Is Every Kind of Shirk a Form of Worshipping Something Other than Allah, and Is Atheism Included?

Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Question

I want to know whether every kind of shirk, whether in the divine essence, the attributes or the acts, counts as worship of something other than Allah, whether atheism is included, and if not, what does count as worship.

Answer

Two things first. A believer, by definition, does not commit outright association with Allah (shirk), the kind that takes a person out of faith. The basis is that a believer stays a believer, and mistakes and errors do not put him outside the religion. Then there are things the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) warned us about out of mercy by calling them lesser shirk, such as insincerity and showing off (riya). These are in no way disbelief. They are sins that harm us spiritually and damage our lives and societies, named that way to keep us far from them. None of it is cause for misgivings, or for digging after imagined disbelief.

To your two questions: no and no. Not every shirk is worship offered to something other than Allah, and atheism, though it is unbelief (kufr), is not shirk in the strict sense. You have assumed that shirk means worship directed at another, and it does not. So we start with worship, since the other two depend on it.

Worship (ibada) is, in the language, submission and abasement before another with the intent of magnifying him, and offering it to anyone but Allah is unlawful [al-Mawsuʿa al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaytiyya 29:256]. The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said to Muadh (Allah be pleased with him), “The right of Allah upon the servants is that they worship Him and associate nothing with Him.” [Mishkat al-Masabih 24]

Shirk Is Wider than Worship

Divine oneness is affirmed in four places, and shirk is its denial in each: in the divine essence, that there is no second necessary being; in the attributes, that no creature holds knowledge, power or will like His; in lordship, that nothing but Allah brings anything into being; and in worship, that nothing besides Him is worshipped. Only the last is what you took the word to mean.

Shirk also comes by degree. The greater kind (al-shirk al-akbar) is taking a partner to Allah in His divinity or in His worship; the lesser, or hidden, kind (al-shirk al-asghar) is regarding someone other than Allah within worship, as in showing off and hypocrisy [al-Mawsuʿa al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaytiyya 5:6-7]. Whoever affirms a partner to Allah in His divinity has associated a partner with Him though he bowed to nothing and offered no rite. The lesser kind shows it from the other end: showing off in prayer is worship offered to Allah with someone else’s eyes let into it, and the scholars call that association, while it stays worship of no one besides Allah. That is a grave sin, not unbelief. Whoever prays with one eye on the people owes repentance for the sincerity he spoiled, and he has not left Islam.

Where Atheism Falls

The jurists put the relation of the two words plainly: shirk is more specific than unbelief, so every shirk is unbelief, and the reverse does not follow [al-Mawsuʿa al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaytiyya 5:6]. That maxim is stated of shirk in its full sense, and that is its limit. The lesser, hidden kind does not carry the ruling of unbelief, as the same passage confirms by ranking shirk.

Atheism denies that there is any Maker, so it is unbelief. On the strict definition, it is not shirk, since no partner is affirmed. Some scholars fold it in: whoever makes matter or nature the maker of things has given to something else what belongs to Allah alone, and that is shirk in the acts. The disagreement is over what to call it, not over the ruling: both call it unbelief.

A Ruling on Beliefs, Not on People

Study a creed primer with a teacher, Ashari or Maturidi, as you prefer. One caution. All of this is a ruling about beliefs, not about people. Whether a particular person falls under a ruling of unbelief depends on what he actually holds, and that is for a qualified scholar, in private. It is not for anyone to pronounce on a named person.

And Allah knows best.

Faraz Rabbani

Related Answers

• What Is the Difference Between Kufr, Shirk, and Nifaq? — Unbelief, association, and hypocrisy are three distinct states, each carrying its own weight, and this separates them clearly.
• Could You Provide Definitions of Minor Shirk and Minor Kufr? — The minor form of each does not remove a person from Islam, and specific prayers guard the heart against this hidden danger.
• What Is Belief and What Is Disbelief? — What a rejection actually has to reach before it counts as disbelief, and why judging any person’s standing calls for real caution.
• Why Does Mocking Religion and Prostrating Idols Constitute Disbelief? — Outward acts can reveal an inward rejection, which is exactly the hard case that tests any definition of worship.