Shirk (Islam)

Shirk (Template:Langx) in Islam is a sin often roughly translated as 'idolatry' or 'polytheism', but more accurately meaning 'association [with God]'.<ref>Nonbelief: An Islamic Perspective</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Efn It refers to accepting other divinities or powers alongside God as associates.<ref name=EI2-shirk>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref><ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> In contrast, Islam teaches that God does not share divine attributes with anyone, as it is disallowed according to the Islamic doctrine of tawhid.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref><ref name="Kamoonpuri">Kamoonpuri, S: "Basic Beliefs of Islam" pages 42–58. Tanzania Printers Limited, 2001.</ref> The Quran, the central religious text of Islam, states in 4:48 that God will not forgive shirk if one dies without repenting of it.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Kamoonpuri"/><ref>Cenap Çakmak. Islam: A Worldwide Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO 2017. Template:ISBN p. 1450.</ref>

The one who commits shirk is called a mushrik.Template:Efn The opposite of shirk is tawhidTemplate:Efn and the opposite of mushrik is muwahhid.Template:Efn

Etymology

The word shirk comes from the Arabic root sh-r-k (Template:Lang), with the general meaning of 'to share'.<ref>A. A. Nadwi, "Vocabulary of the Quran"</ref>Template:Efn In the context of the Quran, the particular sense of 'sharing as an equal partner' is usually understood, so that polytheism means 'attributing a partner to God'. In the Quran, shirk and the related word mushrikūn (Template:Lang)—those who commit shirk and plot against Islam—often refer to the enemies of Islam (as in al-Tawbah verses 9:1–15).<ref name = "Quran 4 U 9">Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Rp

Quran

According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, the Quran states twice in An-Nisa verses 48 and 116 that God can forgive all sins save one: shirk.<ref>Encyclopaedia of Islam, volume 9, 2nd edition, s.v. shirk</ref>

Islamic commentators on the Quran have emphasized that a number of pre-Islamic Arabian deities and jinn, most notably the three goddesses Manat, al-Lat and al-Uzza mentioned in al-Najm, were considered associates of God.<ref>Pantić, Nikola. Sufism in Ottoman Damascus: Religion, Magic, and the Eighteenth-century Networks of the Holy. Taylor & Francis, 2023. chapter 3</ref>

Entities worshipped besides God are called shurakāʾ (Template:Langx).<ref name="MagicAndDivination-2021">Magic and Divination in Early Islam. (2021). Vereinigtes Königreich: Taylor & Francis.</ref>Template:Rp<ref>Eichler, Paul Arno, 1889-Publication date 1928 Topics Koran Publisher Leipzig : Klein Collection microfilm; additional_collections Digitizing sponsor Internet Archive Contributor Internet Archive Language German</ref>Template:Rp After Judgement Day, they will be cast into Hell along with devils (fallen angels) and evil jinn,<ref name="MagicAndDivination-2021"/>Template:Rp to whom the polytheists are said to sacrifice in order to gain protection.

Charles Adams writes that the Quran reproaches the People of the Book with kufr for rejecting Muhammad's message when they should have been the first to accept it as possessors of earlier revelations, and singles out Christians for disregarding the evidence of God's unity.<ref name=adams>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> The Quranic verse Al-Ma'idah 5:73<ref name = "Quran 4 U 5">Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Rp ("Certainly they disbelieve [kafara] who say: God is the third of three"), among other verses, has been traditionally understood in Islam as rejection of the Christian Trinity doctrine,<ref name=EoQ-Trinity>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> but modern scholarship has suggested alternative interpretations.Template:Refn Other Quranic verses strongly deny the divinity of Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, and reproach the people who treat Jesus as equal with God as disbelievers, who will be doomed to eternal punishment in Hell.<ref>Joseph, Jojo, Qur’an-Gospel Convergence: The Qur’an’s Message To Christians Template:Webarchive, Journal of Dharma, 1 (January–March 2010), pp. 55-76</ref><ref>Mazuz, Haggai (2012) Christians in the Qurʾān: Some Insights Derived from the Classical Exegetic Approach, Journal of Dharma 35, 1 (January–March 2010), 55-76</ref> The Quran also does not recognise the attribute of Jesus as the Son of God or God himself but respects Jesus as a prophet and messenger of God, who was sent to children of Israel.<ref>Schirrmacher, Christine, The Islamic view of Christians: Qur’an and Hadith, http://www.worldevangelicals.org</ref> Some Muslim thinkers such as Mohamed Talbi have viewed the most extreme Qur'anic presentations of the dogmas of the Trinity and divinity of Jesus (Al-Ma'idah 5:19, 5:75-76, 5:119)<ref name = "Quran 4 U 5"/> as non-Christian formulas, which were rejected by the Church as well.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Cyril Glasse criticises the use of kafirun (pl. of kafir) to describe Christians as a "loose usage".Template:Clarification needed<ref name=Glasse-2001-247>Template:Cite book</ref> According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, traditional Islamic jurisprudence has ahl al-kitab being "usually regarded more leniently than other kuffar [pl. of kafir]," and "in theory," a Muslim commits a punishable offense if he says to a Jew or a Christian, "Thou unbeliever."<ref name=EI2>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>

