Shirk (Islam)

Islam and polytheism redirects here.

In Islam, shirk (Arabic: شرك‎ širk) is the sin of idolatry or polytheism (i.e., the deification or worship of anyone or anything besides Allah). Islam teaches that God does not share His divine attributes with any partner. Mušrikūn (Arabic: مشركون) are those who practice shirk, which literally means "association" and refers to accepting other gods and divinities alongside God (as God's "associates"). The Qur'an considers shirk as a sin that will not be forgiven if a person dies without repenting of it.

Quotes

• And bear in mind when Lokman said to his son by way of warning, "O my son! join not other gods with God, for the joining gods with God is the great impiety."
  • Also translated as: Luqman admonished his son. ‘My son’, he said, ‘serve no other God instead of Allah, for idolatry is an abominable sin.’
  • Also translated: And bear in mind when Lokman said to his son by way of warning, "O my son! join not other gods with God, for the joining gods with God is the great impiety." N J Dawood
  • Quran Surah 31: ayat 13.

• In spite of its apparent diversity, reports in Islamic traditional literature about the idols and sanctuaries of the Arabs in the jāhiliyya concentrate on a limited number of general topics. The most prominent are the origins of idolatry and of individual idols, in the world generally and in Arabia; the destruction of Arabian idols and sanctuaries with the rise of Islam; and details about the tribes and families with which the Arabian idols were associated.
  • quoted in G. R. Hawting - The Idea of Idolatry and the Emergence of Islam_ From Polemic to History-Cambridge University Press (2006) 64

• Al-Uzza was a she-devil which used to frequent three trees in the valley of Nakhla. When the Prophet captured Mecca he despatched Khalid ibn al-Walid saying, “go to the valley of Nakhla; there you will find three trees. Cut down the first one.” Khalid went and cut it down. On his return to report, the Prophet asked him, “Have you seen anything there?” Khalid replied, “No.” The Prophet ordered him to return and cut down the second tree. He went and cut it down. On his return to report the Prophet asked him a second time, “Have you seen anything there?” Khalid replied, “No.” Thereupon the Prophet ordered him to return and cut down the third tree. When Khalid arrived on the scene he found an Abyssinian woman with dishevelled hair and her hands placed on her shoulders, gnash­ ing and grating her teeth. Behind her stood Dubayya al-Sulami who was then the warden of al-Uzza.. . . Turning to the woman Khalid dealt her a blow which severed her head in two, and behold, she crumbled into ashes. He then cut down the tree and killed Dubayya the warden, after which he returned to the Prophet and reported to him his exploit. Thereupon the Prophet said, “That was al-Uzza. But she is no more. The Arabs shall have none after her. Verily she shall never be worshipped again.”
  • (Ibn al-Kalbi, Book of Idols, pp. 25-26 = Ibn al-Kalbi 1952, pp. 21-22) quoted in F.E. Peters - Muhammad and the Origins of Islam-State University of New York Press (1994)

• Among the things they asked the Messenger was that they should be allowed to retain their idol al-Lat undestroyed for three years. The Messenger refused and they continued to ask him for a year or two (grace), and he refused. Finally they asked for a month (dispensation) after their return home, but he refused to agree to any set time. All that they wanted, as they were trying to show, was to be safe from their fanatics and women and children by leaving al-Lat, and they did not want to frighten their people by destroying her until they had (all) accepted Islam. The Messenger refused this, but he sent Abu Sufyan and al-Mughira to destroy her (for them). They also asked him that he would excuse them from prayer and that they would not have to break the idol with their own hands. The Messenger said: “We excuse you from breaking your idols with your own hands, but as for prayer, there is no good in a religion which has no prayers.” They said that they would perform them, though they were demeaning.
  • (Ibn Ishaq 1955, pp. 613-614) quoted in F.E. Peters - Muhammad and the Origins of Islam-State University of New York Press (1994)

