Hudhayfah ibn al-Yamān (may Allah be pleased with him) used to say, “People would ask the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about the good, whereas I would ask him about the evil, fearing that it might befall me.”

The Commander of the Believers ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb (may Allah be pleased with him) said, “The bonds of Islam will soon be undone one by one when, within Islam, a generation is raised that knows nothing of the Age of Ignorance.”

Long before them, the Friend of Allah, Abraham, supplicated: “My Lord, make this city secure, and keep me and my children away from worshipping idols. My Lord, they have indeed led many people astray.” 1

Such texts make it imperative for the Muslim to feel great fear of shirk and to learn what it is so that he can avoid it.

Shirk is to direct any form of worship to someone other than Allah—whether supplication, sacrifice, vows, or seeking relief in matters that only Allah can accomplish.

Tawḥīd, on the other hand, is to single out Allah Most High for every act of worship. It is innate to the children of Adam, whereas shirk is a later intrusion. Allah the Exalted says, “Mankind were one community; then Allah sent the prophets as bearers of glad tidings and as warners, and He sent down with them the Book in truth so that it might judge between people concerning that over which they differed.” 2

Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with him) explained, “Between Adam and Noah there were ten generations; all of them were upon Islam.”

Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) said, “This is the correct view of the verse, and Ibn Kathīr likewise endorsed it. The first appearance of shirk on earth was among the people of Noah, when they went to excess concerning their righteous men: ‘And they said, “Do not abandon your gods; do not abandon Wadd, nor Suwāʿ, nor Yaghūth, nor Yaʿūq, nor Nasr.”’” 3

Al-Bukhārī relates in his Ṣaḥīḥ from Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with him): “These