Shirk: Difference between revisions

Shirk is defined as ascribing partners to God in what is exclusive to Him, such as necessity of existence, divinity, worship, and lordship. Shirk stands against tawhid, but some scholars maintain that shirk is the opposite of [[faith]] and that it may accompany faith, since shirk is applied in the Qur'an not only to idolaters but also to the [[People of the Book]] and sometimes to Muslims as well.  

Mushrik is the one who ascribes partners to God—the one who believes that a being other than God has His exclusive attributes, that the control over a part of creation is delegated to someone other than God, or that someone other than God deserves to be worshipped or independently obeyed.

* '''Shirk in God's essence''', which is to believe that there are several gods (polytheism) or that God's essence consists of two or more components.  

* '''Shirk in God's attributes''', or the belief that God's essence is ontologically distinct from His attributes.

#'''Shirk in creation''' is the belief in two or more independent creators such that none of them is inferior to the other ones. The belief in a creator for good and a creator for evil in some faith traditions is an example of this type of shirk.  

#'''Shirk in lordship''' has two types:  

:# Shirk in cosmological lordship: the belief that God created the world but delegated its regulation and management to other deities.

:# Shirk in legislative lordship: the belief that someone other than God can independently legislate laws and regulations.

* '''Shirk in worship''' is to worship anyone or anything other than God.

Shirk is also divided into theoretical and practical shirk; theoretical shirk relates to beliefs such as shirk in God's essence or attributes and shirk in creation and lordship, and practical shirk relates to shirk in worship.

A great number of Qur'anic [[verse]]s address the issue of shirk and its prohibition. Some verses state that polytheists do not have any proofs for their belief but rely only on conjecture and desires. The Qur'an states that "Allah does not forgive that any partner should be ascribed to Him, but He forgives anything besides that to whomever He wishes" ([[Qur'an 4]]:48). Commentators have explained that the exclusion from God's forgiveness in this verse pertains to the case where a polytheist dies without repenting from his shirk; otherwise, all sins including shirk can be forgiven with [[repentance]].  

According to [[hadiths]], shirk is one of the [[grave sins]] as well. [[Abd Allah b. Mas'ud]] reports that the [[Prophet (s)]] stated that the gravest sin was to ascribe a partner or a similar to God.

In a hadith attributed to [[Imam Ali (a)]], shirk is said to be of four types in the Qur'an: shirk of the tongue, shirk in actions, shirk of adultery, and shirk of hypocrisy. For the shirk of the tongue, reference is made to the verse "They are certainly faithless who say, 'Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary.' But the Messiah had said, 'O Children of Israel! Worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord. Indeed whoever ascribes partners to Allah, Allah shall forbid him [entry into] paradise" ([[Qur'an 5]]:72); for the shirk in actions, the verse "And most of them do not believe in Allah without ascribing partners to Him" ([[Qur'an 12]]:106) is adduced; for the shirk of adultery, the verse "and share with them in wealth and children" ([[Qur'an 17]]:64) is quoted; and for the shirk of hypocrisy, the verse "So whoever expects to encounter his Lord let him act righteously, and not associate anyone with the worship of his Lord" ([[Qur'an 18]]:110) is cited.

Shirk is either majifest (jali) or hidden (khafi). Manifest shirk is to perform acts of worship such as bowing down, [[prostration]], and offering sacrifices for someone or something other than God while believing the divinity of that person or thing. Hidden shirk includes such vices as materialism, following desires, and so forth. Expounding [[Qur'an 12]]:106, [[Imam al-Sadiq (a)]] is reported to have said that sayings such as "If it wasn't for so and so, I would be destroyed or afflicted" as an instance of hidden shirk. Also, a well-known hadith from the [[Prophet (s)]], according to which shirk is less noticeable than the motion of an ant on a black stone at a dark night, seems to refer to this type shirk. Hidden shirk is discussed mostly in ethics. Manifest shirk and hidden shirk are sometimes called greater shirk (al-shirk al-akbar) and lesser shirk (al-shirk al-asghar).  

* '''Following conjectures'''; The Qur'an states, "And what do they pursue who invoke partners besides Allah? They merely follow conjectures and they just make surmises" ([[Qur'an 10]]:66).  

* '''Materialism'''; Many people are deeply attached to sensory objects, and understand everything, including God and His attributes and actions, in a material framework.  

