“A hadîth reported by Abu Dâwûd says that we should
say salawât on the Prophet and that he will be informed from wherever we say it.
So, it does not make any difference to say it from near or afar. The grave
should not be turned into a place of celebration.”
In order to show that there is no need to visit the
Hujrat as-Sa’âda, he writes that Rasûlullâh (sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ
’alaihi wa sallam) hears the salawât said for him, but he contradicts himself.
He said before that the dead would not feel or hear, but here he writes that
they can hear.
On page 416 he writes:
“The dead will not hear what is said to them. To ask
them for prayers and intercession means to worship them.”
His writing that Rasûlullâh (sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ
’alaihi wa sallam) hears the salawât said for him and his latter words quoted
above are contradictory. Furthermore, he quotes only one of the two hadîths
from Abu Dâwûd. It does not suit his purpose to write the other one. Hadîth
scholar ’Abd al-Haqq ad-Dahlawî (rahimah-Allâhu ta’âlâ), on page 378 of his
book Madârij an-Nubuwwa, wrote: “A hadîth sharîf reported by Abu
Dâwûd from Abu Huraira (radî-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’anhumâ) declares, ‘When a person greets me, Allâhu ta’âlâ
gives my soul back to my body. I hear his greeting and reply to him.’ And the hadîth ash-sharîf narrated by
Ibn ’Asâkir (rahimah-Allâhu ta’âlâ) declares, ‘I will hear the salawât recited at my shrine.’ ”
“It was declared, ‘I am afraid that heretical imâms
will come upon my umma.’ That is, leaders and imâms who will mislead Muslims
will come and issue fatwâs disagreeing with the Book. Most of such people say,
‘He who is in trouble or who has a request shall come to my grave: I shall
fulfill his wish. I am very close to Allah. I have been exempted from
worshipping. Awliyâ’ help whomever they want. One shall ask his requests from
them. Those who are in trouble will attain prosperity if they hold on to the
dead or living awliyâ’, who can do whatever they wish.
They display karâmât. They know what is in the Lawh
al-mahfûz. They apprehend the secret thoughts of men.’ And such people build
domes over the graves of prophets and awliyâ’. All these mean to worship something
other than Allah. A hadîth says, ‘Munâfiqs deceive by telling the truth.’
Another hadîth says, ‘The Last Day will not come till most of my umma become
idolaters.’ What can those who worship graves and attribute them as partners to
Allah say to this? The fitna of worshipping idols has increased so much these
days that no one notices it. Muhammad ibn ’Abd al-Wahhâb stood up and prevented
this idolatry. Although some governments tried to oppose him, his name became
famous everywhere. There were many who believed him, as there were many who did
not believe. Abu Tâhir says, ‘The Sa’ûdî Dynasty conveyed Ibn ’Abd al-Wahhab’s
flag of monotheism to every corner of Arabia.’ It is necessary to prevent
polytheism from dissemination and to annihilate it. Domes built over graves are
of this kind. All of them have become idol-houses. None of them should be left
on earth. Most of them are treated like the idols al-Lât and al-’Uzzâ. Most
Muslims have become polytheists. ‘Thirty dajjâls will appear amongst my umma,’
is a well-known hadîth. Sayyid Siddîq Hasan Khân wrote in his Kitâb al-izâgha that the wicked European Ghulam Ahmad al-Qâdianî was
one of the dajjâls. This Indian disbeliever first said that he was al-Mahdî,
but later, backed by a Christian government, he declared he was a prophet.
Mukhtâr as-Saqafî, too, was one of the dajjâls, who lived during ’Abdullâh ibn
Zubair’s caliphate. He said he loved Ahl al-Bait and would revenge Hadrat
Husain’s murder. He killed many Muslims. Later he claimed that he was a prophet
and that Jabrâ’îl brought revelations to him.”
The writer of this passage reports that heretical and
irreligious governments and men of religious position will preside over
Muslims. The scholars of Islam (rahimahum-Allâhu ta’âlâ) have unanimously
decided that heretical men of religious position would mislead Muslims from the
right path. The lâ-madhhabî places spies in Muslim countries and deceives
Muslims through these mercenary lâ-madhhâbî spies. Publishing corrupt books,
they strive to destroy Ahl as-Sunna and defame the great ’ulamâ’ and awliyâ of
Ahl as-Sunna.
