Mountains, stone and trees greeting the Holy Prophet ﷺ

it uprooted itself and came to the presence of the Holy Prophet ﷺ. Then it said,

“Peace be upon you the Messenger of Allah”.

As soon as the Bedouin witnessed this he said, “It suffices to persuade me, it suffices to persuade me”. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then ordered the tree to go back to

its original place. Sayyidina Burayda Aslami � narrates that he stationed himself in

the roots of the tree. The Bedouin asked the Holy Prophet’s ﷺ permission to kiss

his blessed head and feet, which the Prophet ﷺ mercifully granted. Having done

that, he sought permission to prostate before him. But the Prophet of Allah ﷺ said,

“No human is permitted to prostrate before another”

(Khasais-e-Kubra; Vol. 2, page 35).

Understanding shirk

The reality of shirk in this age

Shirk is doubtlessly the greatest sin and the Glorious Qur’an has condemned it repeatedly. The tragedy though, of current times is that a number of true Islamic

customs are being reviled on the pretext of being shirk. Those who practice these

are treated as religious pariahs and excluded from the ambit of Islam. Let us examine

what is the reality of this fallacy in the light of sacred sayings of the Holy Prophet

ﷺ.

Shirk occurs in different forms and when we study the ahadith of the Holy Prophet

it becomes clear that the deeds of the ummah (Islamic community) will be

polluted by a particular type of shirk – the shirk of hypocrisy and dissimulation.

But the acts of the ummah will not be corrupted by the shirk of worship: as is

illustrated in the following hadith.

Sayyidina Shaddad bin Aws � narrates: I witnessed the Holy Prophet ﷺ saying

that anyone who offers prayers with the intention of showing off, commits shirk;

anyone who fasts to show off, commits shirk; and anyone who gives alms and

charity to show off, commits shirk (Mishkaat, page 455).

Once Sayyidina Shaddad bin Aws � was crying when the companions asked him

about the reason of his grief. He responded, “I am crying because of a sacred

decree of the Holy Prophet ﷺ when he said, ‘I fear my ummah will indulge in

shirk and rapacity.’ I said, ‘O messenger of Allah, would your ummah commit shirk after you?’ The Holy Prophet ﷺ replied, ‘Yes, but beware Shaddad bin Aws �,