Taking partners with God in Any Aspect of Worship

Shirk is divided into two types:

A) Major Shirk and
B) Minor/Lessor Shirk

A) MAJOR SHIRK is the sin that Allah does not EVER forgive on the Day of Judgment and it is equal to Kufr and recreating of religion. The one who commits this sin is forever in the Fire and will not enter Paradise ever. In this life he is considers a Kafir with regards to his blood and wealth being halal. Allah forgives him if he repents in this life and has sincere repentance.

Evidence:

1. Allah, The Highest, said:

{Verily Allah does not forgive taking partners with Him,
and He forgives whatever else to who(m)ever He wills."
[Nisaa:48 & 116]

2. He, t'ala, said:

{Verily, whosoever sets up partners with Allah,
then Allah has forbidden Paradise for him, and
the Fire is his abode.} [Maida:72]

3. Also in [Az-Zumar: 65]:

{...If you join others in worship with Allah, (then surely
(all) of your deeds will be in vain, and you will certainly be
among the losers.}

Examples:

1- To pray to other than Allah, like saying:
a) Help me, Oh, Abdul-Qadir Jilani
b) Help me, Oh Saiedna, Al-Badawi
c) Help me, Oh, Ali; help me, Oh, Hussein.

2- or to stand in front of a grave of a holy person or other with reverence and respect and then say, "Al-Arif La yarif" meaning "Verily you, O Sahib of the grave, you know my needs, so attend them for me, and the "matter" doesn't need to be stated to you -- (my request or question does not need to be vocalized because you know). This is as if 1) the one in the grave knows what his problem is and 2) can help him solve it.

Evidence:

• Allah, t'ala, has forbidden praying or calling upon other than Him or asking from others than Himself. He said: {Wa annal masaajida lillah; fala tad'u ma'a Allahi ahada}{Verily, the mosques are for Allah (Alone), so do not pray to anyone along with Allah. [Jinn:18]

• Allah, also said, addressing the Prophet Muhammed "Say, I only pray to my Lord (Alone) and do not associate partners along with Him. {Jinn:20}

Prayer is a form of worship; whoever prays to other than Allah is as if he worships other than Him and whoever worships other than Allah has joined partners with Allah and committed MAJOR SHIRK.

This was apparent -- idol worshippers of olden times, IN TIMES OF CRISIS, used to sincerely pray to Allah and not pray to any one of their idols and gods that they worshipped besides Him. Allah says regarding this in Al-Ankabut:65

{And when they embark on a ship, they invoke Allah, making
their faith pure for Him only, but when He brings them safely
to land, behold, they give a share of their worship to others.}

However, the polytheists of this age -- if they are afflicted by a problem they seek refuge in saints and pray to them and seek their help, without turning to God. The polytheists of the olden days were of a better condition than the ones of this present day period in this respect.

3- Sacrificing an animal to other than Allah The Mushrikłn / Polytheists of the earlier periods used to try to get closer to their gods by sacrificing animals and the believers became closer to Allah by sacrificing animals.

Evidence:
Allah, the Most High, commanded us to be sincere in offering this "qurba" (sacrificial animal) to Him only, and not to sacrifice to anyone except Him. In Suratul Kauthar He says,: {Fa sali lirabbika wanhar}{Therefore turn in prayer to your Lord and Sacrifice (to Him only).}

Suratul An'Aam: 162-163,
"Say, (O Muhammad) verily, my salat and my worship
(sacrifice) and my living and my dying are for Allah, the
Lord of all the worlds, no partners has He and this is
what I was commanded, and I am the first to submit to
Allah (first of the Muslims)}

Just as prostration to other than Allah is shirk, so is slaughtering/sacrificing to other than Allah -- see how Allah compares salat with sacrifice / slaughter in the same ayah!

4- Making a vow to someone or something other than Allah.

A believer makes a vow for example, and says, "O, Allah, if you cure me of my sickness, I will give charity of 100 riyals/dollars, etc. So, if Allah cures his illness and by this vow, so because of that praise Allah. This type is from the believers.

Allah said:

"They (are those) who fulfil (their) vows, and fear
a Day whose evil will be wide-spreading. [Al-Insan: 7]

A person who would turn this vow towards someone other than Allah, for example, would say, "O, Abdul-Qadir Al Jilaani, if my son returns or if I am cured from this illness, I will sacrifice a lamb. So, here he has committed shirk when he made a vow to someone other than Allah. What is meant is that whoever turns any type of worship towards someone other than Allah has committed shirk / has joined partners with Allah and this is a MAJOR SIN. This is the general rule.

B) MINOR SHIRK

Its Islamic Ruling (Hukum): Minor shirk is not like Major shirk especially in that it does not carry with it the ruling of kufr (disbeliever), and polytheist in reference to the fact of their blood and wealth being halal and in reference to their being forever in the Hell fire. But, Minor Shirk is considered to be the biggest of the major sins as it is more serious / grave than drinking wine or fornication, etc.

Examples:

1- Hypocrisy -- for example, a man improves his salat outwardly by appearing to be pious and having great humbleness before Allah when someone is looking at him. (The sin is that he is only doing so for the sake of another person and not for Allah.)

• The Prophet Muhammed said: "Verily I am afraid. I fear Minor Shirk for you. They (the Sahabah) asked him about it. He said Ar-Riya` (hypocrisy)." [Ahmed, At-Tubarani & Baihaqi]

2- Swearing by other than Allah- like saying Wan-Nabi or Wa -hayatik or wa abeek. [I swear by the Prophet, or by your life or by your father]

3- A person saying "Ma sha'Allah wa shi'ta (meaning whatever Allah wills AND whatever you will) or saying "This is from Allah AND from you" ...or "I (swear) by Allah AND by you" ... or If it wasn't for so and so, a thief would have come in. It is correct to say:

• Ma Sha'Allah (only) or
  
• This is from Allah, then from you.
  
