Lesson on "Encouragement and Warning," Warning Against False Testimony, The Hadith of Abu Bakrah (may Allah be pleased with him)

The Shaykh : ... the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him): — meaning: he said it three times. We said: Yes, O Messenger of Allah. He said: , and he was leaning back, so he sat up and said: , and he kept repeating it until we said: I wish he would stop. It was narrated by al-Bukhari, Muslim, and al-Tirmidhi.
In the previous lesson, we spoke to you about the greatest of the major sins, which is shirk (associating partners with Allah) (Mighty and Majestic). We explained to you that shirk which is contrary to tawhid (the oneness of Allah) is divided into three categories, just as tawhid is. The first tawhid is tawhid al-rububiyyah (oneness of lordship), and what opposes it is shirk in lordship. The second tawhid is tawhid al-uluhiyyah (oneness of worship), and some people call it tawhid al-uluhiyyah; both mean the same thing and have the same implication. The third tawhid is tawhid of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in His attributes. We explained that the intent of tawhid al-rububiyyah is believing that the Creator of this universe and its Nurturer is Allah, Lord of the worlds, with no partner and no equal. We mentioned that few people among all of humanity fail to uphold this tawhid; even the Arabs in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance did not fail to uphold it. They believed that Allah is the Creator of the heavens and the earth alone, with no equal or partner in that.
Regarding tawhid al-uluhiyyah and tawhid of worship, we mentioned that the intent is that this Allah who created the heavens and the earth and created humans and jinn is the only one who deserves worship. So, if one worships other than Allah in any type of worship, as we explained somewhat in the previous lesson, then whoever worships other than Allah in any type of worship has fallen into major shirk, but specifically shirk in uluhiyyah and worship.
We said that shirk in attributes is describing one of Allah's servants with an attribute that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has exclusively, such as the attribute of knowledge of the unseen. The unseen, as we all know, is known only to Allah. Many verses and hadiths have come regarding this, and we also mentioned what Allah facilitated from them in the previous lesson.
Now, I want to draw your attention to another division of shirk so that you do not fall into any of it. Even though this type of shirk, which some people may fall into, is lighter than shirk of any of the three types mentioned previously, the precise scholars among the scholars of tawhid divided shirk into another division. They said: Shirk is divided into two categories: shirk of belief or the heart, and shirk of speech. The first, shirk of belief, is what is covered by this hadith and by the many verses, the most important of which is His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He): . This shirk which Allah never forgives is shirk of belief or the heart; that is, shirk that has settled in the heart of a person and he has believed in it after the proof has been established against him. We must note this condition. The disbelief which Allah never forgives is that which has settled in the heart of its owner after the proof has been established against him, so he denied this proof and rejected it, and remained stubborn and clinging to his disbelief, as was the case with the polytheists in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), such as Abu Jahl and his like. The reality of the Islamic call became clear to them, and that what the Messenger (peace be upon him) called to, first tawhid, and second his truthful claim of prophethood; all these truths became clear to them, yet they denied them. And as He (the Exalted) said: . This disbelief, when it settles in the heart after the proof is established against it, is what Allah never forgives.