Historically, People of the Book permanently residing under Islamic rule were entitled to a special status known as dhimmi, and those who were visiting Muslim lands received a different status known as musta'min.<ref name=EI2/> In the Quran Jews and Christians, although accused of believing shared divinity by asserting lineage between God and Ezra or Jesus respectively, are not described as mushrik.<ref>Gimaret, D., “Tawḥīd”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Consulted online on 25 February 2024 Template:Doi First published online: 2012 First print edition: Template:ISBN, 1960-2007</ref> The term is reserved for pre-Islamic beliefs who associated partners with God. Nonetheless, medieval Muslim philosophers identified belief in the Trinity with shirk ("associationism"), by limiting the infinity of God by associating his divinity with physical existence.<ref name="Janet">Learning from other faiths Hermann Häring, Janet Martin Soskice, Felix Wilfred - 2003 - 141 "Medieval Jewish (as well as Muslim) philosophers identified belief in the Trinity with the heresy of shituf (Hebrew) or shirk (Arabic): 'associationism', or limiting the infinity of Allah by associating his divinity with creaturely being"</ref>

Theological interpretation

In a theological context, one commits shirk by associating some lesser being with God (Allah). The sin is committed if one imagines that there is another power associated with Allah as a partner.<ref name="Mark, Durie 2022">Mark, Durie. "Semantic decomposition of four Quranic words." Russian Journal of Linguistics 26.4 (2022): 937-969.</ref> It is stated in the Quran: "Allah forgives not that partners should be set up with Him, but He forgives anything else, to whom He pleases, to set up partners with Allah is to devise a sin most heinous indeed" (Quran An-Nisa 4:48).<ref name = "Quran 4 U 4">Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Rp<ref name="Faruki, Kemal 1965">Faruki, Kemal. "TAWḤĪD AND THE DOCTRINE OF'IṢMAH." Islamic Studies 4.1 (1965): 31-43.</ref>

The term is often translated as polytheism, however more complex than the English translation.<ref name="Mark, Durie 2022"/><ref name="Mulia, Siti Musdah 2015">Mulia, Siti Musdah. "Muslim Family Law Reform in Indonesia A Progressive Interpretation of The Qur’an." Al-Mawarid: Jurnal Hukum Islam (2015): 1-18.</ref> The term also implies that humans need to renounce claiming divine status for themselves by regarding themselves as better than others.<ref name="Mulia, Siti Musdah 2015"/> Besides worshipping only one God, it also postulates that God must be considered as entirely unique and condemns anthropomorphization.<ref name="Mulia, Siti Musdah 2015"/> Shirk further implies that God's attributes cannot be associated with any other entity or that any other entity can exist independent from God.<ref name="Faruki, Kemal 1965"/> At the same time, shirk contains additional assumptions not entailed by the concept of shirk and does not require a physical object of worship.<ref name="doi.org">Sinai, N. (2018). Polytheism. In K. Fleet, G. Krämer, D. Matringe, J. Nawas and D. J. Stewart (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Islam Three Online. Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_46230</ref>

Forms of shirk

Shirk is classified into two categories:<ref name="Winter, Timothy 2008. p. 233">Winter, Timothy, ed. The Cambridge companion to classical Islamic theology. Cambridge University Press, 2008. p. 233</ref>

• Shirk al-akbar (Template:Langx; Template:Lit): open and apparent
• Shirk al-asghar or al-shirk al-khafi (Template:Langx; Template:Lit): concealed or hidden. It is when people perform the necessary rituals but not for God but for the sake of others, including social recognition.<ref name="Winter, Timothy 2008. p. 233"/> Hidden shirk might be unwitting, yet punishable, although to a lesser extent than greater forms of shirk.<ref name="Faruki, Kemal 1965"/>

Shirk al-akbar

Shirk al-akbar is defined as open association and has been described in two forms:<ref name="Winter, Timothy 2008. p. 233"/>

• To associate anything with God
• To associate anything with God's attributes

Shirk al-asghar

Shirk al-asghar may be committed by one who professes tawhid, but for the sake of others.

