Lâ-madhhabî people[1] say
that the deceased can give neither benefit nor harm. It is written on the two
hundred and ninety-ninth page of their book Fath-ul-majîd,
“Allah creates karâmat in the hands of His believing slaves who have taqwâ.
Karâmat happens because of their prayers and pious acts.” It is written on its
five hundred and third page, “Prayers can be asked for from the Prophet or from any pious Believer when he is alive.
But prayers cannot be asked for from the dead. The dead are to be prayed for.”
It is written on its two hundred and eighth page, “It is shirk (polytheism) to
ask for something, e.g. help, from a dead person. A dead person does not give
benefits or harm. Nor can he ask for intercession from Allah. He who asks for a
dead person’s intercession becomes a polytheist.” It is written on its four
hundred and eighty-fifth page, “You visit graves, and pray for the dead. Today
polytheists have garbled this; they are worshipping graves, asking and
expecting help from them. When the Messenger of Allah visited the cemetery of
Medina he stood against the graves and said, ‘Assalâmu
alaikum yâ ahlal-qubûr! May Allah forgive us and you! You have gone before us.
We have been left here to wait for our turn.’ And he commanded his
Umma to make their visits likewise.” The book goes on as follows: “The Salaf-i
sâlih (early savants) would visit the Messenger of Allah. After making their
salâm, they would turn their back to the grave, and pray toward the qibla. The
same method is taught by the imâms of the four Madhhabs.” It is written on its
two hundred and seventy-second page, “They ask for help from the dead Awliyâ as
well as from the living ones. They believe that they (the Awliyâ) can do good
or harm in the name of karâmat. Eccentricities like these mean to worship
beings other than Allah.” It is written on its two hundred and fifty-eighth
page, “Wheresoever you say salawât for me, I shall be informed of it. A person
who enters the masjid in order to perform the salât is forbidden to approach
the Prophet’s grave to offer his salâm. None of
the Sahâba stood in front of the Prophet’s grave
to offer his salâm.” As it is seen, the statements in this book contradict one
another and slander the imâms of the four Madhhabs.
---------------------------------
[1] People who do not belong to any of the (only) four rightful Madhhabs, i.e. the Madhhabs named Hanafî, Mâlikî, Shâfi’î, and Hanbalî.
These lies of lâ-madhhabî people have been rejoined with documentaries
and examples by the savants of Ahl-as sunna (rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaihim
ajam’în). Even Âlûsî quotes the hadîth, “Whoever
says salawât by my grave, I shall hear him. And an angel shall inform me of
those who say it in far-away places,” in his book Ghâliyya. When anyone who has reason and
understanding reads the following passage, which has been derived from the book
Jâmi’u-karâmât-il awliyâ, he will easily
distinguish between the benevolent and the mischievous:
Fakhr-ud-dîn-i Râdî says is his explanation of the Sûrat-ul Kahf: They
brought the janâza of Abû Bakr Siddîq near Rasûlullah’s grave, as it had been
his last will. They gave their salâm and said, “Abû Bakr has come to your door,
o Rasûlallah.” The door of the mausoleum opened and there came a voice from
within: “Put the beloved with the beloved!”
Bayhakî conveys from Abdullâh-i Ansârî: Thâbit bin Qays was martyred in the
battle of Yamâma. As we interred him we heard a voice saying, “Muhammadun
Rasûlullah wa Abû Bakr-i Siddîq wa ’Umar-i shehîd wa ’Uthmân-i rahîm.” Abû
Nu’aym and Ibn Asâkir relate that “A miscreant relieved himself on the grave of
Hadrat Hasan. Right after that he went mad, and then died.” As Bayhakî and
Wâqidî relate, Fâtima-i Huzâ’iyya visited Hadrat Hamza’s grave. When she gave
her salâm she heard a voice saying, “Wa alaikum salâm.” When Shaikh Mahmûd-i
Kurdî visited Hadrat Hamza’s grave and gave his salâm he heard a voice from the
grave, saying, “Wa alaikum salâm. Name your son Hamza!” When he was back home
he had a son. So he named him Hamza. It is written in Usud-ul ghâba: When the ship on which Safîna,
Rasûlullah’s slave, sank, she got hold of a piece of board, and the waves
brought her to the shore. When she was on land she saw a lion, and said to it,
“O thou lion! I am Safîna, Rasûlullah’s slave.” In sheepish submission the lion
took her up to the road, and then wagged its tail to bid farewell. Ibn Menda
conveys from Talha bin Ubaydullah: One night Talha visited the grave of
Abdullah bin Amr bin Hirâm. He heard a voice reciting the Qur’ân in the grave.