Al-Imâm ar-Rabbânî (qaddas-Allâhu ta’âlâ sirrahu
’l-azîz) declares in his 225th letter, “Hadrat al-Mahdî (rahimah-Allâhu ta’âlâ)
will disseminate Islam. He will bring into sight the sunnas
of Rasûlullâh (sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam). The
contemporary man of religious authority in al-Madînat al-Munawwara, who will
have been accustomed to committing and disseminating bida’ in the name of
Islam, being perplexed by al-Mahdî’s words, will say, ‘This man wants to
annihilate our faith.’ Hadrat al-Mahdî will command that he shall be killed.”
This passage predicts that lâ-madhhabism will last the longest in Medina and
will be totally annihilated by Hadrat al-Mahdî.
This writer, as he usually does, again quotes the
âyats and hadîths about disbelievers, polytheists and munâfiqs, and, by adding
the explanations given by the scholars of Ahl as-Sunna in detail, pretends to
be a defender of the right path. Then he attacks the innocent Muslims who belong
to Ahl as-Sunna. In order to call domed tombs “idol-houses” and awliyâ’
“idols,” he is not ashamed of misinterpreting âyats and hadîths. Anyone who
misinterprets those âyats or hadîths with ta’wîl becomes a man of bid’a, that is, a heretic, if he knows the ta’wîl. One who,
misinterpreting the clear nasses which need no ta’wîl, attacks Islam and calls
Muslims “mushriks” becomes a disbeliever. Although one who performs the ta’wîl
of nasses wrongly does not become a disbeliever, he brings discord among Muslims.
To him, only he is the true Muslim and for centuries millions of Muslims have
been mushriks. He alleges further that today most Muslims are worshipping the
dead.
It is evident who the ignorant and heretical imâms
referred to in the hadîth
ash-sharîf are. Dissenting from the
Muslim path of a thousand years, they have deviated. And every Believer knows
who the tyrannous statesmen who mislead Muslims are. They are the ones who,
under the name of “Islam” and “Ahl at-tawhîd”
(monotheists), have tyrannized and killed Ahl as-Sunna, the faithful of the
right path. By misinterpreting the Qur’ân al-karîm and hadîth ash-sharîf, this writer has been making up fatwâs that disagree
with the Qur’ân al-karîm and has been calling Muslims “polytheists.” No Muslim
scholars have ever said, “He who is in trouble or has a request shall come to
my grave; I will fulfill his wish.” The writer makes up this false stamement
and slanders Muslims. Scholars of Islam never said that they had approached
Allâhu ta’âlâ. Further, they never wanted even the karâmâts bestowed on them by
Allah to be heard of. They taught that the greatest karâmat was to obey the
rules of Islam, its commands and prohibitions and to follow Rasûlullâh (sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam). One day, when ’Abd al-Qâdir
al-Jîlânî
(rahimah-Allâhu ta’âlâ) was walking under lightning
and thunder in the desert with his disciples, the sky darkened and a voice from
the clouds said, “My servant ’Abd al-Qâdîr! I love you very much. I have
exempted you from performing ’ibâdât from now on!” The great walî replied
instantly, “Kadhdhabta yâ Kadhdhâb! You lie! Oh the liar Satan! You cannot
deceive me. Allah’s Beloved Muhammad (alaihi ’s-salâm) was not exempted from
performing ’ibâdât!”; he almost crawled to the mosque to attend the jamâ’a even
during his last illness. No one is exempted from performing ’ibâdât!” This
writer does not feel ashamed of calumniating such blessed awliyâ’ and regards
having tawassul with and entreating dead awliyâ’ as polytheism. Whereas, our master
Rasûlullâh (sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam) declared, “Ask the ones in graves
for help when you are confused about your affairs!” Muslims, following this hadîth sharîf, visit the graves of awliyâ’ and expect help from them.
The scholars of Islâm (rahimahum-Allâhu ta’âlâ),
following this hadîth sharîf, have visited the graves of awliyâ’ and said that
they received faid. Al-Imâm ar-Rabbânî (qaddas-Allâhu ta’âlâ sirrahu ’l-azîz)
wrote in his 291st letter, “I visited the honourable grave of my master Muhammad
Bâqî Bi’llâh in Delhi on an ’Iyd day. When I concentrated my attention upon his
blessed grave, he kindly noticed me with his holy soul. He treated this faqîr
with so much kindness that he granted me the faid he had received from Khwâja
’Ubaid-Allâh al-Ahrâr (qaddas-Allâhu ta’âlâ sirrahu ’l-’azîz). After this share
(nisba) was attained, the reality of the ma’rifas of Tawhîd resulted.”
