Understanding shirk

of] the Sun and the Moon, nor would they worship stones [graves] or statues.

Instead their deeds will be [full of shirk of] hypocrisy’ ” (Mishkaat, page 455). Let us now understand how an act of hypocrisy becomes shirk.

The essence of an act of worship is to present oneself to the Lord. This is to pave

the way to get closer to Him. But such an act can be corrupted by the desire of

getting recognition of one’s piety by others. The pollution of an act that was

purely meant for Allah by such hypocrisy is shirk of pretence (as opposed to shirk

of worshipping another deity) because an act solely meant for Allah is now no

longer just for Him. The Holy Prophet ﷺ therefore, elucidated that the ummah

will indulge in shirk of hypocrisy and pretence but not in shirk of worship.

The ummah would yield to pleasures of worldly affairs but not indulge

in shirk

Sayyidina ‘Aqba bin ‘Aamir � narrated: The Holy Prophet ﷺ said, “By Allah I am not afraid that after me you will commit shirk, but I am afraid that worldly life will

tempt you and cause you to compete with each other for it”

(Bukhari, hadith 1334/3594).

Let us now look at what type of shirk this hadith is negating, and from what kind

of people. In present times, everyone, regardless of their credentials, is keen to

offer interpretation of the Scripture according to their understanding. This leads

to a medley of confusion and the only way to bypass this is to seek guidance from

the sayings of the Holy Prophet ﷺ.

What comes out beyond any shade of doubt from the hadith narrated by Sayyidina Shaddad bin Aws � is that this ummah will not worship the sun, moon,

stones (graves) and idols. At the same time the hadith by ‘Aqba bin ‘Aamir � is

explicitly negating the indulgence of the ummah in the shirk of worship.

Moreover, the dictum of the Holy Prophet ﷺ (who is the knower of the

unknown) swearing upon the name of Allah, that the ummah will not commit

shirk, is telling us that later on the people of the ummah, yielding to worldly

pleasures, will compete with each other in pursuit of luxuries of the world. There

can be no dispute about the fact that the era of the companions of the Holy

Prophet ﷺ was not the time when Muslims had fallen prey to the worldly

pleasures. With simple logic, one can therefore infer that this hadith is ruling out

the prospect of shirk of worshipping anyone other than Allah, amongst Muslims

for all times to come (until Doomsday) after the time of the companions of the

Holy Prophet ﷺ. At the same time it is clearly indicating that Muslims of later

times will surrender to profane pleasures.

The verdict of shirk bounces back

Sayyidina Huzayfa bin Yaman � narrated: The Holy Prophet ﷺ said, "No doubt

I am afraid of a person dominating over you who will read the Qur'an until its

freshness will reveal itself to him. He will hold dear the cloak of Islam as long as

Allah will wish so. Then he will get out of that cloak and will throw it behind him.

Then he will attack his neighbour with a sword and will accuse him of committing

shirk.” I asked the Holy Prophet ﷺ who, of those two, will deserve the penalty

of shirk. The Holy Prophet ﷺ replied, “The accuser”. This means that shirk (of

worship) will not prevail in the ummah of the Holy Prophet ﷺ and the accusation

of shirk by anyone on anyone will be baseless. However, the accuser – on account

of false accusation – will deserve the punishment for committing shirk.

Imam Ibn-e-Kathir has given full credence to this hadith. This has also been

validated by Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal and Yahya bin Mo’een

(Tafseer Ibn-e-Kathir, Vol 3; page 234).

Knowledge of the unseen

Knowledge of بيغ ملع(the unseen) in the light of the Holy Qur'an

When studying the subject of ‘knowledge of the unseen’ we come across a variety of verses in the Holy Qur’an. On the one hand there are verses that prove that no one besides Allah possesses the knowledge of the unseen. For example in Surah

Namal, Allah says,

للّاالابيغلاضرالاوتومسلايفنمملعياللق

Say (O Muhammadﷺ ): None in the heavens and the earth

knows the unseen, except Allah (Surah Namal, verse 65).

On the contrary, a number of verses prove that Allah bestows the knowledge of

the unseen to whosoever He chooses.

ءاشينملہسرنمیبتجي اللّنكلوبيغلايلعمكعلطيلللّاناکامو

And Allah will not reveal the unseen to you, but (instead) Allah

chooses from amongst His messengers whomever He wishes (for

the knowledge of the unseen) (Surah Aal-e-Imran, verse 179).

ادحا هبیغيلعرهظيالفبيغلاملع

لوسرنمیضترانمالا