Shaykh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb—may Allah have mercy on him—said:
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy.
Know that there are ten matters that nullify Islam:
- Associating partners with Allah in worship—shirk (polytheism). Allah the Exalted says, “Indeed, Allah does not forgive that partners be associated with Him, but He forgives whatever is less than that for whom He wills” (4:48). He also says, “Whoever associates anything with Allah, Allah has forbidden Paradise to him, his refuge will be the Fire, and the wrongdoers shall have no helpers” (5:72). Among the manifestations of this is slaughtering animals for other than Allah, such as one who sacrifices to the jinn or at a grave.
The shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—says: “Know that the nullifiers of Islam are ten.” He apparently means that the most important or foundational nullifiers are ten, for in detail they are many. In the juristic chapter on “The Ruling of the Apostate,” the scholars list numerous acts that lead to apostasy and expel a person from Islam. The shaykh, however, chose these ten because they serve as the principal categories that encompass the various causes of apostasy.
He continues: “First: shirk in the worship of Allah,” meaning to direct any type of worship to other than Allah and to set up a rival alongside Him, as the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever dies while invoking a rival besides Allah will enter the Fire.” (1) The Exalted also says, “O mankind! Worship your Lord, who created you and those before you so that you might become God-fearing; the One who made the earth a resting place for you and the sky a canopy, and sent down water from the sky with which He brought forth fruits as provision for you. So do not set up rivals to Allah…”