He it is Who has made you successors in the land.” And again: “Shall I seek for you a god other than Allāh, while He has made you excel all created things?” (7:140). Shirk is therefore, of all sins the most serious because it degrades man and renders him unfit for attaining the high position destined for him in the Divine scheme.
The various forms of shirk mentioned in the Holy Qur’ān are an indication of the ennobling message underlying the teaching of Divine Unity. These are summed up in the verse: “That we shall worship4 (or serve) none but Allāh and that we shall not associate aught with Him and that some of us shall not take others for lords besides Allāh” (3:64). These are really three forms of shirk — a fourth is mentioned separately. The most palpable form of shirk is that in which anything besides God is worshipped, such as stones, idols, trees, animals, tombs, heavenly bodies, forces of nature, or human beings who are supposed to be demi-gods or gods or incarnations of God or sons or daughters of God. The second kind of shirk, which is less palpable, is the associating of other things with God, that is, to suppose that other things and beings possess the same attributes as the Divine Being. The beliefs that there are three persons in the Godhead, and that the Son and the Holy Ghost are eternal, Omnipotent and Omniscient like God Himself, as in the Christian creed, or that there is a Creator of Evil along with a Creator of Good, as in Zoroastrianism, or that matter and soul are co-eternal with God and self-existing like Himself, as in Hinduism — all come under this head. The last kind of shirk is that in which some men take others for their lords. The meaning of this was explained by the Holy Prophet himself, in answer to a question put to him. When verse 9:31 was revealed — “they have taken their doctors of law and their monks for lords besides Allāh” — ‘Adiyy ibn Hatim, a convert from Christianity, said to the Holy Prophet that the Jews and the Christians did not worship the doctors of law and the monks. The Holy Prophet asked him if it was not true that they blindly obeyed them in what they enjoined and what they forbade, and ‘Adiyy answered in the affirmative. This report shows that to follow the behests of great
4 The Arabic word for worship is ibādah, which carries originally a wide significance, the showing of submission to the utmost extent, or obedience which is combined with the utmost humility, but in ordinary usage means the adopting of a reverential attitude of the body towards a thing, while the mind is engrossed with ideas of greatness and mightiness, and the making of supplications to it. It is in this sense that the word ibādah is used here.