Re: Shirk
Question:-
What is Shirk? Is a person who only cares about his money and possessions committing shirk because this makes money and his possessions his god? What do you think?
Comment:-
Islam is Surrender to Allah exclusively.
Shirk is to give partners to Allah and is, therefore, polytheism and the negation of Islam.
Whereas Islam exists to create Unity - inner psychological integration, a unified self-consistent world view, social unity, harmony with the world, and unity with Allah - Shirk negates all these causing disintegration, conflict and suffering.
Shirk is anything that is regarded as supreme besides Allah, to which a person subordinates himself, serves, adores, worships, obeys, is addicted to or obsessed by, things that become goals rather than means.
This could be objects, possessions, money, wealth, power, prestige, fame, attention, one's self or ego, talents, qualities, persons, family, ideas, books, institutions, organisations, systems such as logic, science, philosophy and even religion etc.
One could of course, honour, pursue or obey something not because of itself but because it is subordinate or a means to something else. If that goal is Allah then it is not shirk. Thus the Quran and the Prophet are adored and obeyed because that is a means of obeying Allah.
Christian Critic:-
The meaning here ascribes to Shirk is not the "fundamental" Quranic sense, but rather one version of the way the word is used in later Islamic theology. How much of later Islamic theology one wants to accept is a matter of taste. It is clear that MuShRiKun is being used in the Quran in a specialised sense in the Quran. The Quran says things like "kill the MuShRiKiYNa" (9.5). I assume that Shirk is meant to mean whatever it is the MuShRiKs do that God so disapproves of.
Comment:-
The critic has read the Quran rather superficially.
The words derived from Shirk mean to make equal partners with and those who make equal partners with. In the Quran these words are used in the specific sense of making equal partners with God. The meaning will be clearer if the seeker looks into the Quran not just for specific words but also where there is mention of taking other patrons or protectors besides Allah. The meaning of the parts is best understood with respect to the whole Quran and this requires the student or scholar to meditate and get feel for the Spirit of Quran.
The words have connotations (meaning) and denotations (reference). Their denotation can refer to particular things or to more general things.
To illustrate:- When you use the word "chair" which means "something to sit on" you could be referring to a particular chair but this does not imply that it does not also refer to all kinds of chairs in general.
There is a tendency to reduce the meaning of the Quran to specifics or particulars in support of various prejudices, sectarian or anti-Islamic. Among other concepts, besides Shirk, treated in this way are also Jehad (striving) and Islam (surrender).
But the Quran most certainly has wider and deeper meanings. The particular things are used as illustrations or similitudes for more general ideas and events. This is what makes it universal.
The Quran exists to be thought about, meditated on and applied. Islamic Theology is an attempt, by those who undertake these, to bring out the meaning and significance of the Quran - to make explicit what is implicit.
This can obviously not be done by non-Muslims who ignore the instructions of the Quran, do not undertake the discipline and have little or no empathy with the Quran.
"They to whom We have brought the Book and who read it as it should be studied, they are the ones that believe therein; and whoso rejects faith therein, it is they who are the losers." 2:121
"Nay, but it is a clear revelation in the hearts of those who are endowed with knowledge, and none deny Our revelations save the wrongdoers (or unjust)." 29:49
"And certainly We have set forth to men in this Quran similitudes of every sort that they may reflect." 39:27
"Therefore when We have recited it (the Quran), follow its recitation. Nay, more, it is for Us to explain (and clarify) it." 75:18-19
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