Part One
The creed of Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah in summary
First Issue: The Word Shirk in Language and in the Sharīʿah
Shirk is the verbal noun of sharika and ashraka: to share, to make a partner. A sharīk is one who has a portion in a thing alongside another. In the Sharīʿah shirk is to make a partner or an equal for Allah in what is specific to Him: in His lordship, His divinity, or His names and attributes. Allah said: “So do not set up equals to Allah while you know.”
Shirk is of two kinds. Major shirk is to direct any act of worship to other than Allah, such as supplication, sacrifice, vows, seeking aid in what only Allah is able to do, fear of the unseen, hope and reliance. It takes a person out of Islam, and Allah does not forgive it for the one who dies upon it. Minor shirk is what the texts called shirk and did not reach the level of the first, such as showing off in deeds and swearing by other than Allah. The Prophet ﷺ said that what he feared most for his nation was minor shirk, and he explained it as showing off.
Part Two
The texts of the Qurʾān and the Sunnah
Second Issue: The Definition and the Gravity of Shirk
Shirk in the language is partnership; in the Sharīʿah it is to make an equal or partner for Allah in His lordship, His divinity, or His names and attributes. Luqmān's counsel to his son names it the greatest wrong, for it gives the right of the Creator to the created. Allah does not forgive that partners be associated with Him, and He forgives what is less than that to whom He wills.
Allah, the Exalted, said:
And when Luqmān said to his son while advising him: O my son, do not associate anything with Allah; indeed association is a tremendous wrong.
Qurʾān 31:13 (Luqmān) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Allah, the Exalted, said:
Indeed Allah does not forgive that anything be associated with Him, and He forgives what is less than that to whom He wills. And whoever associates others with Allah has certainly fabricated a tremendous sin.
Qurʾān 4:48 (al-Nisāʾ) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Third Issue: The Mushrikūn Affirmed Lordship
Allah commanded His Prophet ﷺ to ask them to whom the earth belongs, who is Lord of the seven heavens and the mighty Throne, and in whose hand is the dominion of all things — and He informed that they would answer: Allah. Their acknowledgement of rubūbiyyah did not make them believers, which shows that tawḥīd al-ulūhiyyah is the tawḥīd that the messengers called to and over which the dispute arose. The Qurʾān argues from what they conceded to what they denied: the One who alone creates and owns is the One who alone deserves worship.
Allah, the Exalted, said:
Say: To whom belong the earth and whoever is in it, if you know? They will say: To Allah. Say: Then will you not take heed? Say: Who is the Lord of the seven heavens and the Lord of the mighty Throne? They will say: [They belong] to Allah. Say: Then will you not fear Him? Say: In whose hand is the dominion of all things, who protects and against whom there is no protection, if you know? They will say: [They belong] to Allah. Say: Then how are you deluded?
Qurʾān 23:84–89 (al-Muʾminūn) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Fourth Issue: They Know There Is No Equal
The first command in the Qurʾān's order is to worship the Lord who created you and those before you, who made the earth a bed and the sky a canopy, and sent down rain; and it ends: so do not set up equals to Allah while you know. The argument rests on knowledge they already have: the One who did all this has no equal, so none is to be made His equal in worship.
Allah, the Exalted, said:
[He] who made for you the earth a bed and the sky a canopy, and sent down from the sky water and brought forth thereby fruits as provision for you. So do not set up equals to Allah while you know.
Qurʾān 2:22 (al-Baqarah) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Fifth Issue: Minor Shirk: Showing Off
Maḥmūd ibn Labīd reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: the thing I fear most for you is the minor shirk; and when they asked what it was, he said: showing off. On the Day of Resurrection Allah will say to those who showed off: go to those for whom you used to show off in the world, and see whether you find any reward with them.
Imām Aḥmad reported in his Musnad:
Yūnus narrated to us: Layth narrated to us, from Yazīd — that is, Ibn al-Hād — from ʿAmr, from Maḥmūd ibn Labīd, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The thing I fear most for you is the minor shirk.” They said: And what is the minor shirk, O Messenger of Allah? He said: “Showing off. Allah, Mighty and Majestic, will say to them on the Day of Resurrection, when the people are recompensed for their deeds: Go to those for whom you used to show off in the world, and see whether you find any reward with them.”
Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, al-Musnad (al-Risālah), 39/39, no. 23630
Source, chain and authenticity
The Prophet ﷺ feared this for his Companions, the best of this nation, because it is hidden. It enters the deed of the one who prays, fasts and gives charity, and spoils the deed it enters. Allah said at the end of al-Kahf: whoever hopes for the meeting with his Lord, let him do righteous work and let him not associate anyone in the worship of his Lord. The verse requires two conditions for every deed: that it is righteous, in agreement with the Sunnah, and that it is free of any partner in the intention.
