This is a lexical entry that gathers the technical meaning of this term in Shahrur across his different books, and links its various uses.
This entry belongs to the Shahrur glossary. For reading by theme, one may refer to Shahrur’s major themes and shared concepts.
The meaning in Shahrur
Shirk is to treat what is mutable and changeable as if it were fixed and final, while insisting on this illusion. In this usage it goes beyond being merely a general doctrinal deviation, becoming a disabling of monotheism and an obstruction to change; for that reason it is regarded as the gravest sin and is linked to unforgiveness if one persists in it.
Distinctions
- It is not identical with a mere sin, wrongdoing, or offense; these are understood within degrees of responsibility and reform, whereas shirk is based on insisting on fixing what is changeable
- It does not amount merely to a social or political description of stagnation; what is meant here is a stagnation that consists in attributing permanence to what does not remain fixed, not simply resistance to change.
- It is not confined to the traditional doctrinal meaning as a multiplicity of deities, but here extends to every thought that freezes reality and prevents its re-understanding on the basis of values.
- It is not opposed to monotheism as a divine attribute, because the objection here is to making human beings treat what is mutable as though it occupied the rank of absolute permanence.
Passages from his books
- Islam and the Human Being: shirk here is not merely a general doctrinal description, but an attitude that fixes what is mutable and whose possessor persists in it with insistence. It is treated as the most dangerous sin because it touches the reality of monotheism and is mentioned as unforgivable if a person persists in it
- The State and Society: shirk in this source is not limited to the traditional doctrinal meaning, but includes believing in the permanence of what is changeable and rejecting change. In this sense, shirk becomes an obstacle to progress and is inseparable from thought that freezes reality.
What is adjacent to it and differs from it
- sin
- human Islam is re-founded Qur’anically as a system of values, freedom, and citizenship that transcends closed identity
- distinguishing between sin, wrongdoing, and offense distributes responsibility between forgiveness, reform, and insistence
- shirk is fixing the mutable
- shirk is unforgivable with persistence
- the Qur’anic method and the redefinition of concepts shift Islam from identity to values
- the concepts of loyalty, disbelief, and shirk are reread on a value basis rather than an identitarian one
- singularity is a divine attribute, not a human model
- shirk is based on illusory permanence