• In Qubã’ there was an unmarried Muslim woman and he noticed that a man used to come to her in the middle of the night and knock on her door; she would come out and he would give her something. He felt very suspicious of him and asked her what was the meaning of this nightly performance as she was a Muslim woman without a husband. She told him that he was Sahl b. Hunayf b. Wãhib who knew that she was all alone and he used to break up the idols of his tribe at night and bring her the pieces to use as fuel…
  • Ibn Ishãq, Sîrat Rasûl Allãh, translated into English by A. Gillaumne, OUP, Karachi, Seventh Impression.Quoted in in Goel, S. R. (1993). Hindu temples: What happened to them. Vol. II

• “There were graves of the idolaters, dilapidated buildings and date trees [in the garden]. The Prophet gave the order and the graves of the idolaters were dug out, the dilapidated buildings levelled [with the ground], and the date trees cut down.”
  • According to a tradition from Anas b. Mãlik. Translated from the Urdu version of SaHîh Bukhãrî Sharîf, New Delhi, 1984, Vol. I, p. 240. See also the Urdu version of Sunn Nasãî Sharîf, New Delhi, 1986, Vol. I, p. 240, and Tãrîkh-i-Tabarî, Vol. I, Sîrat an-Nabî, Karachi (n.d), p. 145. (Quoted in in Goel, S. R. (1993). Hindu temples: What happened to them. Vol. II)

• Had you seen Muhammad and his troops
  The day the idols were smashed when he entered,
  You would have seen God’s light become manifest
  And darkness covering the face of idolatry.”
  • FaDãla b. al-Mulãwwih al-Laythî , in : Ibn Ishãq, Sîrat Rasûl Allãh, translated into English by A. Gillaumne, OUP, Karachi, Seventh Impression.Quoted in in Goel, S. R. (1993). Hindu temples: What happened to them. Vol. II

• Hubal “was pulled down and used as a doorstep when the Prophet conquered Mecca and purified the Ka’bah.”
  • Cyril Glasse, The Concise Encyclopaedia of Islam, London, 1989.(Quoted in in Goel, S. R. (1993). Hindu temples: What happened to them. Vol. II)

• “The other stones which were worshipped as idols were actually used as cornerstones of the Ka‘ba and as such we must consider also the Maqãm Ibrahîm.”
  • First Encyclopaedia of Islam 1913-1936, Leiden, 1987. (Quoted in in Goel, S. R. (1993). Hindu temples: What happened to them. Vol. II)

• At the same time, “The proclaimer authorised by the apostle of Allãh went throughout Mecca calling upon all those who believe in Allãh and the Last Day to leave no idol unbroken in their homes.”...Having “purified” Mecca, the Prophet sent “expeditions to those idols which were in the neighbourhood and had them destroyed; these included al-‘Uzzã, Manãt, Suwã‘, Buãna and Dhu’l-Kaffayn.”
  • Tabqãt-i-Ibn Sa‘d, Translated from ‘Alãma Abdullãh al-Ahmdî’s Urdu version of Tabqãt-i-ibn Sa‘d, Karachi, (n.d.). (Quoted in in Goel, S. R. (1993). Hindu temples: What happened to them. Vol. II)

• The Prophet instructed Khãlîd, “In whatever settlement you do not hear the azãn or see no mosque, slaughter the people of that place.”
  • Tabqãt-i-Ibn Sa‘d, Translated from ‘Alãma Abdullãh al-Ahmdî’s Urdu version of Tabqãt-i-ibn Sa‘d, Karachi, (n.d.). (Quoted in in Goel, S. R. (1993). Hindu temples: What happened to them. Vol. II)

• We shall fight as long as we live
  Till you turn to Islam, humbly seeking refuge.
  We will fight not caring whom we meet
  Whether we destroy ancient holdings or newly gotten gains.
  How many tribes assembled against us
  Their finest stock and allies!
  They came at us thinking they had no equal
  And we cut off their noses and ears
  With our fine polished Indian swords,
  Driving them violently before us
  To the command of God and Islam,
  Until religion is established, just and straight, and
  Al-Lat and al-‘Uzza and Wudd are forgotten
  And we plunder them of their necklaces and earrings.
  For they had become established and confident,
  And he who cannot protect himself must suffer disgrace.
  • Ka’b b. Malik prior to the siege at Ta’if (in Arabia), about two years prior to Muhammad’s death. Quoted in Ernest Hahn, Jihad in Islam

