We request that the Shaykh clarify the danger of minor sins that serve as a cause and preparation for falling into major calamities, such as associating partners with Allah and what is below it, including

The Shaykh : Major calamities do not befall a community except through their minor preliminaries. This is a matter that is tangible, as if one could touch it with one's hand. Imagine a village or town that has no cinema, and this was in the past; as for now, we say: it has no television. It is very difficult to find women displaying their adornment in it, but hardly does a cinema or a television enter a village before corruption begins and spreads. Thus, major shirk does not occur in a community except through the preliminaries of minor shirk. As mentioned in the transmitted exegesis regarding the statement of Allah—Blessed and Exalted is He—in Surat Noah (peace be upon him), where He said about his people: . Ibn Abbas said, as in "Sahih al-Bukhari": "These five were righteous servants of Allah, righteous. When they died, Satan came and inspired them," just as he inspires today those who spread idols in the courtyards and public squares in Islamic lands. These were righteous men who died young, so you forget them. Therefore, you do not bury them with the general Muslim cemeteries. No, you must honor them and place their graves in the courtyards of your houses so that you do not forget their remembrance. Every time you leave your houses, you see them and remember their deeds and their righteousness, and you follow their example. From here, Satan entered upon them, and they made their graves distinct from the graves of Muslims in the courtyards and public squares. They left them for a generation. Then he came to the second generation and said: The preservation of these graves! It does not befit their status. Floods or bulldozers may come and take them, and their traces will be lost, and you will forget them and forget their remembrance and their deeds. Therefore, Satan said: I see that you should make idols for them. These will remain with the days and the events of the coming days. So they carved five idols for them and placed them in ordinary locations, and left them like that for a generation! He came to the third generation and said: These are your fathers and grandfathers who used to honor them and revere them because they were righteous servants of Allah, and so on. It is not permissible to leave their idols in this place. You must build special houses for them and place them at the front of the location. And so they placed them. Then he inspired them to sanctify them and revere them. Over time, the original purpose that was inspired was forgotten, and he entered through it, and they worshipped them besides Allah—Mighty and Majestic—and Allah sent Noah (peace be upon him), and what happened is detailed in the same surah. Thus, major shirk did not enter any of the nations except through the path of minor shirk. Among this is the exaggeration regarding the prophets, the awliya (close friends of Allah), and the righteous; they exaggerated in that. "The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibited, as you know, building mosques over graves"; because it was a cause for the worship of those buried in them. Satan managed to lead the people of Noah (peace be upon him) to the sources of shirk and destruction by placing idols in a house in a special place. But he was more wicked with the Jews and the Christians when he inspired them to bury their prophets and righteous ones in the houses in which Allah alone is worshipped, none having the right to be worshipped besides Him. Therefore, it came in the authentic hadith: "When Umm Salama and Umm Habiba (may Allah be pleased with them both) returned from Abyssinia, they mentioned a church they had seen in Abyssinia and mentioned the beauty of the images in it." He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: , meaning: The Christians who placed the graves of the prophets and the righteous in the mosques are the worst of creation. But another hadith came that clarifies that they are not the only ones who are the worst of creation in this shirky means, for he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: .

The questioner: Peace be upon you.

The Shaykh: And upon you peace.