* '''Ignorance'''; The Qur'an speaks of those who "without any knowledge" ascribe partners to God and maintain that He has sons and daughters ([[Qur'an 6]]:100).  

Love for the material world, following the desires, forgetting God, exaggerating about religious figures, fanaticism, and corrupt rulers are counted in the Qur'an among the factors that have promoted shirk.

* '''Annulment of the deeds'''; Shirk makes one's righteous deeds void and unacceptable.

In Islamic law, shirk is one of the [[grave sins]]. Based on the verse "The polytheists are indeed unclean: so let them not approach the Holy Mosque" ([[Qur'an 9]]:28), Muslim jurists have stated that polytheists are ritually [[impure]] and that they are not allowed to enter [[al-Masjid al-Haram]].  

In his ''[[Al-Nihaya fi mujarrad al-fiqh wa l-fatawa|al-Nihaya]]'', [[al-Shaykh al-Tusi]] regards permanent marriage between Muslim men and polytheist women as invalid, but he considers temporary marriage with Jewish or Christian women valid.

Wahhabis consider [[tawassul]] to the dead, beseeching the Prophets or Friends of God, and seeking the blessings of the graves of religious figures among the instances of shirk in worship. [[Ibn Taymiyya]] believes that although asking the [[Prophet (s)]] or righteous people for prayer during their lifetimes is not shirk, it becomes shirk after their death. According to Ibn Taymiyya, whoever visits the grave of the Prophet (s) or a pious person and asks them for something is a polytheist; he must be required to repent, and if he refuses to repent, he has to face death penalty. Abd Allah b. Baz, a prominent contemporary Wahhabi mufti, also considers in his works asking the dead for healing, victory, and so forth an instance of the greater shirk. Wahhabis regard such practices as similar to the practices of the polytheists of the [[Age of Ignorance]].  

In response, other Muslim scholars state that the practices of the polytheists are not comparable to what Muslims do because polytheists believed in the divinity and lordship of their gods, but Muslims do not have such beliefs about the Prophet or the righteous figures to whom they do [[tawassul]], and they never worship them. Rather, visiting the graves of the righteous people, honoring them, and asking for their prayers is an instance of venerating God and His sacraments and a means to get closer to Him.  

According to the Qur'an, asking for someone's prayer or [[intercession]] is a form of shirk in lordship if the one who is entreated is regarded as acting independently and without God's permission.

* Fāḍil Lankarāni, Muḥammad. ''Tafṣīl al-sharīʿa fī sharḥ Taḥrīr al-waṣīla''. Qom: 1409 AH.

* Ḥusaynī Shīrāzī, Sayyid Muḥammad. ''Taqrib al-Qurʾān ila l-adhhan''. Beirut: Dar al-'Ulum, 1424 AH.

* Ibn Shuʿba al-Ḥarrānī, Ḥasan b. ʿAlī. ''Ṭuḥaf al-ʿuqūl''. Edited by Ali Akbar Ghaffari. Qom: Jāmiʿat al-Mudarrisīn-i Ḥawza-yi ʿIlmiyya, 1404 AH.

* Ibn Taymīyya, Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm. ''Majmūʿa al-fatāwā''. Edited by Shaykh Abd al-Rahman b. Qasim. Medina: Majmaʿ al-Malik Fahad li-Ṭibāʿa al-Muṣḥaf al-Sharīf, 1416 AH.

* Ibn Taymīyya, Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm. ''Ziyāra al-qubūr wa l-istinjād bi-l-maqbūr''. Tanta: Dūr al-Ṣaḥāba li-l-turūth'', 1412 AH.

* Jawādī Āmulī, ʿAbd Allāh. ''Tawhīd dar Qurʾān''. Qom: Markaz-i Nashr-i Asrāʾ, 1395 Sh.

* Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir al-. ''Biḥār al-anwār''. Second edition. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1403 AH.

* Nūrī, Mīrzā Ḥusayn al-. ''Mustadrak al-wasāʾil wa musṭanbit al-wasā'il''. Qom: Muʾassisat Āl al-Bayt, 1408 AH.

* Ṭūsī, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-. ''Al-Nihaya fi mujarrad al-fiqh wa l-fatawa''. Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-'Arabi, 1400 AH.

* Ustādī, Riḍā. ''Shīʿa wa pāsukh bi chand pursish''. Tehran: Mash'ar, 1385 Sh.

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