One Stroke of Sharp

Saber
An exposition of the fallacy of the Salafi
doctrine of the Trinity of Tauheeds

By Maulvi Muhammad Yusaf al-Kanadi

 ‫بسم ال الرحن الرحيم‬

[NB: Dibaaj required.]

The pseudo-Salafi doctrine that urges that tauheed [that is, the doctrine of divine uniqueness]
requires three distinct professions is the figment of the imagination of Ibn Taimiyyah (d. 728
/1328; Damascus), an unauthorized and unprecedented innovation, a dogma repugnant to true
teachings of the Qur’an and the sunnah, and an incessant source of strife and division amongst
the Muslims. The doctrine holds that in order to be a true Muslim one has to profess a trinity of
tauheeds not one. This trinity is represented in the following three points:

1. Tauheed al-Ruboobiyyah / ‫توحيد الربوبية‬, which we can call the “Uniqueness of Lordship” in
order to differentiate it from the following
2. Tauheed al-Uloohiyyah / ‫توحيد اللوهية‬, which we can call the “Uniqueness of Godship”
3. Tauheed al-Asmaa’ wa al-Sifaat / ‫توحيد السماء والصفات‬, which we can call the “Uniquenss of the
Names and Attributes”

Ibn Taimiyyah argued that the pagan Arabs, the mushrikoon who lived at the time of the
Prophet of Islam , affirmed the Uniqueness of Lordship for they claimed as he averred that
Allah alone was their creator and he cited a number of verses from the Qur’an which he alleged
showed this, among which were the following: َ‫ وَلَِئ ْن سَأَْلَتهُمْ َمنْ َخَل َقهُمْ لََيقُوُلنّ اللّهُ فََأنّى ُي ْؤفَكُون‬/ “If you ask them who
created them they will say Allah. How then do they turn away [from tauheed after admitting
this]? (43:87)” However, the fact is that the pagan Arabs did not really believe that Allah was
the only one who could create harm or benefit for them or in other words that He was their only
Lord so that it is preposterous to urge that they affirmed the Uniqueness of His Lordship.
Nobody in the history of Islam prior to him ever made the outrageous claim that the
mushrikoon (the idolatrous Arabs of the time of the Prophet ) affirmed that Allah was the only
Lord or that He was unique in His power to harm and benefit or that they affirmed any kind of
tauheed whatsoever. Don’t you see that the pagans believed that their idols also had the power
to harm or benefit them and that is why they sought their protection when they went on
journeys and thanked them when they returned safely? Observe that they threatened the
Prophet that if he did not stop dishonoring their idols that their idols would cause him harm for
Allah declares that they said: ِ‫ن مِنْ دُونِه‬
َ ‫ك بِالّذِي‬ َ ُ‫ َوي‬/ “and they threaten you [with harm] from other
َ ‫خوّفُو َن‬
than Him. (39:36)” The word ‫ توحيد‬/ tauheed means to hold something to be alone or unique in
something and so Tauheed of Lordship can only mean to affirm that one being is alone in having
power, which of course the mushrikoon were far from affirming. Furthermore, nobody after Ibn
Taimiyyah ever accepted such nonsense apart from the sect of his blind followers represented
today by those who call themselves Salafis sometimes, or at other times Ahl al-Hadith or Atharis
or Ansaar al-Sunnah or al-Ansaar and so on.
Having alleged that the pagan Arabs, the mushrikoon, actually affirmed the Tauheed of
Lordship, Ibn Taimiyyah asked what was it then that made them unbelievers. He answered that
it was the fact that they revered their idols. He called this reverence ‫ تعظيم‬/ ta‘zeem. He then
urged that it was their failure to revere Allah alone, or in other words their failure to affirm the
Uniqueness of Godship, that made them unbelievers. In fact Ibn Taimiyyah was putting the cart
before the horse for it was their believing that their idols had power to harm or benefit that
made the pagan Arabs unbelievers; their acts of reverence was only an outward expression of
their inward belief that their idols had power. Don’t you see that a person becomes an
unbeliever and a mushrik, that is one who commits shirk, the moment he thinks that anything
other than Allah has power to harm or benefit regardless of whether he ever performs any act of
reverence or obeisance for that thing? If a person believes that a certain idol has power
independent of Allah he commits shirk even if he never says a word in praise or glorification of
that idol or whether he ever goes to it or whether he ever offers any form of obeisance or
reverence to it for it is that belief which makes him a mushrik. The act only announces the
belief. If mere obeisance was the only criteria for worship then we would have to hold that the
Muslims who go about the Kaaba and kiss the black stone are worshipping the Kaaba and the
Hindus by the way think that we actually worship it. If mere obeisance was the only criteria
 3

then we would have to hold that the angels who prostrated to Adam worshipped Adam instead
of Allah and that Iblees was the only muwahhid, that is the only one of them who maintained the
Tauheed of Uloohiyyah. If mere obeisance was the only criteria then we would have to say that
when Ya‘qoob and his sons prostrated to Yusaf in Egypt they committed shirk and that
Mu‘aadh ibn Jabal committed shirk when he prostrated to the Prophet when Mu‘adh returned
from Syria although the Prophet did no accuse him of shirk although he forbade him to
prostrate to him in the future informing him that if he were to order anyone to prostrate to
anyone he would order women to prostrate to their husbands.1 However, the fact that the
Muslims and the angels and the father and brothers of Yusaf and Mu‘aadh knew that no one
has power independent of Allah determines that their act in each case may not be interpreted
as an act of worshipping other than Allah. In fact, what distinguishes mere obeisance from
worship is the belief that what is revered has independent power to benefit or harm us. Yes, the
fuqahaa’ declared that some acts of obeisance are taken to be worship irregardless of what his
intention is, for example prostrating to an idol or wearing a cross or a zunnaar [a yellow cord
that the People of the Book were forced to wear to distinguish themselves in the Islamic state],
for they declared these to be acts of kufr even if one did not believe in the idol or the cross or
Christianity because there is no other explanation for a sane person to reverence these things
except in jest and acts and statements of kufr made in joke are still considered to be kufr
because making mockery of religion is also kufr. When the hypocrites and according to some
commentators a Muslim too made fun of the Prophet while he was heading for Tabook
suggesting derisively that he had aspirations to conquer the fortresses and palaces of Syria and
when Allah revealed to the Prophet what they were saying and he went to them and informed
them about what they had been saying they pleaded they were just having fun. Allah recounts
the event and answers them:

َ‫ن طَا ِئفَ ٍة ِمنْكُ ْم ُنعَ ّذبْ طَا ِئفَة‬

ْ َ‫ن َنعْفُ ع‬
ْ ِ‫ستَهْ ِزئُون ل َتعْتَذِرُوا قَ ْد َكفَرْتُ ْم َبعْدَ إِيمَا ِنكُمْ إ‬
ْ َ‫لّ وَآيَاتِ ِه وَرَسُولِ ِه ُكنْتُ ْم ت‬
ِ ‫ض َونَ ْلعَبُ ُقلْ َأبِا‬
ُ ‫وََلئِنْ سَأَ ْل َتهُمْ َل َيقُوُلنّ ِإّنمَا ُكنّا نَخُو‬
َ‫بِأَّنهُ ْم كَانُوا مُجْ ِرمِين‬
If you ask them [about their joking about you] they will say, “We were just shooting off our
mouths and playing around.” Say: “Will you mock Allah and His verses/signs and His
messenger? Don’t make your excuses: you have committed unbelief after your
belief…”(9:65-66)

[NB: Review the books to see what our fuqhaa said about prostrating to a human being.]
On the other hand if an unbeliever threatened to put one to death or to cut off one of his limbs
or blind him2 unless one prostrated to an idol or kissed the cross or uttered some statement of
unbelief and one did so while continuing to belief in the divine unity and in Islam one would not
become an unbeliever because in such cases an alternative acceptable interpretation was
tenable.
Now the question is why did Ibn Taimiyyah explain the pagans’ unbelief in such an artificial
and roundabout manner and why did he pretend that they affirmed the Tauheed of Lordship.
The truth is that he had something up his sleeve. This captious reasoning, this fancy footwork,
was Ibn Taimiyyah’s groundwork for accusing the believers of shirk on account of their belief in
tawassul, that is seeking the favor of Allah for the sake of blessed things or persons, and seeking
the intercession of the dead, that is asking them to ask Allah for something for them or to
forgive them, for he pretended that although the believers affirmed the Tauheed of Lordship as
did the pagan Arabs in believing in and practicing tawassul and seeking the intercession of the
dead they thereby worshipped other than Allah and thereby violated the Tauheed of Godship
and committed shirk just as the pagan Arabs did in reverencing their idols. His claim was a
monstrous lie a gross misrepresentation of facts and in this sorry age it has proved to be the
seed of unceasing dissension and disunity among the Muslims. Although the flames of dischord
and disunity that Ibn Taimiyyah had kindled died away some after his demise due to the titanic
efforts of orthodox ulama in Damascus and Cairo, in modern times political and economic

1
What is of consideration in the issue of coercion is threat to life or limb not mere harassment or beating or
imprisonment or confiscation of property or extortion of money as is mentioned in the books of fiqh and
the principles of fiqh.
2
 4

circumstances obtained that permitted the flames to be rekindled no doubt much to the joy of
the unbelievers if not with their material aid and supervision. The first spark of this schism and
strife is the inculcation of the belief in a trinity of tauheeds and this is why it is vital that we
Muslims reject this baneful doctrine and banish it from the vocabulary of the believers for ever.
Section 1
The Asharite Doctrines of Causality and Acquisition
Ibn Taimiyyah’s comparison of the believers to the pagans was odious and baseless, for while
the believers believe that nothing has power to harm or benefit but Allah that pagans believed
that their idols also had power and while the pagans worship their idols the believers do not
worship those whose intercession they seek or those through whom they make tawassul any
more than one who asks another to pray to Allah for him worships the one he asks to pray for
him for in each case it is Allah whose help or blessing is sought. Before we continue to discuss
in greater detail the question of tawassul mentioning the proofs from the Book and the Sunnah
and the reports of the Companions and early Muslims let us have a consider how
uncompromising the Asharites, the true spokesmen of Islamic orthodoxy and the main
community of Islam, were in guarding the sacred principle of tauheed.
They held that the creation of benefit and harm, indeed the creation of anything, is not
within the power of any being inanimate or animate apart from He who created the heavens and
the earth. He alone, they insisted, is capable of implementing his will independently and
unilaterally, whereas the implementation of the will of other creatures is subject to His will and
they are all utterly dependent on His power and have no power whatsoever in themselves. In
fact so uncompromisingly did the Asharites maintain the exclusiveness of Allah’s power that
they denied that secondary causality and the doctrine that things have innate natures or even
that they are empowered by Allah maintaining rather that He only acts whereas things are mere
occasions of His act. Thus they denied that fire burns actually burns anything; that is they
maintained that it does not have any inherent nature to burn or any innate power to burn nor
even do they permit that Allah empowers it with a power dependent on Him, rather Allah , who
alone has power in this universe and who creates, usually creates burning according to His want
when fire comes into contact with flammable bodies; thus they say that Allah creates burning
‫ عند النار ل به‬/ “with [the presence of] fire not by it.”
[NB: Quote directly not via Craig.] In his The Cosmological Argument from Plato to Leibniz
(1980), William Lane Craig, a contemporary philosopher and theologian, quotes Imam al-Ghazali
(d. 505 / 1111), an Asharite imam, who in his Tahaafut al-Falaasafah, a work he wrote to refute
Arabic philosophers like Ibn Sina, refutes the ancient philosophers’ notion of causality. Professor
Craig writes:

In his Tahafut he [al-Ghazali] responds to an objector who urges that fire alone is the cause
of burning in cotton and the fire cannot but burn that cotton, since it is in its nature to burn a
flammable object brought into contact with it:

That is what we [the Asharites] deny. We say that it is God who is the agent of the
creation of blackness in cotton, of the disintegration of its parts, and of their
transformation into a smoldering heap or ashes. Fire, which is an inanimate thing, has no
action. How can one prove that it is an agent? The only argument is from the
observation of the fact of burning at the time of contact with fire. But observation only
shows that one is with the other, not that it is by it and has no other cause than it.3

