Qur’anic usage: Arabic root: sh-r-k.6:74-sam

Qur’anic usage: Arabic root: sh-r-k.6:74-sam

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Qur’anic usage: Arabic root: sh-r-k. At 6:74 we have Ibrāhīm’s rejection of what his people made as objects of worship. At 6:75 God shows Ibrāhīm his creation; by recognising its transient nature (6:75-78), Ibrāhīm understands that Creation, too, is not God. In summary, anything made — whether the fruit of our hands, our imaginations, or found in Creation — is not God. See Notepad VI.

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NOTEPAD VI

Notepads comprise observations which informed parts of my 

process, and are included for interest.

sh-r-k — to ascribe partnership

The Traditionalist renders the sh-r-k root as to ascribe partners 

(to God), to associate something (with God) polytheism, idolatry 

and the like. This is correct but it needs some unpacking since 

without proper analysis we simply end up with a new idol, albeit 

one with a monopoly.

The prophet who most strongly personifies rejection of shirk is 

Ibrāhī�m. Therefore, a summary of his philosophical pathway is 

in order. 

At 6:74 we see Ibrāhī�m’s rejection of what his people made as 

objects of worship. At 6:75 God shows Ibrāhī�m His creation. 

Through recognising its transient nature (6:76-78), Ibrāhī�m 

understands that creation — even impressive creation — is not 

God. Having rejected both what man makes and what God makes 

as potentially being God what he is left with is God himself. God 

is neither contained by nor defined by what God himself makes 

or what man makes. 

Holding to anything of a created nature as God (be it a statue or 

a mental representation or conception) is shirk. 

When the atheist says there is no God, he is half right. Nothing 

we can conceive of — nothing we can point to within ourselves 

or outside ourselves — is God. When the atheist looks to his 

imagination for God and says he cannot find Him there, he 

potentially speaks more honestly than do many who claim to 

have faith. 

We can know something about the infinite God by means of what 

He tells us in revelation or by what we see in the world about us 

in the same way we can tell something, let’s say, about a person 

in whose house we are currently living (but whom we have not 

met) by virtue of the things we find in that house. But those 

things are indications only; signposts, clues. While they may 

offer us insights into his character and status, they are never 

rightly confused with the man himself. When we begin to speak 

on behalf of the owner of the house we overstep a line. The fact 

is that we are house guests, not representatives of the owner.

There is a subtle difference between what I am describing 

here and what the Traditionalist means (or, at least what 

one understands him to mean from what he says and does) 

by the term shirk. From his treatment of shirk one is given to 

understand that his particular conception of God is the correct 

one and anything added to that conception represents an idol. 

The Qur’anic position is that adherence to anything created as 

God (even if it be a conception of God and there be just one such 

conception and everyone is agreed upon it) is itself an idol and 

therefore an instance of shirk. An idol — even an incorporeal one 

with a monopoly — is still an idol.

As the Traditionalist correctly notes, the Qur’an does not contain 

instructions on the religion he follows. A man is welcome to

20 Addenda to The Qur’an: A Complete Revelation Notepads 21

serve God as he sees fit — including the Traditionalist. But when 

a man ascribes divine origin to his chosen methods where no 

such evidence exists in what God sends by way of revelation, he 

makes his religion a god and thereby ascribes a partnership to 

God.

All instances in the text appear in the notes.

References

2:96, 2:105, 2:135, 2:221, 2:221, 2:221, 2:221, 3:64, 3:67, 3:95, 

3:151, 3:186, 4:12, 4:36, 4:48, 4:48, 4:116, 4:116, 5:72, 5:82, 

6:14, 6:19, 6:22, 6:22, 6:23, 6:41, 6:64, 6:78, 6:79, 6:80, 6:81, 

6:81, 6:88, 6:94, 6:100, 6:106, 6:107, 6:121, 6:136, 6:136, 6:136, 

6:137, 6:137, 6:139, 6:148, 6:148, 6:151, 6:161, 6:163, 7:33, 

7:173, 7:190, 7:190, 7:191, 7:195, 9:1, 9:3, 9:4, 9:5, 9:6, 9:7, 9:17, 

9:28, 9:31, 9:33, 9:36, 9:113, 10:18, 10:28, 10:28, 10:28, 10:34, 

10:35, 10:66, 10:71, 10:105, 11:54, 12:38, 12:106, 12:108, 

13:16, 13:33, 13:36, 14:22, 15:94, 16:1, 16:3, 16:27, 16:35, 

16:54, 16:86, 16:86, 16:86, 16:100, 16:120, 16:123, 17:64, 

17:111, 18:26, 18:38, 18:42, 18:52, 18:110, 20:32, 22:17, 22:26, 

22:31, 22:31, 23:59, 23:92, 24:3, 24:3, 24:55, 25:2, 27:59, 27:63, 

28:62, 28:64, 28:68, 28:74, 28:87, 29:8, 29:65, 30:13, 30:13, 

30:28, 30:31, 30:33, 30:35, 30:40, 30:40, 30:42, 31:13, 31:13, 

31:15, 33:73, 33:73, 34:22, 34:27, 35:14, 35:40, 35:40, 39:29, 

39:65, 39:67, 40:12, 40:42, 40:73, 40:84, 41:6, 41:47, 42:13, 

42:21, 46:4, 48:6, 48:6, 52:43, 59:23, 60:12, 61:9, 68:41, 68:41, 

72:2, 72:20, 98:1, 98:6.

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