{"id":15254,"date":"2025-05-29T03:42:28","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T10:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jislam.com\/?p=15254"},"modified":"2025-05-29T03:42:28","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T10:42:28","slug":"what-is-lesser-polytheism-shirk-asghar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jislam.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/29\/what-is-lesser-polytheism-shirk-asghar\/","title":{"rendered":"What is lesser polytheism (Shirk Asghar)?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-075d683 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-child\" role=\"region\" aria-labelledby=\"e-n-accordion-item-25636\" data-id=\"075d683\" data-element_type=\"container\">\n<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-1dbccda elementor-drop-cap-yes elementor-drop-cap-view-default elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"1dbccda\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-settings=\"{&quot;drop_cap&quot;:&quot;yes&quot;}\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n<p><span class=\"elementor-drop-cap\"><span class=\"elementor-drop-cap-letter\">L<\/span><\/span>esser polytheism, or <em>Shirk Asghar<\/em>, refers to actions or attitudes that do not remove a person from Islam but still diminish the purity of worship. Unlike major <em>shirk<\/em>, lesser <em>shirk<\/em> does not involve directing worship to other deities but includes behaviors that subtly affect one\u2019s sincerity toward All\u0101h.<\/p>\n<p>Examples of lesser <em>shirk<\/em> include:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Showing off in worship (Riy\u0101\u2019):<\/strong> Performing acts of worship, like prayer or charity, to gain admiration or recognition from others rather than seeking All\u0101h\u2019s pleasure alone. For instance, a person might make a prayer more elaborate if others are watching to impress them.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Swearing by others besides All\u0101h:<\/strong> Saying phrases like \u201cI swear on my mother\u2019s life\u201d or \u201cI swear by my honor\u201d is considered lesser <em>shirk<\/em>. Swearing should only be by All\u0101h, as He alone is deserving of such reverence.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) warned of the dangers of lesser <em>shirk<\/em>, saying:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>\u201cThe thing I fear most for you is minor <em>shirk<\/em>.\u201d<\/strong> When asked what that was, he replied, <strong>\u201cRiy\u0101\u2019 (showing off).\u201d<\/strong><br \/>\n\u2014 <em>Sunan Ibn Majah 4204<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lesser polytheism, or Shirk Asghar, refers to actions or attitudes that do not remove a person from Islam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-islamqa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jislam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jislam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jislam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jislam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jislam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15254"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jislam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15255,"href":"https:\/\/www.jislam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15254\/revisions\/15255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jislam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jislam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jislam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}