Shaikh al-Azhar Ibraheem ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Baajoori (d. 1277 / 1860; Cairo) in his
celebrated commentary on Jauharah al-Tauheed known popularly as Hashiyah al-Baajoori ‘ala al-
Jauharah al-Tauheed, a work of didactic theology in the process of expounding the meaning of
rational propositions distinguished them from statements of the shariah and statements about
experience; he declared:

‫ مثال ذلك‬، ‫وأما الكم العادي فهو إثبات الربط بي أمر وأمر وجودا وعدما بواسطة تكرر القران بينهما على الس وعدم تأثي أحدها ف الخر ألبتة‬
‫ وليس‬، ‫ إذ معناه أن الحراق يقترن بس النار ف كثي من الجسام لشاهدة تكرر ذلك على الس‬، ‫ فهذا حكم عادي‬، ‫الكم على النار بأنا مرقة‬
‫ وإنا غاية ما دلت عليه العادة‬، ‫ إذ هذا العن ل دللة للعادة عليه أصل‬، ‫معن هذا الكم أن النار هي الت أثرت ف الحراق أو ف تسخي ما مسته مثل‬

3
William Lane Craig, The Cosmological Argument from Plato to Leibniz (London: Macmillan, 1980), p. 112,
n. 16.
 6

‫ وقس على هذا سائر الحكام العادية ككون‬، ‫ ول منها يتلقى علم ذلك‬، ‫ فليس للعادة فيه دخل‬، ‫ أما تعيي فاعل ذلك‬. ‫القتران فقط من المرين‬
. ‫ وإنا يتلقى العلم بفاعل هذه الثار القارنة لذه الشياء من دليلي العقل والنقل‬، ‫الطعام مشبعا والشمس مضيئا ولسكي قاطعة ونو ذلك ما ل ينحصر‬
As for a judgment4 about experience ( al-hukm al-‘aadi ) it consists in the affirmation that
there is some connection between any two things [for example between eating and
becoming full or between not eating and becoming hungry] whether it be that the existence
of one follows upon the existence of the other or whether it its existence follows upon the
nonexistence of the other [and vice versa so that there are four possibilities]. Judgment
about experience is based on the observed repetition of some relationship yet it disaffirms
altogether any efficient causal relation between the two things. Take as an illustration of
judgment about experience the proposition that fire burns: it’s about experience [and not
about rational necessity] since it only means that based on recurrent empirical observations
burning accompanies fire’s contacting different types of bodies. This is not to say that it is
the fire that causes the burning or the heating of whatever it contacts since this idea is not
substantiated at all by the routine that we observe; all that the routine shows is that the one
thing accompanies the other. As for determining the agent [that is, the doer or the efficient
cause] of that, experience has nothing to say and the knowledge of that cannot be learned
from it. Deduce from this example the rule for the rest of the judgments of experience such
as food’s making one feel full and the sun’s giving light and the knife’s cutting and
innumerable other phenomena like them. The knowledge about the real agent [that is, the
doer or the efficient cause] of all the effects that accompany the occasions [mentioned
above] can only be learned from the proofs of reason and revelation.

Al-Baajoori here represents the orthodox Asharite position I referred to above, namely the fact
that one thing is seen to accompany another routinely does not prove that one acts upon the
other, or in other words that one body is the agent or efficient cause of an effect observed in the
other, for example that burning seen in paper touched by fire is caused by the fire. According to
us Asharites fire does not burn because that is its nature and water is not wet because that is its
nature and a knife or a tooth does not cut because that is its nature but because Allah usually
creates that in each one of these things respectively. We learn from experience that He usually
wishes to create burning when fire comes into contact with flammable bodies and wetness when
water comes into contact with our hands and cutting when the blade of a knife or a tooth is
pressed against fruit. Even if we describe the phenomena of burning or any other event at the
molecular or atomic level the same truth will hold: what is observed is merely one event
accompanying another. To assume that the one causes the other is to commit an error in logic
referred to as the fallacy of a hasty generalization of the type referred to specifically as post hoc
ergo propter hoc (“after this therefore because of this”) which refers to inferring that because
one thing follows another it must be the effect of the first.
Nay we have to realize that in ultimate terms He is the law and that He acts as He pleases
with or without the routine circumstances or even contrary to them so that He makes fire wet
and cool when He wishes, and the sky red, and the seas burst into flame and our limbs to speak
and the dead to rise. When Allah acts according to His routine we have a phenomenon and
when He acts contrary to it we have a miracle.
The illustrious imam Ibraheem al-Baajoori continued in the work I cited above:

‫ ثبوت الحراق للنار من حيث إنا سبب‬: ‫ فأهل السنة يقولون‬، ‫وقد أطبق العقل والشرع على انفراد الول جل وعز باختراع جيع الكائنات عموما‬
‫ والق أن قدرة ال تعال عامة التعلق بميع‬. ‫ ثبوت الحراق للنار من حيث إنا مؤثرة بقوة مودعة فيها‬: ‫عادي يلق ال عنده الحراق وغيهم يقولون‬
. ‫ فقصرها على بعضها دون الخر مع استوائها ف الفتقار ل برهان عليه إل اتباع الوى وظلمة الجاب‬، ‫المكنات إيادا وإعداما وإمدادا‬
Reason and revelation agree that the Lord—glorious and exalted is He—alone is the creator
of all phenomenal existence. Orthodox Muslims [“Ahl al-Sunnah”, and by them he means the
Asharites] say: Burning is ascribed to fire in that fire is a routine occasion [ sabab ] for Allah’s
creating burning upon it [and not by it]. Others [Mutazilites and Peripatetic philosophers]
say: Burning is ascribed to the fire in that fire is the agency [the doer or the efficient cause]
by virtue of some power that it has been invested with. The truth is that only Allah Ta‘aala’s

4
The term judgment ( hukm ) is used in the sense that logicians use it, namely to affirm or disaffirm one
thing or another, for example “The cow is an animal,” of “The cow is not an animal,” so we can say that
judgment is the mental act of making or understanding a positive or negative proposition about something.
 7

power operates in contingent5 existences [in other words all phenomena] originating them
annihilating them and causing them to endure [ imdaadan ]. Restricting his power to only
some of these [three aspects of His power] rather than to all of them although they are equal
in their dependency [on Allah] is [a completely arbitrary assumption] for which there is no
proof other than following ones prejudice and the murk of the veil [of spiritual blindness].

It is important here to appreciate that Muslim scholars use the term sabab technically to refer to
what leads to an occurrence but is not its efficient cause. That is why I think it is appropriate to
translate the term as occasion distinguishing it from cause. Al-Sayyid al-Jurjaani (d. 816 / 1413;
Shiraz) says in his al-Ta‘rifaat ‫ السبب ف الشريعة عبارة عما يكون طريق للوصول إل الكم غي مؤثر فيه‬/ Sabab in the shariah is
what paves the way for the rule but does not act upon it.” Here al-Jurjaani uses the word “rule”
because sabab also comes to play in the shariah as well but we can understand that it applies
with occurrences as well. It is understood that sabab is insufficient to bring about the rule or the
occurrence for it is recognized that it may obtain and yet the rule or occurrence not follow. The
scholars reserve the word ‘illah for the efficient cause. Al-Jurjaani says that the meaning of ‘illah
is ‫ عبارة عما يب الكم به معه‬/ “a term denoting what necessitates the rule by it and with it.” What
distinguishes the ‘illah from sabab is that when the ‘illah of a thing obtains the thing must follow.
Thus opening a bird’s cage is a sabab of its flying away, but the ‘illah of its flying away is its
flapping its wings, or at least apparently. Observe that the opening of the cage’s door did not
necessitate the bird’s flying away for many a bird does not dare to venture beyond the confines
of its cage even when the door is open. However, with the door open and the bird’s flapping its
wings in the direction of the door it had to fly away speaking apparently and routinely.
Now consider that fire is called sabab for the reason that it usually leads to the rule or
occurrence which in this case is burning but it is not the efficient cause of burning, rather the
efficient cause is Allah . Note that in our two examples above we are talking at two different
levels in order to illustrate something. In the example of the bird we are speaking from the point
of view of what is apparent and in the example of the fire we are speaking from the point of view
of ultimate reality, the way things really are not the way they may seem. Otherwise looking at
the matter in ultimate terms, the efficient cause of the bird’s flying away is Allah’s creating flight
in it while the sabab or occasion is the wish of its living spirit to fly away.
Ibraheem al-Baajoori next enumerated a number of texts from the Book and the Sunnah that
establish the doctrine that he has expounded previously:

)15-14 : ‫ج بِهِ حَبّا وَنَبَاتا) (النبأ‬ َ ِ‫خر‬ْ ُ‫صرَاتِ مَاءً َثجّاجا لِن‬
ِ ‫ )وََأْنزَلْنَا ِمنَ الْمُ ْع‬: ‫) وقال أيضا‬20 ‫ من الية‬:‫ ( ُكلّا نُ ِمدّ َهؤُل ِء وَ َهؤُلءِ ِمنْ َعطَاءِ َرّبكَ)(السراء‬: ‫وقد قال ال تعال‬
Allah Ta‘aala has said: َ‫ ُكلّا نُ ِمدّ َهؤُل ِء وَ َهؤُلءِ ِمنْ َعطَاءِ َرّبك‬/ “We extend to each of them [that is, the two
contrasted groups mentioned previously], those [the who wish for this world] and those
[those who wish for the next], the largesse of your Lord, (17:20),” and He also said: َ‫وََأْنزَلْنَا ِمن‬
‫خرِجَ بِ ِه َحبّا وََنبَاتا‬
ْ ُ‫صرَاتِ مَاءً ثَجّاجا ِلن‬
ِ ْ‫ اْلمُع‬/ “We send down water from the squeezed [clouds] by which We bring
forth grain and plants. (78:14-15)”

)َ‫حنُ الزّارِعُون‬
ْ َ‫) أََأنْتُمْ َت ْزرَعُوَنهُ َأمْ ن‬63:‫حرُثُونَ) (الواقعة‬
ْ ‫ )َأَفرَأَْيتُمْ مَا َت‬: ‫ وقال‬، )19 ‫ من الية‬:‫ضنَ مَا ُيمْسِ ُك ُهنّ ِإلّا الرّحْ َم ُن )(اللك‬
ْ ِ‫(َأوَلَمْ َي َروْا إِلَى الطّْيرِ َف ْوَقهُمْ صَافّاتٍ َويَ ْقب‬
‫ وقد قال‬، ‫ ل حول ول قوة إل بلله كن من كنوز النة‬: ‫ وقال‬، ‫ اللهم بك أصول وبك أجول‬: ‫) وقال صلى ال عليه وسلم‬64:‫(الواقعة‬
Two contemporary Syrian scholars, Abd al-Kareem Tataan and Muhammad Adeeb al-Kilaani,
internationally recognized authorities on Asharite theology, wrote jointly an excellent
commentary on Jauharah al-Tauheed, the same very condensed work which Ibraheem al-
Baajoori commented on in the citations above. They confirmed and expounded the orthodox
doctrine of causality and indicated that professing it is a strict requirement of the Islamic faith:

‫ وإنا ال تعال‬، ‫ أو بقوة مودعة فيه‬، ‫ ومن نفي تأثي العبد عما باشره من الفعال بطلن دعوى أن شيئا يؤثر بطبعه‬، ‫وقد علم من إنفراده تعال باللق‬
‫ وعليه فمن اعتقد أن شيئا‬، ‫ والحراق عند ماسة النار‬, ‫ والري عند الشرب‬، ‫ كالستر عند اللبس‬، ‫بسب ما جرت به العادة يلق ذلك الثر عنده ل به‬
‫ وإن كان يعتقد حدوث السباب العادية وأنا ليست مؤثرة بطبعها وإنا ال تعال خلق فيها قوة هي‬، ‫من السباب العادية يؤثر بطبعه فل نزاع ف كفره‬
‫ ومن اعتقد حدوث السباب وأنا ل تؤثر بطبعها ول قوة جعلها ال فيها وإنا الؤثر هو ال تعال لكن التلزم بينها وبي‬، ‫ فهو فاسق مبتدع‬، ‫الت تؤثر‬

