Al-Imam Ibn Jarir said rahimahullah, "God mean, until no shirk (associating partners) with

Allah, and so there was no one to be worshiped but Him, the worship of statues, a rival god and
everything disappeared, and worship and observance only for Allah alone, without the addition
of one of his idols and statues. "
[View Jami 'al-Bayan (3/570)]
Al-Imam Abu Muhammad Isma'il bin Abdir Karimah Rahman bin Abi Al-Kufiy rahimahullah
said, "The persecution (), then it is shirk".
[See Tafsir Ath-Thobariy (no. 3117)]
"And slay them wherever ye catch them, and turn them out from where they have turned you out
(of Mecca); and slander (shirk) is worse than murder. " (Surah. Al-Baqarah: verse 191)
This verse is often abused by the public when they hear someone accuse others, he said naively,
"Defamation is more cruel than murder". Though scholars have explained that the sin of murder
is the greatest sin after shirk ".
[See Al-kaba'ir (p. 12) Az-Dzahabiy work, Dar An-Nadwah Al-Jadidah]
Al-Imam Abul Khattab bin Sa'amah Qotadah-Sadusiy As rahimahullah said when defamatory
meaning of the verse, "Shirk is more dangerous than murder".
[View Jami 'al-Bayan fi Ta'wil Aayil Qur'an (no. 3098)]
Abul Faroj Ibn Abdur Rohman Jawziy Ad-Dimasyqiy rahimahullah said, "The word" persecution
"here means shirk. This interpretation was stated by Ibn Umar, Ibn Abbas, Mujahid, Ibn Jubair
and Qotadah and a group of scholars ".
[See Zaadul Masiir (1/210)]