The greatness of the sin of polytheism

 It is narrated from the words of al-Haris ibn al-Harith al-Ash’ari that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) mentioned the words of Yahya ibn Zakaria, who, listing the five commandments prescribed to him by the Almighty, said:

“The first of them (is) that you worship Allah without attaching anything to Him, for, indeed, about the one who associates partners with Allah, one can give an example of a man who bought a slave with his own money from gold or silver, and then he settled him in the house and said to him: “Work hard and give the money you earn to me.” This slave began to work for him, but he gave the (earned) money to another master. How many of you will be pleased with such a slave? And Allah has created you and given you the means of livelihood, so worship Him and join none with Him nothing” .  al-Bukhari in “Tarikh al-Kabir” 2391, “Sahih at-targib wat-tarhib” 552

Imam Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah may Allah have mercy on him, said : “A monotheist is like a person who works for his master and gives him what he earned. The polytheist, however, can be compared with a person who works in the owner’s house, and gives all his profits to a completely stranger.

The one who gives companions to Allah – works in His domain not for His sake, tries to gain closeness to the enemy of Allah [Shaitan], while using the benefits of the Almighty. Obviously, the servant who does something like this will be the most hated worker of his master, the most distant and alien of all his subordinates, although we are talking about the same creature as himself.

And then what to say about the Lord of the worlds? All the benefits that a slave possesses – he has from Him, the only one, there is no partner for Him. He alone renders him good and removes evil from him. He is alone in creating a slave, in caring for him, in managing his affairs, in his food, in his healing, in fulfilling his needs.

How, after all this, you can share your love, fear, hope, vows, vows with someone else besides Him. Love, hope, and fear someone as much as you should be afraid of Him or even more?

Such things are manifestations of polytheism, which is not forgivable in Allah Almighty, as He says about it in His Book : “Indeed, Allah does not forgive when associates are attached to Him, but forgives all other ( or less serious ) sins, whoever He wishes” ( al-Nisa, 4:48) ”  See Al-Wabil al-Sayyib.”