He went to Rasûlullah and told him what had happened. Rasûlullah said, “He is Abdullah. Allâhu ta’âlâ puts the souls of martyrs in
Paradise. Every night their soul and body come together. In the morning they
return to Paradise.” Bayhakî conveys from Sa’îd bin Musayyib: We
went to the cemetery of Medina with Hadrat Alî. He gave his salâm and said,
“Will you let us know in what state you are? Or would you rather we told you
our state?” We heard a voice saying, “Wa
alaikas salâm, yâ Emîr-al Mu’minîn. You tell those who will follow us.” As Ibn
Ebiddunyâ communicates, when hadrat ’Umar went to the cemetery and gave his
salâm, a voice said, “O ’Umar! We have been rewarded for what we did in the
world.” Ibni Asâkir relates that Hadrat ’Umar visited a youngster’s grave, gave
his salâm, and said, “There are two Paradises for those who fear Allah and
forbear what is harâm.” A voice from the grave replied, “O ’Umar! My Allah has
bestowed upon me both the Paradises.” Sahâwî communicates: Someone came to
visit the grave of Hadrat Amr ibn Âs. He asked a person being there if he knew
where the grave was. When the latter pointed to the grave with his foot, his
foot became paralysed, and he could not walk. Bayhakî conveys from Ya’lâ bin
Murra: Rasûlullah and Ya’lâ visited a grave. The latter heard sounds of torment
from the grave, and wanted to let Rasûlullah know. Rasûlullah said “I hear them, too. He is being tormented because he spread
gossip and splashed his urine on himself.”
The forty hadîth-i sherîfs, written by
the geat Islamic savant Ahmad bin Suleymân bin Kamâl Pasha (rahmatullâhi
’aleyh) in 934 hijri, was translated into Turkish by Sayyid Pîr Muhammad Nitâî
in 979. The translation was published in Istanbul in 1316. The eighteenth hadîth-i sherîf of the translation states, “If you get confused in doing something ask for help from
the dead!” Shaikh-ul islâm Ahmed Efendi explains the hadîth-i sherîf as follows:
It is
a strong love that has attached the soul to the body. Man’s death means his
soul is separated from his body. But the soul’s love does not die after the
separation. Long after death, the soul still has the same love and strong
attraction towards the body. It is for this reason that it has been prohibited
to break the bones of the dead and to tread on graves.
If a person stands by the grave of a powerful, mature and very
effective high person and contemplates over that soil and that high person’s
body, since that high person’s soul is attached to his body and thereby to that
soil, the two souls will meet. The visitor’s soul will receive many benefits
from the high person’s soul, thus becoming graceful and mature. It is on
account of this utility that visiting graves has been permitted, although there
are other reasons. Imâm-i Fakhruddîn-i Râdî says in his books Matâlib-i âliyya and Zâd-i
Ma’âd, “The visitor’s soul and the soul of the exalted person in the
grave are like mirrors. When they stand against each other the light in one of
them reflects on the
other. If the visitor looks at the soil,
meditates on how great Allâhu ta’âlâ is, how He kills and enlivens, submits
himself to His qadâ and qader and thus rebukes his nafs, ma’rifa and fayd
develop in his soul, and thence they transmigrate to the soul of the exalted
person. In return, the knowledges and powerful signs that have come to the
exalted person’s soul from the world of spirits and from the Rahmat-i-ilâhî
after his death, pass on to the visitor’s soul.”
