Shirk (associating partners with God)

In the extract, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya holds that shirk is the greatest wrong, and that calling on the dead, seeking their help and asking them for intercession are among its gates ^{1 2}. He argues that intercession is not gained by taking intercessors, but only by God's permission and acceptance ³.

The author relies on the people of Noah, and on the idols they worshipped after they had devoted themselves to the graves of their righteous men ^{4 5}. He holds that veneration of graves is closer to the heart than veneration of trees and stones, since people worship at graves in their hearts what they would not do in God's houses ^{6 7}.

The author states that all intercession belongs to God, that an intercessor intercedes only with God's permission and only for one God approves of, and that the Qur'an limits intercession in this way ^{3 8}. He holds that comparing God to kings, who are approached through their favourites, is a faulty analogy and the root of the shirk of creation ³.

This is the author's view. A general definition of shirk from the wider tradition is not yet included and needs its own sources.

The Sheikh relates that the Prophet ﷺ ordered the tree of Ridwan to be cut down, to uproot the seed of shirk, lest people one day sit beneath it and say that the Messenger of God sat there ^{9 10}. He recounts Umar's life before Islam and an idol that he worshipped, and a boy who mocked an idol that could neither eat nor answer (needs_source: the details of the story) ^{11 12}.

He says that Abraham mocked those who buy what neither benefits nor harms (needs_source) ^{13 14}. He says that God does not forgive shirk, and forgives what lies below it to whomever He wills ¹⁵.