There's No Need to Call Sheikhs and Religious Teachers "Lord"...
According to the Prophet Muhammad, the messenger of the Quran , taking religious leaders as lords is not conditional on calling them 'lords' . Accepting what they declare forbidden as forbidden, and what they declare permissible as permissible, is sufficient to have taken them as deities .
We are reproducing the following section from Elmalı's Tafsir (commentary on the Quran) in its original form:
They have taken their rabbis (Jews) and priests (Christians) as lords besides God.
They submitted not to God's command, not to the judgment of Truth, but to their judgments, their wills; they worshipped them as if they were worshipping God, and even abandoned God to worship them.
They disobeyed Allah in matters that were openly contrary to the command of Allah, the word of the book, and the requirements of truth, and obeyed their desires and commands; they considered permissible what Allah had forbidden, by their command; they did what Allah had forbidden , and did not do what He had commanded; and contrary to this, they listened to their prohibitions and restrictions; and in this way, they looked upon them not with a scholarly and legitimate dignity, which should have been the aim of the divine command and should have no other purpose than understanding, inferring, executing, and applying the rulings of truth [2512], but as if they were a governing lord who possessed the right to establish the rulings and the right to legislate on his own accord; They became subject to their own wills, whims, and desires.
Indeed, regarding the meaning of this verse, Adiy, the son of the famous Hatim al-Ta'i, said: "I came to the Messenger of Allah, and I had a golden cross around my neck - at that time Adiy was still a Christian - the Messenger of Allah was reciting Surah al-Bara'ah. He said, 'O Adiy, throw away that cross around your neck,' and I threw it away. ِّٰﻟﻠﻪاِونُدْنِمًاباَبْرَاْمُهَانَبْهُرَوْمُهَارَبْحَاوآُذَخَّتِا فِّٰﻟﻠﻪاِونُدْنِمًاباَبْرَاْمُهَانَبْهُرَوْمُهَارَبْحَاوآُذَخَّتِا فِّٰ When I heard the hymn, I said, "O Messenger of Allah, they did not worship them . " The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "Did they not forbid what Allah has made lawful, and did they not consider it unlawful? Did they not declare lawful what Allah has made unlawful, and did they not consider it lawful?" I said, "Yes," and he said, "That is their worship. "
Rabi' said: "I asked Abu'l-Aliya how this divine sovereignty was among the Children of Israel, and he said, 'They often found things in the Book of God that were openly contrary to the opinions of the rabbis, yet they would disregard the ruling of the Book and follow the words of the rabbis .'"2
These narrations prove that it is not necessary to give someone the title of lord in order to have taken them as lord. To obey their commands without considering whether they are in accordance with or contrary to God's commands, and especially in matters related to religious laws, to recognize them as the legislator and lawgiver, and to assume that whatever they say or command is right, to obey them in opposition to God's command and judgment, to take them as lord other than God, and to worship them, is what constitutes worship .
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A scholar, by virtue of being a scholar, is the servant of nothing but God. He is subject to the proof, the verses of truth. Indeed, a proof and guide is also a verse from the verses of God. However, the status of the proof is not in itself, but to point to and lead to the truth which is its meaning.4Those who try to make truth into falsehood and falsehood into truth are idols devoid of scholarly dignity. While there is no doubt that obedience to knowledge, to the known, to the truth, to its certainty in the sight of God Almighty and its attribution to Him is obedience to God's command and a religious obligation, and that it means enmity towards knowledge and scholars, to recognize even the slightest authority to make a judgment, even in scholars, with complete disregard for God, or even to surrender a will and power that can change the right of a single atom on its own [2514], is to give a share of lordship to someone other than God, to take someone other than God as lord . Just as worshipping devils, tyrants, Nimrods, Pharaohs, idols, and mythical creatures is a form of polytheism and disbelief in God, so too is giving scholars more value than they deserve, for example, promoting their opinions and statements that are not in accordance with the requirements of true knowledge, their personal opinions not derived from the command of God, their arbitrary fatwas and wills resulting from following whims and desires, without distinguishing between right and wrong, truth and falsehood, and as if they possessed the right and authority to make what God has forbidden permissible and what God has permitted forbidden, to alter and distort the judgment of God, and even obeying their errors which are clearly contrary to God's command, let alone their intentional deviations. To condone such actions, in short, to follow without considering what God says, without taking into account obedience to God's command, is also a form of polytheism and disbelief. It is to abandon God and worship others, which, unfortunately, the Jews and Christians have done . Even if they did not call the priests and religious leaders their lords, they treated them as lords, recognizing them as legislators.
May Allah make us among those who never stray from the Quran....