Is Abandoning an Obligation Out of Fear of People Shirk? | Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan

1,844 views·Oct 29, 2026

📌 In this important fatwa, Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan explains that whoever abandons an Islamic obligation out of fear of people has committed minor shirk (shirk asghar), because he feared the creation instead of fearing Allah, Glorified is He, the Most High. ⚠️ Practical examples of abandoning obligations out of fear of people include: 1️⃣ Hijab: A woman removing her hijab solely out of fear of what people might say or think about her. 2️⃣ Shaving the Beard: A man shaving his beard solely out of fear of criticism, ridicule, or disapproval from others. 3️⃣ Abandoning Salah: A person deliberately missing an obligatory prayer out of fear of being seen praying at work, school, or in public, despite being able to pray. - (NOTE: Abandoning even a single obligatory salah without a valid excuse constitutes kufr akbar, this would fall under major kufr in addition to minor shirk.) 4️⃣ Enjoining Good and Forbidding Evil: A person abandoning this obligation, when it is required of him, solely out of fear of people's criticism or disapproval. 5️⃣ Concealing Islamic Obligations: A person deliberately neglecting an Islamic obligation solely to avoid being judged, mocked, or criticized by others. 📖 The lesson: A Muslim must fear Allah above His creation and must not abandon what Allah has made obligatory merely out of fear of people. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✦ Authentic and True — From the Scholars to You ✦ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #Islam #Quran #Sunnah #Aqeedah #Salafi #salafiyyah #Bidah #IslamicAdvice #IslamicReminders #SeekingKnowledge #Tawheed #Muslim #Fiqh #scholarsofsunnah #AhlusSunnah #IslamicClips #IslamicShorts #Creed #IslamicEducation #IslamicLecture #MuslimYouth #Knowledge #IslamicGuidance #Shariah #Reminder #ShirkAkbar #ExcuseOfIgnorance #Takfir #Iman #Kufr #SalafiDawah #AhlusSunnahWalJamaah #ManhajSalaf #IslamicCreed #ScholarsOfIslam #IbnBaz #IbnUthaymeen #SeekKnowledge #Ilm #Dawah #Truth #Guidance #SunnahWay #IslamicReminder #Sacrifice #Sunnah #Tawhid #Salafi #fawzan #ibnbaz #salah