The author of the book Al a’lâm
says: Prophets’ souls ‘alaihim-us-salâm’ can appear
in heavens, wherever they wish, and in their graves. They are not in their
graves all the time, nor always away from them. They are connected to their
graves and abstrusely attached to their soil. This state is beyond human
knowledge. For this reason, it is mustahab to visit them. There is a continuous
attachment between each Muslim’s soul and his grave. He recognizes his visitors
and acknowledges their salâms. It is for this reason that a hadîth, which
exists in the book Âqibat by Hâfiz Abdulhaq-i Ishbîlî ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ
’aleyh’, states, “If a Believer visits the grave of
another Believer whom he used to know and gives his salâm, the latter will
recognize him and acknowledge his salâm.” Explanation of the
eighteenth hadîth-i sherîf has been completed
here.
It is written on the twentieth page of the second -1324 hijri- edition
of the book Râbita-i sherîfa[1] : If a person visiting the grave of a great
person does râbita to him, that is, if he repels all worldly thoughts from his
heart and, supposing the great person’s soul to be a nûr that cannot be
comprehended by the sense organs, keeps him in his heart, something from that
soul will begin to flow into his heart. He must keep this nûr in his heart
until one of the fayds or hâls of the great person begins to develop in him.
For, the souls of Awliyâ are sources of fayd. A person who places such a source
in his heart will certainly attain its fayd, blessings and occult benefits; his
soul will consolidate and mature. When you come near the grave, you first give
your salâm. You stand on the right hand side, that is, on the qibla side, of
the grave nearer the feet (than the head) side. You imagine his appearance like
when you used to know him. You say the A’ûdhu, the Basmala, the Sûrat-ul
Fâtiha, and then the Sûrat-ul Ikhlâs eleven times, and present the thawâb to
our Prophet’s soul, to the souls
---------------------------------
[1] By Sayyid Abdulhakîm Efendi ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’aleyh’ (1281 [1865]-1362 [1943], Ankara.
of all
Prophets ‘alaihim-us-salâm’, the Sahâba, the
Awliyâ ‘alaihim-ur-ridwân’, and to the soul of the great person (whom you are
visiting). Then you sit down, keep his soul in your heart, and stay there until
something stirs in your heart. If you know how to receive, if that person is a
mature Walî endowed with giving, and if you wait there observing its
conditions, you will certainly obtain something. Its conditions are to believe
that the great person will recognize you, hear and acknowledge your salâm, that
his soul is mature and perfect, that his soul is not confined to time or place,
that he will give you fayd wheresoever you remember him, that Allâhu ta’âlâ
sends His fayd and spiritual nourishment through his soul. A person who wants
grapes goes to a vineyard and picks them from the vines. He does not go to a
plum tree. He who wants water goes to a spring or to a fountain, not to a tree
or stove. He who wants wheat tills his field, sows the grains, and harvests the
crops. He who wants children gets married. An invalid person who needs medicine
goes to a doctor and then to a drugstore. He does not go to a grocery shop or
to a lawyer’s office. And he who wants to nourish his heart and have his soul
purged resorts to the hearts and souls of the Awliyâ ‘qaddas-allâhu ta’âlâ
asrârahum-ul-’azîz.’ Allâhu ta’âlâ sends these blessings through the hearts of
the Awliyâ. Allâhu ta’âlâ alone creates and sends everything. However, it is
His divine law to send everything through some means. He who wishes to attain
His blessing must follow His law, find out His means, and hold fast to His
means. To be unwilling to search for and learn the means is to vioate His
divine law and to disobey Him. To learn scientific knowledge is to obey His law
and to learn the means. To receive fayd from a grave, it is necessary to revere
the exalted person (in that grave) as if he were alive and not to tread on the
grave. If the exalted person (in the grave) is a murshîd-i kâmil, the nisbat in
your heart will shape up rather late, yet it will remain there a long time. If
he is a Walî but not a murshîd, the fayd and nisbat arising (in your heart)
will be acute and volatile. Those who are unaware of these hâls will disbelieve
the above-mentioned hadîth-i sherîf and will
call it Mawdû’. The savants of Usûl-i hadîth call a hadîth-i
sherîf Mawdû’ when it does not
have the conditions which they have put for a hadîth to be sahîh[1] . In other
---------------------------------
[1] Please see chapters five and six in the second fascicle of Endless Bliss for detailed information about hadîths; and the book Sunnî Path will give you sufficient information about the branches of knowledge in Islam.
words,
they say, “It is not sahîh according to my ijtihâd.” They do not say that it is
not a hadîth-i sherîf.
