“It is unanimous that taking anyone as a mediator
between Allah and His creatures or asking him for something is kufr. Ibn Qayyim
said that it was great polytheism to ask a dead person for something or for his
intercession with Allah. The Hanafî book Fatâwâ al-Bazzâziyya
states that anyone who says that souls of mashâyikh are present becomes a
disbeliever. It is understood from âyats and hadîths that there is no sense or
motion in the dead.”
While it says on page 70:
“ ’Ukâsha asked Rasûlullâh to pray so that he
could go to Paradise without reckoning (undergoing judgement in the next
world). This shows that it is permitted to ask a living person to pray. But it
is polytheism to ask absentees and the dead for prayer.”
The prayers of those who faithfully follow Rasûlulâh’s
(sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam) path are accepted like his prayers. The
Wahhâbite book itself, on page 281, quotes the hadîth ash-sharîf
reported by Imâm Ahmad and Muslim (rahimahumallâhu ta’âlâ) from Abu Huraira
(radî-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’anh): “There
are such men whose hair is unkempt and who have been dismissed from doors, but
if they take an oath Allâhu ta’âlâ creates what they wish to prove them right.” Allâhu ta’âlâ, Who creates even what His human
servants swear upon so that they would not be reduced to liars, will no doubt
accept their prayers. Allâhu ta’âlâ declares in the sixtieth âyat of the Surat
al-Mu’min, “Pray to Me! I
will accept your prayers.” There are
conditions which govern the acceptance of prayers. If those conditions are
fulfilled, prayers will no doubt be accepted. Because one cannot gather
together all these conditions, prayers fall short of acceptance. Why should it
be polytheism to beg prayers from the ’ulamâ’ and awliyâ’, who
certainly have fulfilled those conditions? We say that
Allâhu ta’âlâ makes the souls of His beloved servants capable of hearing, and,
for their love, creates the things wished. We slaughter animals and recite the Qur’ân al-karîm for the sake of Allâhu ta’âlâ, send the thawâb to a
dead Muslim’s soul and seek his intercession and help. He who performs ’ibâda
for the sake of the dead certainly becomes a polytheist, but he who performs
’ibâda for the sake of Allâhu ta’âlâ and sends the thawâb to the dead does not
become a polytheist or a sinner.[1]
The author of the Wahhâbite book, too, reports the karâmât of Hadrat Maryam,
Asyad ibn Hadîr and Abu Muslim ’Abdullâh al-Hawlânî[2]
(rahimahum-Allâhu ta’âlâ). Because Allâhu ta’âlâ’s beloved servants’ souls, not
only when alive but also when dead, help living people with the force and
permission bestowed by Allâhu ta’âlâ, we ask the souls of awliyâ’
(rahimahum-Allâhu ta’âlâ) for help. With this belief in heart, to ask their
help does not come to mean to worship someone other than Allâhu ta’âlâ, but it
means to ask of Him.
Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya (died in 751/1350), who is called “’Allâma” (eminent master) and whose writings are used as documents in the Wahhâbite book, is quoted elsewhere[3] as having written in his Kitâb ar-Rûh: “When someone visit a grave, the dead person in the grave recognizes the visitor and hears his voice. He becomes cheerful and responds to his greeting. This is not peculiar to martyrs; it is the same for other dead people, too. This is not restricted to a certain time, either; it is always as such.” The writer’s statements contradict these words of his own master.
[1] See below, the 24th article for a detailed explanation of this subject translated from the Arabic Al-minhat al-wahbiyya.
[2] Abdullâh al-Hawlânî passed away in Damascus in 62.
[3] Al-basâ’ir li-munkiri ’t-tawassuli bi-ahli ’l-maqâbir, originally edited in Pakistan; Istanbul impression, 1980, p. 22.