Verily, all praise is due to Allah, the One Who has the Most Perfect and Beautiful Names, and the Most Noble and lofty Atrributes. He alone is worthy of worship. And may Peace and Blessing be upon Muhammad ibn 'Abdillaah, the final prophet and last Messenger, who was sent to perfect the worship of Allah.
Of the most fundemental matters of Islam - is the fact that only Allah (Most High) deserves our worship. This simple simple concept is summarised in our testimony: laa ilaaha illa Allah, "There is no diety worthy of worship except Allah." This concept of Tawheed is the basis of Islam, and differentiates a Muslim from a non-Muslim!
Yet, the sad fact of the matter is that there are some who ascribe themselves to Islam and claim to be amongst its adherents while they worship other than Allah. They might verbalise the testimony of Tawheed, but it has no meaning in their hearts for they do not understand the implications of this simple phrase. So you find some of them making du'a (invocation) to an inhabitant of a grave, and others taking a pilgrimage to a religious shrine, or making sacrifices to a 'holy saint', or seeking help and forgivness from a prophet, and so on. These people all claim to be practising Tawheed, yet their actions prove that they are guilty of Shirk - the opposite of tawheed.
This is the calamity we are facing in our communities, Masaajid and Centres - locally, nationly and internationaly!