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Lesson No 71 UNBELIEF AND POLYTHEISM ("Kufr" and "Shirk") Q. What do we mean by unbelief and polytheism? Ans. Unbelief means refusal to believe in anyone of the things necessary to be believed. For instance, those who refuse to believe in Al-lah or His Attributes or believes in more than One God (two or three), or refuses to believe in angels or in anyone of Al-lah’s Books and Prophets, or Destiny or the Day of Judgment or anyone of Al-lah’s clear commands, or disbelieves any fact or tiding conveyed by the Prophet of Al-lah, will be considered an unbeliever. Polytheism, similarly, means to believe in any other object or person besides Al-lah to be His compeer in Being or Attributes. Q. What do we mean by considering any other object or person as Al-lah’s compeer in being? Ans. Making someone Al-lah’s partner in Being means believing in duality or plurality of God. Christians are polytheists because they believe in Trinity, the Zoroastrians because they believe in Duality and the idolaters because they believe in the plurality of God. Q. What do we mean by polytheism in regard to Attributes? Ans. It is polytheism to ascribe Al-lah’s Attributes to some other being. No other creature whether it be an angel, a prophet, a saint, a martyr, a spiritual head or an Imam can have Attributes special to Al-lah. Q. How may forms can polytheism take? Ans. It could take many forms. We discuss below a few of them. (i) Partnership in powers exclusive to Al-lah: This is like believing that some prophets, spiritual heads or martyrs etc., have the power to send down rains, grant son or daughter or other boons to anyone, provide livelihood, give life to or snatch it from anyone or cause good or harm to anyone. This is one form of polytheism. (ii) Partnership is knowledge: It consists in believing that some one besides Al-lah, a prophet or spiritual head has knowledge of the Unseen, knows everything big or small or is aware of what is happening to us or has knowledge of all things far and near. (iii) Partnership in the Attribute of hearing and seeing: It means believing someone besides Al-lah (a prophet or spiritual leader) to have the power to hear all that we say from far and near or see us and all our actions from anywhere. (iv) Partnership in Sovereignty: It consists in considering someone besides Al-lah the master like unto Him and obey his dictates even as one would carry out the dictates of Al-lah. For example, it is also a kind of polytheism to carry out the command of one’s spiritual head to chant a certain formula before the ‘Asr prayer for such a long time that it would carry out the dictates of Al-lah. For example, it is also a kind of polytheism to carry out the command of one’s spiritual head to chant a certain formula before the Asr prayer for such a long time that is would delay or even cause to miss the prayer prescribed by Al-lah. (v) Partnership in worship: It consists in considering someone besides Al-lah worthy of worship. Acts like falling prostrate before some holy man, or fasting in the name of some prophet, saint or Imam asking boons from objects and persons other than Al-lah or going round some grave or the residence of a holy man even as one would go round the holy Ka’bah—are all forms of polytheism in worship. Q. Are there any other acts that smack of polytheism? Ans. Yes, there are great many other acts that smack of polytheism. They all must be avoided. The following acts, for example, fall under this category: consulting astrologers about the future, consulting a patient of small pox or some other disease because of the supposed communicable nature of the disease, making effigies of martyrs, raising banners to commemorate the death of martyrs, making offerings on the graves of martyrs and saints, swearing by some one besides Al-lah, drawing images or giving respect to them, invoking some saint or holy man as if he would answer our prayers, keeping tufts of hair for invoking the blessings of some saint or holy man, parading as beggars in the name of martyrs on certain occasions, organizing assemblies and fairs on the graves, and so on.
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