Does prioritizing the obedience of the beloved over others mean that obeying a created being in disobedience becomes polytheism, even with knowledge of its prohibition?

Shirk in obedience only occurs when the forbidden is made lawful. So, whoever commits a forbidden act while believing it to be forbidden is disobedient, not a polytheist. Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah clarifies that taking rabbis and monks as lords by obeying them in making lawful what Allah has forbidden, and forbidding what Allah has made lawful, happens in two ways:

1. Disbelief and Shirk: If they knew that they had altered Allah's religion and followed them in that alteration, believing lawful what Allah had forbidden and forbidden what Allah had made lawful, in imitation of their leaders, despite knowing their contradiction of the prophets' religion. 2. Disobedience: If their belief and faith in the unlawfulness of the lawful and the lawfulness of the forbidden remained firm, yet they obeyed them in disobeying Allah, then these individuals are judged like those who commit sins.