5
Contingent refers to what may or may not be and is distinguished from the necessary which cannot not
be and the impossible which cannot be.
 8

‫ وكذلك‬، ‫ وربا جره ذلك إل الكفر بأن يحد بعث الجساد لنه خلف العتاد‬، ‫ فهذا جاهل بقيقة الكم العادي‬، ‫ما قارنا عقلي ل يكن تلفه‬
‫ ومن اعتقد حدوثها وأنا ل تؤثر بطبعها ول بقوة فيها ويعتقد صحة التخلف بأن يوجد السبب العادي كالطعام ول يوجد الشبع الذي هو‬. ‫العجزات‬
6
. ‫ فهو الوحد الناجي بفضل ال عز وجل‬، ‫السبب عنه وإنا الوثر ف السبب هو ال تعال‬
It is known from the fact that Allah alone creates and from the fact that the slave does
produce any effect in the acts that he performs the falsity of the claim that anything
produces an effect by its nature or by a power that it is endowed with and it is known rather
that Allah Ta‘aala according to his habit [usually] creates that effect [which heretics claim is
in the nature of the thing] with that thing [that is, when it is present] not by it, for example
concealment when clothing is worn and the quenching of thirst when water is drunk and
burning when fire contacts [some inflammable body]. Thus there is no difference of opinion
[among the orthodox authorities] that whoever believes that any of these routine occasions7
[ al-asbaab al-‘aadiyyah ] are themselves efficient causes commits unbelief. If on the other
hand someone believed

Now although Allah’s creatures have no power in other than Allah, yet they may acquire it
through Allah by willing to do something. If Allah wills He creates that deed for His slave and
then makes him responsible for it. Thus if we will to raise our hand to perform some act of
obedience He may create that if He wills and then if He does create it for us and He will reward
us for it while if we will to raise our hand to perform some act of disobedience He may create
that if He wills and then if He does create it for us He may take us to task for it and if He wills
punish us or deprive us on account of it. This doctrine is known as the doctrine of acquisition (
al-kasb ). With this doctrine the Asharites steered a middle course between those who denied
man’s free-will (al-Jabariyyah) and those who claimed that men create their own deeds (the
Mu‘tazilah and the Qadariyyah). This is the not the place for the theological demonstration of
the Asharite position, suffice it to mention one of the verses they adduced in the scriptural
defense of their doctrine: َ‫ وَالُّ خََل َقكُ ْم وَمَا َتعْمَلُون‬/ “Allah has created you and what you do. (37:96)” In
summary, we Asharites insist that power belongs to Allah utterly absolutely uncompromisingly
and exclusively. That being the case, how is it possible that anyone insinuate that they worship
the dead and promote shirk or even just what leads to it or is tantamount to it? Indeed it is a
malignant lie.

. 1419/1999 ، ‫ دمشق‬، ‫ دار الباشئر‬، 486-1/485 ، ‫ عون الريد لشرح جوهرة التوحيد لعبد الكري تتان وممد أديب الكيلن‬6
7
As I explained above the Arabic term sabab which used by Muslim scholars in a strict technical sense
indicates what leads to a rule or an occurrence but does not actually cause it. For this reason I have
translated the term ‫ السباب العادية‬/ al-asbaab al-‘aadiyyah here as “routine occasions.”
Section 2
The meaning of seeking the favor of Allah for the sake of one of His
creatures and seeking their intercession
In order to see clearly what a pernicious doctrine is the doctrine of the Trinity of Tauheed and
how wrong-headed is Ibn Taimiyyah’s accusation that orthodox Muslim worship the dead and
others along with Allah we have to understand clearly what asking the favor of Allah for the sake
of one of His creatures ( tawassul ) and what seeking their intercession ( istishfaa‘ ) is, and for
this reason we will have to discuss these two matters in detail before we go on to debunk the
third facet of the doctrine: the so-called Tauheed of the Names and Attributes.
The Arabic word ‫ توسل‬/tawassul in the context that we are using it refers to seeking
somebody’s favor for the sake of somebody else. When we say in Arabic ‫لاجت كيت وكيت توسّلت إل ال بحد‬
‫ صلى ال عليه وسلم‬the correct way to construe the statement and to translate it is thus: “I sought to win
favor with Allah by the mention of Muhammad for the discharge of such and such a need.”
Observe that Allah is the one who is being asked although we are seeking to win his favor by the
mention of His prophet whom we know He loves and honors. The very fact that we know that
Allah loves him and respects him is a virtue that Allah so much appreciates that it is likely that
He will oblige us in our fulfilling our request. Note that the word “Muhammad” in the Arabic is
governed by the preposition ‫ باء‬/ baa’; actually the Arabic grammarians don’t call it a preposition
they call it ‫ حرف‬/ harf, which we might call a “particle” although literally it would translate as a
“letter.” Now this particle has quite a number of different meanings; in fact according to al-
Mughni al-Labeeb of Ibn Hishaam (d. 761 / 1360; Cairo), a celebrated imam in the science of
Arabic grammar, the particle can assume fourteen different meanings and one of them is ‫ الستعانة‬/
al-isti‘aanah, which means “seeking help.” Ibn Hishaam gave as instances of this usage of the
particle the statement ‫ كتبت بالقلم‬/ “I wrote with a pen,” and ‫ نرت بالقدوم‬/ “I hewed with an adz,” and the
statement known as the basmalah, that is ‫ بسم ال‬/ “[I begin/recite] seeking the help/blessing of the
name of Allah”; in this statement the beginning of the sentence is omitted but supposed for
omission ( ‫ الذف‬/ al-hadhf ) is a regular feature of eloquent Arabic recurring in the Qur’an and
hadith.
Know that the root word, which is called masdar by Arabic grammarians, from which the verb
‫ توسّل‬/ tawassul which appears in my example above is derived, is ‫ الوسيلة‬/ al-waseelah, which,
according to the author of al-Qaamoos al-Muheet, one of the most authentic and authoritative of
Arabic lexicons, means: ‫ عمل عمل تقرب به إليه كتوسّل‬: ‫ ووسّل إل ال تعال توسيل‬، ‫ النلة عند اللك والدرجة والقربة‬/ “high status with
the king and rank and intimacy and as for the meaning of ‫ وسّل إل ال‬/ wassala ilaa Allah it means to
do a thing by which to get near to Allah8 and similarly the meaning of ‫ توسّل‬/ tawassala [which is
another verb pattern derived from the same root]. The authors of al-Misbaah al-Muneer and
Mukhtaar al-Sihaah, other authoritative Arabic lexicons, stated that al-waseelah means ‫ما يتقرب به إل‬
‫ الغي‬/ “that by which we try to get close to /to win the favor of something else,” and the author of
al-Nihaayah fi Ghareeb al-Hadith, an important lexicon of the vocabulary of hadith, said it means
‫ ما يتصّل به إل الشيء ويتقرب إليه‬/ “that by which one reaches/accesses a thing and gets close to it.” It is seen
from the foregoing that in the statement I quoted above ‫ لاجت كيت وكيت توسّلت إل ال بحد صلى ال عليه وسلم‬what is
meant is that I made Muhammad my waseelah to Allah, where waseelah in this context denotes
the means of gaining His favor or of ingratiating myself with Him hoping to earn thereby the
fulfillment of my request and need.
Thus explained any clear-headed person can see that in seeking the favor Allah by
mentioning the name of His beloved prophet , whose followers and admirers we claim to be,
there is not so much as even a suggestion that we are attributing autonomous power to
Muhammad or praying to him or worshipping him.9
8
That is to say to win the favor or respect of Allah because Allah is not a body that we might literally get
near to.
9
The topic of tawassul was treated at greater length in great detail in my essay On the meaning of asking
Allah for the sake of His prophet so those who wish to see the topic more documented in detail are
 10

Now it remains for me to explain what is meant by intercession which in Arabic is referred to
as ‫ شفاعة‬/ shafaa‘ah and it refers to another’s asking someone or pleading to him for the benefit
or forgiveness of someone else; in English it is also referred to as “interposing.” Therefore when
we seek someone’s intercession we are merely asking him to ask someone else to grant us
something or to forgive us thus when we ask someone to pray to Allah to give us something or
to forgive us we are seeking that person’s intercession and so it should be clear that the
question of worshipping the one whose intercession we seek just does not arise by any stretch
of the imagination. Now there is no disagreement among the Muslims that the Prophet will
intercede for all of creation on the Day of Resurrection seeking the commencement of Judgment
for the matter is confirmed by numerous utterly authentic hadith and those same hadith also
affirm that the people of the Judgment Plain will be instructed by the prophets to seek the
intercession of other prophets until they wind up seeking the intercession of the Last of the
Prophets . Among those who reported such hadith was al-Bukhari who reported from Abu
Hurairah the following hadith:

‫ كنا مع النب صلى ال عليه وسلم ف دعوة فرفع إليه الذراع وكانت تعجبه فنهس منها نسة وقال أنا سيد القوم يوم‬: ‫عن أب هريرة رضي ال عنه قال‬
‫القيامة هل تدرون بن يمع ال الولي والخرين ف صعيد واحد فيبصرهم الناظر ويسمعهم الداعي وتدنو منهم الشمس فيقول بعض الناس أل ترون‬
‫إل ما أنتم فيه إل ما بلغكم أل تنظرون إل من يشفع لكم إل ربكم فيقول بعض الناس أبوكم آدم فيأتونه فيقولون يا آدم أنت أبو البشر خلقك ال بيده‬
‫ونفخ فيك من روحه وأمر اللئكة فسجدوا لك وأسكنك النة أل تشفع لنا إل ربك أل ترى ما نن فيه وما بلغنا فيقول رب غضب غضبا ل يغضب‬
‫قبلة مثله ول يغضب بعده مثله ونان عن الشجرة فعصيته نفسي نفسي اذهبوا إل غيي اذهبوا إل نوح فيأتون نوحا فيقولون يا نوح أنت أول الرسل‬
‫إل أهل الرض وساك ال عبدا شكورا أما ترى إل ما نن فيه أل ترى إل ما بلغنا أل تشفع لنا إل ربك فيقول رب غضب اليوم غضبا ل يغضب قبلة‬
‫مثله ول يغضب بعده مثله نفسي نفسي ائتوا النب صلى ال عليه وسلم فيأتون فأسجد تت العرش فيقال يا ممد ارفع رأسك واشفع تشفع وسل‬
. ‫تعطه قال ممد بن عبيد ل أحفظ سائره‬
We were with the Prophet on an invitation to take a meal when the leg [of a sheep] was
passed to him and he used to like the leg so he took a bite of it and said: “I am the lord10 of
the people on the Day of Resurrection. Do you know by whom Allah will gather the first
peoples and the last peoples on one single plain so that one will be able to see them and
speak to them and the sun will come close so that some of the people will say [to some
others]: “Don’t you see what a plight you are in and how serious the matter has become?
Won’t you look to see who might intercede for you with your Lord?” Some of them will say:
“Let us ask your father Adam.” So they come to him and say: “O Adam, you are the father of
mankind. Allah created you without any intermediary [literally: “with His own hand”] and He
breathed into you a spirit which I alone created and which I alone possess [literally: “His
spirit”]11 and ordered the angels to prostrate to you and caused you to dwell in the Garden.

referred to it.
10
The word “lord” in English is used to refer to a powerful and influential person and although it is also
used to refer to God in that case it takes a capital. The Arab word here is sayyid and this hadith shows that
it is permissible to refer to illustrious personages using this term contrary to some ignoramuses who claim
that the word may only be used to refer to Allah. There are many other examples in hadith in which the
term sayyid is used to refer to illustrious people.
11
The interpretation for ‫ نفخت فيه من روحي‬which I have given is in accordance with the interpretation given by Ibn
Juzai al-Kalbi in his commentary of verse 15:29 in his celebrated commentary known as al-Tasheeh li
‘Uloom al-Tanzeel where he says the meaning is

. ‫يعن الروح الت ف السد وأضاف ال تعال الروح إل نفسه أضافة ملك إل مالك أي من الروح الذي هو ل وخلق من خلقي‬
‫ نفخت فيه من روحي‬/ “Then I breathed into him My spirit.” that is to say, the spirit. Allah ascribed it to
Himself as one ascribes a possession to its owner; and in other words He meant to say “the spirit
that is Mine and that is one of My creations.

