Mohammad Uz-Zaman The Shirk Effect There is one act that Allah doesn t forgive if it isn t remedied.

An act sharper than a deceitful word and heavier than the loss of a child, it is creating an association with Allah, the One God. An act we refer to asshirk.A sin often undermined and a sin,thoughit subtly shakes the foundations of your Islam through small changes to your character, violently shakes your very path to any redemption, as that small change in your character can lead to many acts in consciously violating dignities. Our ulema refer to acts of shirkas generally falling into two categories, that is Shirk ul-Akbar and Shirk ul-Ashghar, that is the major and minor forms of shirk. The type of shirk referred to in this paper is Shirk ut-Taa ah, that is the Shirk of Obedience, which is a major form of Shirk. Shirkhasalways been a battle of values, less a battle of masonry even as Ibrahim (PBUH), struck down the stones his father had honoured to the detriment of his people. Influenced by a blind loyalty to a value system ingrained into the culture within which one acts, it is often difficult to emotionally detach our loyalties from our cultures that define our identities,often more impressively than our faith. How can the very cultures so rich in good etiquette in the orient and professionalism in the occident be marred with associations of corrupt governanceon the one hand and female exploitation on the other? Maybe we need to re-evaluate our conception of culture as something far broader than the romance and integrity associated with the word. Perhaps we ought to adopt thedefinition offered by www.Merriam Webster.com for institutional or organisational culture and superimpose it onto societies, that is, the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes [a society]. New cultures are evolving throughthe 21st century experience which glorifies wealth, power and sensuality, under the aegis of a liberal democracy, which inherently believes progression and security, can only come from profit.It is through a lust for profit, as we seek to maintain our hegemonic status, do we transgress our own laws on human rights and do we ignore our transgressions on our environment.Ironically, that concept of what goes around comes around, does have economic merit, as we fail to consider the economic value of ethics and morality. However, in an age of mass communication, the deeds of our leaders are an open secret, thus lacking the credibility to be our moral exemplars, but exemplars nonetheless. As they take a moral and legal high ground in the face of the recent riots, one would hope they would show similar stamina in doing something serious about the white collar crime that costs this country 60 billion annually,1 with a less than 5% detection rate and with pitiful sentencing. Ironically, as we laud democracy, we find it difficult to find a noble politician. Though democracy per se is definitely not the problem, its actors and their values are. Before we even get into matters of state governance; Islam stresses the importance of nurturing your own moral character, as can be seen from the fact that the early Makkanrevelations2 stressed
Source: http://www.thersa.org/events/audi o-and-past-events/2009/the-hidden-cost-of-white-collar-crime Accessed 25/08/2011 The Quran has revealed over a period of 23 years, the first 12 years were revealed prior to the emigration known as Hijirah t Medina, o Arabia, whilst the Prophet PBUH was generally in Makkah, Arabia and the remaining 11 years were revealed following the emigration whence the Prophet PBUH was generally in Medina. Here is only one example of a verse on moral development: Say: "Come I will rehearse what Allah hath (really) prohibited you from": join not anything with Him; Be good to your parents: kill not your children on a plea of want; provide sustenance for you and for them; come not nigh to shameful deeds, whether open or secret; take not life, which Allah hath made sacred, except by way of justice and law: thus doth He command you, that ye may learn wisdom. (151) And come not nigh to the orphan's property, except to improve it, until he attain the age of full strength; give measure and weight with (full) justice; no burden do We place on any soul, but that wh it can ich bear; whenever ye speak, speak justly, even if a near relative is concerned; and fulfil the Covenant of Allah: thus doth He command you,
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Mohammad Uz-Zaman commandments relating to man s moral and spiritual development before anything else. Therefore, should humanities moral character be defunct from choosing the wrong values, it doesn t really matter what type of system of governance our societies choose to have in place. Similarly, the degree to which the hearts of our families open to form new relationships are often defined by cultures which lay an arrogant value to status and heritage before the piety and integrity of a person. Worryingly, the expression of these values become attached in a unique way to our parent cultures making them more soluble to a younger generation and so continuesthe erosion of all that is meant to define humanity. It is as if we have made gods of the progenitors of these new values to the detriment of our conception of monotheism, tawhid and our consciousness of God, taqwa. Once the Prophet PBUH was reciting the following verse, They took their Rabbis and their monks to be their Lords beside Allah and Adee bin Haatim responded Oh Allah s Prophet! They do not worship them . To which the Prophet replied, Yes they did. They prohibited the allowed and allowed the prohibited, and they obeyed them. That is how they worshipped them 3.The Prophet s statement said something very clear about two of the great monotheistic faiths which viewed men as being the mouth piece of God. It was that we make Gods of those whose values we choose to adopt at the expense of the values commanded by the One God. This particular verse has also been construed to believe all legislations lies with Allah. This is correct insofar the Quran and the Sunnah are explicit on a matter. However, where there is a difference of opinion between the scholars in trying their utmost to interpret the Shariah, we must remember they are men, and not glorify one scholar over another simply because of his charisma and our personal attachment to his piety, as otherwise we create Gods of them too.The onus being on us, as the Prophet PBUH commanded to make our most faithful judgement that is without any intrinsic bias seeking to find the truth, no matter how difficult it may be. Often the greatest influencers we have on our values are also the focal points of our greatest challenge should weever tryto redefine them. They are those who have the most intimate relationships with our lives, though of course, at different periods,they are different people. For instance, during the early stages of our life, our parents, and as we grow, our friends, and later our spouses and even our colleagues take the lead role in being our principal human influence. The challenge to redefine our values depends upon our access to moral education, whether we choose MTV or Peace TV. The challenge in itself can be extremely testing especially when the challenge is towards a positive transformation of one s values and thus one s Islam. Giving into one s nafs or desires is simple; controlling them however requires the highest form of holy war4, against our own egos and the egos of those who mean the most to us, but stand stubbornly opposing our transformation, as well as their own and that of the society.

May we stand firm in the face of oppressive values, as we live in the shadow of the Prophets of old, those bastions of faith and courage, and liberate our minds to live as better men and better women for the sake of our own souls and that of our children. Ameen.

that ye may remember. (152) Verily, this is My Way leading straight: follow it: follow not (other) paths: they will scatter you about from His path: thus doth He command you, that ye may be righteous. (153) 3 Tafsir Ibn Katheer 9:31 4 Reference is made to Holy War as opposed Jihad to depict a sentiment of selfless spiritual motivation which a non-Muslim reader may not be able to readily conceptualise with the Arabic word Jihad which translates as struggle , though with the same selfless spiritual motivation.