The Appearance of Shirk

People, in the beginning of creation, were all one community on the correct aqeedah of Tauheed -- the Oneness of God. Allah t'ala has stated in Baqarha: 213 that:

{Mankind was all one community and Allah sent Prophets to give glad tidings and warnings.}

and in a Hadith Qudsi :
"Verily, I have created my servants hanifan -- on the correct Tauheed and Shatan has deceived them."

They believed in Allah and knew Him in the correct fashion and did not ascribe anything to Him and this is not so strange to hear because we know that the first person on the face of the earth was our father Adam, who Allah created with His hand and to whom the angels bowed down and upon whom Allah bestowed His generosity and made a prophet and spoke to him. His progeny grew up knowing Tauheed Allalh, the Oneness of Allah and worshipped Him only.

Then *Shirk* appeared among mankind and the worshipping of idols began to dig its claws into the hearts of people and they began to ascribe other gods as partners with Allah and they intended to pray to these other gods when they made supplication, and they sought their help and called upon them whenever they experienced any hardships or crisis and they made sacrifices to these gods and made promises to them swore upon them and committed other forms of Shirk.

How did this Shirk happen? How did it begin? From the progeny of Adam, may Allah be pleased with him, there were very righteous people and most noted among them were Widd, Siwa', Yaguth, Ya'uq and Nasr. Then Shaitan, the enemy of the children of Adam, who caused Adam and Hawa to be expelled from the garden, influenced the children of these very honorable people after they had died. He inspired in them to make pictures of their notable fathers and to make models and statues of them so that their memories would be preserved in the hearts of the people and they would become busy with worship. The descendants were deceived by this idea. Then they died and another generation followed them and Shaitan inspired in them that the generations before them had only made the statues and pictures for the worship of their righteous forefathers, previously mentioned by name. And this is how the succeeding generations were deceived by Shaitan so they worshipped these statues and idols and fell into the practice of Shirk.

But Allah, subhanahu wa t'ala is kind to His Servants and did not just leave them neglected, rather, He sent them Nuh, the first messenger sent to mankind to call them to the Oneness of Allah and to worship Him alone. His call (his dawa) as it is described in the Quran in Surah Nuh was that "he said O, my people, I am a clear Warner for you -- worship Allah and fear Him and obey"; and only a few answered his call and most of them refused and turned away.

[Nuh: 23-24] Like this Nuh called them and Allah drowned
these polytheists and saved Nuh and those with him who
believed in the Oneness of Allah.

Evidence of the above statements:
1. In Sahih Al-Bukhari on the authority of Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them both, in explaining the meaning of the ayat " ..." He said that these are the names of righteous men from Nuh's people. When they were destroyed [by the flood] Shaitan later inspired some of the survivors to make statues and pictures of them and set up sitting areas where they used to gather and pass the time. They named these images by their names of these 5 good men. They were not worshipped until these people died and the knowledge about the oneness of worship was forgotten. [Fathul Bari, Volume /667-Arabic]

Ibn Al Qayyim Al Jauzy said: "More than one of the Seluf have said when they died (the righteous men) people became obsessed with their graves and devoted themselves to them; then they made pictures/statues in their likeness and as a result, after a long period of time had passed, they began to worship these images and the grave sites. [[NOTE: The translations of Qur'an here in this segment and in all previous one as well as subsequent one are taken from "The Noble Qur'an" and sometimes contain parenthetical explanations. There is nothing wrong with this as this is not "adding" something to the Word of God.

This is only a translation explaining what Allah has said and is NOT THE QUR'AN ITSELF. If any one were to do this with the actual ayats in Arabic, then it would be incorrect. I only mention this in passing as some people on this net erroneously believe that this is haram, incorrect, etc. ]

Aspects of Shirk

Overstepping the bounds of praise and attributing greatness to righteous people:
Islam forbids excessive praise of righteous people because this excessiveness is one of the greatest causes for people falling into shirk. It is because of this that Allah t'ala has said in Suratun Nisa:171

{O people of the Scripture, (Jews and Christians) do not exceed
the limits of your religion, and do not say anything of Allah except
the truth. The Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary was a Messenger of
Allah and His word, (Be: And it was) which He bestowed on Mary
and a spirit created by Him. . .}

and the Prophet Muhammed said: " Woe to you in being excessive in praise as this was the cause of the destruction of those who were before you."

"Al galu fi as-saliheen" within the circle of Ahli Kitab can be described as being " the excessive praise in speech and in belief of former generations [and even the present generation] who went to extremes in praising the greatness of some Jews and Christians. As for some of the Jews, they said that Uzair was the son of God and the Christians said that Esa was the son of God. The excessiveness of the Jews caused them to raise Uzair to the level of a deity / a god. The excessiveness of the Christians made them raise Esa ~ may Allah be pleased with him ~ from level of a person to the level of divinity.