His interpretation is in accordance with the doctrine of transcendence affirmed by the orthodox community
of mainstream Islam. represented by the Asharite school of theology. No doubt the pseudo-Salafis will
squawk at Ibn Juzai’s interpretation because they insist on taking every expression in the Qur’an and the
sunnah literally even though doing that leads to absurdities as I have discussed elsewhere at length and as
I will take up at the end of this essay when I discuss the third part of the Salafi Trinity, the Tauheed of the
 11

Will you not intercede12 for us with your Lord? Don’t you see what a plight we are in and how
serious the matter has become?” However, Adam will reply: “My Lord has become angry in a
way that He have never become angry before or ever will become again. He prohibited me
from eating from the tree but I disobeyed Him. My own soul [is that which most deserves to
have intercession sought for it13]! My own soul! Go to somebody else! Go to Nuh!” So they
come to Nuh and they say: “O Nuh, you were the first messenger14 to the people of the earth
and Allah called you ‫ عبدا شكورا‬/ ‘Grateful Slave.’ Don’t you see in what a plight we are and how
serious the matter has become? Will you not intercede for us to your Lord?” He will reply:
“My Lord has become angry today in a way that He have never become angry before or ever
will become again. My own soul [is that which most deserves to have intercession sought for
it]! My own soul! Go to the Prophet . Then they will come to me and I will prostrate
beneath the Throne and it will be said to me: “O Muhammad, raise your head and intercede;
your intercession will be granted. Ask; you will be given it.”15

Now if intercession had anything to do with shirk it would not be permissible for the Prophet
on the Day of Resurrection and if seeking someone’s intercession on our behalf was shirk then
none of the prophets would have suggested to the people that they go to another prophet to ask
him to intercede for them and rather they would instruct them to pray to Allah directly informing
them that it was of no use to seek the intercession of another. In fact the people had been
imploring Allah to rescue them from their dire plight but their prayers go unanswered so in
desperation they seek the prayers of those who they deem better than themselves in the hope
that their prayers at least might be answered and finally the prayer of the Prophet is accepted
and judgment commences. Now if seeking the Prophet’s intercession is not shirk on the Day of
Resurrection, then clearly it could not be shirk if we sought it before the Day of Resurrection for
shirk is shirk now and forever.

Names of the Attributes. Suffice it to say here that as Ibn al-Jauzi pointed out in his Daf‘ Shubah al-
Tashbeeh the inability of the Christians to understand figurative expressions was what lead them to affirm
that Allah literally had a son and literally a spirit it was this that lead them to their belief that Allah was a
trinity of persons: the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit, the latter term which they translated ridiculously
from the Greek pneuma as Ghost instead of Spirit. Ibn al-Jauzi also pointed out that the literalists failure to
understand the figurative use of Arabic has lead them too to ascribe to Allah imperfect attributes,
attributes shared by the rest of His creation like being subject to change and movement and occupying
space and having parts and a limit and direction and so on. Such are the attributes of bodies and what has
a body must be preceded by nonexistence. However, Allah who exists without beginning far transcends
what ignorant blasphemers ascribe to Him, holy and exalted is He. Imam al-Nasafi explained in his
commentary on the Qur’an (15:29) that the there was not any breathing in a literal sense rather he said
that we have here an example of tamtheel which means to describe a scene of a picture intending not the
picture itself but rather the idea that the picture taken as a unit whole evokes, and here the idea evoked is
that of life being caused in an invisible way to stir in the inanimate body of clay from which Adam was so
marvelously created. There are many other examples of this in the Qur’an and the sunnah and the speech
of eloquent Arabs but this is not the place to give a prolonged discussion of the matter. I have discussed
the matter giving examples elsewhere.
12
Intercede means to “interpose” and interpose means to speak on somebody’s behalf or to plead for him.
13
The Arabic here is an instance of hadhf, that is an omission which the listener is supposed to supply from
the context or other pertinent indications. This interpolation I have supposed is provided my Shaikh al-
Islam Ibn Hajr al-‘Asqalani in his Fath al-Baari, the most celebrated commentary on Saheeh al-Buhari. See
Fath al-Bari (Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, n.d.), 11:441.
14
As Ibn Hajr mentioned in his Fath al-Bari (6:372), the mention here of Nuh as the first messenger is
problematic because there are texts from the Qur’an and hadith that indicate that Adam was the first
messenger and there is consensus that he was a prophet. Ibn Hajr advanced a number of conjectures
trying to reconcile the fact with this hadith among them he suggested Adam was only a messenger to
his children while Nuh was a messenger to all of mankind and this suggestion seems quite likely
because we have in fact in this hadith the wording “the first messenger to the people of the earth.”
15
One of the narrators of the hadith, Muhammad ibn Ubaid said: “I did not memorize the rest of it.” In fact
this version is a shorter version; in longer versions of the same hadith reported by al-Bukhari Musa and
Isa are also mentioned. Musa tells the people to go to Isa and Isa tells them to go to Muhammad .
Section 3
The proofs from the Book and sunnah and the sayings of the early
Muslims ( al-salaf ) showing the legitimacy of intercession and
seeking it in its various forms

The Qur’an in fact establishes the general permissibility of intercession for Allah says:

ِ‫َمنْ ذَا اّلذِي يَشْ َفعُ ِعْندَهُ إِلّا بِِإ ْذِنه‬

• Who is there that can intercede with Him except with His permission? (2:255)

‫خذَ ِعنْدَ الرّ ْح َمنِ َعهْدا‬

َ ‫ل َيمْلِكُونَ الشّفَا َعةَ إِلّا َم ِن اّت‬
• They do not have [the privilege of] intercession except those who covenant with al-Rahman
[the Merciful] [that is, he believes—al-Nasafi16]. (19:87)17

ً‫َوْ َمِئذٍ ل َتْن َفعُ الشّفَا َعةُ إِلّا َم ْن أَذِ َن َلهُ الرّ ْح َمنُ وَ َرضِ َي َلهُ َق ْول‬
• That day no intercession will be of any use except for him who al-Rahman authorizes and
with whose word He is pleased. (20:109)

This verse is susceptible to two different interpretations. Ibn Juzai (d. 741 / 1340; Granada) says
in his commentary that if he “who al-Rahman authorizes” here refers to the one for whom
intercession is sought then it means for whose sake permission is granted and the then the
meaning is of the last clause will be and He is accepts with the word of the intercessor for the
one for whom he intercedes. However, he says if the of he “who al-Rahman authorizes” is the
intercessor than it means “He accepts His request to intercede.”

ُ‫حقّ َو ُهوَ اْل َعلِيّ الْ َكِبي‬

َ ‫ع َعنْ ُقلُوِبهِمْ قَالُوا مَاذَا قَالَ َربّ ُكمْ قَالُوا اْل‬
َ ‫وَل َتنْ َفعُ الشّفَا َعةُ ِعْندَهُ إِلّا ِل َمنْ أَذِ َن َلهُ َحتّى إِذَا فُ ّز‬
• Intercession with Allah will be of no benefit except for him [that is the intercessor—al-Nasafi]
for whom [that is, for whose sake—al-Nasafi] He authorizes [intercession]. Then [when
finally intercession is given to those who wait in fear for its permission—al-Nasafi] when the
dread is removed from their hearts [the hearts of the intercessors and the ones for whom
they intercede due to a word [of approval] which the Lord of Glory will speak to them—al-
Nasafi] they will say [that is, they will ask one another—al-Nasafi]: “What did your Lord say?”
They will say: “The truth [that is, the permission for intercession for whom He approves—al-
Nasafi]. (34:23)

Imam al-Nasafi remarked in commenting on this verse that it was revealed denying the claim of
the unbelievers referred to in the verse ِ‫ضرّهُ ْم وَل َينْ َف ُعهُ ْم وَيَقُولُونَ َهؤُلءِ ُشفَعَاؤُنَا ِعنْدَ اللّه‬
ُ َ‫ َويَ ْعبُدُونَ ِم ْن دُونِ اللّهِ مَا ل ي‬/ They worship
instead of Allah what does not harm them or benefit them and they say: “They [our idols] are
our intercessors with Allah. (10:18)” Notice incidentally that the verse states explicitly that the
pagan Arabs used to worship their idols. There is a world of difference between the intercession

16
The reference of authority here is to Imam Abu al-Barakaat al-Nasafi (d. 710 / 1310; Baghdad) the author
of a famous commentary on the Qur’an known as Madaarik al-Tanzeel, or popularly as Tafseer al-Nasafi;
this commentary was been on the curriculum at Azhar University for ages and is read widely throughout
the Muslim world. The reason this particular commentary is so highly regarded is that being an
abridgement of al-Zamakhshari’s al-Kashhaaf it treats in great detail and with great subtlety the
grammatical, rhetorical and linguistic aspects of commentary. Al-Zamakhshari is a recognized master of
the Arabic language and one can hardly find a commentator after him who did not rely on him greatly in
spite of al-Subki’s protesting about that for al-Zamakhshari belonged to the heretical Mutazilite sect;
however al-Nasafi who was an Asharite imam suffices us to purge the commentary of exclusively
Mutazalite doctrines and views. Al-Nasafi is also a Hanafi faqeeh of high rank the author of very important
texts in fiqh and the principles of fiqh that are studied widely to this day by Hanafi ulama.
17
Imam al-Nasafi in commenting on this verse cites the hadith: “Whoever says ‫ ل إله إل ال‬he has a covenant
with Allah.”
 13

claimed by the unbelievers for objects they worshipped and the intercession of believers who
ask believers to plead for them with the one they all worship exclusively.

َ‫حقّ َو ُهمْ يَ ْعَلمُون‬

َ ‫وَل َيمْلِكُ اّلذِي َن يَ ْدعُونَ ِمنْ دُوِنهِ الشّفَاعَ َة إِلّا َمنْ َش ِهدَ بِاْل‬
• Those they call upon [that is, their idols—al-Nasafi] instead of Allah do not have the ability to
intercede [as the pagan Arabs believed—al-Nasafi], but those who attest to the truth [by
affirming the uniqueness of Allah ( tauheed )] and they know [that Allah is their Lord in truth
and that He is the one who alone has the power to grant intercession—al-Nasafi]. (43:86)

‫ت ل تُ ْغنِي شَفَا َعُت ُهمْ َشيْئا إِلّا ِمنْ َب ْعدِ أَنْ َيأْذَ َن الّلهُ ِل َمنْ يَشَا ُء َويَ ْرضَى‬
ِ ‫سمَاوَا‬
ّ ‫َوكَمْ ِمنْ َملَكٍ فِي ال‬
• Many are the angels in the heavens18 but there intercession is of no avail except after Allah
grants permission to whoever He wishes being pleased [to grant him intercession—al-
Nasafi]. (53:26)

Imam al-Nasafi says that the above verse indicates that the matter of intercession was
constrained for although the angels are numerous and dear to Allah even if all of them sought to
intercede for a person their intercession would be of no avail unless they interceded after they
were granted permission to intercede for one whom Allah wishes and is pleased with him [on
account of his belief and practice] and considers worthy to be interceded for. That being the
case al-Nasafi asks how ever then would it be possible for idols to intercede for those that
worship them.
The above verses establish that intercession for certain persons under certain conditions is a
fact. Even Ibn Taimiyyah accepted the reality of intercession, for he says in his book al-Qaa‘idah
al-Jaleelah fi al-Tawassul wa al-Waseelah:

