Question: While it is certain that our Prophet sall-Allāhu alaihi wa sallam will be dead, which is clearly declared in the thirtieth āyat of Zumar Sūra, is it justifiable to go on asking for shafāat from the dead by visiting graves? Since we read the āyats, All shafāats are accomplished with Allahs permission and Only the person whom He permits can intercede with Him and The shafāat of intercessors will be of no avail to them, isnt the term Shafāat, O Messenger of Allah! the most loathsome shirk?
Answer: The āyats quoted above, let alone showing that there is no shafāat, show that shafāat will be performed. If a person who knows Arabic attempts to interpret Qurān al-kerīm, he will, as above, infer wrong, even opposite meanings and thus slip out of the right way. Unaware of the fact that his faith and īmān has been undermined, and perhaps smeared with disbelief, he thinks of himself as a true Muslim and struggles to vilify true Muslims. If Qurān al-kerīm could be understood by knowing the Arabic language well, the Arabian Christians in Beirut should have understood Qurān al-kerīm better than anyone else. But, in fact, they have understood nothing of
Qurān
al-kerīm and have not even been honoured with becoming Muslims.
To understand the meaning of Qurān al-kerīm, it is necessary to learn well branches of knowledge such as ilm-i lughat, ilm-i matn-i lughat ilm-i badī, ilm-i bayān, ilm-i maānī, ilm-i balāghāt, ilm-i usūl-i tafsīr, to be profoundly learned in the complementary branches of knowledge such as sarf and nahw (Arabic grammar) and logic, to know well the clear meanings, the included meanings, the divinely aimed meanings of āyats, the meanings necessitated by them, when, why and for whom each āyat-i-kerīma descended, and with which hadīth-i-sherīfs and how āyat-i-kerīmas are explained. Only such deeply learned savants can interpret Qurān al-kerīm. That is, they can understand the divine meaning from the divine word. The attempt of a person with no such knowledge to interpret
Qurān
al-kerīm is similar to an elementary student attempting to read university books or to perform chemical experiments. We have often read in newspapers that many such a poor person fell victim to his own experiments. Those who do not possess all this knowledge should resort to tafsīrs, from which they will try to understand the meanings which learned people understood and wrote. Reading and understanding tafsīrs, however, requires knowing Arabic and the
complementary branches of knowledge well. We, who know nothing of these branches, can understand nothing from tafsīrs. If we, relying on the diplomas which we acquired from high schools and faculties, attempt to dive into the knowledge of tafsīr, of which we are so unaware, we will destroy ourselves. Like a certified person who goes out in the sea though he does not know how to swim, we would have behaved ignorantly, stupidly.
The great savants of tafsīr, who were specialized in the branches of knowledge mentioned above and who have been distinguished people of the Islamic world for centuries, and the exalted savants of the Islamic dīn, who have been praised in the hadīth-i-sherīf Al-ulamā (scholars) are prophets inheritors, did not interpret the āyat-i-kerīmas existing in the question above as the questioner understands them. With their deep knowledge and keen insight, they understood their correct meanings. They declared that the divine meaning was not so.
Hadrat Qādī Baydāwī, with whom the savants of tafsīr crown themselves and who is the master of the specialists of this branch, interprets these āyat-i-kerīmas as follows in his universally famous tafsīr, which is one of the basic pillars of the dīn:
He interprets the thirtieth āyat-i-kerīma of Zumar Sūra: You will die. Those disbelievers will die, too. Then, on the Day of Resurrection, you will settle up with each other in the presence of Allah. It will be revealed that you are right, and the polytheists are wrong, corrupt. It is written in Tafsīr-i Husaynī and also in the tafsīr of Mawākib, which is a translation of the former, The disbelievers of Mekka said, Muhammad alaihis-salām will die, and we will get rid of him. And Allāhu taālā declared: Yes, you will die. But those polytheists also will surely die. It is blatant ignorance for those people who will certainly die to wait for anothers death. This āyat-i-kerīma was revealed in order to explain that the disbelievers were on the wrong path. It does not state anything indicating that Rasūlullah sall-Allāhu taālā alaihi wa sallam will become senseless, soulless earth after dying, nor does it even imply anything approximating to it. Death means to leave worldly life. This is not to be interpreted as the annihilation of the life in the grave or as the death of the soul.