When an exalted person who has attained the degree of receiving fayd
from the blessed soul of our Master, Rasûlullah (sallallâhu ’alaihi wasallam),
turns his attention towards him, no matter where he himself is, the blessed
soul of our Master, Rasûlullah (sallallâhu ’alaihi wasallam) will give him fayd
from his blessed grave in Medina-i munawwara. By the same token, any talented
and capable person will get a similar benefit from the souls of the Awliyâ. It
is written in the fortieth page: Shamsaddîn Ibn-ul Qayyim-i Jawziyya, a savant
in Hanafî Madhhab, says in his book Kitâb-ur rûh,
“The human soul has also other states different from those when it is in the
body. After a Believer dies, his soul stays in a grade called Rafîq-i a’lâ,
being still connected with the body at the same time. If someone gives his
salâm to the body in the grave, the soul in the Rafîq-i a’lâ will acknowledge
his salâm.” This statement of Ibn-ul Qayyim’s would suffice for refuting
lâ-madhhabî people. For they call him Allâma
in their book Fath-ul majîd and put
forward his articles as a documentary. Also, Imâm-i Suyûtî writes like Ibn-ul
Qayyim in his book Kitâb-ul munjalî. The
fact that a soul will hear and reply is written in the Arabic book Minhât-ul wahbiyya fî-radd-il wahhâbiyya, whose
third edition has been published in Istanbul, and in its (Turkish and English)
translations, as well as in the book Kýyâmat ve
Âhiret (Resurrection and Hereafter), in its chapter captioned Müslimâna Nasîhat (Advice for the Muslim)[1] . Scholars say that the Awliyâ have some
functional capacity after their death. Shaikh Khalîl, the author of the book Mukhtasar and one of the savants of Mâlikî, says,
“Allâhu ta’âlâ gives such power to the souls of the Awliyâ that they can assume
various guises. Their bodies do not leave their graves. But their souls can
appear in guises.”
Alâuddawla Ahmad-i Samnânî[2]
(rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’aleyh) was asked: “A body in the grave is without a soul,
so it does not hear. And the soul does not have a special place; it can be
present at any place. Is it necessary to go and visit the grave of the Awliyâ,
---------------------------------
[1] Please see a list of our publications appended to this book.
[2] Alâuddawla Ahmad-i-Samnânî ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’aleyh’ (659 [1260]- 736 [1335]), Sôfî Âbâd, was the son of the Pâdishâh (Sultan) of Samnân, N. Iran, He dedicated himself to Tasawwuf and attained perfection in the path termed Kubrawiyya
then?
No matter where you are, if you turn your attention towards a Walî’s soul, will
not the soul be present there?”
His
answer was that going to the graves has many benefits: A person who goes to
visit a Walî will think of him all the time. Each step he takes will add to his
tawajjuh (turning, inclination) towards him. By the time he gets near the grave
and sees his soil, his thoughts will be preoccupied only with him. This will
increase his tawajjuh all the more. The more his tawajjuh increases, the more
benefits will he receive. It is true that there is no hindrance or limit for a
soul. All places are the same for it. But the body with which it lived for
years in the world and with which it will stay eternally in the Hereafter, is
there, in that soil. Therefore, the soul’s frequenting, inclination to,
relation with and attachment to that soil will be more than in the case of
other places. Alâuddawla said: One day I entered the room where Junayd-i
Baghdâdî ‘qaddas-Allâhu ta’âlâ sirrah ul-’azîz’ had subjected himself to
mortifications. There, I tasted so many zawks. Then I visited Junayd’s grave,
but I could not find the same zawks there. When I asked my master the reason
for it he said, “Were those zawks because of Junayd?” And when my answer was
positive, he said, “Since zawks arise from a place where he stayed a few days
during his lifetime, there must be many more zawks when you go near his body,
with which he spent many years together. Perhaps when you were by his grave you
saw other things, which might have decreased your tawajjuh towards him.” If a
person turns his tawajjuh to the soul of Rasûlullah (sallallâhu ’alaihi
wasallam) when he is in his own country, he will get some benefits. But if he
goes to Medina-i munawwara, Rasûlullah’s soul will be aware of his journey and
of the hardships he will be suffering on the way. When he gets there and sees
Rasûlullah’s Rawda-i pâk, his tawajjuh will become perfect. He will get so many
benefits that the benefits he received when he was in his country will prove to
be nothing in comparison to them. These facts which we are stating now the
Awliyâ-i-kirâm perceive with their hearts.
