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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Strengthening of the Faith Chapter Three : the Vices of Polytheism The Virtues of Monotheism The polytheism cannot be forgiven: {Verily!

Allah forgives not (the sin of) setting up partners in worship with Him, but He forgives whom He pleases, sins other than that, and whoever sets up partners in worship with Allah, has indeed strayed far away.}(V.4:l16) The one who does not discriminate between the permissible and the forbidden, commits theft, idles away his time doing nothing, shuns his prayers and fasting, does not give his wife and children their due rights and becomes incumbent on disobeying his parents -has indeed strayed from the path of Allah, but the one who gets strangled in the quagmire of Shirk has strayed very much far away by getting involved in such a sinful act as shall never be forgiven by Allah except by showing repentance.

As far as other sins are concerned, Allah may perhaps forgive them even without repentance (on the part of the slave). It becomes thus known that Shirk is an unpardonable crime and the person who commits it is bound to be punished.

If an act of Shirk, thus committed, is of such an extreme kind which turns a person into a polytheist, then the penalty thus incurred by the person is an eternal Hell-fire, for he will neither be ever released from it, nor shall get any rest and peace whatsoever therein. As to the acts of minor degree of Shirk1, their doers are bound to be penalized according to the penalties which are apportioned for them by Allah the Exalted.

As far as the penalties which have been specified by Allah in regard to other sinful acts are concerned, they mainly depend on the Will of Allah. (Depending on His Will, He may forgive them or, He may punish the doer). Explaining Shirk: We thus understand that Shirk is the biggest of all sins (i.e. and no sin surpasses it in terms of gravity, severity and enormity).

It can be explained by the following example: Let us suppose that a king has a specific penal code for his subjects comprising all kinds of penalties for different kinds of offences like, theft, robbery, sleeping while being on duty as a guard, a delayed arrival at the king's court, fleeing from the battlefield and delaying the payment of government revenues etc. are all crimes deserving specific punishments.