What is the difference between shirk (associating partners with Allah) and kufr (disbelief)?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Or what is the difference between shirk (associating partners with Allah) and kufr (disbelief)?
Answer:
Kufr (disbelief) is broader than shirk (associating partners with Allah), because a disbeliever may believe in Allah in some aspects while disbelieving in Him in another aspect, as Allah the Exalted said:[Yusuf 12:106]. A disbeliever may also be one who denies Allah, such as the atheists and communists, who do not acknowledge the existence of Allah at all. As for the mushrik (one who associates partners with Allah), he believes in Allah but worships others alongside Him. He believes in Allah but worships others alongside Him. This is the mushrik. So every mushrik is a disbeliever, but not every disbeliever is a mushrik. One may be an atheist who denies the existence of the Lord (Glorified and Exalted is He). Yes.
Or what is the difference between shirk (associating partners with Allah) and kufr (disbelief)?
Answer:
Kufr (disbelief) is broader than shirk (associating partners with Allah), because a disbeliever may believe in Allah in some aspects while disbelieving in Him in another aspect, as Allah the Exalted said:
And most of them believe not in Allah except while they associate others with Him.
وَمَا يُؤْمِنُ أَكْثَرُهُم بِاللَّهِ إِلَّا وَهُم مُّشْرِكُونَ
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 364 - ما الفرق بين الشرك والكفر؟ - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.