Shirik

Shirik, commonly rendered as shirk, is an Arabic term used in Islamic theology to denote associating partners with God. It is rooted in the concept of tawhid, the oneness and indivisibility of God. In traditional Islamic doctrine, shirk is the gravest sin because it undermines the fundamental premise of God’s unique sovereignty and lordship.

Scholars usually divide shirk into three broad categories. Major shirk (ash-shirk al-akbar) involves explicit acts of worship or belief directed toward beings other than God or toward objects that share in God’s divinity. Minor shirk (ash-shirk as-saghir) includes actions or attitudes that could lead a person toward polytheism, such as practices that attach religious value to things other than God without fully denying God’s primacy. Hidden shirk (shirk al-khafi) refers to covert forms of insincerity or ostentation (riya) in worship, where a believer seeks praise or status from people rather than solely seeking God’s approval.

Examples typically cited in Islamic thought include praying to or seeking help from beings other than God, attributing to creatures powers that belong only to God, or performing religious vows and rituals with the implied belief that others possess independent efficacy. The precise boundaries of shirk can be debated within Islamic scholarship, but the central idea remains that any act or belief that diverts worship or reverence away from God is considered shirk.

The Qur’an frames shirk as a sin with severe spiritual consequences; traditional exegesis holds that Allah does not forgive shirk if it persists without repentance, while He may forgive other sins for whom He wills (Qur’an 4:48, 4:116). Repentance, reaffirming tawhid, is emphasized as the path to erasing the harms of shirk.

See also: tawhid, kufr, sin in Islam.