• “It is related that on the morning of conception the idols in all the inhabited quarters of the earth were overturned…”
  • The Rauzat-us-Safa, or Garden of Purity by Muhammad bin Khavendshah bin Mahmud translated into English by E. Rehatsek, first published 1893, Delhi Reprint 1982. (Quoted in in Goel, S. R. (1993). Hindu temples: What happened to them. Vol. II)

• The prophet “ordered his glorious companions to fell the date-trees and to destroy the vineyards of the neighbourhood” ... “It is related in some biographies that while the siege of Tãyf was being carried on, his holy and prophetic lordship appointed A’li Murtadza with a number of glorious companions to make excursions into the country, and to destroy every idol they could find… Thereon A’li, the Commander of the Faithful… destroyed all the idols of the Bani Hoãzãn and Bani Thaqyf which were in that region. …”
  • The Rauzat-us-Safa, or Garden of Purity by Muhammad bin Khavendshah bin Mahmud translated into English by E. Rehatsek, first published 1893, Delhi Reprint 1982. (Quoted in in Goel, S. R. (1993). Hindu temples: What happened to them. Vol. II) [1]

• I smashed RuDã’ so completely that
  I left it a black ruin in a hollow.
  • Al-Mustaughir b. Rabî‘a, in : Ibn Ishãq, Sîrat Rasûl Allãh, translated into English by A. Gillaumne, OUP, Karachi, Seventh Impression.Quoted in in Goel, S. R. (1993). Hindu temples: What happened to them. Vol. II

• When the Apostle of God captured Mecca and the Arabs embraced Islam, among the delegates who came to pay their homage was Jarir ibn-'Abdullah. He came to the Apostle and embraced Islam before him. Thereupon the Apostle addressed him saying, "O Jarir! Wilt thou not rid me of dhu-al-Khalasah?" Jarir replied, "Yea." So the Apostle dispatched him to destroy it. He set out until he got to the banu-Abmas of the Bajilah [tribe] and with them he proceeded to dhu-al-Khalasah. There he was met by the Khath'am and the Bahilah, who resisted him and attempted to defend dhu-al-Khalasah. He, therefore, fought them and killed a hundred men of the Bahilah, its custodians, and many of the Khath'am; while of the banu-Qubafah ibn-'Amir ibn-Khath'am he killed two hundred. having defeated them and forced them into flight, he demolished the building which stood over dhu-al-Khalasah and set it on fire. A certain woman of the banu-Khath'am thereupon said:
  "The banu-Umamah, each wielding his spear,
  Were slaughtered at al-Wahyab, their abode;
  They came to defend their shrine, only to find
  Lions with brandished swords clamoring for blood.
  The women of the Khath'am were, then, humiliated
  By the men of the Abmas, and abased."
  At the present time dhu-al-Khalassah constitutes the threshold of the gate of the mosque at Tabalab.
  • The Muslim historian Hisham Ibn Al-Kalbi.−Ibn-Al-Kalbi, Hisham, The Book of Idols, pp. 31–2

• In the Pre-Islamic Period of Ignorance there was a house called Dhu-l-Khalasa or Al-Ka'ba Al-Yamaniya or Al-Ka'ba Ash-Shamiya. The Prophet said to me, "Won't you relieve me from Dhu-l-Khalasa?" So I set out with one-hundred-and-fifty riders, and we dismantled it and killed whoever was present there. Then I came to the Prophet and informed him, and he invoked good upon us and Al-Ahmas (tribe).
  • Sahih Bukhari hadith. . Sahih al-Bukhari, 5:59:641

• I studied the Koran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammad. So far as I can see, it is the principal cause of the decadence so visible today in the Muslim world and, though less absurd than the polytheism of old, its social and political tendencies are in my opinion to be feared, and I therefore regard it as a form of decadence rather than a form of progress in relation to paganism itself.
  • Alexis de Tocqueville, letter to Arthur de Gobineau, October 22, 1843.