‫ وكذلك شفاعته للمؤمني يوم القيامة ف زيادة الثواب ورفع الدرجات متفق‬، ‫وأما شفاعة والدعاؤه للمؤمني فهي نافعة ف الدنيا والدين باتقاق السلمي‬
‫ وأما شفاعته لهل الذنوب من أمته فمتفق عليها بي الصحابة والتابعي بإحسان وسائر أئمة‬. ‫ وقد قيل أن بعض أهل البدعة ينكرها‬، ‫عليها بي السلمي‬
‫ وقال هؤلء من يدخل النار ل يرج منها ل بشفاعة ول غيها وعند‬. ‫ وأنكرها كثي من أهل البدع من الوارج والعتزلة والزيدية‬، ‫والربعة وغيهم‬
‫ وأما الصحابة‬. ‫ ول يمع عندهم ف الشخص الواحد ثواب وعقاب‬، ‫ ومن يدخل النار فل يدخل النة‬، ‫هؤلء ما ثّ إل من يدخل النة فل يدخل النار‬
‫والتابعي لم بإحسان وسائر الئمة كالربة وغيهم فيقرّون با تواترت به الحاديث الصحيحة عن النب صلى ال عليه وسلم أن ال يرج من النار قوما‬
19
. ‫ ويرج قوما بل شفاعة‬، ‫ ويرج آخرين بشفاعة غيه‬، ‫ ويرجهم بشفاعة ممد صلى ال عليه وسلم‬، ‫بعد أن يعذبم ال ما شاء أن يعذبم‬
As for his intercession [that is, the Prophet’s intercession] and his prayer for the believers, it
is beneficial for religious and worldly matters by the agreement of the Muslims. Likewise his
intercession for the believers on the Day of Resurrection in getting them additional reward
and higher ranks is a matter of agreement among the Muslims although some have said that
some of the heretics deny it. As for his intercession for the sinful among his people that also
is a matter of agreement among the Companions and the Followers and the rest of the
imams and the Four Imams and others. However, many of the heretics denied that like the
Khawaarij and the Mu‘tazilah and the Zaidiyyah for they said that whoever enters the Fire
will not come out from it neither by intercession nor by any other means. In their opinion
there is only this: those who enter Paradise will never enter Hell and those who enter Hell
will never enter Paradise. Thus as far as they are concerned one single person will not get
both reward and punishment. However, the Companions and the Followers and the rest of
the imams and the Four Imams and others admit what is confirmed by an exceeding number
of authentic hadith of the Prophet to the effect that Allah will take people out of the Fire
after He punishes them for the time that He wishes and He will take some of them out due to
the intercession of Muhammad while others will come out due to the intercession of others
and still others without any intercession.
18
Understand that we use the word “heavens” to stand for “skies” rather than the paradises of the
hereafter and the reason we chose the word “heavens” instead of “skies” is that “heavens” is the usual
word chosen for translation seeing that it is the more poetical of the two.
. 1418/1998 ، ‫ بيوت‬، ‫ دار الكتب العلمية‬، 10-9 ‫ ص‬، ‫ قاعدة جليلة ف التوسل والوسيلة لبن تيمية‬19
 14

)َ‫س َشيْئا وَل ُي ْقَبلُ ِمْنهَا شَفَاعَ ٌة وَل ُيؤْ َخذُ ِمْنهَا َع ْدلٌ وَل هُ ْم ُينْصَرُون‬ٍ ‫واحتج هؤلء النكرين للشفاعة بقوله تعال (وَاتّقُوا َيوْما ل َتجْزِي َن ْفسٌ َعنْ نَ ْف‬
‫) وبقوله (يَا‬123:‫س شَيْئا وَل يُ ْقَبلُ ِمْنهَا َع ْدلٌ وَل َتنْفَ ُعهَا شَفَا َعةٌ وَل هُ ْم ُينْصَرُونَ) (البقرة‬ ٍ ‫س َعنْ نَ ْف‬
ٌ ‫ وبقوله (وَاتّقُوا َيوْما ل َتجْزِي نَ ْف‬، )48:‫(البقرة‬
َ‫) وبقوله ( مَا لِلظّاِلمِي‬254:‫َأّيهَا اّلذِينَ آ َمنُوا َأنْفِقُوا ِممّا رَ َز ْقنَا ُكمْ ِمنْ َقْبلِ أَ ْن َي ْأتِيَ َي ْومٌ ل َبيْعٌ فِيهِ وَل ُخّلةٌ وَل شَفَاعَةٌ وَالْكَافِرُو َن هُمُ الظّاِلمُونَ) (البقرة‬
20
. )48:‫) وبقوله (َفمَا َتْنفَ ُع ُهمْ شَفَاعَةُ الشّافِعِيَ) (الدثر‬18 ‫ من الية‬:‫ِم ْن َحمِيمٍ وَل شَفِي ٍع ُيطَاعُ)(غافر‬
Those who denied intercession adduced as proof of what they averred His word: ‫وَاتّقُوا َيوْما ل‬
َ‫س شَيْئا وَل ُي ْقَبلُ ِمْنهَا شَفَاعَةٌ وَل ُيؤْخَذُ ِمْنهَا َعدْ ٌل وَل هُمْ ُيْنصَرُون‬ ٍ ‫س َعنْ نَ ْف‬
ٌ ‫ َتجْزِي نَ ْف‬/ “Fear a day that no soul will benefit
any other soul at all21 and no ransom will be accepted from it and no intercession will benefit
it and they will not be helped, (2:123)” and His word ٌ‫ي َيوْ ٌم ل َبْيع‬
َ ِ‫يَا َأّيهَا اّلذِينَ آ َمنُوا َأنْ ِفقُوا ِممّا رَزَ ْقنَا ُكمْ ِمنْ َقْبلِ أَنْ َي ْأت‬
َ‫ فِيهِ وَل ُخلّةٌ وَل شَفَا َعةٌ وَالْكَافِرُو َن ُهمُ الظّاِلمُون‬/ “O you who believe spend of what We have given you before
a day comes to you in which there will be no trade and no friendship and no intercession22
and the unbelievers they are the wicked, (2:254)” and His word ُ‫حمِيمٍ وَل شَفِيعٍ ُيطَاع‬
َ ْ‫ مَا لِلظّاِلمِيَ ِمن‬/
“The wicked will have no friend and no intercessor who will be obeyed [heard], (40:18)” and
His word َ‫ َفمَا َتنْفَ ُع ُهمْ شَفَاعَةُ الشّافِعِي‬/ “for that day no intercession will avail those who intercede.
(74:48)”

َ‫صلّي‬
َ ُ‫ كما قال تعال ف نعتهم (مَا سَلَكَ ُكمْ فِي سَقَرَ قَالُوا َلمْ نَكُ ِمنَ اْلم‬، ‫ أحدها أنا ل تنفع الشركي‬: ‫وجواب أهل السنة أن هذا لعله يراد به شيئان‬
. ‫ فهؤلء نفي عنهم نفع شفاعة الشافعي لنم كانوا كفارا‬. )48-42:‫َوكُنّا نُ َكذّبُ ِبَيوْ ِم الدّينِ حت َأتَانَا اْلَيقِيُ َفمَا َتنْ َف ُع ُهمْ شَفَا َعةُ الشّاِفعِيَ) (الدثر‬
‫ ومن شابهم من أهل البدع من أهل الكتاب والسلمي الذين يظنون أن للخلق عند ال من القدر‬، ‫والثان أنه يراد نفي الشفاعة الت أثبتها أهل الشرك‬
‫ كما يشفع الناس بعضهم عند بعض فيقبل الشفوع إليه شفاعة شافع لاجته إليه رغبة ورهبة وكما يعامل الخلوق الخلوق‬، ‫أن يشفعوا عنده بغي إذنه‬
23
. ‫بالعاوضة‬
The answer of orthodox Muslims to that is that these verses refer to one of two things: The
first [possibility is that [the meaning] is that intercession will not benefit the unbelievers as is
evidenced by Allah’s describing them thus:

‫ي َوكُنّا نُ َكذّبُ ِبَيوْ ِم الدّينِ حت َأتَانَا اْليَقِيُ َفمَا‬

َ ِ‫ك ُنطْ ِعمُ اْلمِسْكِيَ َو ُكنّا َنخُوضُ َمعَ اْلخَائِض‬
ُ َ‫صلّيَ وََلمْ ن‬
َ ُ‫مَا َسلَكَ ُكمْ فِي سَقَرَ قَالُوا َل ْم نَكُ ِمنَ اْلم‬
َ‫َتنْفَ ُع ُهمْ شَفَا َعةُ الشّافِعِي‬
“What has taken you to Hell?” They will say: “We were not among the ones who prayed
and we did not used to feed the indigent and we used plunge into vain talk [about the
verses of Allah] with those who plunged [into it] and we used to deny the Day of
Judgment [and we continued in this] until certainty [death] came to us so now no
intercession of any intercessor will be of benefit to us.”24 (74:42-48)

The second [possibility] is that [the meaning] is that what is meant [in these verses and the
likes of them] is the denial of what the people of shirk affirmed and those like them among
the heretics of the People of the Book and the Muslims who believe that the creatures have
so much importance in the sight of Allah that they can intercede without His permission as is
the case with the creatures who intercede with one another and the one requested grants
the request of the intercessor for the sake of some need that he has either of desire [to
someone be obliged to him for the favor he granted] or fear [of reprisal] and in the way the
creatures deal with other creatures expecting recompense.

. 10 ‫ ص‬، ‫ قاعدة جليلة‬20

21
Imam al-Nasafi explained this verse thus: "And fear a day that no [believing] soul will benefit no
[unbelieving] soul at all…”
22
The meaning here is that friendship and intercession will be of no benefit to the unbelievers and that is
why the unbelievers are mentioned right after this.
. 10 ‫ ص‬، ‫ قاعدة جليلة‬23
24
Imam al-Nasafi mentioned: that the intercessors referred to her are “the angels and the prophets and the
righteous because intercession is for the believers not the unbelievers.”
 15

So notice in the above passages that even Ibn Taimiyyah insists on the reality of intercession
and insists that its reality is a matter agreed upon among orthodox Muslims. Furthermore, he
answers those heretics who deny it and adduce verses of the Qur’an in support of their denial
saying that the intercession that is denied is either intercession for unbelievers or such
intercession that is contrary to the will of Allah and without His permission. In fact in reconciling
the verses that permit intercession and those that seem to prohibit it Ibn Taimiyyah was
following the received principle among the ulama that when we interpret the Qur’an we have to
view any particular verse in the context of the whole of the Qur’an in order to give a coherent
cohesive interpretation because Allah speaks only the truth and the truth cannot be
contradictory so unless we can establish abrogation we have to interpret apparently
contradictory verses in a way to reconcile them otherwise we have to affirm contradiction in the
speech of Allah which is of course impossible. Now what Ibn Taimiyyah has said here, and it is
quite representative of what he says throughout his book on tawassul and in his al-Fataawaa, is
quite acceptable and quite true; here the rest of the ulama of this blessed ummah, that is to say
the representatives of the main and orthodox community referred to as Ahl al-Sunnah, that is to
say the ulama of the four sunni madhhabs apart from the followers of Ibn Taimiyyah, have no
quarrel with him.
Notice that Ibn Taimiyyah did not insist that intercession was the exclusive privilege of the
Prophet . Some hadith indicate that the ulama and others will have a share in intercession.
Here follow two hadith mentioned by al-Mundhiri (d. 656 / 1258; Egypt) in his al-Targheeb wa al-
Tarheeb which indicate that the ulama will be requested to intercede:

‫وروي عن أب أمامة قال قال رسول ال صلى ال عليه وسلم ياء بالعال والعابد فيقال للعابد ادخل النة ويقال للعال قف حت تشفع للناس ؛ رواه‬
. ‫الصبهان وغيه‬
Abu Umaamah said that the Messenger of Allah said:

A learned man and a worshipper will be brought [on the Day of Judgment] and the
worshipper man will be told “Enter Jannah” while the learned man will be told “Stay until
you intercede for the people.”

Al-Asbahaani25 and others reported it.

‫وروي عن جابر بن عبد ال رضي ال عنهما قال قال رسول ال صلى ال عليه وسلم يبعث العال والعابد فيقال للعابد ادخل النة ويقال للعال اثبت‬
. ‫حت تشفع با أحسنت أدبم ؛ رواه البيهقي وغيه‬
Jaabir said that the Messenger of Allah said: “The learned man and the worshipper will
be resurrected and then the worshipper will be told “Enter Jannah” while the learned man
will be told stay until you intercede for those who you educated/disciplined well [alternately:
gave them good culture].”
It was reported by al-Baihaqi.

