Do not set up another god besides God, by anticipating bounty from that [other god] and taking this [other] to be the cause of something reaching you which God has not determined for you so that you end up, blameworthy, for the vice of idolatrous association and doubt in the eyes of God and His folk, forsaken, by God who will then leave you [in false] reliance on that [other god] and assist you not: but if He forsakes you, then who is there who can help you after Him? [Q. 3:160]. The Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: 'If the [Muslim] community were to come together to profit you in some way they shall not profit you except with what God has [already] determined for you. And if they were to come together to harm you in some way they shall not harm you except with what God has [already] determined for you. The [heavenly] pens have been put down and the [heavenly] scrolls have dried [of their ink]'. God, glorious and exalted be He, has joined kindness to parents to the affirmation of [His] Oneness, singling out as a form of worship [of Him] since it is one of the requirements of the affirmation of [His] Oneness, as the two [parents] correspond to the Divine Presence in terms of their causality for your existence and to the Lordly Presence in terms of their nurture of you while you were incapable, young and weak without strength or [even] movement. They are also the first locus for the manifestation of the effects of God's attributes, exalted be He, in terms of existentiation, nurturing, mercy and compassion for you. Despite [all of] that they need to have what is due to them fulfilled, while God has no need [whatsoever] of that. Thus the most important of duties after the affirmation of Oneness is kindness to them and the fulfilling of their dues as far as possible.