Question:

Dear Scholars, State whether it is shirk or not in the cases included in my notes, please give detailed reasoning so that I can understand shirk clearly. 1) If one believes that pregnant woman by doing work with knife in eclipse will hurt her baby; will it be shirk? 2) If one believes that mother by doing work with knife in eclipse will hurt her adult son; will it be shirk? 3) If one believes that pregnant women by doing work with knife in eclipse will cut her baby’s hand; will it be shirk? 4) By wearing black thread someone is protected from evil eye (nazar); will it be shirk?5) By wearing black thread someone becomes immortal; will it be shirk?6) By wearing black thread someone is protected form humans and jinn’s ability to kill him; will it be shirk?7) Cat weeping will cause something bad to occur (bad omen); will it be shirk?8) Humans’ weeping will cause something bad to occur (bad omen); will it be shirk? Note: By the will of Allah is assumed.

Fatwa:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

The scholars, may Allah have mercy upon thm, stated that a person taking a means (to achieve something) which Allah did not legislate nor decree it to be a means of achieving such an objective, is considered a type of minor Shirk [associating partners to Allah]. Therefore, believing that a pregnant woman who uses a knife, when there is an eclipse will cause harm, is considered Shirk because using the knife is not a reason of being harmed and this is neither legislated nor decreed, and neither in eclipse nor at other times.

Also, saying that the cat's cry - if we suppose that it cries - or the weeping of a person causes harm, is seeing an evil omen, and it is confirmed that the Prophet said: "Seeing an evil omen is Shirk." [Ahmad]

Likewise, wearing a black string in order to protect oneself from evil eye or from the harm of the people or the Jinn is considered Shirk. If one believes that it can harm by itself, then this is a major Shirk, and if one believes that it is a means of protection by Allah's Will, then this is a minor Shirk, because Allah did not make it as a means of protection neither by legislation nor decree. The Prophet said: "Whoever wears an amulet, he has indeed committed an act of Shirk." [Ahmad] Furthermore, the Prophet said: "May Allah not achieve (the aim) of the one who wears an amulet, and may Allah not achieve the objective of whoever wears an item to protect him from envy and other evils." [Ahmad]

Allah Knows best.

Fatwa answered by: The Fatwa Center at Islamweb