Now Ibn Taimiyyah also affirmed the intercession of living persons through their prayers, for
example he believed that one person may ask another to pray for him while they are both in this
world. [NB: Texts required to show this.] This is a matter that is agreed upon by all Muslims and
is warranted by the Book the sunnah and consensus. Allah says in his inimitable book in Surah
Yusaf in the course of recounting how the brothers of Yusaf confessed their crime to their
father and asked him to pray for their forgiveness:

ُ‫س َت ْغفِرُ َلكُمْ َربّي ِإنّهُ ُهوَ ا ْل َغفُورُ الرّحِيم‬

ْ َ‫سوْفَ أ‬
َ َ‫طئِينَ قَال‬
ِ ‫س َتغْفِرْ َلنَا ُذنُوبَنَا ِإنّا ُكنّا خَا‬
ْ ‫قَالُوا يَا َأبَانَا ا‬
They said: “O our father seek forgiveness for our sins; truly we were sinful.” He said: “Soon
will I ask Allah to forgive you; truly He is the oft-forgiving, the merciful.” (12:97:98)

25
His name is Muhammad ibn ‘Umar ibn Ahmad al-Madeeni (d. 581 / 1185; Isfahan) who was a famous
muhaddith; he has a collection of hadith known also as al-Targheeb wa al-Tarheeb.
 16

In proof of this type of intercession from the sunnah we can adduce the hadith in which the
Prophet asked Umar to pray for him. Ahmad and Abu Dawood and al-Tirmidhi (who stated
that it was authentic) and Ibn Maajah and al-Diyaa’ al-Maqdasi in his al-Ahaadeeth al-
Mukhtaarah and al-Baihaqi in his al-Sunan al-Kubra and others reported that Umar said (the
wording of what follows is Abu Dawood’s):

‫حدثنا سليمان بن حرب ثنا شعبة عن عاصم بن عبيد ال عن سال بن عبد ال عن أبيه عن عمر رضي ال عنه قال ث استأذنت النب صلى ال عليه‬
‫وسلم ف العمرة فأذن ل وقال ل تنسنا يا أخي من دعائك فقال كلمة ما يسرن أن ل با الدنيا قال شعبة ث لقيت عاصما بعد بالدينة فحدثنيه وقال‬
. ‫أشركنا يا أخي ف دعائك‬
“I asked the Prophet permission to perform umrah, so he granted me permission and said:
“Don’t forget me in your supplications, O my brother.” He spoke a word which I would not be
willing to trade for the world.

Ahmad and Muslim and al-Tirmidhi and Abu Dawood and Ibn Maajah and Ibn Hibbaan and others
reported that Umm al-Dardaa’ said that Abu al-Dardaa’ said that the Messenger of Allah said:

. ‫ ما من عبد مسلم يدعو لخيه بظهر الغيب إل قال اللك ولك بثل‬: ‫عن أم الدرداء عن أب الدرداء قال قال رسول ال صلى ال عليه وسلم‬
No Muslim prays for his brother in his absence except that the angels say: “And for you the
same.”

Muslim reported a slight variation of the above-cited hadith with a story about a visitor to the
house of Abu al-Dardaa’, namely Safwaan ibn Abd Allah ibn Safwaan who said:

‫عن صفوان وهو بن عبد ال بن صفوان وكانت تته الدرداء قال قدمت الشام فأتيت أبا الدرداء ف منله فلم أجده ووجدت أم الدرداء فقالت أتريد‬
‫ دعوة الرء السلم لخيه بظهر الغيب مستجابة عند رأسه ملك‬: ‫الج العام فقلت نعم قالت فادع ال لنا بي فإن النب صلى ال عليه وسلم كان يقول‬
‫موكل كلما دعا لخيه بي قال اللك الوكل به آمي ولك بثل قال فخرجت إل السوق فلقيت أبا الدرداء فقال ل مثل ذلك يرويه عن النب صلى ال‬
. ‫عليه وسلم‬
I came to Shaam [Damascus] and went to the house of Abu al-Dardaa’ but did not find him
at home but Umm al-Dardaa’ [his wife] was there. She asked me: “Are you going for hajj this
year?” I replied: “Yes.” She said: “Pray to Allah for good for us, for the Prophet used to
say: ‘The prayer of a Muslim brother for his brother in his absence is answered for at his
head there is an angel who has been given the charge that every time he prays for his
brother the angel put in charge should say, “Amen, and may you have the same.” I left and
went to the bazaar where I found Abu al-Dardaa’ and he told me a similar thing from the
Prophet .

Al-Bukhari in his al-Adab al-Mufrad and al-Tirmidhi and Abu Dawood reported that Abd Allah ibn
‘Umar said that the Prophet said (and the following wording is al-Tirmidhi’s):

‫ حدثنا عبد بن حيد حدثنا قبيصة عن سفيان عن عبد الرحن بن زياد بن أنعم عن عبد ال بن يزيد عن عبد ال بن عمرو عن النب صلى ال‬1980
‫ ما دعوة أسرع إجابة من دعوة غائب لغائب قال أبو عيسى هذا حديث غريب ل نعرفه إل من هذا الوجه والفريقي يضعف ف‬: ‫عليه وسلم قال‬
‫الديث وهو عبد ال بن زياد بن أنعم وعبد ال بن يزيد هو أبو عبد الرحن البلي‬
No prayer is quicker at getting answered than the prayer of an absent person for one
absent.26

26
Al-Tirmidhi mentioned that one of the narrators, Abd al-Rahman ibn Ziyaad ibn An‘am, has been held to
be weak by some and Ibn Hajr stated that he was weak in his al-Taqreeb and he noted that Abd Allah ibn
Yazeed is Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Hubuli who Ibn Hajr mentioned was utterly reliable. In spite of the
weakness in its sanad the hadith is strengthened by the corroboration of hadith like the previous one
reported by Muslim and others.
 17

Since the prayers of the angels are invariably answered it is highly likely that both the one for
whom one prays and the one who prays for him will get what is asked for and this seems to be
the reason that the Prophet said that no prayer is so quickly answered as the prayer of a
Muslim brother for his brother in his absence. This is one reason for preferring to ask others to
pray for us rather than contenting ourselves by praying to Allah directly, which, however, we
might do in any case. Another reason for seeking the prayer of another when the other is more
pious and righteous than ourselves is that his prayer is more likely to be answered than ours,
and no doubt that is the reason that the brothers of Yusaf insisted on asking their father
Ya‘qoob   to pray for their forgiveness rather than contenting to ask Allah directly and that is
the reason that the peoples ask the prophets and the prophets ask them to go to prophets
whom they think are more righteous than themselves and so more likely to have their prayers
answered than themselves. Did you not see that Adam excused himself from the request to
intercede for the people on the Resurrection Plain on account of what he considered to be his sin
and rather sent the people to Nuh who excused himself on account of what he considered his
sin and so sent them to Abraham who excused himself on account of what he considered his
sin and sent them to Musa who excused himself on account of what he considered his sin and
sent them to Isa who excused himself in that the people had worshipped him instead of Allah
and asked them to go to Muhammad who accepted to intercede for all the people?
Otherwise, why didn’t they pray directly to Allah?
Muslim reported that two following hadith:

‫ أن أهل الكوفة وفدوا إل عمر وفيهم رجل من كان يسخر بأويس فقال عمر هل ههنا أحد من القرنيي فجاء ذلك الرجل فقال‬: ‫عن أسي بن جابر‬
‫عمر إن رسول ال صلى ال عليه وسلم قد قال إن رجل يأتيكم من اليمن يقال له أويس ل يدع باليمن غي أم له قد كان به بياض فدعا ال فأذهبه عنه‬
‫إل موضع الدينار أو الدرهم فمن لقيه منكم فليستغفر لكم‬
Usair ibn Jaabir [who saw the Prophet ] said that the people of Kufah came to see Umar and
among them there was a man who used to ridicule Uwais, so Umar asked if there was
anyone there [in Medinah] from the tribe of Qarn [the tribe of Uwais al-Qarni] so that man
came [the one who ridiculed Uwais] and Umar said: “The Messenger of Allah said that a man
will come to you from Yemen who is named Uwais; he leaves nothing behind in Yemen except
his mother. He used to have white leprosy but he prayed to Allah who took that all away
from him but a spot the size of a dinar or a dirhem. Whichever of you meets him let him ask
him to pray for his forgiveness.”27

‫ إن خي التابعي رجل يقال له أويس وله والدة وكان به بياض فمروه‬: ‫عن عمر بن الطاب قال إن سعت رسول ال صلى ال عليه وسلم يقول‬
. ‫فليستغفر لكم‬
Umar ibn al-Khattaab said: I heard the Messenger of Allah say: “Truly, the best of the
Followers is a man named Uwais. He has his mother and he has a white spot [on his body].
Ask him to seek forgiveness for you.”28

‫ كان عمر بن الطاب إذا أتى عليه أمداد أهل اليمن سألم أفيكم أويس بن عامر حت أتى على أويس فقال أنت أويس بن عامر‬: ‫عن أسي بن جابر قال‬
‫قال نعم قال من مراد ث من قرن قال نعم قال فكان بك برص فبأت منه إل موضع درهم قال نعم قال لك والدة قال نعم قال سعت رسول ال صلى‬
‫ال عليه وسلم يقول يأت عليكم أويس بن عامر مع أمداد أهل اليمن من مراد ث من قرن كان به برص فبأ منه إل موضع درهم له والدة هو با بر لو‬
‫أقسم على ال لبره فإن استطعت أن يستغفر لك فافعل فاستغفر ل فاستغفر له فقال له عمر أين تريد قال الكوفة قال أل أكتب لك إل عاملها قال‬
‫أكون ف غباء الناس أحب إل قال فلما كان من العام القبل حج رجل من أشرافهم فوافق عمر فسأله عن أويس قال تركته رث البيت قليل التاع قال‬
‫سعت رسول ال صلى ال عليه وسلم يقول يأت عليكم أويس بن عامر مع أمداد أهل اليمن من مراد ث من قرن كان به برص فبأ منه إل موضع درهم‬

. 6490 ‫ أو‬2542 ‫ حيديث رقم‬، ‫ باب من فضائل أويس‬، ‫ صحيح مسلم كتاب فضائل الصحابة‬27
. ‫ الصدر السابق إل أنه الديث الذي بعد الديث السابق‬28
 18

‫له والدة هو با بر لو أقسم على ال لبره فإن استطعت أن يستغفر لك فافعل فأتى أويسا فقال استغفر ل قال أنت أحدث عهدا بسفر صال فاستغفر ل‬
‫قال استغفر ل قال أنت أحدث عهدا بسفر صال فاستغفر ل قال لقيت عمر قال نعم فاستغفر له ففطن له الناس فانطلق على وجهه قال أسي وكسوته‬
. ‫بردة فكان كلما رآه إنسان قال من أين لويس هذه البدة‬
Usair ibn Jaabir [one of the senior Companions of Umar] said: When reinforcements came
from the people of Yeman Umar ibn al-Khattaab used to ask them: “Is there among you
Uwais ibn ‘Aamir” until [finally one day in one of the companies that came from Yemen] he
found Uwais. He said to him: “Are you Uwais ibn ‘Aamir?” He replied: “Yes.” He said: “You
are from [the tribe of] Muraad then [the branch of] Qarn?” He said: “Yes.” He said: “You
used to have white leprosy then you recovered from it except a spot the size of a dirhem.”
He said: “Yes.” He said: “You have a mother [whose is still alive]?” He said: “Yes.” He said:
“I heard the Messenger of Allah say:

There will come to from Yemen Uwais ibn ‘Aamir with reinforcements from the people of
Yemen from [the tribe of Muraad] from [the branch of] Qarn. He used to have white
leprosy but he became cured of it except a spot the size of a dirhem. He has a mother
[who is still living] and he is devoted towards her. If he swore by Allah [that something
would be] Allah would fulfill his oath. If you can manage that he seeks forgiveness for
you, do so.

