Surah 4:116
"Surely God does not forgive (anything) being associated with Him, but He forgives what is other than that for whomever He pleases. Whoever associates (anything) with God has gone very far astray."
Forgiveness of Polytheism (Shirk)
Supporting Verses
Surah 4:48 → "Surely God does not forgive (anything) being associated with Him, but He forgives what is other than that for whomever He pleases. Whoever associates (anything) with God has forged a great sin."
Opposing Verses
Surah 25:70 → "except for the one who turns (in repentance), and believes, and does a righteous deed – and those, God will change their evil deeds (into) good ones, (for) God is forgiving, compassionate."
Surah 4:153 → "The People of the Book ask you to bring down on them a Book from the sky. They had already asked Moses for (something) greater than that, for they said, ‘Show us God openly!’ So the thunderbolt took them for their evildoing. Then they took the calf, after the clear signs had come to them. But We pardoned them for that, and We gave Moses clear authority."
Does the Quran state that God forgives the sin of associating partners with Him (shirk)? Some verses explicitly state that God does not forgive this sin under any circumstances, while other verses state that God pardoned the Israelites (the people of Moses) after they engaged in idolatry by worshipping the golden calf.
Forgiveness of All Sins
Opposing Verses
Surah 39:53 → "Say: ‘My servants who have acted wantonly against themselves! Do not despair of the mercy of God. Surely God forgives sins – all (of them). Surely He – He is the Forgiving, the Compassionate."
Does Allah forgive all sins? Some verses state that Allah forgives all sins without exception, while others state that he does not forgive the specific sin of associating partners with him (shirk).