What is Shirk and What is not Shirk ?

Some Muslims accuse Shias of committing Shirk, and call them Mushrik. They charge Shias on the grounds that they portray Imams as god. Of course if anyone does so then he is definitely a Mushrik. But this is definitely not true that Shia madhab portrays Imams as gods.

They do a basic mistake in analyzing the Shia mazhab. They have formed their opinion about Shia mazhab from their observation of some Shia practices and not from the authentic books which truly describe basic faith of Shia madhab.

If one wishes to determine the faith of a community, he should not rely on uninformed people of that community or unconfirmed reports or unreliable books. For example, a vast majority of Muslims in the world are uneducated, and many educated Muslims are not practicing Muslims. An ignorant non-Muslim can form a wrong opinion about Islam from this surface observation. He can wrongly conclude that Islam does not give importance to education. But the truth is just opposite. Islam considers education as the basic requirement of being a Muslim, but Muslims have not fulfilled this prerequisite condition, and it is their unforgivable sin, for which Islam can never be blamed.

Similarly, if Sunnis wish to know about Shi’ism, they should not end up their research on their surface observation. Sunnis must know that if they see any ignorant Shia doing something against the basic teachings of Quran, then it can not be the teaching of Shia mazhab or learned Ulema. The Shia mazhab can not be blamed for someone’s performance who just claims that he is Shia. Also Sunnis should not just believe what they hear from unreliable people about Shia mazhab. The Quran clearly warns on this issue:

“O you who believe! if an evil-doer comes to you with a report, look carefully into it, lest you harm a person in ignorance, then feel sorry for what you have done.” (49:6)

Now let us analyze the allegation which says that Shias por tray Imams as gods. Can any normal person get confused if someone portrays Imams as gods, when Imams have made themselves an open book which everyone can read without any problem.

All our Imams have left for us a treasure of sermons, Duas, and hadiths which are more than enough to guide us and to keep us on the straight path. Only those can go astray who deliberately ignore the teachings of the Imams and do exactly what Imam has advised not to do.

No one can show any hadith or statement of Imam which says that Imams have advised their followers to ask dua’s from them in a manner as one asks dua from God, or to praise them as one glorifies God.

Imams knew their noble position and status and for this reason they left a large number of duas so that no body should confuse the Imams with God due to their greatness.Here are some of the Duas of Imams which clearly show that Imams have left no room for the penetration of Shirk.