ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb once encountered a group from Yemen and asked them, “Who are you?” They replied, “We are those who rely on Allah.” He said, “Rather, you are people who live off others; the true reliant one is he who casts his grain into the earth and then relies on Allah.”

4 – Association through Obedience

Know—may Allah grant you and me success—that among the forms of shirk is to obey scholars or rulers when they declare lawful what Allah has forbidden or declare forbidden what Allah has made lawful. Allah the Exalted says:
“They have taken their rabbis and monks as lords apart from Allah, as well as the Messiah son of Mary, while they were commanded to worship only one God. There is no deity but Him. Exalted is He above what they associate.” ⦗1⦘

In the sound hadith, the Prophet ﷺ recited this verse to ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim al-Ṭāʾī. ʿAdī said, “Messenger of Allah, we did not worship them.” He replied, “Did they not make lawful for you what Allah had forbidden, and so you considered it lawful; and forbid for you what Allah had made lawful, and so you considered it forbidden?” ʿAdī answered, “Indeed, they did.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “That, then, was your worship of them.” Related by al-Tirmidhī and others.

Thus the Prophet ﷺ clarified that taking rabbis and monks as lords besides Allah does not mean bowing and prostrating to them; it means obeying them when they alter Allah’s rulings and replace His law. By installing themselves as partners with Allah in legislation, anyone who follows them in this has taken them as associates of Allah in declaring what is lawful and unlawful, and that is major shirk, for Allah says in the same verse: “Yet they were commanded to worship only one God. There is no deity but Him. Glory be to Him above what they associate.” ⦗2⦘

A similar verse is His saying: “Do not eat of that over which the name of Allah has not been mentioned; to do so is outright disobedience. Indeed, the devils whisper to their allies so that they may dispute with you; but if you obey them…”