The Causes and Their Relationship to Shirk
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The questioner : Your Eminence! When is acting upon causes prescribed, and when does it become minor or major shirk (associating partners with Allah)?
The Shaykh : Acting upon causes is prescribed if it is established that the cause is a real cause, whether a Shari'ah cause or a natural cause. A Shari'ah cause is like reciting over a sick person, and a natural cause is like things learned through experience. This becomes not permissible if the cause is not indicated by evidence, neither by Shari'ah evidence nor by empirical evidence. In that case, it becomes shirk, either minor or major. If a person believes that the cause is the agent in itself, independent of Allah, then it is major shirk. If he believes that it is a cause and that the agent is Allah, then it is minor shirk, provided that no Shari'ah or empirical evidence has been established for it being a cause.
The Shaykh : Acting upon causes is prescribed if it is established that the cause is a real cause, whether a Shari'ah cause or a natural cause. A Shari'ah cause is like reciting over a sick person, and a natural cause is like things learned through experience. This becomes not permissible if the cause is not indicated by evidence, neither by Shari'ah evidence nor by empirical evidence. In that case, it becomes shirk, either minor or major. If a person believes that the cause is the agent in itself, independent of Allah, then it is major shirk. If he believes that it is a cause and that the agent is Allah, then it is minor shirk, provided that no Shari'ah or empirical evidence has been established for it being a cause.