Celâleddîn-i Rûmî[1]
(quddîsa sirruh) said on his deathbed. “Don’t be sorry when I am dead! Be with
me and think of me wherever you are! I shall come to your rescue and help you.
My soul has two kinds of attachments in this world; the first one is its
---------------------------------
[1] Celâleddîn Muhammad Rûmî ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’aleyh’ (604 [1207], Belikh, Syria - 672 [1273], Konya, Turkey) was a great Walî in the path of Tasawwuf termed Qâdirî.
attachment
to my body, and the second is its attachment to you. When my soul leaves my
body by the grace of Allâhu ta’âlâ, its attachment to the body will also extend
to you.
Abdullah-i Dahlawî[1] ,
(qaddas Allâhu ta’âlâ sirrahul’azîz), one of the greatest Awliyâ, says in the
eighth letter of his book Maktubât,
“Strive to increase the nisbat [attachment] in your heart! By doing much dhikr,
that is, repeating (with your heart) the name of Allah and the Kalima-i tehlîl
very often, and sometimes by saying the salawât or reading the Qur’ân al-kerîm,
try to approach Allâhu ta’âlâ! If you feel any languor during these efforts,
turn your tawwajuh to this faqîr’s soul [the great savant means himself]! Or, visit
Mirzâ Mazhar-i-Jân-i Jânân’s grave![2]
Paying tawajjuh to him causes great progress. The benefits to be received from
him will be many more than those to be received from a thousand living ones.
Also, meditate over Gaws-us saqalayn Abdulqâdir Geilânî[3]
and Bahâeddîn-i Bukhârî!”[4] It is
written in detail in the book At-tawassul-u
bin-Nabî wa bi-s-sâlihîn,” and in Mawlânâ Hamdullah Sahâranpûrî’s book Al-basâir li-munkirit-tawassul-i bi-ahl-il-maqâbir
that it is permissible to visit the graves of sâlih (pious) Muslims and to pray
through them. These two books were reproduced in Arabic by Iþýk Kitâbevi in
Istanbul in 1395 [1975].
---------------------------------
[1] Ghulâm-i-Alî Abdullah Dahlawî ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’aleyh’ (1158 [1745], Punjab, India - 1240 [1824], Delhi), a great Walî and an expert in Tasawwuf.
[2] Shams-ud-dîn Habîbullah Mazhar-i-Jân-i-Jânân ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’aleyh’ (1111 [1698] - 1195 [1781], Delhi, India) was a great Walî and an important link in the chain of Awliyâ termed Silsila-i-aliyya. He was the educater and master of Sayyid Abdullah Dahlawî, (above).
[3] Muhyiddîn Abû Muhammad bin Abû Sâlih bin Mûsâ Jengî Dost Abdulgâdîr-i-Geilânî ‘rahmatullâh ta’âlâ ’aleyh’ (471 [1078], Geilan, Iran - 561 [1166], Baghdâd, Iraq) a great Walî and a great expert in Tasawwuf, a mujtahid in the Islamic branches of knowledge termed Fiqh and Hadîth. Through a patternal chain of ancestry, he was related to the Messenger of Allah ‘sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam’ both through hadrat Hasan ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’ and through Huseyn ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’, the two blessed grandsons of the Messenger of Allah ‘sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam’. His blessed mother, Fâtima binti Abû Abdullah, was again one of the granddaughters of hadrat Huseyn ‘radiy-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’anh’, Rasûlullah’s younger grandson.
[4] Bahâeddîn Muhammad bin Muhammad Bukhârî ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’aleyh’ (718 [1318] - 791 [1389], Qasr-i-Ârifân, Bukhâra) was a great Walî and a great scholar in Tasawwuf