This excessiveness takes the following forms:

• Al Atraat: Excessive praise: it is the exceeding of bounds in the glorification of a person or lying about him/her [such as attributing miracles to him or claiming that he has all knowledge as the poet AlBusairy did of the Prophet Muhammed .br>
• To make pictures of them and to make statues and idols of them. To make a dome over their graves or a domed shrine and light lamps around them and to cover it with a curtain and place a servant to be in attendance there and to consider it as a masjid [pray there].

Summary Outline:

I. The spread of Shirk (Polytheism - Paganism) was caused by:
1. overstepping the bounds of religion especially in the area of praise for a prophet or holy person and over-attributing greatness to righteous people. This includes:

a . excessive praise
b. making pictures and statues and idols in the whether in the likeness of these people or not.
c. making a domed shrine of their graves , etc.

In detail:

A. Al-Itraat - Excessive Praise of Righteous People;
1. This has been forbidden by the Prophet Muhammed as he said: "Do not praise me excessively as the Christians excessively praised the son of Maryam; I am only a servant of Allah. Say (of me), Servant of Allah & His Messenger." (Muslim and Al-Bukhari)

2. Examples of this excessiveness that leads to shirk/polytheism:
a. A famous Arab poet, Albusairi made the following statement in praise of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him: "O, Most Generous of Creation It is not for me to seek refuge in Anything other than you when problems occur. Verily of your honors, the world and its goodness (i.e. he gave the world it's goodness) And of your knowledge - knowledge of the lauh and qalam."

He is saying in essence: O, Rasulullah, it is not for me to seek refuge in anyone but you when trying to solve a general problem. [This is shirk.] And also, it is erroneous to say, "O Muhammed, of the things that you know -- knowledge of the Tablet and The Pen. [This is attributing attributes of Allah to one of His creations -- shirk.] In this line of the poem, he is saying to Muhammed: Your knowledge is more than the Tablet and the Pen except a portion of your knowledge -- [the poet] is claiming that the Prophet Muhammed, peace be upon him, has knowledge of the unseen and this is refuted and in direct opposition of the Quran.

• Allah, the Most High, has said, in the words of His Prophet ~ peace be upon, him {"...If I had knowledge of the (Ghaib) Unseen, I should have secured for myself an abundance of wealth, and no evil should have touched me. . .} [Al-Araaf:188]

The Prophet Muhammed denied knowledge of the unseen for himself and Al-Busairi attempted to establish this knowledge with him in his poem.

• Allah, the Most High, said, addressing His Prophet also: "And I do not say to you that with me are the treasures of Allah, nor that I know the "Ghaib" (Unseen)...} [Hud:31]

• And He said in another surah, {"Say, I am not a new thing among the Messengers (of Allah) (i.e. I am not the first Messenger) nor do I know what will be done with me or with you. I only follow that which is revealed to me, and I am but a plain Warner.} Al-Ahqaf:9] (Incidentally, this ayah does not negate the Sunnah as some people would have you believe. The Prophet, peace be upon him, came to give us guidance from Allah and to warn us. He is our example of how to practice Islam.)

All of these ayats negate knowledge of the unseen for the Prophet Muhammed .

B. MAKING PICTURES, STATUES, IDOLS, etc.

1. Imagery (drawing images) was forbidden by the Prophet Muhammed with a strong prohibition. He said: "Allah, the Highest, said, "Who is the worst tyrant than the one who, although himself being a creation, attempts to imitate and become a creator like Me. So, let him create an ant or grain of barley. [In both Sahih Muslim and Sahih Al-Bukhari. See Riyadh-us-Saleheen, Vol 1/813 (English version)].

2. And he said, "Every person who draws pictures or makes sculptures of images is in the fire. He makes for him every picture that he drew, a soul and he is punished by it in Hell." [agreed (meaning both Al-Bukhari and Muslim)]

3. Abu Al-Hiyaj, who had been sent by Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, to a people to teach them their religion, said: "Ali said to me, 'Didn't I send you on what I was sent by the Messenger of Allah (that is) to obliterate pictures and to level graves raised high." [Al-Bukhari]

C. MAKING A DOMED SHRINE OF A GRAVE - OR BUIDING ON GRAVES:

1. Islam forbids this, also, and we have mentioned the hadith of Ali in the above paragraph.p> 2. The hadith of Omm Salama in which she said: "When a revelation came down to the Messenger of Allah ... he said: Allah cursed the Yahud (Jews) and the Nasaara (Christians) who took the graves of their prophets as masjids (places to pray). Be warned about what they have done. She continued ...if it were not for that, make his grave open; he is fearful that they will take his grave as a masjid." [Al-Bukhari and Muslim] [Q#10,11]

3. He also said, "Allah's Anger is increased by those people who took the graves of their prophets as masjids. [Muwatta Malik] [Q#12]

4. Ibn Abbas said, " The Messenger of Allah cursed the women who visited the graves and those who took them as masjids and lit them with lamps." [Tirmithy narrated it and said it was Hadith Hassan -good and likewise Abu Dawoud and Ibn Maja]

So then we see that excessiveness and image-making and taking graves as places of worship -- all of these things lead to the occurrence of shirk and because o this Islam warns against it.

Part 3