Similarly...

Similarly, in religion one would need to learn or teach ones children Holy Quran, Ahadith and/or Arabic for better understanding and coaching of the religious beliefs and practices. This approach is confined to the Heavenly Knowledge, as it appears in the Holy Verses and Ahadith, which is an essential start for all human beings.

However, beyond this approach, a desire to search for guide from that who is not a Masoom -asws , takes one to ‘unknown territories’ and to the verge of destruction, i.e., by committing Shirk bil Zaat [15] .

Some of the examples, as we will see later, are calling a peer/bawa as ‘mola’, or calling a non-masoom person an imam (the use of the word imam for late Iranian religious leader Khomeini can only be interpreted as for spiritual guide after his death) [16] , other examples would be for calling someone as ‘quaid’ or ‘quaid-e-millat’ (a guide to the community), or to have ‘Tawwakal’ (reliance) on someone, like following his way of worship/wird without any reference to Quran and Ahadith, asking a ‘peer’ to name a child (based on Ilmul Adaad), recitation of so many times of a Verse/Name of Allah, without its reference to an Infallible Imam -asws is surely against the teachings of the Masomeen -azwj (as we will see from the Ahadith later in the article).

First, we try to learn the meanings of ‘Shirk bil Zaat’ from the following Ahadith of Masomeen -asws : ‘Shirk bil Zaat’ (Worshiping of someone): Imam Abu Abd Allah -asws said: the Verse (12:106): And most of them do not believe in Allah without associating others (with Him) . Imam -asws explained that this verse refers to the Shirk in obedience (Shirk Bil Zaat) and not to the Shirk in worship (Shirk bil Ibada) and the Verse (22:11): [17] ….

وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَعْبُدُ اللَّهَ عَلَى حَرْفٍ And among men is he who worships Allah (standing) on the verge… Imam -asws replied that this verse was descended for a single person but it applied to all those who followed him. I asked: Will that who takes an Imam (a guide) other than those Nominated by Allah -azwj would fall under this Verse? Imam -asws replied: Yes, just him or sometimes even all those (the Mureeds) who follow him.