And among them are those who claim that shirk is nothing more than love of the world and love of wealth. Yet Allah has placed in mankind a natural fondness for wealth: “And you love wealth with an intense love” (Qur’an 89:20). He also says, “Indeed, he is, in his love of good—that is, wealth—extremely ardent” (Qur’an 100:8). And in another verse: “Say, if your fathers, your sons …” until His words, “… are dearer to you …” (Qur’an 9:24).

He says “dearer to you”; He did not blame them for loving these things, but for putting that love ahead of their love for Allah. Loving wealth, therefore, is not shirk, for it is a natural inclination. People need money and are attached to it. Such an attachment is not shirk because it concerns benefits from which a person gains. Those who advance these claims are either ignorant, never having studied tawḥīd and shirk, or they are evasive, wanting to divert people from these truths toward matters and objectives of their own choosing. Allah knows best their motives.

The crucial point is that this is not shirk. Shirk is to call upon someone besides Allah or to direct any act of worship to other than Him—such as slaughtering, making vows, supplication, seeking relief, requesting aid, seeking refuge, fearing, hoping, and the like. That is the shirk which is the gravest of sins: invoking another alongside Him, for supplication is the greatest form of worship