Let me start by throwing a question to you: Who committed a more grievous sin: Satan or Pharoah?
Sounds obvious, right? Wrong. It was Fir’aun. Why? He committed the greatest unforgivable sin of shirk (polytheism) and died in that state! He called himself ‘The Lord, Most High.’ Even Shaytan did not dare go that far! Shirk means ascribing partners to Allah and is the greatest sin which is unpardonable in the Sight of Allah.
While we may not be guilty of shirk in Fir’aun’s context, we are still guilty of shirk in other ways:
• Invoking others besides Allah, chanting incantations, having traditional incisions for protection, sacrifices to other deities, bathing in some river or stream with some ‘special’ soap at an ‘auspicious’ hour, harbouring charms and amulets, even from religious sources.
• Performing good deeds with motives other than Allah’s pleasure
• Obedience to other authorities (religious or secular) to disobey Allah’s orders
• Not accepting one’s destiny and questioning Allah
• Loving something or someone as or more than one should love Allah – children, spouse, money, live football matches, superstars and celebrities, soap operas etc.
Muadh ibn Jabal quoted the Prophet as saying ‘Do you know what Allah’s Right on His slaves is and what the right of His slaves on Him is? . . .Allah’s Right on His Slaves is that they should worship Him (Alone) and none besides Him, and the slaves’ right on Allah is that He should not punish him who worships none but Him.’- Sahih Bukhari Book 56 Hadith 72
How many of us can be bold enough to demand our right from Allah, fully confident we have not transgressed?
May Allah not turn His Back on us, amin.
So true! Today we are committing shirk that is hidden. May Allah protect us from and forgive us. Ameen
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Wallahi, Umm Saifullah! It’s so easy to commit the hidden/inconspicuous shirk. Aamin to your du’a.
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these are issues of tawhid which is the foundation of our deen. we need to get it right, if not, all our good deeds will be in vain. fundamentals of tawhid by abu Ameenah bilal Philips is a simple to read book on tawhid . Allahu musta’an
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Jazakillah khair for the book recommendation. Will grab it once I see it, in sha Allah. It does sound familiar though…like I may have read it? Hmm…
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Well said sister. In this age, people are most definitely worshiping non physical idols.
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Thank you, Aftab. The scary part is that Shaytan has made it so easy to do so!
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Sister, for most part, it is our nafs(lower desires, ego) which takes us to the path of ignorance and destruction.
Shaythan tempts our nafs to follow his path of darkness.
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Couldn’t agree more, Aftab.
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