Question 1:Why is Shirk such a serious offence He will not pardon it despite His boundless mercy and

compassion?

Ans. Shirk is considered to be greatest of all the sins. In Islamic terminalogy , it means to associate
something or somebody with Allah or to regard them as Allah’s equal.One who do Shirk is ‘ mushrik' It is
opposite of Tawheed.

Allah Almighty said:

“ Say,He is Allah (who is) One , Allah, the Eternal Refuge.He neither begets nor is born, nor is there to
Him any equivalent .”( The Holy Qur’an 112:1_4)

If a person commits Shirk then repents and asks God forgiveness ,all previous sins are
forgiven. However,if the person dies after commiting Shirk and without repenting then his sin is not
.forgive

The punishment of shirk as narrated by the Quran is that Allah SWT will never forgive shirk as it is
such a sin that has no merit for forgiveness.

Shirk or associating partners with God while worshipping Him is not an unforgivable sin in Islam
(not entirely).

When we study the Holy Quran thoroughly,we get to understand the merciful nature of Allah
SWT .We get an idea from the Quran that even though Allah SWT will not forgive those who commit
unforgivable sins,His immense blessing has the right to dissipate Hell altogether. Resultantly, when
there is no place of punishment left ,the punishment itself will not survive . This means that the
criminals will be crushed along with the Hell.When and if this happens, it will also Be a clear display of
Allah SWT.

When Allah SWT speaks about unforgivable sins, it is in terms of His law . Allah SWT doesn’t have
any personal issues as far as punishment are concerned . Allah SWT is “All Ghani “ meaning The One
who is free from any wants and free from dependence.

Muslims must be aware of ‘Shirk’ if commits Shirk by mistake ,he must repent and promise to
Allah SWT that never to repeat again.

As Allah Almighty said:

“Indeed, Allah forgives all sins.Indeed,it is He who is the forgiving, the merciful.”(The Holy Qur’an
39:53)

The repeated act of doing Shirk must be avoided of all cost because one might die in state of doing
Shirk he might never get another chance to repent to Allah.

Why Shirk is unforgivable it can be better explain with the help of this example. Consider,a man
is born and even before his birth all his needs are provided in his mother’s belly.After birth his food is
provided from his mother’s breast milk.As the man grows all the needs are provided him.After all these
blessings if a man get out of the way.He began to worship other entities.Then why not Allah punish him
because of his falsehood? Allah says In Qur’an that Shirk is very massive iniquity.

God has said in Qur’an that Shirk is a very great sin and it is only the sin that God will not forgive.

Allah Almighty said:

“and whoever sets up partners in worship with Allah,has indeed strayed far away.”

In the light of this verse, it can be said that Shirk is a sin that causes harm in the
hereafter.Indeed Allah is merciful and compassionate, but when a person get out of the way, Allah also
has the attribute of wrath.

Islam teaches that God does not share His divine attributes with any partner.Associating
partners with God is disallowed according to Islamic doctrine of Tawheed (Oneness).

The punishment of Shirk is described as follows in the Quran “Those who reject (truth), among
the people of Book and among the Polytheists, will be in the Hell- fire, to dwell therein (for aye).There
are the worst of creatures.”

Prayers, fasting, Hajj,zakat and all other act of worship will surely be of no benefit for you if you
believe or practice Shirk.Hell will be your destination if you die without repenting.

Allah forgive all sins – seek his forgiveness and repent from sins especially Shirk.

Major Shirk renders all deeds worthless, necessitates destruction and loss and is the greatest of
major sins.Major Shirk wipes out all good deeds.Due to the great danger of Shirk whoever meets Allah
as a mushrik Allah will not forgive him.

Hazrat Muhammad (SAW) said:

“The thing that destroys is associating partners with Allah , avoid it and also avoid doing
sorcery .”

It was stated by messenger of Allah (SWT) that all of the sins except Shirk would be forgiven ,
that the believers would definitely go to the paradise after being punished for their sins and that
Polytheists would not be forgiven if they died before repenting.

“Jibril came to me and gave me this glad tiding. “Anyone from your ummah will enter paradise
if he dies without associating partners with Allah .”Thereupon,I said to him. “ if he commits fornication
and theft ?” He replied, Yes , even if he commits fornication and theft ” According to what your Prophet
( SAW) narrates he asked Jibril this question three times and he received the same answer each time.

So conclusion is that Shirk is great a sin.Allah forgive this only , one who repent and who bows
his head before Allah.