TAWḤĪD IS IN BELIEF, SPEECH AND ACTION, and ignorance of its foundations, details and particulars poses a danger to one's safety and protection from what invalidates it or makes it deficient and flawed. For this reason, it requires ongoing study because it is the nature of man to be forgetful, and also because the pitfalls are many, since shirk is a nexus, a web, consisting of many nodes and branches, and a person can be unwittingly caught in this web if he is not on guard.
Shaykh Ṣāliḥ Āl al-Shaykh said:[1]
This statement: “We have understood Tawḥīd” was said by some of the students of Shaykh Muḥammad bin ʿAbd al-Wahhāb (رحمه الله), they said it during his lesson. When he finished reading Kitāb al-Tawḥīd (to them) and explaining its issues, and he wanted to repeat it again a third or fourth time, they said to him: “O Shaykh, we want (to study) another book, we want to study fiqh or ḥadīth.” He said: “Why.” They said: “We have understood Tawḥīd, we want some other knowledge.” He said: “Leave it with me until I have considered the matter.”
When he came after some days, he sat in his lesson and they saw that he was very troubled. They said to him: “What has troubled the Shaykh?” He said: “Something reached me that made me distressed.” They said: “And what is it?” He said: “It reached me that there is a house in Dirʿiyyah whose inhabitants sacrificed a rooster before entering their (new) house. So when they came to the door, they sacrificed a rooster, letting the blood flow by the door. I have sent someone to verify the matter, and we shall do what is obligated (upon us).”
When he came the next day they said to him: “What happened O Shaykh? What happened about what you mentioned yesterday?” He said: “I discovered the issue was something else.” They said: “What did you discover?” He said: “I discovered that the inhabitants of the house did not fall into that, but that so-and-so had relations with his mother.” They said (individually): “I seek refuge in Allāh, he had relations with his (own) mother!! I seek refuge in Allāh, he had relations with his mother!!”
The Shaykh said this word so that the saying of the ignorant person: “We have understood Tawḥīd” is known to be from the greatest of ignorance and from the plots of Shayṭān because they deemed a major sin to be heinous, but their hearts did not recoil against major shirk with Allāh which expels from the religion. Why did their hearts not recoil against spilling blood at the entrance of the house (to appease the Jinn)?
It is because they do not know that this action is for the purpose of seeking nearness to the Jinn, to repel their evil or repel the people with evil eye, which is seeking nearness to other than Allāh through sacrifice, which is major shirk with al-Ḥaqq (Allāh) (عز وجل). They deemed a major sin to be heinous but they did not consider major shirk with Allāh (عز وجل) to be heinous.
This is what happens and you see it from some of the ignorant people, they see some of the major sins and become enraged and make a huge fuss, but as for when they hear about major shirk with Allāh (عز وجل), it does not stir them. You find that when hear of some evils pertaining to manners, or fornication or the means to fornication in some lands, or women being uncovered or some other evils or oppression and what is similar, they make a huge fuss about it and start speaking (in anger).
But that he sees a dome beneath which there is a deity worshipped besides Allah (عز وجل), or he sees people sacrificing to other than Allah (عز وجل), or he reads it in a magazine, or in a book, this does not stir his heart for the greatest right of Allāh. And this is evidence for his ignorance and evidence that he does not know what is in his own best interest. If this ignorant person does not know Tawḥīd whereby his heart would become enraged for the right of Allāh (عز وجل) {which is established) by worshipping Him alone besides others, then he is upon evil.
From the types of shirk are major shirk such as worshipping other deities besides Allāh through prostration, or invocation, or soliciting needs, help or rescue from them, or sacrificing to them and so on. And this is due to ignorance about Allāh, His Lordship (rubūbiyyah) and His exclusive right to worship (ulūhiyyah) and ignorance of the greatness of Tawḥīd.
From the types of shirk are those that relate to motives and intentions such as riyāʾ (showing off) or sumʿah (seeking repute and fame, to be spoken about). So long as these affairs occur infrequently and do not overwhelm and dominate the heart, they are the minor shirk which does not expel from Islām, otherwise, it is the way of the hypocrites whose deeds, all or most of which, are done for show and are not sincere.
From the types of minor shirk are the heart’s love for the world and its possessions which competes with its love for Allāh, thereby leading a person to shortcomings in fulfilling his obligations.
From the types of minor shirk are those in speech and wording, such as the saying: “What Allāh willed and you willed” or, “If it had not been for you…” wherein the will, power, ability and actions of the Creator and the created are given equal consideration, or there is a failure to mention the Creator at all.
From the types of minor shirk are those that relate to the ways and means (asbāb), with errors and exaggerations therein, leading to baseless actions, such as what occurs in harbouring omens, and wearing cords and bracelets and the likes for protection from things which they do not protect against in reality, due to the absence of any verified cause-effect relationship.
From the types of minor shirk are seeking the material possessions and glitter of the world through the deeds by which only the hereafter is sought, such as the one whose only desire to learn and teach the Qurʾān is merely to earn a living.
So a believer is put to trial through these and the greater his ignorance, the greater danger he is in. Further, mere knowledge in itself is not enough to protect a person because not all of these types of shirk return back to mere absence of knowledge, as some of them relate to motives and intentions, and the heart’s states and emotions, such as love, fear, apprehension and the likes.
This means that a Muwaḥḥid can be in situations where he is in danger from these affairs, and hence, deliverance is with a combination of knowledge, and comprehension as well as caution in speech and deed, and ultimately, it is tawfīq from Allāh, which is sought through supplication.
O Allāh, I seek refuge in You from knowingly associating (partners) with You, and I seek Your forgiveness for what I do not know.[2]
We ask Allāh for safety.