The above hadîth ash-sharîf has been
quoted in many books and has become very well-known among Muslims. The great
’âlim Ahmad Shamsaddîn ibn Kamal Effendi (rahimah-Allâhu ta’âlâ), who was the
ninth Shaikh al-Islâm of the Ottoman Empire and the Muftî as-Saqalain (the
muftî who issued fatwâs to both men and genies), explained in his book Sharh al-Hadîth al-arba’în[1]
the eighteenth hadîth, “Idhâ
tahayyartum fî’l-umûr, fasta’înû min ahli ’l-qubûr!” (Ask the people in graves for help when you are
confused about your affairs!) as: “Man’s soul is in love with his body. This
love does not fade away when he dies and the soul departs from the body. The
soul’s attraction to and interest in the body does not end after death.
Therefore, it was
[1] Turkish translation published in Istanbul, in 1316 A.H.
prohibitied in a hadîth ash-sharîf to break the
bones of the dead or to step on graves. When one visits a walî’s grave, the
souls of the two meet and much benefit accrues. It was for this benefit that
visiting graves is permitted. It has, of course, some other secret advantages
as well.[1]
The soul of the Muslim in the grave and that of the visitor are like mirrors
which reflect on each other. When the visitor looks at the grave and gives
himself up to Allâhu ta’âlâ’s qadâ’, his soul perceives this and his knowledge
and moral qualities attain faid, which is then reflected to the heart of the
one in the grave. And the knowledge and faid that have come from Allâhu ta’âlâ
to the soul of the dead are reflected to the visitor’s soul. The Shâfi’î
scholar ’Alâ ad-dîn ’Alî ibn Ismâ’îl (rahimah-Allâhu ta’âlâ), who passed away
in 792/1329, wrote in his book
Al-a’lâm fî hayâti ’l-anbiyâ’ ’alaihimu ’s-salâtu wa ’s-salâm, ‘Prophets’ and all Muslims’ souls come down to their graves
and to the place where their names are mentioned. Their souls have a relation
with their graves. Therefore, grave-visiting is mustahab. They hear and reply
to those who greet them,’ In his ’Aqîba, Hâfýz (hadîth
scholar) ’Abd al-Haqq al-Ashbîlî al-Mâlikî (rahimah-Allâhu ta’âlâ), who passed
away in 582/1187, quotes the hadîth
ash-sharîf, ‘If anyone visits the grave of a Muslim
brother of his and greets him, the dead recognizes him and replies to his greeting.’ Shaikh Fakhr ad-dîn Ghazanfar at-Tabrîzî said, ‘I had
thought deeply about a matter but could not understand it. I sat by the tomb of
my shaikh, Tâj ad-dîn at-Tabrîzî (rahimah-Allâhu ta’âlâ) and thought over the
matter. Then I solved it.’ Some scholars said that ‘the ones in graves’ mentioned in the hadîth ash-sharîf, ‘Ask the ones in graves for
help when you are confused about your affairs,’[2]
were the awliyâ’ who, obeying the order, ‘Die before you die,’ had
advanced on the way of tasawwuf.”
The hadîth
ash-sharîf, “Munâfiqs deceive Muslims by telling the
truth” alludes to this writer, whose
book is filled with âyats,
[1] Ibn ’Abidîn (rahimah-Allâhu ta’âlâ), who passed away in Damascus in 1252/1836, wrote in the preface to his book Radd al-muhtâr, “Imâm Muhammad ash-Shâfi’î was very modest and respectful to al-Imâm ala’zam Abu Hanîfa (rahimahuma’llâhu ta’âlâ). He said he attained blessing by visiting Abu Hanîfa’s grave, where he performed a tworak’a salât and prayed to Allâhu ta’âlâ when he had a difficult question, the answer of which thus soon occured to him.”
[2] This hadîth sharîf is explained in the Arabic book Al-basâ’ir li-munkiri ’t-tawassuli bi-ahl al-maqâbir (photo-offset reproduction in Istanbul in 1395/1975).
hadîths and the true words of the ’ulamâ’ of Ahl as-Sunna while heretical ideas are sprinkled in between them. Rasûlullâh (sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam) ordered us to ask the ones in graves for help. But this writer calls those who do so “polytheists” and forbids the order in this hadîth. He calls Rasûlullâh’s order “polytheism.”