledged that Allah was the Owner, yet they still directed acts of worship to others besides Him.
Allah says concerning the polytheists:
“They worship besides Allah that which neither harms them nor benefits them, and they say, ‘These are our intercessors with Allah.’”
[Yunus 10:18]
And He says:
“As for those who take protectors besides Him, saying, ‘We worship them only so that they may bring us nearer to Allah.’”
[Az-Zumar 39:3]
Thus, one form of their shirk was worshipping others besides Allah in order to seek intercession or to draw closer to Allah. This was not necessarily based on believing that those objects of worship shared Allah’s sovereignty.
The Qur’an also relates that the people of Abraham worshipped idols. When Abraham عليه السلام asked them whether those idols could hear them, benefit them, or harm them, they did not affirm such powers for them. Rather, they argued that they were merely following the practices of their forefathers.
The existence of a relationship between Tawhid al-Uluhiyyah (Oneness of Worship) and Tawhid ar-Rububiyyah (Oneness of Lordship) does not mean that everyone who commits shirk in worship must first believe that the object of worship possesses some aspect of Lordship.
Rather, whoever directs worship to other than Allah has violated Allah’s exclusive right to worship and glorification, even if they do not believe that the object of worship creates, provides sustenance, or controls the universe.
Worshipping other than Allah is in itself shirk in worship, and it is not necessary for this ruling that it be accompanied by the belief that the object of worship possesses attributes of Lordship or independently controls benefit and harm.
For this reason, the Qur’an described the polytheists as committing shirk even though some of them acknowledged Allah as the Creator and Owner. They worshipped others besides Him as intermediaries or intercessors with Allah.
The fundamental message brought by all the Messengers is to worship Allah alone with every form of worship and not to direct any act of worship to anyone or anything besides Him.
And Allah knows best.