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Is one who directs acts of worship to other than God considered a disbeliever (mushrik) in the rulings of this world?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Directing acts of worship to other than Allah Almighty, such as supplication (du'a), vows (nadhr), and sacrifice (dhabh), is considered major shirk (polytheism) by the consensus of the people of knowledge, based on His (Allah's) saying: "And do not invoke besides Allah that which neither benefits you nor harms you, for if you do, then indeed you will be among the wrongdoers." (Quran 10:106) And His (Allah's) saying: "And whoever invokes alongside Allah another deity for which he has no proof - then his reckoning is only with his Lord. Indeed, the disbelievers will not succeed." (Quran 23:117). The scholars have unanimously agreed on the disbelief of anyone who places intermediaries between himself and Allah, invoking them and asking them. However, one who falls into this shirk is not judged to be a disbeliever unless the conditions for declaring someone a disbeliever are met and the impediments are absent, meaning that he acts willingly and intentionally, and is not excused by ignorance or misinterpretation, like a new revert to Islam, or someone raised in a remote desert, or someone among whom ignorance or doubt has become prevalent in Islamic lands, and to whom the truth has not reached in a manner that establishes proof against him. This means that an ignorant person is not declared a disbeliever in this world, but it does not mean he will not be punished in the Hereafter.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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