Ilm Fruits
Forgiveness for Shirk?
March 16, 2006 on 12:58 am | In Aqeeda, Gems, Islam, Q&A, Tafseer| By Ilm Seeker
Allah blessed me with the opportunity to listen to Shaykh Yasir Qadhi, who specializes in Aqeeda, speak about shirk. Here's what he said.
Question: What happens if you're Muslim and you've committed shirk?
Answerer: Shaykh Yasir Qadhi
In the Qur'an, in many places, Allah says shirk is unforgivable.
Translation: Surely Allah does not forgive that anything should be associated with Him, and forgives what is besides that to whomsoever He pleases; and whoever associates anything with Allah, he devises indeed a great sin. (Surah Nisaa, verse 48)1, 2
Notice Allah says he "forgives what is besides that"--that means any sin is potentially forgivable. Subhanallah.
So what happens if you're Muslim, and you commit an act of shirk? Does it destroy all your good deeds? Are you doomed to enter Jahannam, may Allah protect us all from that?
"Allah does not forgive [shirk]" means Allah will not forgive the person if he doesn't repent. Repentance wipes out every sin, without exception. Many sahaba (may Allah be pleased with all of them) were mushrikoon when they accepted Islam.
The point is, if you commit shirk and die without repenting, Allah will not forgive you. If you fornicate, drink alcohol, consume interest, steal, and you repent afterward, Allah will forgive you inshaAllah. If you don't repent from those sins and you die, Allah may forgive you. With shirk, if you die with it unrepented, Allah will not forgive you.
The Prophet (صلي الله عليه وسلم) saught refuge from shirk and taught us a wonderful du'a to protect ourselves:
Allaahumma innee ‘aoothu bika an ushrika bika shaiann wa anaa a’lamu, wa astaghfiruka limaa laa a’lamu.
Translation: O Allah, I seek refuge in You lest I associate anything with You knowingly, and I seek Your forgiveness for what I know not.
Source: The collection of Ahmad. You can find the du'a in Fortress of a Muslim. You can find more details more in the comments inshaAllah.
May Allah protect us all from the evil of shirk, and allow us to live and die as true Muslims.
(1) Shakir, trans. “An-Nisaa (Women).” USC-MSA Compendium of Muslim Texts. USC-MSA. 16 Mar. 2006 <http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/004.qmt.html>.
(2) Pickthall, Muhammad M., trans. Al-Qur’an Al-Kareem: Parallel Arabic text with English Translation. One Ummah Network. 28 Dec. 2005 <http://www.oneummah.net/quran/quran.html>.
(3) Yasir Qadhi. Lecture. AlMaghrib. Light of Guidance. University of Toronto, Toronto. March 2006.
Related Posts:- Seek Protection From Shirk
- Shirk, the Destroyer
- Pure Forgiveness (Salat 101)
- SubhanAllah: A Pure Negation (Salat 101)
- Zaid Recognizes the Black Ant
Like this post? Get instant ilm-ification via our RSS feed or through email!
Share the Ilm - Email a Friend
3 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
Copyright (c) Ilm Fruits
Entries and comments feeds.
Top
The dua against Shirk/ Riyaa is in Fortress of the Muslim p. 152.
The transliteration they have (and it makes a small difference) is as follows:
Allaahumma “innee “a’oothu bika “an “ushrika bika wa “anaa “a’lamu, wa “astaghfiruka limaa laa “a’lamu
” = Hamza/ Alif sound
‘ = 3ayn sound
Translation
O Allah, I seek refuge in You lest I associate anything with You knowingly, and I seek Your forgiveness for what I know not.
Reported in Ahmad, 4/403. See also Al-Albani, Sahihul-Jami’ As-Saghir 3/233 and Sahihut-Targhib wat-Tarhib 1/19
Comment by ghettosuperstar — March 16, 2006 #
“With shirk, if you die with it unrepented, Allah will not forgive you.”
I would add a condition to this -
“If you die knowingly committing shirk and unrepented, Allah will not forgive you” - http://63.175.194.25/index.php?QR=1244&dgn=3&ln=eng (What is the ruling of those who did not hear about Islam)
Allahu Alem
Comment by Abdullah — April 4, 2006 #
I love the way you have described the Shirk and forgiveness argument. Many people including myself used to believe shirk was unforgivebale. I think people understand it to be that even after repentence its not forgivable. But ofcourse that is onyl if you die on shirl without repenting. May Allah save us from such major sins and make us good muslims and sucessful in this life and the hereafter. Ameen
Comment by Kashif — July 27, 2007 #