فَلَا تَدْعُوا مَعَ اللَّهِ إِلَاهًا آخَرَ فَتَكُونَ مِنَ الْمُعَذَّبِينَ وَأَنذِرْ عَشِيرَتَكَ الْأَقَرَبِينَ وَاخْفِضْ جَنَاحَكَ لِمَنِ اتَّبَعَكَ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ The word shirk, to associate a partner with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It comes from the Arabic verb, ashraka yushriku, which means to make a partner or to make someone equal or to give somebody a share in something. This is the kind of meaning that we're talking about linguistically. So we're talking about making a partner with Allah or giving somebody else a share of something that belongs to Allah . We find that Allah mentions shirk in so many different ways.
Sometimes it is a command, do not make partners with Allah. Sometimes it is telling the punishment, the punishment for those who make partners with Allah is such and such. Even to the point when Allah says to the messenger of Allah that if you or Muhammad committed shirk, we would destroy all of your deeds, we would render all of your deeds worthless and you would be from amongst the losers.
So if we look at, for example, who can give me some, for example, acts of worship? And I want a variation of acts of worship. I want some that are from the heart and some that are from the tongue and some that we do on the limbs. And then we can talk and then when you give me that, give me an example of how that act of worship can be or what the opposite is in terms of shirk. Supplication.
So supplication. Dua, this is one of the most, if not the most common form of worship that people do. So okay, dua, how can this become shirk?
So supplicating to other than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So when we supplicate, we supplicate only to Allah. And if someone were to supplicate to other than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, they would be guilty of shirk.
Give me an example of something in the heart. An action of the heart. Fear.
Now, this is where it gets a little bit complicated. Because we say that fear is an act of worship. But then people talk about natural fear, right? People, I'm naturally scared of wasps.
People, you know, talk about natural fear. And so, what is the, how do we balance that? Basically, we're talking about the fear that only, is only for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Not a fear of, you know, fear of the dark.
We're talking about the fear that is only for Allah. What kind of fear is that? The kind of fear that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala can harm you and can cause harm to you wherever you are. And that no matter where you run in the heavens or the earth, there is nothing that can save you from Allah.
That kind of fear, the fear that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and the punishments of yawm al-qiyamah and the fear of the hellfire, that is the fear. If we give that fear to others than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, then we are guilty of shirk. And this happens a lot. And unfortunately, I've seen it a lot recently amongst a lot of the brothers who attend the masajid, that they will not do certain actions and not do certain things.
And when you ask them, they will talk about being scared of a government or being scared of the police or being scared of what people might think. And then when you ask them in detail, you say, Ahi, they can see you everywhere. They can listen to your conversations and they can see you from the sky and whatever you are doing, they can see you. And that's why I'm so scared of them.
Is this not shirk? Subhanallah, they have given the attributes of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to other than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And this is something just as an example that we hear very common. So people have to think very carefully. It's natural to be scared of things.
but not to let that fear reach the fear that belongs only to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So it's very important that we understand that this is a topic that deals with our akhirah. If we get this wrong, and if we misunderstand the topic of shirk, we could face eternal punishment in hellfire.
And if we get it right, and we dedicate our religion to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala alone, then we are guaranteed eternal life in paradise by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.