Allah, the Exalted, said:
Say: I am only a man like you, to whom it has been revealed that your god is one God. So whoever hopes for the meeting with his Lord, let him do righteous work, and let him not associate anyone in the worship of his Lord.
Qurʾān 18:110 (al-Kahf) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
The scholars of the Sunnah differed over whether minor shirk falls under the verse “Indeed Allah does not forgive that partners be associated with Him”. Some included it in the generality of the verse, so that it is not forgiven without repentance, though it does not cause eternity in the Fire. Others placed it under the will of Allah, like the other major sins. Both agree that it is greater than the major sins that are not shirk, and that it does not take its doer out of Islam.
Allah, the Exalted, said:
Indeed Allah does not forgive that partners be associated with Him, and He forgives what is less than that for whom He wills. And whoever associates partners with Allah has fabricated a tremendous sin.
Qurʾān 4:48 (al-Nisāʾ) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Sixth Issue: The Shubuhāt of the Mushrikūn and Their Answers in Brief
Their first shubhah: we do not worship the righteous, we only ask them to intercede for us. The answer: this is the very argument of the first mushrikūn, which Allah recorded: “We only worship them except that they bring us near to Allah in nearness.” Allah called that worship and called them liars in it.
Their second shubhah: the mushrikūn worshipped idols, and we call on prophets and saints. The answer: Allah sent the Messenger ﷺ to people who worshipped angels, prophets such as ʿĪsā, righteous men such as al-Lāt, and trees and stones, and He did not distinguish between them. He said: “Those whom they call on themselves seek a means to their Lord, which of them is nearest.”
Their third shubhah: whoever says lā ilāhah illā Allāh cannot be a mushrik. The answer: the word is a covenant with conditions, and the one who says it and then calls on other than Allah has broken what he said. The Banū Ḥanīfah said the two testimonies and prayed, and the Companions fought them for affirming a prophet after the Prophet ﷺ. Whoever raises a creature to the rank of the Lord of the worlds in worship has done more than they did.
Part Three
The claims of the opponents and their refutation
“We only seek nearness and intercession”
The claim
We do not believe they create; we call upon them only to bring us near to Allah and to intercede for us.
The response
The mushrikūn did not claim that their idols create. They said: “We only worship them so that they bring us near to Allah”, and: “These are our intercessors with Allah.” Allah called this worship and called its people liars and ungrateful. Seeking nearness and intercession through the dead and the absent is therefore the very shirk the Qurʾān names, whatever name its people give it.
Allah, the Exalted, said:
Unquestionably, for Allah is the pure religion. And those who take protectors besides Him [say]: We only worship them so that they bring us nearer to Allah in position. Indeed Allah will judge between them concerning that in which they differ. Indeed Allah does not guide one who is a liar and a disbeliever.
Qurʾān 39:3 (al-Zumar) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Allah, the Exalted, said:
And they worship besides Allah that which neither harms them nor benefits them, and they say: These are our intercessors with Allah. Say: Do you inform Allah of something He does not know in the heavens or on the earth? Glorified is He and exalted above what they associate with Him.
Qurʾān 10:18 (Yūnus) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
“The righteous hear and answer”
The claim
The righteous whom we call upon hear us and answer us.
The response
Those who are called upon besides Allah do not own even the thin skin of a date-stone; if called they do not hear, and if they heard they could not answer, and on the Day of Resurrection they will disown the shirk of those who called them. None is more astray than one who calls upon, besides Allah, those who will not answer him until the Day of Resurrection and who are heedless of his call. The places of prostration belong to Allah, so no one is to be called upon alongside Him.
Allah, the Exalted, said:
He merges the night into the day and merges the day into the night, and He has subjected the sun and the moon, each running for an appointed term. That is Allah, your Lord; to Him belongs the dominion. And those whom you call upon besides Him do not own [even] the membrane of a date-stone. If you call upon them they do not hear your call; and if they heard, they would not respond to you. And on the Day of Resurrection they will deny your association. And none can inform you like One who is All-Aware.
Qurʾān 35:13–14 (Fāṭir) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Allah, the Exalted, said:
And who is more astray than one who calls upon, besides Allah, those who will not respond to him until the Day of Resurrection, and who are heedless of their call?
Qurʾān 46:5 (al-Aḥqāf) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Allah, the Exalted, said:
And the places of prostration are for Allah, so do not call upon anyone along with Allah.
Qurʾān 72:18 (al-Jinn) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Sources
- Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, al-Musnad (al-Risālah)
- Qurʾān