(My Lord no one deserves existence
except You, and my existence is a
great sin. There is no way to forgive
it except by my annihilation and by
Your existence, You are to be
glorified).
And this doubt and Shirk is by
strength, not by action. This means
that its origin exists, and not that it
exists by action, meaning that the
capability for performing [it] is
existent but it was not fulfilled by
the action, which means that it is not
of the exterior. So the human nature
contains a black speck which is the
defect of nothingness and darkness,
and this black speck is the toehold
of Satan’s snout [and] through it he
whispers to the Son of Adam([5]).
________________________________
[1] Shirk: Association with Allah
(swt) – Translation note.
[2] Such as the saying of the AlMighty: (They took their Rabbis
and Monks as their Lord besides
Allah …) AlTouba: 31.
[3] Abu Basir said that he asked Abu
Abdullah (a.s) “{They have taken
their scholars and monks as lords
besides Allah}”? So he said: (No by
Allah they [the scholars] did not
call the people to worship them
[scholars], and if they had called
them (like this) then the people
would not have responded, but
rather the scholars Permitted (made
Halal) the Haram for them, and
Forbid (made Haram) the Halal
upon them consequently the people
worshiped the scholars from where
they did not perceive/sense) Al-Kafi:
volume1 page70 Hadith1, and also
Hadith 3.
[4]Yousef: 106.
[5] The Prophet (s.a.w) said, “Satan
verily perches on the hearts of the
Children of Adam, he has a snout
like a dog’s snout, it withdraws
when the servant remembers Allah
swt) Bihar Al-Anwar: Vol. 76 Page
49.
===
Question 59: The martyred and
blessed Sayyed Muhammad Al-Sadr
(May the Peace of Allah Be Upon
him) was asked to explain Shirk in
such a manner that the world and
the uneducated would understand
it, so he said: (all of what your eyes
falls upon then it is Shirk). Then the
asker said: “the world does not
know this let alone the
uneducated”, thus the Sayyed said:
(every thing your heart holds onto
then it is Shirk even if it was
Muhammed AlSadr), so if anything
is held in a person’s heart then is it
Shirk?
Answer: This is correct if the person
held on to something other than
Allah then he is a Mushrik, unless
this attachment is of the direction of
clinging to Allah Glorified is He and
Most High, i.e. it is love in Allah,
and submission to the command of
Allah such as the love of the family
of the household of the Prophet
May the Prayers of my Lord Be
upon them.
===
Shirk is considered sinful and
something to be avoided, however it
is impossible to avoid it entirely. We
must all work on pleasing Allah
(swt) in the best way and to always
avoid pleasing our Ego and evil
desires. And I am saying this
because Shirk comes from pleasing
our Ego and evil desires. There are
different levels of faith to achieve; in
the perspective of a person higher
than you, they perceive you are
committing Shirk.
Imam Ahmed (a.s) has shown that
Kufr (disbelief) is when someone
turns towards a being/thing
without Allah (swt). And
unfortunately this is what most
people on Earth are doing. This is
because the majority asks human
beings to achieve their needs
(money, job and food) in such a way
that they think it is coming from the
people and do not acknowledge that
it is actually from Allah (swt). And
so they live their life pleasing
people to achieve their needs.
And people in this state also turn
towards their scholars to defend
their beliefs (or justify their own
beliefs) without doing any research
of their own by looking into books,
Holy texts or at the least, asking
Allah (swt) for help. Such as an
atheist who has an imaginary
picture in his head that the scholars
of science have made so much
achievement all on their own
(without Allah swt) and that most of
them are atheists. And like a Hindu,
Jew, Christian or Muslim who has
an imaginary picture in his head
that the scholars of their respective
religion understand the Holy Books
inside out and have the most
knowledge on Earth concerning the
Holy Books.
Apparent Shirk is the idol
worshipers; even if those idols are
human beings such as errant nonworking scholars. The ones who
turn towards their errant nonworking scholar and listens to them
by disobeying Allah (swt), then it is
as if he has worshiped a statue.
Imam Ahmad (a.s) explains that
Hidden Shirk has two big aspects.
The first aspect