As for the forty-fourth āyat-i-kerīma of Zumar Sūra, it is interpreted as: The disbelievers of the Qouraish say that their idols will intercede for them. Tell them that no one can intercede without Allāhu taālās permission. It is so wrong to interpret an āyat-i-kerīma declaring that idols and statues cannot intercede
to mean that Rasūlullah cannot intercede.
Rasūlullah sall-Allāhu taālā alaihi wa sallam will be allowed to intercede, and he will intercede for those Believers whom he likes. Also, the interpretation of Āyat-al Kursī in Baqara Sūra communicates that this is so.
And the forty-eighth āyat-i-kerīma of Muddaththir Sūra is interpreted as: If those who are allowed to intercede do so for the disbelievers, their intercession will not be helpful to the disbelievers.
As it is understood, all the āyat-i-kerīmas declare that shafāat, that is, helping Believers, will be permitted and disbelievers will not be interceded for. There are various hadīth-i-sherīfs stating that Rasūlullah sall-Allāhu alaihi wa sallam will intercede for the Believers:
A hadīth-i-sherīf conveyed by Hatīb-i Baghdādī states: Of my Ummat, I shall intercede for those who love my Ahl-i bayt.
A hadīth-i-sherīf quoted by Imam-i Ahmad in his book Musnad states: Of my Ummat, I shall intercede for those who have committed grave sins.
A hadīth-i-sherīf quoted in Daylamīs Musnad states: I shall intercede for everybody except those who spoke ill of my Sahāba.
A hadīth-i-sherīf which is, again, conveyed by Daylamī, states: Of my Ummat, I shall intercede for those who tormented their nafs and who were deceived by their nafs.
A hadīth-i-sherīf conveyed by Hatīb-i Baghdādī states: Of my Ummat, I shall intercede for those with many sins.
A hadīth-i-sherīf conveyed by Ibni Abī Shayba states: On the Day of Resurrection, I shall be the first to rise out of the grave and I shall be the first to intercede.
A hadīth-i-sherīf conveyed by Imām-i Muslīm states: On the Day of Resurrection, I shall intercede first.
A hadīth-i-sherīf written on the twenty-eighth page of the explanation of Shirat-ul-Islām states: A person who does not believe in my Shafāat will not benefit from it.
The eighth of the forty hadīth-i-sherīfs transmitted by Ahmad ibni Kamāl Efendi states: My shafāat has become harām (forbidden) for a person who misses my Sunnat. That is, he declared: I shall not intercede a person who abandons the īmān which he had at his birth, the person who does not become a Muslim.
A hadīth-i-sherīf quoted in the books Bukhārī, Muslim and Sunan states: It has become wājib for me to intercede for a person who visits my grave.
A hadīth-i-sherīf quoted by Tabarānī rahmatullāhi taālā aleyh states: I will be an intercessor of a person who visits my grave. These two hadīth-i-sherīfs show that it is necessary to visit Rasūlullahs grave.
There are many other hadīth-i-sherīfs declaring that our master Rasūlullah sall-Allāhu alaihi wa sallam will intercede in various ways. It is written on the sixty-seventh page of the book Milal-Nihal, It is written in Khulāsā that it is not permissible to perform namāz behind a person who disbelieves the fact that Rasūlullah will intercede, the angels of kirāman kātibīn, or the ruyat (seeing Allāhu taālā) in Paradise. Accordingly, you must not perform namāz behind an imām who is a Wahhābī.
The savants of the Ahl as-sunnat state that on the Day of Resurrection every prophet will intercede. Then, savants will intercede. Then, martyrs will intercede. Then, devoted Muslims will intercede, then those hāfizes who recite Qurān al-kerīm with tajwīd but not melodiously and for Allahs sake, and then small children will intercede. Those hadīth-i-sherīfs declaring that this is so are written in a brief explanation of Tadhkira-i Qurtubī and also in Birgivī Vasiyetnāmesi. It is written in many books of fiqh that when performing a prayer called janāza namāz for children it is good to say, O Allah! Make this child an intercessor!
Those hadīth-i-sherīfs stating that the good will intercede for the sinners on the Day of Resurrection are so numerous that he who disbelieves the fact despite these hadīth-i-sherīfs may be thought of as either a vulgar ignoramus or as a wretch who has been deceived by people who have been striving to demolish Islam. Therefore, rather than thinking of the person who asks the question above as a denier of Shafāat, we will suppose that he means to say that it is not permissible to visit graves and to ask for something from a dead person.