• I (swear) by Allah, and then you
  
• If it were not for Allah, then so & so. . .

This is because by using the conjunction "and" equality is denoted, yet using the word "then" as a conjunctive denotes what is called "at-taraakhi" in Arabic which means a certain distance or delay in mentioned Allah and then something else. It negates any equality. As in "This is from Allah, then from you.

Examples of Minor Shirk:

4- Wearing a ring or amulet or thread to remove a problem, or as a defense.

• Omran ibn Haseen said: The Prophet Muhammed saw a man and in his hand was a ring of iron so he said, 'What is this?' He said, "(as a protection ) from the wahana*" He (the Prophet) said, 'Remove it, for verily it will not increase for you anything; for verily, if you die and it is on you, you will never succeed (meaning Paradise) [Ahmed] [ the wahana = sickness in the limbs or glands and the shoulder to elbow -- meaning he was wearing it as a protection against it.]
  
• He also said: "Whoever concerns himself with amulets has committed shirk. [Ahmed]
  
• Ibn Masoud said: I heard the Messenger of Allah say: "Verily, the saying of magic or using incantations and the amulet is shirk. [Ahmed + Abu Daud]

Summary

Major Shirk                                  Minor Shirk

1- sin which Allah never 	      1- sin which Allah will forgive on
forgives even on the Last Day 	   the Last Day, Insha'Allah.
                                   
2- it is equal to kufr and 	        2- not equal to kufr & apostasy
apostasy                                    

3- this person is forever in  	       3- not forever in the Fire,
the Fire and will never enter 	    will enter Paradise, Insha' Allah
Paradise                                      

4- Isl. Rul: Kufr - halal 	         4- Isl. Rul.: not kufr/polytheist
wealth & blood			          blood & wealth not halal

                               
5- If he repents sincerely,  	        5- Allah will forgive him, 
Allah will forgive	                   Insha' Allah however it is considered  
                                                      the biggest of the major sins

					

EXAMPLES: 
                             
                                   
1- praying to other than God        1- riya' = hypocrisy
                                       
2- sacrificing to other than 	       2- swearing by o other than God
God                                   

3- making a vow to other than 	   3- superstitious wearing of certain
God                                               articles or carrying them for
                                      	              protection or to solve or remove 
                                       	              a problem

General Rule:

Turning any type of worship towards someone other than Allah is an act of Shirk. This person has committed shirk / has joined partners with Allah and this is a MAJOR SIN.

CONCLUSION:

From the above definition and description given in the beginning of this series, we can see that of Tauheed or the Oneness of Allah in His Names and Attributes is based upon 3 basic principles and whoever oversteps them is not practicing this aspect of Tauheed.

1. Negation of Allah from resembling anything of His creations or from an defects.
a) negating any likeness to something of His Attributes to something of the attributes of His creations. This principle is well established and documented by the following statements in Quran:

Ashura:11 {laisa kamithlihi shai wa huwas samie'ul baseer}
{There is nothing whatever like unto Him,
and He is the Hearer and Seer of all.}

Qurtoby, in his tafseer (explanation) of this ayat says that whoever believes in this, believes that Allah's Name is exalted in His Greatness and His Grandeur (kubria'ihi) and His Dominion and believes in the Goodness of His Names and in His Attributes, and that none of His creations are to be likened to Him and He is not to be likened to them.

2. Ikhlas: 4 {wa lam yakulahu kufwan ahad}
"And there is none like unto Him"

3. An-Nahl:74 {fala tadribu lillahil amthaal,
inna Allah y'alimu an antum la y'alamoun}
{"Do not invent similitudes for Allah;
for Allah knows and you do not know.}

Allah's names are beautiful and He has encouraged us to use them. He says,

{lillahil asmaa'ul husna. faduuhu biha wa tharuula theena
yulhiduna fi aslaa'ihi, sayajzauna ma kaanu y'amaloon}
{And the Most Beautiful Names belong to Allah, so call
on Him by them, and leave the company of those who belie
or deny (or utter impious speech against) His Names.
They will be requited for what they used to do.} [ Al-Araaf:180]

. . . This is the end of this series of Tauheed Al Asma' wa Sifaat and all related issues. I pray that you have benefit. I wrote some chapter end questions that can be used to test your knowledge. These are a few:

Section-End Questions for Part II - Spread of Shirk :

1. Name some of the generosities Allah bestowed upon Adam .

2. Some people claim that man began as a polytheist, worshipping totem poles or types of rocks and then progressed and became monotheistic. What is the validity of this statement?

3. How did shirk first appear and how did wathaniy begin?

4. Who was the first messenger on the face of the earth and what was his message to his people--to what did he call? Did they answer him? What was the punishment of those who denied him.

5. Ibn qayyim mentions some reasons for people falling into shirk. What are these reasons?

6. Excessive praise for righteous people and placing them on a level they have no right to be placed on was a cause for people falling into the practice of shirk . Explain this statement.

This entire series was taken from lecture notes from Aqeedah courses at Umm Al Qura University in Makkah. Some of the books used for this course were the Qur'an, Fathul Bari by Ibn Hajr (this is a commentary or explanation of all the collection of Sahih Al-Bukhari - Arabic); Sharh Aqeedah Tahwiyyah by Ali 'Izza [Hanafi]-Arabic), Majmou'e Fataawa by Sheikhul Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, Aqeedah Fillah by Dr. Omar Sulaiman AlAshqar - (modern book-Arabic) and others.