Shirk (Arabic:شِرْك,lit. 'association') inIslam is asin often roughly translated as 'idolatry' or 'polytheism', but more accurately meaning 'association [withGod]'.[1][2][a] It refers to accepting other divinities or powers alongside God as associates.[4][5] In contrast, Islam teaches that God does not share divine attributes with anyone, as it is disallowed according to the Islamic doctrine oftawhid.[6][7] TheQuran, the central religious text of Islam, states in 4:48 that God will not forgiveshirk if one dies without repenting of it.[8][7][9]
The one who commitsshirk is called amushrik.[b] The opposite ofshirk istawhid[c] and the opposite ofmushrik ismuwahhid.[d]
The wordshirk comes from theArabic rootsh-r-k (ش ر ك), with the general meaning of 'to share'.[10][e]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 wordmushrikūn (مشركون)—those who commit shirk and plot against Islam—often refer to the enemies of Islam (as inal-Tawbah verses 9:1–15).[12]: 9:1–15
According to theEncyclopaedia of Islam, the Quran states twice inAn-Nisa verses 48 and 116 that God can forgive all sins save one:shirk.[13]
Indeed, Allah does not forgive associating others with Him ˹in worship˺, but forgives anything else of whoever He wills. And whoever associates others with Allah has indeed committed a grave sin.
Islamic commentators on the Quran have emphasized that a number ofpre-Islamic Arabian deities andjinn, most notably the three goddessesManat,al-Lat andal-Uzza mentioned inan-Najm, were considered associates of God.[15]
Entities worshipped besides God are calledshurakāʾ (Arabic:شُرَكَاء).[16]: 41 [17]: 77 AfterJudgement Day, they will be cast intoJahannam (Hell) along withdevils (fallen angels) and evil jinn,[16]: 41 to whom the polytheists are said to sacrifice in order to gain protection.
Charles Adams writes that the Quran reproaches thePeople of the Book withkufr for rejectingMuhammad'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.[18] The Quranic verseAl-Ma'idah 5:73[19]: 5:73 ("Certainly they disbelieve [kafara] who say: God is the third of three"), among other verses, has been traditionally understood in Islam asrejection of the Christian Trinity doctrine,[20] but modern scholarship has suggested alternative interpretations.[note 1] Other Quranic verses strongly deny thedivinity of Jesus, 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.[21][22] 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 tochildren of Israel.[23] Some Muslim thinkers, such asMohamed 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)[19] as non-Christian formulas, which were rejected by the Christian Church, as well.[24]
Cyril Glasse criticises the use ofkafirun (sg.kafir) to describe Christians as a "loose usage".[clarification needed][25] According to theEncyclopaedia of Islam, traditionalIslamic jurisprudence hasahl al-kitab being "usually regarded more leniently than otherkuffar (pl. ofkafir)," and "in theory," a Muslim commits a punishable offense if he says to a Jew or a Christian: "Thou unbeliever."[26]
Historically, People of the Book permanently residing under Islamic rule were entitled to a special status known asdhimmi, and those who were visiting Muslim lands received a different status known asmusta'min.[26] In the Quran, Jews and Christians—though accused of believing in shared divinity by asserting lineage between God andEzra or Jesus, respectively—are not described asmushrik.[27] The term is reserved for pre-Islamic beliefs that associated partners with God. Nonetheless, medieval Muslim philosophers identified belief in theTrinity withshirk ('associationism'), by limiting the infinity of God by associating his divinity with physical existence.[28]
In a theological context, one commitsshirk by associating some lesser being withGod (Allah). The sin is committed if one imagines that there is another power associated withAllah as a partner.[29] 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" (QuranAn-Nisa 4:48).[30]: 4:48 [31]
The term is often translated aspolytheism, but it is more complex than that.[29][32] The term also implies that humans need to renounce claiming divine status for themselves by regarding themselves as better than others.[32] Besides worshipping only one God, it also postulates that God must be considered as entirely unique and condemns anthropomorphization.[32]Shirk further implies that God's attributes cannot be associated with any other entity or that any other entity can exist independent from God.[31] At the same time,shirk contains additional assumptions not entailed by the concept of idolatry and does not require a physical object of worship.[33]
Shirk is classified into two categories:[34]
Shirk al-akbar is defined as open association and has been described in two forms:[34]
Shirk al-asghar may be committed by one whoprofessestawhid, but for the sake of others.
