Quotes About Shirk (Attachment, Love, and Worship of Dunya and the Creation Rather Than the Creator)

“The nation that is good at dying and knows how to die a noble death, to this nation God bestows an exalted life in this world and eternal bliss in the afterlife. The weakness that has disgraced us is nothing other than love of the worldly life and hatred of death; so prepare yourself for a great matter. Insist on death and life will be given to you, and know that death will come no matter what, and that it only happens once, so if you make it for the sake of Allah, that will be the success of this world and the reward of the afterlife.

Imam Hasan al-Banna

“Our train is heading towards death, and we are worried about life.

Mufti Ismail Menk

“Son of Adam; you seek the world as if your very life depended on it and you seek the Hereafter as if you have no need of it! You will acquire what you need from this world even if you do not run after it, but you will only attain the Hereafter if you run after it. So be aware of your true condition!

Yahya ibn Mu`adh

“A lot of people have trouble balancing the love of the Creator and the love of the creation. It is something I myself have struggled with much of my life. On the one extreme, there are people who love the creation as they should only love the Creator. On the other extreme, there are those who reject the love of the creation all together. I think the correct balance is to understand it this way: We have only one Owner over our hearts. That Owner is God. But our hearts also yearn for companionship. The heart searches for its’ companion in the creation. And finding that companion of our heart is one of God’s greatest gifts to us. It is the ‘coolness of the eyes’ that the Quran speaks about. The problem is when we confuse *Ownership* and *companionship*. We take the creation as Owners and take the Creator as only a companion. And God knows best.

Yasmin Mogahed

“‎Whoever loves this dunya and is pleased by it, then he should know that love of the akhira is leaving their heart because the two cannot co-exist in one heart.

al-Hasan al-Basri

“The truth is, when we thought we were looking for a good husband or a good wife or a good job or a lot of money or a lot of fame, we were really just looking for God. So it’s no wonder that we got disappointed when the husband, the wife, the job, the money or the fame didn’t fill our need—or our emptiness.

Yasmin Mogahed

“I was reading the story of Musa (AS) in surat Taha. There is such a powerful lesson in this story. Musa (AS) was depending on the means (leaning on his staff), so Allah told him to throw it. It became a snake. Then he took it back and it became a staff again. When you depend on the creation instead of Allah, the creation can become a snake that can bite you. But when your dependence is on Allah, that same creation (snake), can become a staff that helps you.
Allahu akbar.

“Holding onto dunya creates a veil that blocks Light from entering the heart. When you stop chasing dunya and let go, you remove that veil. When the veil is removed, Light can enter the heart. The same dunya you used to run after, will now run after you, because all things are attracted to Light.

Yasmin Mogahed

“Don’t think of the trials in your life (‘balaa’) as just a ‘test’ in the human form. Allah is not like a professor who hands you a test, moves away and just watches from afar to see how you’ll do. Allah is our murabee—the One who raises us with more mercy than a mother raises a child. The Prophet (pbuh) tells us that when Allah wills good for someone, he sends them ‘balaa’ (trials or tests). When Allah wills good for us, He purifies us. That is why each person is tested in what they love most. In other words our greatest possible ‘competitor’ in our love for God is what is withheld or must be sacrificed. This is the purification process because it cures the heart of competitors. Why was Prophet Ibrahim (AS) asked to slaughter the most beloved thing to him? Did Allah actually want him to *kill* his son? No. He didn’t kill his son. He killed the attachment. By being willing to sacrifice what he loved most, he had slaughtered any possible competing love. Allah was raising him, purifying him and elevating him. Allah tell us, “By no means shall you attain righteousness unless you give (freely) of that which you love.” (3:92)

Yasmin Mogahed

“A feeling of discouragement when you slip up is a sure sign that you put your faith in deeds.

Ibn 'Ata Allah al-Iskandari

“I fear for you two things: Putting all of your hopes in dunya [worldly life], and following your desires, for putting your hopes in dunya makes you forget about the akhirah [the Hereafter], and following your desires blocks the way of justice.

Imam Ali bin Abi Talib

“The one who does not believe that there is any place better—who believes that this world is the best it can get—will become very impatient when this life isn’t perfect. They are quickly angered and quickly devastated because this life was supposed to be a paradise. They don’t realize there is something greater. And so this is all they want. This is all they strive for. Every effort, every ability, every opportunity, every gift endowed to them by their creator, is employed for the sake of seeking this life—of which nothing will come to them except what is written.

Yasmin Mogahed

“If you study your own struggles, the struggles of others, even in movies or novels you'll see the root of all their suffering is always attachments.

Yasmin Mogahed

“When Allah blesses us with someone that we love, we forget that Allah is the source of that blessing, and we begin to love that person as we should love Allah. That person becomes the center of our world—all our concerns, thoughts, plans, fears, and hopes revolve only around them. If they are not our spouses, we are sometimes even willing to fall into haram just to be with them. And if they were to leave us, our whole world would crumble. So now, we have shifted our worship from the Source of the blessing to the blessing itself.

Yasmin Mogahed

“When Allah blesses us with money, we depend on the money rather than Allah. We forget that the source of our provision is not and never was the money, but rather it was the giver of that money. Suddenly we’re willing to sell alcohol to avoid losing money in our business, or we need to take out loans with interest to feel secure. In so doing we are foolishly—and ironically—disobeying the Provider in order to protect the provision.

Yasmin Mogahed

“Four things are signs of wretchedness: dryness of the eye [eyes that do not cry], hardness of the heart, putting one's hopes in dunya, and aggressiveness toward [acquiring the good things of] dunya.

Sheikh Ahmad al-Ajmi

“So often we think that Allah only tests us with hardships, but this isn’t true. Allah also tests with ease. He tests us with na`im (blessings) and with the things we love, and it is often in these tests that so many of us fail. We fail because when Allah gives us these blessings, we unwittingly turn them into false idols in the heart.

Yasmin Mogahed

“When our love for what we crave is stronger than our love for Allah, we have taken that which we crave as a lord.

Yasmin Mogahed

Quotes About Shirk (Attachment, Love, and Worship of Dunya and the Creation Rather Than the Creator)

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