An Unforgivable Sin
So it is important to pay attention to the exact meaning of Shirk and to its consequences.
In Surah An-Nisa, the sentence “Allah does not forgive (the sin of inventing an) association with Him, but He forgives other (sins) to whomsoever He will,” is repeated twice (in Verses 48 and 116).
So the elimination of shirk takes precedence over spreading Tawheed (monotheism) because as long as there is rotten food in a bowl, you cannot fill it with good food.
That is why in the phrase La Ilaha Illa Allah (There is no god but Allah), which is the motto of Tawheed, ‘there is no god’ comes first and then comes ‘but Allah’.
The Quran points to the roots of Shirk and stresses that they are weak and unreliable. “The likeness of those who have taken guardians, other than Allah, is as the likeness of the spider that takes to itself a house; surely the spider's house is the weakest house if they but knew.” (Verse 41 of Surah Al-Ankabut)
God also says in Verse 16 of Surah Ar-Ra’ad: “'Why then have you chosen guardians other than Him, even though they have neither the power to benefit nor harm themselves?”
We read in Verse 73 of Surah Hajj: “Those whom you call upon, other than Allah, could never create a fly, though they banded together to do this. And if a fly robs them of anything, they could never rescue it from it. The seeker and the sought are alike in their weakness.”
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And there is Verse 139 of Surah An-Nisa: “Those who take unbelievers for guides instead of believers, are they seeking might with them? Surely, the Might altogether belongs to Allah.”
In the contemporary era we have witnessed this. We saw how all powers tried to keep Iran’s Shah (Mohammad Reza Pahlavi) in power and prevent the voice of Imam Khomeini (RA) from reaching the masses but they all failed.
Those who relied on other than God got nowhere but God helped those who relied on Him. God saved Abraham (AS) from fire, Yusuf (AS) from jail, Yunus (AS) from the stomach of a fish and Muhammad (PBUH) from the enemies who sought to kill him.
God also saved Imam Khomeini in the face of conspiracies of superpowers.