Mahmud ibn Lubayd reported, Template:Blockquote

Mahmud ibn Lubayd also said, Template:Blockquote

Umar ibn al-Khattab narrated that the Messenger of Allah said: "Whoever swears by other than Allah has committed an act of kufr or shirk." (graded hasan by Al-Tirmidhi and saheeh by Al-Hakim)

According to Ibn Mas’ood, one of Muhammad's companions said: "That I should swear by Allah upon a lie is more preferable to me than that I should swear by another upon the truth."<ref>Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, Kitab At-Tawheed, chapter 40</ref>

Sufism

According to Sufi teachings, to avoid "hidden shirk" (al-shirk al-khafi), it is necessary to focus solely on God and give up one's own will.<ref>Sands, Kristin. Sufi commentaries on the Qur'an in classical Islam. routledge, 2006. p. 29</ref>

Some Sufi scholars even go so far as to describe a belief in free will as a form of shirk. According to such an uncompromising view, beliefs usually accommodated within monotheism, such as that in a personal devil (rather than the unregenerate self deficient in God) as the source of evil, or a belief in the concept of free will, are regarded as beliefs in creative powers other than (i.e. standing beside/external to) God, and are thus equated with shirk.<ref>Awn, Peter J. (1983). Satan's Tragedy and Redemption: Iblīs in Sufi Psychology. Leiden: Brill Publishers. p. 104. Template:ISBN</ref>

Abdullah Ansari describes the highest stage of tawhid a human can possess, when the mind becomes fully immersed in the presence of God and understand how all things are put into their proper places.<ref>Abdullah, Wan Suhaimi Wan. "Herawi's Concept of Tawhid: An Observation Based on His Manazil Al-Sa'irin." Jurnal Usuluddin 12 (2000): 95-104.</ref>

In Sufism, every action done with an expectation of reward, either in this world or in the hereafter, is considered an act of shirk. Despite that this level of shirk does not entail disbelief, or require repeating the action to follow Islam's legal prescriptions, Sufis work on purification until their thoughts are not dominated by any desire except the pure love of God, which results in pure actions of worship.Template:Citation needed

Salafism and Wahhabism

Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, founder of the Wahhabi movement, classified shirk into three main categories.<ref name="ReferenceA">Peskes, Esther and Ende, W., “Wahhābiyya”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Consulted online on 25 February 2024 Template:Doi First published online: 2012 First print edition: Template:ISBN, 1960-2007</ref> However, ibn Taymiyya is considered to have been the spiritual founder of this distinction.<ref name="Janet" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Rp

• tawhid al-rububiyyah (Lordship): the verbal profession that God (Allah) is the sole creator and ruler over the world.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>
• tawhid al-Asma wa's-Sifat (names and attributes): accepting the attributes of God as written in the Quran without interpretation.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>
• tawhid al-ibada (servitude): the commitment of religious or spiritual duties to God without intermediaries and that religious or spiritual practises must be limited to Islamic sources.<ref>Pall, Z. (2014). Lebanese Salafis between the Gulf and Europe: Development, fractionalization and transnational networks of Salafism in Lebanon. Amsterdam University Press. p. 20</ref><ref name="ReferenceA"/>

For abd al-Wahhab, tawhid al-ibada was the decisive factor to determine the identity of a Muslim and also the execution of tawhid al-rububiyyah. Muslims who violated his interpretation of tawhid al-ibada were considered to be "associators" (mushrikūn) and "unbelievers" (kāfirūn).<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

Building on the legacy of abdl-Wahhab, in the writings of Islamist writers Sayyid Qutb, al-Mawdudu, and Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi interprete adherences to human-made laws as shirk.<ref name="doi.org"/>

Religious Pluralism

Template:Expand section The worship of another God besides the Islamic God poses a form of shirk. The question arises, if a foreign deity can be identified with the Islamic God or not.

Identification of the Islamic God with foreign religions may extends beyond the Abrahamic religions. The supreme deity of the Turks and Mongols was also frequently identified with the Islamic God.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref> Likewise, some Muslim authors identified Brahman with Allah. However, such identifications were less likely to be universally accepted and also frequently challenged.<ref name=":0" />

Amir Khusrau (1253 – 1325) shows approval of the Brahmins and even favor over Jews and Christians, since they would not attribute a form or a child to God, but, even if they use stones and celestial bodies as direction of prayers, affirm that God does not bear likeness to any of this.<ref name="Friedmann, Yohanan 1975">Friedmann, Yohanan. "Medieval Muslim views of Indian religions." Journal of the American Oriental Society (1975): 214-221.</ref> According to the Hanbali scholár al-Jawzi (1116 – 1201), the tawhid of the Brahmins is immaculate; their unbelief consists in the rejection of prophets and performance of rituals without divine sanction.<ref>The Devil's Deception (Talbis Iblis) By Imam Ibn Al-Jawzi Dar as-Sunnah Publishers</ref> Al-Biruni argues that although the common people of India worship idols, the educated people would be "entirely free from worshipping anything but God alone".<ref name="Friedmann, Yohanan 1975" /> Besides the number of inclusive reception, most jurists (fuqaha), such as Muslim heresiographer al-Shahrastani, consider them to be polytheists, but nevertheless most scholars granted them the status of a dhimmi.<ref name="Friedmann, Yohanan 1975" />

