Shirk

Is backbiting shirk?

Q: Does backbiting mean its shirk and after judgement we cannot go to paradise even after Nabi (sallallahu alaihi wasallam)'s intercession?

If I backbited and do not go to the person because of feeling shy, how can I tell this person? Can we do tauba so that Allah knows that we tried our best not to backbite? Can this be forgiven?.

Common words that have shirk connotations

Q: My native language is Chinese. Chinese language itself contains many daily used common words and phrases that can be classified as containing shirk. Of course, the majority of Chinese speakers never know what shirk is. For example, the Chinese word for “mind, thought, attitude”, which is a commonly used word, literally means “spirit/god” in Chinese. It derives from their kufr belief that humans can become fake so called gods or spirits. I tried very hard to bypass these words, even though they are common, when talking with my mom and other Chinese speakers. However, since the language’s vocabulary system contains many shirk words, a lot of times there is only one word choice, otherwise you cannot express the meaning precisely, or not at all close.

I was talking with my mom and used the phrase that translates into “heavenly (the heaven in Chinese religion) flower falling down” (which means someone is bragging). I know you cannot understand how Chinese works, but it employs a lot of euphemisms and metaphors so the literal meaning maps to a derived meaning. I was talking and it is hard to go against your native language when I was in emotions (it is instinctive; unless I deliberately find a substitute of the word, which may or may not happen as it needs deliberately doing it). Is that kufr (disbelief) to use these words and phrases? But as you can see, a lot of times it is hard or impossible to avoid as the language itself contains these words that has shirk (imagine that english word for “brain”, or “eating a lot” are phrases that contain shirk, how do you speak it?

Doing a school project on Diwali and Hindu gods

Q: I really need to know something so badly! In my art project at school last year in year 13, it was about festivals so I looked into Diwali and wrote about what they believe in and I also did an observational drawing of one of their deity who sits on a lotus flower. I didn’t have any intention of worship at all and I did rip it out of my book but I did leave an image of one of the deity in my sketchbook and recently saw it and ripped it out. At the time I didn’t know what shirk was really and I didn’t think what I done was bad because to me it was all part of my coursework for school and the beliefs I wrote about never was something I believed. I did write about the stories and the hindu gods and wrote down what the Hindus referred to them as but I know they’re not lord or god but I had to write down that because that is what Hindus believe and so that’s what I was meant to write but it all looks so bad that I think about it. Did I do shirk?