Is issuing a fatwa without knowledge, such as permitting the forbidden and forbidding the permissible, more grievous than shirk, based on the order of the noble verse: "Say, 'My Lord has only forbidden immoralities—what is apparent of them and what is concealed—and sin, and oppression without right, and that you associate with Allah that for which He has not sent down authority, and that you say about Allah what you do not know'"?

Shirk is the greatest sin that Allah does not forgive, unless it is shirk and more. It has been mentioned in the Quran and Sunnah that shirk makes its perpetrator forbidden from Paradise and his abode the Fire. Furthermore, speaking about Allah without knowledge from Him is disbelief (kufr) and shirk, and it is thereby the gravest injustice and the greatest sin, such as claiming prophethood, or deeming things lawful or unlawful without knowledge, or claiming that Allah has a son. All of this is slander against Allah. As for speaking about Allah without knowledge, without it being disbelief or shirk, such as issuing a fatwa without knowledge, it is grave but not greater than shirk. Shirk in all its forms is a type of speaking about Allah without knowledge, for shirk is speaking about Allah without knowledge, but not every instance of speaking about Allah without knowledge is shirk.