Categories and Aspects of Shirk (2/2)

4. Shirk in one's daily routine chores:

Allah the Exalted has taught His slaves the norms of respect to the effect that they should remember Allah while performing their everyday worldly chores and pay Him their tributes for the enhancement of their Faith and to secure Allah's blessing in day-to-day assignments. These norms include:

(1) making vows to Allah and calling upon Him Alone whenever a catastrophe befalls his slave;

(2) invoking His Name for His blessing whenever commencing an assignment;

(3) slaughtering animals to express one's gratitude to Allah in the case of having been blessed with a child;

(4) giving one's children such names as Abdullah, Abdur-Rahman, Ilahi Bakhsh, Allah Diya, Amatullah, Allah Di etc.;

(5) taking out a small portion of the crop produce and giving it away in the Name of Allah;

(6) apportioning some of the fruits to His name out of the total produce;

(7) specifying some of the animals and allocating them for the purpose of sacrifice in the Name of Allah;

(8) treating the animals which are carried to the House of Allah with due respect by neither riding them nor mounting any load on them;

(9) observing Divine Instructions in the manners concerning food and dress;

(10) restricting oneself to the use of permissible things only and avoiding the ones that are not allowed;

(11) considering that all the different conditions and situations which one comes across in this world, like expensive and inexpensive rates and prices, health and sickness, victory and defeat, succeeding and preceding, sadness and happiness, are all commanded by Allah;

(12) pronouncing a standard formula of In Sha' Allah while making an intention to perform an assignment;

(13) pronouncing the Name of Allah the Exalted One in such a manner that His Greatness is conspicuously highlighted and one's slavery is clearly exhibited, by using such words like, our Rubb, our Master, our Creator or Ma'bud (the object of our worship) etc.;

(14) in case a need arises on a certain occasion to administer an oath at all, undertaking an oath only in the Name of Allah.

These and the other similar things have been singled out by Allah as His own and personal prerogative for the sake of His veneration and magnificence. Anybody showing such kind of respect to an entity other than Allah, commits Shirk; as for example: making a vow to it with the intention of facilitating a difficult assignment; giving one's children names like AbdunNabi, Imam Bakhsh, Peer Bakhsh etc.; apportioning part of the produce of one's farm or orchard to its name; separating part of the fruits and keeping them aside (in the name of a deity) immediately after they are picked up from trees and then only putting the rest to, one's use; dedicating some animals from among the whole herd to a deity and then treating those animals with respect by not removing them from the fodder and water and not to strike them with stick or stone; observing customs and traditions in terms of dress and food to the effect that a specified group of people should not eat such and such food and should not wear such and such dress; attributing the virtues and evils of the world to them by making such statements that as long as that particular person has been cursed by that particular deity, he has gone mad or that certain person has turned into a handicapped person due to the fact that he was driven away by that deity or by saying that as long as that person was blessed by a certain saint, he is now on a flood tide of success; or that famine was wrought by that star or by observing that this assignment was not accomplished as long as the same was commenced at a certain time and on a certain date or by observing that if Allah and His Prophet will it, one would be coming; or by saying that it will happen if one's religious mentor wishes it to take place or using such adjectives like, the Sustainer, Independent, Lord of lords, the Master of the universe or the King of kings etc.; the undertaking of an oath in the name of the Prophet or the Qur'an or Ali (May Allah have mercy on him) or an Imam, or a religious mentor or their graves or one's own self etc.

All the above practices generate Shirk which is called a 'Shirk in day-to-day chores', which implies paying one's respect to an entity other than Allah exactly in the same manner as the one prescribed for Allah.

These four kinds of Shirk have been clearly stated in the Qur'an and Hadith.