So ask forgiveness for me.” So he asked forgiveness for him. Umar said to him: “Where are
you going?” He said: “Shall I not right to its governor for you [that he look after you]?” He
replied: “I prefer to be among the ordinary people.” 29

Imam al-Nawawi in commenting on the above hadith in his commentary on Saheeh Muslim said
that they show that it is good to seek from pious people that they pray for you and ask for your
forgiveness even if the one who seeks that is better than the one whose prayer is sought. Al-
Nawawi said this because there is no doubt that Umar was better than Uwais for the
Companions by virtue or having seen with their own eyes the living miracle of the blessed
Prophet were far better than the Followers and furthermore there is agreement within the
orthodox community that after Abu Bakr, Umar was the best of the Companions.
Al-Haakim reported:

‫ حدثنا أبو العباس أحد بن زياد الفقيه بالدامغان ثنا ممد بن أيوب أنا أحد بن عبد ال بن يونس ثنا أبو بكر بن عياش عن هشام عن السن‬5721
‫ يدخل النة بشفاعة رجل من أمت أكثر من ربيعة ومضر قال هشام فأخبن حوشب عن السن أنه أويس‬: ‫قال قال رسول ال صلى ال عليه وسلم‬
. ‫القرن قال أبو بكر بن عياش فقلت لرجل من قومه أويس بأي شيء بلغ هذا قال فضل ال يؤتيه من يشاء‬
Al-Hasan [al-Basri] reported: The Messenger of Allah said: “A greater number of people from
my ummah than the number of people in the tribes of Rabee‘ah and Mudar [two Arab tribes
having great numbers of people] will enter Paradise through the intercession of a single
man.” Al-Hishaam said that Haushab reported from al-Hasan that that man was Uwais al-
Qarni. Abu Bakr ibn ‘Ayyaash [one of the narrators that figures in this hadith’s chain of
narration] said: “I asked somebody of his tribe: “How did Uwais attain such a stature?” He
replied: “That is the grace of Allah; He gives it to whomever He wishes.” 30

The above hadith is in mursal form because al-Hasan did not meet the Prophet while al-
Dhahabi in his al-Talkhees, his gloss on al-Mustadrak in which he made comments on the status
of the hadith, had no comment on it.

‫ حدثنا أبو زكريا يي بن ممد العنبي ثنا ممد بن عبد السلم ثنا إسحاق بن إبراهيم ثنا عبد الوهاب الثقفي ثنا خالد الذاء عن عبد ال بن‬5729
‫ يدخل النة بشفاعة رجل من أمت أكثر من بن تيم قال الثقفي قال‬: ‫شقيق عن عبد ال بن أب الدعاء أنه سع رسول ال صلى ال عليه وسلم يقول‬
. ‫هشام سعت السن يقول إنه أويس القرن صحيح السناد ول يرجاه‬

. ‫ الصدر السابق إل أنه الديث الذي بعد الديث السابق‬29

. 5721 ‫ حديث رقم‬، ‫ كتاب معرفة الصحابة‬، ‫ الستدرك للحاكم‬30
 19

Abd Allah ibn Abi al-Jadaa ‘ah said he heard the Messenger of Allah say: “A number of
people greater than the number of the tribe of Tameem will enter Paradise through the
intercession of a man of my ummah. Al-Thaqafi [one of the narrators of the report] said:
Hishaam said: I heard al-Hasan [al-Basri] say: “He is Uwais al-Qarni.”31

Al-Haakim said the hadith’s chain of narration is rigorously authentic but neither al-Bukhari or
Muslim reported it and al-Dhahabi said in his al-Talkhees that the hadith was rigorously authentic
( saheeh ).
Another form of intercession that is authorized by the shariah is the intercession of the living
for the dead. Allah mentions:

ٌ‫ف رَحِيم‬
ٌ ‫وَاّلذِينَ جَاءُوا ِم ْن بَ ْع ِدهِ ْم يَقُولُونَ َرّبنَا ا ْغفِ ْر َلنَا وَلِإِ ْخوَاِننَا اّلذِينَ َسبَقُونَا بِاْلأِيَا ِن وَل َتجْ َعلْ فِي ُقلُوِبنَا غِلّا ِلّلذِينَ آ َمنُوا َرّبنَا ِإنّكَ َرؤُو‬
Those who came after them [those who made hijrah later on or the Followers or those who
came later till the Day of Judgment—al-Nasafi] say: “Our Lord forgive us and those who
preceded us in belief and do not put into our hearts hatred for those who believe [that is, the
Companions—al-Nasafi]. Our Lord You are the compassionate the merciful.” (59:10)

The verse instructs us to pray for those who preceded us whether it be in general our
predecessors in the previous era and all eras past or the Companions in specific. Al-Nasafi said
that Ayeshah said concerning this verse: “We were ordered to ask for their forgiveness but
instead of that they abused them.”
Muslim reported that A‘ishah said:

‫ عن عائشة أنا قالت كان رسول ال صلى ال عليه وسلم كلما كان ليلتها من رسول ال صلى ال عليه وسلم يرج من آخر الليل إل البقيع‬974
. ‫فيقول السلم عليكم دار قوم مؤمني وأتاكم ما توعدون غدا مؤجلون وإنا إن شاء ال بكم لحقون اللهم اغفر لهل بقيع الغرقد‬

Whenever it was the night of A‘ishah to have the Messenger of Allah [at her place] he used
to go out at the end of the night to [the nearby cemetery called] al-Baqee‘ and he would say:
“Peace be upon you O believing people. What you were promised will come to you
tomorrow. You have gone before us and we if Allah wills32 are about to join you. O Allah
forgive the people of al-Gharqad.”33

So far we have seen that intercession of believers for believers on the Day of Judgment and
as well the intercession through prayer of believers for believers while both of them are in this
world or if the intercessor at least is in this world is permissible. This is a matter that orthodox
Muslims and Ibn Taimiyyah are agreed upon.

Seeking the intercession of the dead

In fact as we already intimated above the only area of difference of opinion with Ibn Taimiyyah in
the matter of intercession concerns the question of the living asking the dead to intercede for
them. Ibn Taimiyyah vacillated between saying that that is nothing obligatory or desirable on
the one hand and insinuating that it was shirk on the other. Ibn Taimiyyah’s position has no
basis in the Qur’an and the sunnah; furthermore it contradicts the position of the rest of the
ulama and stands opposed to reason. It stands opposed to reason because once it is
established that asking others to pray to Allah for one does not involve any shirk and is
authorized by the shariah then it follows that it can never be shirk since shirk is shirk no matter
what the circumstance. Don’t you see that shirk involves attributing to others than Allah what
belongs exclusively to Allah? In the issue of intercession we have already shown that the one
who seeks intercession does not believe that the one whose intercession is sought has power

. 5729 ‫ حديث رقم‬، ‫ الستدرك‬31

32
Imam al-Nawawi discussed here why the Prophet said, “if Allah wills,” when the matter is one in which
there is no doubt. He said it was to seek the blessing of those words whereas he said some the ulama had
said that the condition applies to joining them in that particular cemetery and he said that other opinions
had also been given but he did not mention them.
. 974 ، 35 ‫ باب‬، ‫ كتاب النائز‬، ‫ صحيح مسلم‬33
 20

independent from Allah, so if the same holds true in the case of one who asks the dead to pray
for him how could it possibly become shirk? If it is not shirk to ask the living to intercede how
could it possibly become shirk to ask the dead? Don’t you see that if seeking the prayers of the
dead is to ascribe to them power that is Allah’s alone then seeking the prayers of the living must
also involve ascribing to the living power that is Allah’s alone. No doubt if one could show that
that was prohibited by the shariah we would have to refrain from doing that just as we have to
refrain from asking Allah to forgive the dead, not because that involves any shirk but because
Allah prohibited it. However, the rest of the ulama including Ibn Taimiyyah’s imam, that is Imam
Ahmad according to Ibn Taimiyyah’s own admission as we will document, allow seeking the
intercession of the dead and we will presently show contrary to what Ibn Taimiyyah and the
pseudo-Salafis claim, the Companions and the early Muslims ( al-salaf ) were accustomed to ask
the dead to pray for them.
Ibn Taimiyyah wrote in his al-Qaa‘idah al-Jaleelah fee al-Tawassul wa al-Waseelah:

‫فهذه أنواع من خطاب اللئكة والنبياء والصالي بعد موتم وعند قبورهم وف مغيبتهم وخطاب تاثيلهم هو أعظم أنواع الشرك الوجود ف الشركي‬
‫ قال تعال أَ ْم َلهُ ْم شُرَكَا ُء شَ َرعُوا‬. ‫ وف البتدعة أهل الكتاب والسلمي الذين أحدثوا من الشرك والعبادات ما ل يأذن به ال تعال‬، ‫من غي أهل الكتاب‬
‫) فإن دعاء اللئكة والنبياء بعد موتم وف مغيبتهم وسؤالم والستغاثة بم والستشفاع بم ف هذه‬21:‫َل ُهمْ ِم َن الدّينِ مَا َل ْم َيأْذَنْ ِبهِ اللّهُ (الشورى‬
‫ و[نصب] تاثيلهم بعن طلب الشفاعة منهم – هو من الدين الذي ل يشرعه ال ول ابتعث به رسول ول أنزل به كتابا وليس هو واجبا ول‬- ‫الال‬
34
. ‫مستحبا باتفاق السلمي ول فعله أحد من الصحابة والتابعي لم بإحسان ول أمر به إمام من أئمة السلمي‬
Now these forms of addressing the angels and addressing the prophets and the pious after
their deaths and at their graves and addressing their images/statues are among the greatest
forms of shirk present among the mushrikoon apart from the People of the Book, and among
the heretics of the People of the Book and the Muslims who innovated forms of shirk and
worship which Allah—exalted is He—did not authorize. Allah—exalted is He—says ُ‫َأمْ َل ُهمْ شُ َركَاء‬
ُ‫ شَ َرعُوا َلهُمْ ِم َن الدّينِ مَا َلمْ َيأْذَ ْن ِبهِ اللّه‬/ “Do they have associates [alongside Allah] that they made part of
their religion which have no authorization from Allah? (42:21)” In fact supplicating the
angels and supplicating the prophets after their death and in their absence and asking them
and seeking deliverance from them [ al-istighaathah ] and seeking their intercession [ al-
istishfaa‘ ] in this state [that is after their death]-and erecting images/statues of them means
to seek their intercession-is religion not authorized by Allah nor did He send any prophet nor
did He reveal any book to institutionalize the practice. Furthermore, the practice is not
obligatory nor is it desirable [ mustahabb ] by the agreement of the Muslims and moreover
none of the Companions nor the Followers held that nor did any imam enjoin that nor any of
the Four Imams.

The above passage is one fabric of deceitful insinuation and misrepresentation and specious
reasoning and the same harangue recurs throughout his book on tawassul and in his al-
Fataawaa. Notice first of all that Ibn Taimiyyah insinuates that the practice of the mushrikoon
and the Christians and those who set up images/statues who literally and actually worshipped
the dead is the same as the practice of the Muslims who ask the dead to pray for them without
in any way worshipping them for the mushrikoon and the Christians were idolaters believing that
the creatures they worshipped or the representations of those creatures had power to help them
independent of Allah while the Muslims insisted that nothing has power but Allah and they
merely sought from the dead to ask on their behalf the one who alone has power. To compare
the one to the other is a most devious move. The whole polemic of Ibn Taimiyyah and the
Salafis boils down to this: the Muslims who seek intercession are praying to the dead and
therefore worshipping them. They willfully refuse to see that there is no prayer and no worship
rather a request for another to pray to the One whom they all worship.
Then notice that Ibn Taimiyyah vacillates for on the one hand he has declared that seeking
the prayers of the dead is outright shirk yet he tries to temper the inordinateness of his claim by
backing off that line and insisting that at least it is not authorized by Allah or not obligatory or
desirable according to the Companions and the imams. Understand that it is quite one thing
that a thing not be authorized and quite another that it be shirk. Don’t you see that praying to
Allah to forgive those who died in unbelief is unauthorized and prohibited but yet it is not shirk

. 1418/1998 ، ‫ بيوت‬، ‫ دار الكتب العلمية‬، 16 ‫ ص‬، ‫ القاعدة الليلة ف التوسل والوسيلة لبن تيمية‬34
 21

through any stretch of the imagination? In fact, by falling back to the position that it is not
authorized obligatory or desirable Ibn Taimiyyah is softening his line and simply trying to get his
foot in the door because he knows very well that nobody will buy his hard line for he and
everybody else knows that the Companions and the imams including Imam Ahmad and the
Hanbali imams like Ibn Qudaamah about whom Ibn Taimiyyah says “nobody entered Sham
[Greater Syria] after al-Auzaa’i more learned than him”35 permitted the living to ask the dead to
pray to Allah for them as we will demonstrate next.
We are insisting that asking the dead to pray for one can have nothing to do with shirk,
although the question still has to be answered is it permissible and is it useful for can the dead
actually hear. Suppose for the sake of argument we establish that the dead have no awareness
of the living and cannot hear the entreaties of the living to pray for them, then the mistake is
one of believing that they might be an outward cause not a mistake of believing that they share
with Allah divine power. We will get around to showing that the shariah does actually permit it
and the dead do actually here under some circumstances as even Ibn Taimiyyah and Ibn al-
Qayyim and Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab and the rest of the Salafis’ big seven readily admit.

