16. POLYTHEISM (SHIRK)

God says:

O Mankind! Worship your Sustainer, who has created you and those who lived before you, so that you might remain conscious of Him who has made the earth a resting place for you and the sky a canopy, and has sent down water from the sky and thereby brought fruit for sustenance: do not, then, claim that there is any power * that could rival God, when you know [that He is One]. Q.2: 22
* Lit. “do not give God any compeers” (andad, plural of nidd ). There is full agreement among all commentators that this term implies any object of adoration to which some or all of Gods qualities are ascribed…(Muhammad Asad)
* The false gods may be idols, superstition, self, or even great and glorious (person or) things like poetry, art and science… pride of race, birth, wealth or position, power, learning, or even spiritual pride. (Abdullah Yusuf Ali)

Do not marry women who ascribe divinity to aught beside God before they attain to (true) belief:... [Such as] these invite unto the fire, whereas God invites unto paradise, Q.2: 221
Verily, God does not forgive the ascribing of divinity to ought beside Him, although He forgives any lesser sin unto whomever He wills: for he who ascribes divinity to aught beside God has indeed contrived an awesome sin. * Q.4: 48
* The continuous stress, in the Qur’an, on God’s transcendental oneness and uniqueness aims at freeing man from all sense of dependence on other influences and powers, and thus elevating him spiritually and bringing about the “purification” alluded to in the next verse. Since this objective is vitiated by the sin of shirk (“the ascribing of divine qualities to aught beside God”), the Qur’an describes it as “unforgivable” so long as it is persisted in, i.e., unless and until the sinner repents.

N.B. Polytheism (shirk), is one of the 3 worst sins. The other two are: Disbelief (Kufr) and Arrogation (Tughyan)


Prophet said:

1. “You should worship God associating nothing with Him“ -- H: Tirmizi. N: Muaz b Jabal.

2. “(The Almighty revealed:) whoever acts setting up partner with Me…I desert him and his partnership.”-- Hadis Qudsi: Muslim. N: Abu Hurairah.(Hadis Qudsi, meaning sacred Hadis, is one in which the Prophet reports what has been revealed to him by God, though not necessarily in His actual words. Therefore in no way it is regarded as a part of the Quran.)

3. “God, glorified and exalted be He, said: I am so self-sufficient that I am in no need of having an associate. Thus he who acts for someone else’s sake as well as Mine, will have that action renounced by Me to him whom he associated with Me.” – Hadis Qudsi: Muslim and Ibn Majah. N: Abu Hurairah.

4. “The exaggerators have perished” (repeated 3 times) – H. Muslim. N: Ibn Masud.