People know that shirk (associating partners with Allah) is forbidden, but they do not know that what they are doing is shirk, and that is due to their ignorance!
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, people know that shirk (associating partners with Allah) is forbidden, but they do not know that what they are doing is shirk, and that is due to their ignorance.
The Shaykh:
Shirk is clear; it does not require one to be ignorant of shirk. Shirk is calling upon other than Allah, slaughtering for other than Allah, making vows for other than Allah, supplicating to other than Allah, and calling for aid from the dead. This is clear and there is no ambiguity that it is shirk; everyone knows this.
The questioner:
And he says, may Allah preserve you, he says: Some of them are common people and elderly, and their understanding is weak.
The Shaykh:
The elderly have heard, they have heard that this is shirk; they heard it from the preachers, in the books, and on the radio. They heard this, but they do not want to move away from it. The argument has been established against these people. And what is the argument? Does it mean putting faith in his heart? No, the argument is that you convey it to him. The argument has been conveyed to him, but he refused. What do you do with him?
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, people know that shirk (associating partners with Allah) is forbidden, but they do not know that what they are doing is shirk, and that is due to their ignorance.
The Shaykh:
Shirk is clear; it does not require one to be ignorant of shirk. Shirk is calling upon other than Allah, slaughtering for other than Allah, making vows for other than Allah, supplicating to other than Allah, and calling for aid from the dead. This is clear and there is no ambiguity that it is shirk; everyone knows this.
The questioner:
And he says, may Allah preserve you, he says: Some of them are common people and elderly, and their understanding is weak.
The Shaykh:
The elderly have heard, they have heard that this is shirk; they heard it from the preachers, in the books, and on the radio. They heard this, but they do not want to move away from it. The argument has been established against these people. And what is the argument? Does it mean putting faith in his heart? No, the argument is that you convey it to him. The argument has been conveyed to him, but he refused. What do you do with him?
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [4 -939] الناس يعلمون أن الشرك حرام لكنهم لا يعلمون أن ما يفعلونه هو شرك، وذلك لجهلهم! — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.