One who offers the ritualprayers in an ostentatious way is a polytheist. One who keeps thefast, orgives alms, or performs thehajj to show the public his righteousness or to earn good name is a polytheist.
— Sayyed Qasim Mujtaba Moosavi Kamoonpuri[7]
Mahmud ibn Lubayd reported,
Allah's messenger said: "The thing I fear for you the most isash-Shirk al-Asghar."
The companions asked, "O Messenger of Allah, what is that?"
He replied, "Ar-Riya (showing off), for verily Allah will say on the Day of Resurrection when people are receiving their rewards, 'Go to those for whom you were showing off in the material world and see if you can find any reward from them."
Mahmud ibn Lubayd also said,
The Prophet came out and announced, "O people, beware of secret Shirk!"
The people asked, "O Messenger of Allah, what is secret Shirk?"
He replied, "When a man gets up to pray and strives to beautify his prayer because people are looking at him; that is secret Shirk."
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." (gradedhasan byAl-Tirmidhi andsaheeh byAl-Hakim)
According toIbn Mas’ood, one ofMuhammad'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."[35]
According toSufi teachings, to avoid "hiddenshirk" (al-shirk al-khafi), it is necessary to focus solely on God and give up one's own will.[36]
Some Sufi scholars even go so far as to describe a belief infree will as a form ofshirk. According to such an uncompromising view, beliefs usually accommodated withinmonotheism, such as that in a personaldevil (rather than theunregenerate 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 withshirk.[37]
Abdullah Ansari describes the highest stage oftawhid 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.[38]
In Sufism, every action done with an expectation of reward, either in this world or in the hereafter, is considered an act ofshirk. Despite that this level ofshirk does not entail disbelief, or require repeating the action to follow Islam's legal prescriptions, Sufis work onpurification until their thoughts are not dominated by any desire except the pure love of God, which results in pure actions of worship.[citation needed]
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, founder of theWahhabi movement, classifiedshirk into three main categories.[39] However,ibn Taymiyya is considered to have been the spiritual founder of this distinction.[28][40]: 106
For abd al-Wahhab,tawhid al-ibada was the decisive factor to determine the identity of a Muslim and also the execution oftawhid al-rububiyyah. Muslims who violated his interpretation oftawhid al-ibada were considered to be "associators" (mushrikūn) and "unbelievers" (kāfirūn).[39]
Building on the legacy of abdl-Wahhab, in the writings ofIslamist writersSayyid Qutb,al-Mawdudu, andAbu Muhammad al-Maqdisi interprete adherences to human-made laws as shirk.[33]
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The worship of another God besides the Islamic God poses a form ofshirk, but whether a foreign deity, even beyond theAbrahamic religions, can be identified with the Islamic God is answered variously.
Thesupreme deity of the Turks and Mongols was also frequently identified with the Islamic God.[42][43] Likewise, some Muslim authors identifiedBrahman with Allah. However, such identifications were less likely to be universally accepted and also frequently challenged.[42]
Amir Khusrau (1253 – 1325), an iconic scholar of theDelhi Sultanate, 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.[44] According to theHanbali scholaral-Jawzi (1116 – 1201), thetawhid of the Brahmins is immaculate; their unbelief consists in the rejection of prophets and performance of rituals without divine sanction.[45]Al-Biruni, scholar and polymath during the Islamic Golden Age and credited as an early anthropologist, argues that although the common people of India worship idols, the educated people would be "entirely free from worshipping anything but God alone".[44] Besides the number of inclusive reception, mostjurists (fuqaha), such as Muslim heresiographeral-Shahrastani, consider them to be polytheists, but nevertheless most scholars granted them the status of adhimmi.[44]
The meaning of the verse is that whoever dies while a Mushrik (polytheist) Allah will not forgive him and he will surely be punished for this sin, i.e. he will remain in Hell-fire forever. As for the person who repents, Allah forgives his previous Shirk.