Today some people say that it is shirk to visit the Awliyā and to ask for something from the dead. They say that those who visit a Walī, those who ask for shafāat from Rasūlullah are disbelievers, that is, non-Muslims. The savants of the Ahl as-sunnat prove with various documents in books of kalām and fiqh that it is permissible to pray through a dead Muslim. After explaining the janāza namāz, the book Durr-ul-mukhtār quotes the hadīth-i-sherīf I had prohibited you from visiting graves.
From now on visit graves! This hadīth-i-sherīf commands us to visit graves. In explaining this, Ibni Ābidīn says, On Friday, and on the days preceding and following it, a dead Muslim recognizes those who visit him. Muhammad Wāsi says that this is so and adds that hence it is understood that Friday is superior to the other days. Ibni Abī Shayba has reported that Rasūlullah sall-Allāhu alaihi wa sallam used to visit the graves of the martyrs of Uhud every year and say to them, Assalāmu aleykum. It is good to visit by standing at a distance, too. Ibni Hajar says in his fatwā, Visiting Awliyās graves should not be neglected even if there are harām (forbidden) things, e.g. if there are women among the men. For, a person does not neglect his worship because of a sin committed by another. Likewise, carrying a dead person should not be abandoned for this same reason. Rasūlullah sall-Allāhu alaihi wa sallam used to go to the cemetery of Bāki in order to visit the graves of His Sahāba ridwānullāhi taālā alaihim ajmaīn, and, standing, he used to address them, Assalāmu aleykum. It is preferable to stand by the foot-side of the grave. It is permissible by the head-side as well. Rasūlullah sall-Allāhu alaihi wa sallam recited a part of Baqara Sūra by the head-side of a grave, and he recited the rest at its foot-side. It is stated in a hadīth-i-sherīf: If a person who enters the graveyard recites Yāsin Sūra, on that day the torment of the dead will decrease. He will be given as many thawābs as the number of the dead. Another hadīth-i-sherīf declares: If one recites Ikhlās Sūra eleven times and sends its thawābs to the dead, one will be given as many thawābs as the number of the dead.
It is written in the fiqh book Hidāya, It is permissible for a person to present the thawābs of his supererogatory worships such as namāz, fast and alms to somebody else. Furthermore, while explaining zakāt, the book Tātārhāniyya states, If a person who gives supererogatory alms intends that its thawāb be given to all Believers, it will be very good. Without any decrease in his own thawāb, the thawāb will reach all Believers. Such is the Madhhab of the Ahl as-sunnat wa-l-jamāat. According to the Hanafī and Hanbalī Madhhabs, also the thawāb of worships done with the body such as namāz and reading Qurān al-kerīm can be offered as a gift in this manner. The Mutazila group believes that none of them can be offered as a gift. These are written at length in the book Fath-ul-qadīr. Also, savants of the Shāfiī Madhhab have said that the Qurān al-kerīm recited and its prayer sent will be useful to a dead Muslim, for Allahs compassion and barakat
will descend on the place where Qurān al-kerīm is read. Very likely the prayer said at that time will be accepted. The thawāb of the fard and nāfila worships can be sent to the dead and living, too. As it is permissible to intend the blessings for others while worshipping, so it is permissible to pray for oneself and then to present the blessings to somebody else; it has been declared so. It has been stated that the blessings for worships that are fard can be presented likewise. Without being divided, the thawāb will reach as a whole to each of those to whom it is presented. The thawāb of any kind of worship can be sent to the blessed soul of Rasūlullah sall-Allāhu alaihi wa sallam, too. Abdullah ibni Umar used to perform Umra on behalf of Rasūlullah sall-Allāhu alaihi wa sallam.
He did so although Rasūlullah sall-Allāhu alaihi wa sallam had not told him to do so after his death. Ibnissarrāj read the entire Qurān al-kerīm more than ten thousand times for Rasūlullah sall-Allāhu alaihi wa sallam. He also sacrificed an animal (and intended its thawāb) for his blessed soul. It has been said that his grade and honour will increase with these presents.