Rashid al-Din Hamadani records a conversation between Maulana Hamid al-Din and Kublai Khan concerning the threatment of Mongol polytheists. Whereas Christians would have informed the Khan, that enmity between them and Muslims is inevitable, due to their obligation to slay all mushrikun (polytheists), Maulana Hamid al-Din argued that shirk is not defined by religion but by action:

"Why then," said the Qa'an, "do you not [kill these people]?" He answered, "God Almighty has said: 'Kill the polytheist' but if the Qa'an will instruct me, I will tell him what a polytheist is."

"Speak," said the Qa'an.

"Though are not a polytheist," said Hamid al-Din, "since though writest the name of the Great God at the head of thy yarlighs. Such a one is a polytheist who does not recognize God, and attributes companions to Him, and rejects the Great God."<ref name=":0" />

Modern Context

In modern life, shirk is not only idol worship. Some Muslim thinkers say it also includes new kinds of actions that reduce trust in Allah or give too much importance to worldly powers.<ref name="Crescent">Template:Cite web</ref>

Today, people may depend on science, wealth, or status so much that they forget Allah’s control. Others may admire celebrities, leaders, or symbols as if they have special power. Such acts can lead to modern shirk.<ref name="Yaqeen">Template:Cite web</ref>

Common Examples

Examples of shirk in modern times include:

• Idolizing wealth or technology – believing money, power, or systems control life instead of Allah.<ref name="Yaqeen" />
• Celebrity worship – giving extreme admiration or loyalty to famous people.<ref name="Crescent" />
• Showing off in religion – doing good deeds to look pious in public or on social media (hidden shirk).<ref name="Yaqeen" />
• Trusting saints or shrines too much – asking help from humans or graves as if they had divine power.<ref name="IslamQA">Template:Cite web</ref>
• Believing in magic, charms, or talismans – thinking they bring luck or protection.<ref name="Britannica">Template:Cite web</ref>
• Shirk of love (shirk al-mahabbah) – loving or fearing someone more than Allah.<ref name="Qasim">Template:Cite web</ref>
• Hard Images, Statues and 3d pictures — Creating, printing or embossing ensouled creature images, statues and drawings.<ref name="Qasim" />

Images, Statues, and 3D Forms

A major issue in modern shirk is the creation or use of images and statues of living beings (humans or animals). The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “The people who will be most severely punished on the Day of Judgment will be the image-makers.” (Sahih al-Bukhari 5950; Sahih Muslim 2107).<ref name="IslamQA2">Template:Cite web</ref>

Modern discussions include:

• 2D photos and digital art – some say photos are allowed for records, others say drawing faces is like idol-making.<ref name="IslamQA2" />
• 3D statues, sculptures, and Hard images – often seen as the modern form of idol creation.<ref name="IIFA">Template:Cite web</ref>
• Robots or Machine avatars – creating lifelike human figures for admiration may imitate divine creation.<ref name="Crescent" />

According to Islamic jurists, pictures for identity, education, or medical use are allowed, but any image that inspires reverence or pride can lead toward shirk.<ref name="IIFA" />

Scholars explain that shirk began when early humans made statues of good people and later started to worship them. He warns that in the modern age, shirk is again spreading through images, fame, and material pride.<ref name="Qasim" /> He teaches that believers should remove unnecessary pictures or statues, depend only on Allah, and purify their hearts from hidden shirk.<ref name="Qasim" />

Avoiding Shirk

The Qur’an and Sunnah teach Muslims to keep their worship and trust only for Allah. Always have belief in Allah, His Names, His attributes, and His commands.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Repentance and awareness are needed to avoid modern forms of shirk. Islam teaches that all sins can be forgiven except dying without repenting from shirk.<ref name="Yaqeen" />

See also

• Black Stone
• Haram
• Henotheism
• Islam and blasphemy
• Islamic schools and branches
• Islamic view of the Trinity
• Islamic views on Jesus' death
• Paganism
• Pre-Islamic Arabia
• Shahada (confession)
• Taghut (idol)
• Biggest Sin in Islam

External links

• Template:Cite journal
• Shirk in legislation Template:Webarchive