From The differences between Tawheed and Shirk
The Lofty Status of Tawheed & the Lowliness of Shirk
Translated by Abbas Abu Yahya
:Allaah Ta’ala said
{حُنَفَاء لِلَّهِ غَيْرَ مُشْرِكِينَ بِهِ وَمَن يُشْرِكْ بِاللَّهِ فَكَأَنَّمَا خَرَّ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ فَتَخْطَفُهُ الطَّيْرُ أَوْ تَهْوِي بِهِ الرِّيحُ فِي مَكَانٍ سَحِيقٍ}
《To worship none but Allaah, not associating partners with Him (in worship, etc.) unto Him and whoever assigns partners to Allaah, it is as if he had fallen from the sky, and the birds had snatched him, or the wind had thrown him to a far off place.》
[Surah al-Hajj: 31]
Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawzeeyah as-Salafi said:
‘Allaah Ta’ala resembled al-Eemaan and Tawheed in its loftiness and its expanse and its nobility with the heavens where al-Eemaan and Tawheed climbs high and decends down, sometimes it decends down to the earth and from that Eemaan climbs up.
‘Allaah Ta’ala resembled the one who leaves off al-Eemaan and Tawheed like the one who falls down from high in the sky to the lowest of the lowest levels, whereby a person faces tightening and extreme suppression and an accumulation of pains.
Then the birds come and peck off his limbs and tear him apart completely by the Shayateen (Devils) which Allaah Ta’ala sends.
He is aided by the devils and they annoy him, and cause him to be disturbed and unsettled so he thinks that he will perish.
Furthermore the wind which throws him to a far off place, and this is his whims and desires which carry him to throw himself to the lowest place and take him furthest away from the heavens.
[A’laam al-Muwaqqieen 1/ 234]
Arabic Reference
حصول السمو والرفعة لأهل لا إله إلا الله في الدنيا والآخرة – كما قال تعالى:
{حُنَفَاء لِلَّهِ غَيْرَ مُشْرِكِينَ بِهِ وَمَن يُشْرِكْ بِاللَّهِ فَكَأَنَّمَا خَرَّ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ فَتَخْطَفُهُ الطَّيْرُ أَوْ تَهْوِي بِهِ الرِّيحُ فِي مَكَانٍ سَحِيقٍ}
[سورة الحج: 31].
فدلت الآية على أن التوحيد علو وارتفاع وأن الشرك هبوط وسفول وسقوط.
قال العلامة ابن القيم رحمه الله:
شبه الإيمان و التوحيد في علوه وسعته وشرفه بالسماء التي هي مصعده ومهبطه، فمنها هبط إلى الأرض وإليها يصعد منها، وشبه تارك الإيمان والتوحيد بالساقط من السماء إلى أسفل سافلين من حيث التضييق الشديد والآلام المتراكمة والطير التي تخطف أعضاءه وتمزقه كل ممزق بالشياطين التي يرسلها الله تعالى وتؤزره وتزعجه وتقلقه إلى مظان هلاكه – والريح التي تهوي به في مكان سحيق هو هواه الذي يحمله على إلقاء نفسه في أسفل مكان وأبعده عن السماء.
Ailaam al- muwaqqieen 1/ 234