Hadrat Abdulhaq-i Dahlawī states on the hundred and thirty-second page of the second volume of his Persian book Madārij-un-Nubuwwat, In the ghazā of Badr, seventy soldiers from the disbelievers army, which consisted of more than nine hundred soldiers, were killed. Twenty-four of them were thrown into a ditch full of carrions. Rasūlullah sall-Allāhu alaihi wa sallam came near the ditch three days later. Mentioning the names of a few of them, he declared: Have you received the torments which your Rabb (Allah) and His Messenger communicated? I have attained the victory which my Rabb promised me. Upon hearing this, Umar radiy-Allāhu anh said, O Rasūlallah! Why are you talking to the lifeless dead? He declared: You do not hear my words better than they do! But they cannot answer. This hadīth-i-sherīf is reported unanimously by the savants of Hadīth. This hadīth-i-sherīf shows that the dead as well as the alive hear, but the former cannot answer. Another hadīth-i-sherīf communicated in Muslim-i sherīf declares: As a congregation disassembles after an interment, the dead person hears the steps. When visiting the Baqī cemetery, Rasūlullah sall-Allāhu alaihi wa sallam used to greet the dead being there, and he used to talk to them. Could anything be said to a person who does not hear or understand? Indeed, it would be quite absurd.
Question: A dead persons hearing the steps indicates that he
will hear until he answers the questions of the angels. Does this come to mean that he will always hear?
Answer: The hadīth-i-sherīf does not say that he will hear until he answers the questions. Later he will be enlivened again so that he will hear the questions and answer them, yet this hearing is different from that one.
Question: A dead person hears Rasūlullahs sall-Allāhu alaihi wa sallam words only. And this is a mujiza (the Prophets miracle). How can it ever be correct to say that he will hear anybodys words?
Answer: Limiting or otherwise explaining something which is clearly stated in a hadīth-i-sherīf requires proving that the thing cannot be as it is stated clearly. Allāhu taālā is able to make the dead hear without ears and nerves, in a way unknown to us.
Question: It is declared in the twenty-second āyat-i-kerīma of Fātir Sūra: You cannot make the dead hear. You are not the one who causes the one in the grave to hear! How can that hadīth-i-sherīf be true despite this āyat? The answer given to Hadrat Umar radiy-Allāhu anh may be knowing better, and it may have been conveyed to us erroneously as hearing better, for the dead certainly know the matters of the next world better than the living.
Answer: No Muslim can think that there may be an error in a hadīth-i-sherīf reported by such a dependable person as Hadrat Umar radiy-Allāhu anh. As for this āyat-i-kerīma, it means, You cannot make the dead hear. Allāhu taālā makes your voice heard. Rasūlullah sall-Allāhu alaihi wa sallam had been striving so that the disbelievers of Mekka would have īmān. He had been worrying because they would not believe. This āyat-i-kerīma descended at that time. The statement, You cannot make the dead hear, means, You cannot make the dead hearts, i.e. disbelievers, attain īmān. Disbelievers bodies are likened to graves and their hearts to the dead. Hadīth-i-sherīfs and the books of great men of dīn state that the dead hear and understand. No reports cancelling these reports have been given. Please read my English book Advice for the Muslim.
It is declared in the seventeenth āyat-i-kerīma of Anfāl Sūra: You did not shoot (the arrows which you shot at the disbelievers); Allāhu taālā shot (them). By misunderstanding this āyat-i-kerīma, it would be wrong to say that man does not do his actions or to think that it is not permissible to ask for
something from a man. If the case were so, such words as the tree yielded fruit, the food nourished me, the medicine stopped the pain, and the stone broke the window, would be wrong, and they would be sins. In fact, those who interpret this āyat-i-kerīma erroneously always use many such phrases. These words and the like mean The said thing became a cause, a means for the action of the said work. For example, the stone caused the window to break. Allāhu taālā, alone, makes, creates everything. There is no creator besides Allāhu taālā. It would be shirk (to attribute a partner to Allāhu taālā) to say that man created such and such a thing. It would be a very despicable word. But Allāhu taālā has made men means for His creating many things. This is His divine ādat.
Tafsīr-i Baydāwī interprets this āyat-i-kerīma as follows: O Muhammad! It is not you that brought that handful of soil which you threw at the disbelievers to their eyes by you. Allāhu taālā brought it to their eyes. Or, the bayonet which you threw at Ubayya ibni Halaf in the ghazā of Uhud was not thrust into that disbelievers body by you. Allāhu taālā thrust it. It is written in the tafsīrs of Husaynī and Mazharī, On account of acquiring, wishing and causing, man did the actions is stated. And on account of creating, Allah made them is stated. Allāhu taālā declares: Dāwūd (the Prophet David) killed Jālūt (Goliath). On the other hand, He declares to Hadrat Muhammad, Not you, but I threw it. Thus He implies that Hadrat Muhammads grade is more exalted.
