and there is no doubt that it encompasses both forms of shirk—minor and major. It also encompasses anyone who arrogantly refuses the obedience Allah has commanded, for such obedience is part of fulfilling the declaration, “There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah.” For God is the One worthy of worship, and everything through which Allah is worshipped contributes to His servants’ complete devotion to Him. Whoever arrogantly refuses any part of His worship, heeding and obeying someone else in doing so, has not fulfilled the declaration, “There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah,” in this respect.

Those who took their rabbis and monks as lords—by obeying them in declaring lawful what Allah had forbidden and forbidding what Allah had made lawful—fall into two categories:

(The first): They know that their leaders have altered Allah’s religion, yet follow them in that alteration. Following their leaders, they believe that what Allah has forbidden is lawful and that what Allah has made lawful is forbidden, despite knowing that they have opposed the religion of the messengers. This is disbelief, and Allah and His Messenger have classified it as shirk—even if they neither pray nor prostrate to those leaders. Thus, whoever follows another in opposition to the religion, knowing that it opposes the religion, and accepts that person’s statements as true rather than those of Allah and His Messenger, is someone who commits shirk, just like these people.

[And (the second): Their belief and conviction that the lawful is forbidden and the forbidden lawful remain firm, but they obey their leaders in disobedience to Allah, just as a Muslim commits sins while believing them to be sins. Such people have the same ruling as other sinners like them.] (*) As is authentically reported in the Sahīh, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Obedience is only in what is right.”

He also said:

“A Muslim must hear and obey, whether he likes it or dislikes it, unless he is commanded to sin.”