What is shirk
Mu' meneen Brothers
and Sisters,
As Salaam Aleikum wa
Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be
upon all of you)
One of our
brothers/sisters has asked this question:
Dear Burhan,
You said: "Allah Subhanah will Judge each individual according to
his deeds, and if He Wills, He may forgive all the evil deeds of the person
(except the sin of Shirk, which He has Himself declared that He will not forgive)".
Forgive my ignorance, but what is Shirk?
Regards
(There may be
some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum does not
change anything from questions, comments and statements received from our
readers for circulation in confidentiality.)
Answer:
What is the meaning of Shirk?
Shirk is associating a partner
with God in His God-head, or sharing any of God’s Attributes with another, or
sharing any of the rights due to God with another, or believing that God is not Alone, Unique, and
Incomparable.
I will formulate this answer
with the Christian belief in mind, so please bear with me! All the quotation I quote from the Holy
Bible are taken from the King James Version.
Islam and Christianity have a
multitude of beliefs in common; the one belief that differentiates these two
Abrahamic religions is the ‘divinity’ of Jesus Christ (peace be upon him). Other than this one belief, you will be
surprised how similar the two beliefs are.
Here is Islam’s position of
Jesus Christ:
Islam is the only non-Christian
Faith which makes it an article of faith to believe in Jesus. No muslim is a muslim if he does not believe
in Jesus Christ!
Islam recognizes and respects
Jesus as one of the mightiest Messengers of God.
Islam believes that Jesus was
born miraculously, without any male
intervention whatsoever.
Islam believes that Jesus was
the Messiah, translated Christ.
Islam believes that Jesus
performed all the miracles (healing those who were born blind, healing the
lepers, giving life to the dead, etc.) with God’s permission.
One may ask, if both Muslims and
Christians love and respect Jesus (pbuh), where exactly is the parting of
ways? The one major difference between
these two great faiths, is the ‘divinity’ of Jesus Christ (a.s.).
The Holy Bible does not support
the Christian belief in Trinity at all.
No where, absolutely no where in the whole Bible is the term
Trinity, or the concept of Trinity even
mentioned! The Quran, on the other hand, clearly mentions and condemns the concept of Trinity and
determines it as associating others with God or ‘shirk’.
God says in the Holy
Quran Chapter 4 Surah Nisaa verse 171: O People of the Book (Jews and
Christians)! Commit no excesses in your
religion: Nor say of Allah aught but Truth.
Christ Jesus, the son of Mary was (no more than) a Messenger of Allah
and His Word which He bestowed on Mary, and a Spirit proceeding from Him. So believe in Allah and (all) His Messengers. Say not "Trinity"! Desist!
it will be better for you: for
Allah is One Allah. Glory be to him:
(for Exalted is He) above having a son!
To Him belong all things in the heavens and on earth. And enough is Allah as a Disposer of
affairs.
One of the scribes once asked
Jesus (pbuh) as to which was the first commandment of all, to which Jesus
(pbuh) merely repeated what Moses (pbuh) had said earlier:
"Shama
Israelu Adonai Ila Hayno Adonai Ikhad."
This is a Hebrew quotation,
which means:
"Hear, O
Israel; The Lord our God, is one
Lord."
[The Bible, Mark
12:29]
It is striking that the basic
teachings of the Church such as Trinity and atonement find no mention in the
Bible at all!!! In fact, various
verses of the Bible point to Jesus’ (pbuh) actual mission, which was to fulfill
the law revealed to Prophet Moses (pbuh).
Indeed Jesus (pbuh) rejected any suggestions that attributed divinity to
him, and explained his miracles as the power of the One True God. Jesus (pbuh) thus reiterated the message
of monotheism that was given by all earlier Prophets of Almighty God!
“ I, even I,
am the Lord; and besides Me
there is no savior.”
[The Bible, Isaiah 43:11]
“I am Lord, and
there is none else. There is no god
besides Me!”
[The Bible, Isaiah
45:5]
“I am God, and
there is none else. I am God, and there
is none like Me.”
[The Bible, Isaiah 46:9]
The Holy Bible
clearly condemns ‘shirk’ in the verses below:
"Thou shalt
have no other gods before me."
"Thou shalt
not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in
heaven above, or that is in the earth
beneath, or that is in the water under
the earth:"
"Thou shalt
not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them:
for I the Lord, thy God, am a Jealous God."
[The Bible, Exodus
20:3-5]
"Thou shalt
have none other gods before me."
"Thou shalt
not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven
above, or that in the earth beneath, or that is in the water beneath the
earth."
"Thou shalt not
bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them; for I the Lord, thy God, am a
Jealous God."
[The Bible,
Deuteronomy 5:7-9]
The following statement from the
Bible supports the Islamic belief that Jesus (pbuh) was a Prophet of God.
"Ye men of
Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by
miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know."
[The Bible, Acts
2:22]
"And this is life
eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou has sent."
[The Bible, John
17:3]
"And behold,
one came and said unto him, ‘Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I
may have eternal life?’
And he said unto
him, ‘Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God: but
if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.’ "
[The Bible, Mathew
19:16-17]
"I can of
mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgement is just; because
I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me."
[The Bible, John
5:30]
"…I cast out
devils by the Spirit of God…."
[The Bible, Mathew
12:28]
"…I with the
finger of God cast out devils…."
[The Bible, Luke
11:20]
"… and the
word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me."
[The Bible, John
14:24]
God declares in the Quran, that the people who have declared Jesus as
the ‘son of God’ have committed the heinous sin of ‘shirk’ or associating
someone with God!
God says in the Holy Quran
Chapter 5 Surah Maidah verses 72-73:
72 They do blaspheme who
say: "Allah is Christ, the son of Mary." But said Christ: "O children of Israel! Worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord." Whoever joins other gods with Allah, Allah
will forbid him Paradise, and the Fire will be his abode. There will for the wrong-doers be no one to
help.
73 They do blaspheme who
say: ‘Allah is one of three in a
Trinity!”; For there is no god except
One Allah. If they desist not from
their word (of blasphemy), verily a grievous penalty will befall the
blasphemers among them.
God says in the Holy
Quran Chapter 9 Surah Taubah verse 31: They (the Jews and the Christians) take
their priests and their anchorites to be their lords in derogation of Allah,
and (the Christians take as their Lord) Christ the son of Mary; Yet they were commanded to worship but one
Allah. There is no god but He. Praise and Glory to Him. (Far and Exalted is He) from the ‘SHIRK’
that they do.
Please do let me know if the
concept of ‘shirk’ is clear to you, or
if you have any questions or need any sort of clarifications whatsoever. I shall feel honored to address them for
you.
Your friend and sincere
well-wisher,