The seventy-eighth āyat of Nisā Sūra purports: O man! Every favour that comes upon you comes as a kindness, a blessing from Allāhu taālā. And every care and nuisance comes as a requite for your evil-doings. Allāhu taālā creates and sends them all. [Allāhu taālā sends sorrows and disasters not as a retribution for sins, but as a blessing that will bring about an absolution from sins.] As it is seen, Allāhu taālā creates many things through causes. To cling to the causes, to expect and to ask from the causes means to expect and to ask from Him. And to ask for shafāat from the Prophet sall-Allāhu alaihi wa sallam is like asking for medicine from a doctor and expecting rain from the clouds. To cling to such causes is not to attribute partners to Allāhu
taālā, but it is to follow His ādat and obeying Him. He declares: He who wants to obey Me should obey My Messenger!
The Mutazila group disbelieved the fact that there will be shafāat. The couplet The good will intercede for those with sins
as big as mountains, in the qasīda of Amālī states that there will be shafāat. An explanation of this qasīda, with the title Nuhbat-ul-laālī, has been published by Hakīkat Kitābevi.
Also to make a vow to a Walī by observing its conditions means to entreat Allāhu taālā by making use of a blessed person as an intermediary, since one considers oneself so sinful that one does not have the face to pray. For example, as it has been experienced many times, the wish is accepted when stated as, Let it be my vow that if my sick (relative etc.) becomes well, or if my such and such job is accomplished, I will read Yāsin Sūra three times, or I will sacrifice a sheep for Allāhu taālās sake, its thawāb being for Hadrat Sayyidat Nafīsa. Here, the sūra of Yāsin is read three times, or the sheep is sacrificed, for Allāhu taālās sake, its thawāb is donated to Hadrat Sayyidat Nafīsa, through whose intercession Allāhu taālā heals the sick person or removes the nuisance or repels the catastrophe. It is harām to sacrifice the sheep near a grave. It should not be slaughtered near a grave; it should not resemble the idolaters slaughtering it near an idol. According to a hadīth-i-sherīf which Ibni Ābidīn quotes while explaining how to perform the supererogatory namāz as a votive offering, a worship which has been vowed for the fulfilment of a wish does not fulfill the wish. The worship
is not done for the fulfilment of the wish. Allāhu taālā, having pity because of the worship or because of a favour done to a beloved slave of His, accepts the wish and bestows the thing wished.
It is written in Sharh-i maqāsid, According to philosophers, for recognizing things it is necessary that their images be formed on the sense organs. When man dies and his soul leaves his body, the sense organs do not function, they become rotten and disintegrate. It becomes impossible to recognize things. When the condition for the occurence of something ceases to exist, that thing does not occur, they say. In response to them, we say that recognizing things does not require the sense organs. For, things are recognized with their images, appearances being formed neither on the sense organs nor on the soul. Furthermore, it would be an unsubstantiated, dry claim to say that the image cannot be formed directly on the soul without having to be formed on the sense organs. According to the Islamic belief, the
soul, after leaving the body, acquires a new comprehension and capacity of perceiving the states of the living, especially the states of those people whom he knew when he was in the world. For this reason, by visiting the graves of the Awliyā qaddasallāhu taālā
asrārah-um-ul-azīz and by asking for help from their blessed souls one attains many blessings and gets rid of troubles.
After leaving the body, the soul still has a relationship with the body and with the soil holding the body. If a person visits this soil and turns towards the soul of a Walī, their souls meet with each other and derive benefits from each other.
It is written in Tafsīr-i kabīr, When mans soul, leaving the body, gets rid of his worldly relations, he goes to the world of angels, to sacred ranks. The forces peculiar to that world settle on him. He can do many things. For example, a person can dream of his master, and learn what he does not know by asking his master. Fakhr-ud-dīn-i Rādī says in the eighteenth chapter of his book Almatālib-ul-āliyya, If one goes to the grave of a Walī who has a mature soul, a pure nafs and strong effectiveness, and if he stays there for a while thinking of the Walī, his soul gets attached to the soil. Since the Walīs soul is attached to the soil too, ones soul will meet the Walīs soul. The two souls, will be like two mirrors opposite each other. The marifats, the maturities in each of them will be reflected on the other. They both will gain many benefits. Hadrat Alāuddīn-i Attār rahmatullāhi taālā aleyh said, He who visits the graves of shaikhs will get as much of an advantage as he understands them and gets attached to them. Many advantages are derived from their graves. But it is more useful to get attached to their souls, [that is, to practise rābita]. For, being far or near does not have
any effect in this.