Shirk (Arab شرك associated ) refers in Islam with the association of other gods or other beings with God, in their granting the honor and the worship which should be had only with God alone. This word is generally returned by the terms “Idolâtrie” or “Polythéisme” in French. Those which associate creations to the Creator are called mushrikun (rear RTL مشركون). The term mushrikun was initially used - jointly with kuffār , meaning “non-believers” - in the Moslem tradition to designate the pagan Arabs of the Hedjaz at the beginnings of Islam. This expression is frequently used in the Coran to designate the opponents with the Moslems, who are shown to practice the shirk which is regarded as one fished. The shirk is opposed to the Tawhid , the belief in the unicity of God. The use of the term shirk will be then extended at other communities that pagan Arabic of the ante-Islamic period.

Emergence of Islam and rejection of the idolatry

According to the Moslem tradition, Islam appears during the 7th century in the Hedjaz after a series of revelations of God made with Mahomet, regarded as the last prophet. The context in which Mahomet saw and spreads its message is known under the term of jāhiliyya (“age or condition of ignorance”). The jāhiliyya is mainly characterized in the Moslem tradition by a religion polytheist and idolâtre, like by the immorality of the pre-Islamic company in Arabia. It is advisable here to announce that the Moslem tradition is the only information source on the formation of Islam.

According to the Moslem beliefs, Mahomet is sent as a prophet by God to people considered as idolâtre and morally dépravé. These people are compared to Arabic of the tribe of Quraych, installed with Mecque and in his surroundings. In the Islamic literature (life of the prophet or comments of Coran), it is these people which are generally designated like mushrikun and which seems to be the recipient of the message of Coran. Nevertheless, it should be specified that this association is made starting from the interpretation of Coran, and that pagan Arabic is not designated explicitly in Coran. For the wahhabites, which made Tawhid a central principle of their belief, any prayer or place of prayer which is not devoted to their deity also constitutes a shirk . This fished is thus considered particularly seriously by the wahhabites, and of the historical examples attest of their severity to make it apply. The holy places of the Shiites in Iraq were destroyed by the Saoudis at the 19th century; the Jews and the Christians, traditionally considered as “People of the book”, saw themselves withdrawing their protection in Saudi Arabia.

The shirk is also used to qualify certain philosophical theories and scientists considered to be contrary with Islam the such Philosophie of the redemption, the Communisme, the theory of the relativity.

Christianity

The Christian dogma trinitaire is associated with the shirk . Indeed, following the Council of Nicée (325), God consists of only one substance (ουσία) divine in three people (or hypostases) distinct (the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit).

This position is attested by several verses of Coran: in the sourate “women”; in the sourate known as of “the been useful table”; and in the Sourate “pure monotheism”.

Other religions The Judaism, another of the abrahamic religions is regarded as strictly monotheist by Islam. The Parsisme and the Zoroastrisme, religion dualistic like the Chiisme duodécimain, although considered as monotheist are, of the fact in the belief in during negative in their single god, considered as religion shirk by certain authors. The Yézidisme, syncretism of these beliefs and Islam is even called “admirers of the devil” for this reason. The soufis, which think that it does not exist nothing apart from the divine principle, are shown of shirk because they deny the separation of God and his creation .

Forms of Buddhism S, as they recognize certain spirits or gods as the Bouddhisme mahāyāna are shirk. Atheism or the jainism, not recognizing the existence and the unit of God is also regarded as a shirk. -->

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