The problem is the understanding of concept of islam as regard rivalry.
Islam is a constitution for mankind. This tells us that all human being are equal before the law of Allah. This is why the concept of brotherhood or family. In this constitution there is no rivalry or animosity and no barriers.
Now take the worldly constitutions and you will see that they are based on inequality and rivalry and animosity and barriers.
This puts us in an awkward position ie between the two opposing world orders. If we go one way then we have to leave the other. If we serve man instead of Allah then it is a kind of shirk which is clearly forbidden because we are not supposed to follow other than the divine constitution.
Thus shirk fizzaat, shirk fissifat and shirk fil amal are all forbidden in islam.
As for the aqeedah of given siffaat, it too is misleading because Allah does not say that he has given anyone any siffaat that we ourselves assume for anyone.
For example, the prophet is said to be SHAHID=witness=hazir nazir. The limitation is as a human being because that is what the prophet is. A human being is a human being and not a supernatural being therefore it is silly to attribute supernatural qualities like that of God to a human being.
When Allah says, the prophet is raufurraheem= he means in capacity of a human being.
Many times our molvies try to tell us, look at hindus, jews, christians etc etc how they attribute certain powers to their religious figure heads so if we do not show them that our religious leader was much greater than theirs then people will leave islam and turn to other religions.
This is very silly because all sensible people look for sense in things not false reputations. It is really sensible people that matter not baby minded. Islam needs people who are sincere and thoughtful not people with make beliefs.
We should not attribute things to our prophet that we cannot justify before Allah and before sensible people among mankind. This in my view will be a great disservice to islam and humanity and to ourselves as well.
I hope this helps make things a bit clear.