‘Allaamah Yusaf al-Dijwi discusses the question of asking the dead to pray for us
and he answers the objections that are frequently raised
Although the matter should now be clear, I suspect that some readers who have been heavily
brain-washed may still harbor some doubts that that while asking the living for help is not shirk
asking the dead for help is. The question was dealt with the consummate manner of a trained
dialectician by Yusaf ibn Ahmad al-Dijwi (d. 1365 / 1946; Egypt), a teacher at al-Azhar University,
a Maliki faqih, and a renown muhaddith, in an article he contributed to al-Azhar’s monthly
magazine, Majallah al-Azhar:

If they [the Salafis] prohibit seeking the favor of Allah by mentioning the things He loves [ al-
tawassul ] and seeking the help [ al-istighaathah ] [of His creatures] and hold it to be shirk
simply because it is tawassul and istighaathah, then the complaint of one who has been
wronged that he addresses to one who might grant him justice will be shirk, and a person’s
seeking the help of someone else in the fulfillment of his personal affairs will be shirk, and a
king’s seeking the help of his army in wars will be shirk, and the army’s seeking help from
the king to obtain what it requires; in fact we can say that according to their supposition
[that seeking the help of creatures is shirk ] that a students seeking the help of tradesmen
and artisans which people cannot do without, and even a patient’s seeking the help of a
doctor is shirk. In fact according to their principle the Israelite who sought the help of Musa
as Allah—exalted is He—recounts [in the Qur’an]: ِ‫ فَاسْتَغَاَثهُ الّذِي ِمنْ شِي َعتِ ِه َعلَى الّذِي ِمنْ عَ ُدوّهِ َف َو َكزَهُ مُوسَى فَ َقضَى َعَليْه‬/
“Then the one who was of his side sought his help against the one who was his enemy and
Musa struck him and killed him, (28:15)” committed shirk. So many other absurdities follow
from this principle that no reasonable person maintains it let alone a distinguished man of
learning. 36

This is all true if they insist that seeking help from others than Allah is prohibited merely
because it is help as we supposed above. However, if they hold that tawassul and
istighaathah is shirk with respect to the dead but not to the living then we will reply that
there is no basis for this position once you have conceded that seeking the help of others
apart from Allah when they are alive is not shirk given what is mentioned in the Qur’an and
given the agreement of all people in all places and times. Furthermore, there is no basis for
the position that seeking an effect from other than Allah is sometimes shirk while at other
times it is not because in any case there is the attribution of the effect to other than Allah
[which outwardly speaking at least is the essence of shirk ]. [NB: The meaning is not clear.]

35
NB : Source needed and cross-referencing too.
. 1350 ‫ ربيع الول سنة‬، ‫ الجلد الثان‬، ‫ العدد الثالث‬، ‫ ملة الزهر‬، ‫ التوسل والستغاثة للدجوي‬36
 22

However, if they say that we do not believe that the efficient cause [what acts directly to
produce an effect] actually exists independently in the living creatures whose help we seek,
we will reply to them that in that case you are bound to associate the prohibition with the
belief that the living creatures are the efficient cause independent of Allah there being no
difference between the case of the living and the dead. So in the case where such a belief
does exist there will be shirk, otherwise not, regardless of whether one seeks from the living
or the dead. On the other hand if the sufficient reason for the prohibition is the apparent
attribution of efficient cause [to others apart from Allah] that is understood from the outward
expression then all of that must be shirk [that is, seeking the help of the living as well as the
dead] so that even a person’s asking his brother to help him pack his horse or to build his
house or to dig a ditch and so on as we explained in the first supposition [in the first
paragraph of this citation].

However, if they say that we attribute those acts and causes to other than Allah—exalted is
He—in the case of living creatures believing that the creation [of the acts] and the
origination [of them] is only due to Allah—exalted is He—and that the living only acquire the
deed [which is the Asharite doctrine of kasb ] nothing more, then we will reply that likewise
that is the case when one seeks the help of the dead or seeks the favor of Allah by
mentioning them [ tawassul ] and the indication that this is so is the same in both cases,
namely the belief [of the speaker] that Allah alone has power in the heavens and the earth
and that all things devolve on Him entirely and that what He willed becomes and what He
did not never will be and that He alone is the creator and that there is no originator but He.

On the other hand, if according to them the secret of the prohibition is that the dead cannot
do what he is asked to do [namely, to pray to Allah for them] then we will say to them that in
the first place that does not mean that to ask them to do that will be shirk rather only
absurdity. In fact seeking the help of the living is closer to shirk than seeking the help of the
dead because in the case of the living it is more likely that one might actually believe that
they have direct power to give and to restrain as it appears to the senses and experience
were it not for the light of belief and clear rational evidence.

Then in the second place we will say to them what is the meaning of your statement that the
dead cannot do anything? According to you, what is its inward meaning and its secret? If it
is because you belief that the dead have become dust, then how astray you are in your
religion and how ignorant you are of what has been transmitted to you from your Prophet ,
indeed from your Lord, regarding the affirmation of the life of the souls and their continuance
after they leave the bodies. [Among what has been transmitted that you have ignored is]
the Prophet’s speaking to the souls of the dead on the day of [the Battle] of Badr when he
said,

‫يا فلن بن فلن ويا فلن بن فلن أيسركم أنكم أطعتم ال ورسوله فانا قد وجدنا ما وعدنا ربنا حقا فهل وجدت ما وعد ربكم حقا قال فقال‬
‫عمر يا رسول ال ما تكلم من أجساد ل أرواح لا فقال رسول ال صلى ال عليه وسلم والذي نفس ممد بيده ما أنتم بأسع لا أقول منهم‬
O so and so son of so and so, are you pleased that you obeyed Allah and His messenger?
For we have found what our Lord promised [that is victory over the unbelievers] to be
true? Have you too found what your Lord promised to be true? ‘Umar said to him, “O
Messenger of Allah, you are addressing bodies that have no souls!” The Messenger of
Allah said, “By Him in whose keeping is the soul of Muhammad, you cannot hear what I
say better than them. 37
37
'Allaamah al-Dijwi quoted the hadith in paraphrase, so I have quoted verbatim from the report given by
al-Bukhari in his Saheeh from Abi Talhah in Kitaab al-Maghaazi, Bab 5, hadith no. 3976 (Riyadh: Dar al-
Salaam, 1419/1999). Al-Bukhari reported the hadith in several places in his Saheeh and so did Muslim.
Here follows one of the versions reported by Muslim from Anas:
 23

Among what [has been transmitted that you have ignored] is his greeting with salaam the
dead in the graveyard and his saying to them “Peace be upon you O people of the dwellings
of the grave.”38 Among that also are the hadith that deal with the punishment of the grave
and its bliss39 and which affirm the soul’s coming and going and so on among the many
proofs that Islam has come with and which the philosophers of old and anew have also
affirmed. Here we will content ourselves with asking one question: Do they [the Salafis]
belief that the martyrs are alive in the keeping of their Lord as the Qur’an has declared or
not? If they don’t believe that there is no need to carry on any discussion with them since
they have denied the Qur’an which declares: َ‫ وَل تَقُولُوا لِ َمنْ يُ ْقَتلُ فِي سَبِيلِ اللّهِ َأ ْموَاتٌ َبلْ أَ ْحيَاءٌ وَلَ ِك ْن ل تَشْ ُعرُون‬/ “Do not
say about those who have been slain in jihad for Allah to be dead; nay they are alive
although you do not perceive that, (2:154)” and also َْ‫عنْدَ َرّبهِم‬ ِ ٌ‫حيَاء‬ْ َ‫سبِيلِ الِّ َأ ْموَاتاً بَلْ أ‬ َ ‫سبَنّ الّذِينَ ُقتِلُوا فِي‬
َ ْ‫ل تَح‬

‫ أن رسول ال صلى ال عليه وسلم ترك قتلى بدر ثلثا ث أتاهم فقام عليهم فناداهم فقال يا أبا جهل بن‬: ‫ حدثنا هداب بن خالد حدثنا حاد بن سلمة عن ثابت البنان عن أنس بن مالك‬2874
‫هشام يا أمية بن خلف يا عتبة بن ربيعة يا شيبة بن ربيعة أليس قد وجدت ما وعد ربكم حقا فإن قد وجدت ما وعدن رب حقا فسمع عمر قول النب صلى ال عليه وسلم فقال يا رسول ال كيف‬
. ‫يسمعوا وأن ييبوا وقد جيفوا قال والذي نفسي بيده ما أنتم بأسع لا أقول منهم ولكنهم ل يقدرون أن ييبوا ث أمر بم فسحبوا فألقوا ف قليب بدر‬
The Messenger of Allah left Badr for three days then he returned to them [the slain of Quraish] and
standing over them he called out to them saying, “O Abu Jahl ibn Hishaam, O Umayyah ibn Khalf, O
‘Utbah ibn Rabee ‘ah, have you not found what your Lord promised you [terrible punishment] to be
true, for I have found what my Lord promised to be true.” Umar heard the statement of the Prophet
so he said to him, “How can they hear and how will they ever reply seeing that they have become
rotting cadavers?” He replied, “By Him in whose keeping is my soul, you are not better able to hear
what I say to them although they cannot reply.” Then he gave orders and they were dragged and
thrown into a pit at Badr.

38
The wording exactly as ‘Allamah al-Dijwi has it is not reported from the Prophet as far as I can ascertain;
however that wording is reported from Ali by al-Tabaraani in his Mu‘jam al-Kabeer and from Salmaan by Ibn
Abi Shaibah in his al-Musannaf. However, Muslim reported something similar in his Saheeh, Kitaab al-
Tahaarah, hadith 584 (Riyadh: Dar al-Salaam, 1419/1998) that Abu Hurairah said:

‫ السلم عليكم دار قوم مؤمني وإنا إن شاء ال بكم لحقون‬: ‫عن أب هريرة أن رسول ال صلى ال عليه وسلم أتى القبة فقال‬
The Messenger of Allah came to the graveyard and said: “Peace be upon you O abode of the
believers. If Allah wills we will be joining you.”

39
There are numerous hadith that show this, and whole books have been written mentioning such hadith,
for example Ibn al-Qayyim’s Kitaab al-Rooh and Ibn al-Rajab’s Ahwaal al-Quboor and al-Suyooti’s Sharh al-
Sudoor and al-Qurtubi’s al-Tadhkirah and Ibn Abi al-Dunya’s Kitaab al-Quboor. I will mention here by way of
example a hadith that al-Tirmidhi reported in his Sunan in Kitaab al-Zuhd, hadith no. 2460 (Riyadh: Dar al-
Salaam, 1420/1999) from Abu Sa‘eed:

‫ دخل رسول ال صلى ال عليه وسلم مصله فرأى ناسا كأنم‬: ‫ حدثنا ممد بن أحد بن مدويه حدثنا القاسم بن الكم العرن حدثنا عبيد ال بن الوليد الوصاف عن عطية عن أب سعيد قال‬2460
‫يكتشرون قال أما إنكم لو أكثرت ذكر هادم اللذات لشغلكم عما أرى الوت فأكثروا من ذكر هادم اللذات الوت فإنه ل يأت على القب يوم إل تكلم فيه فيقول أنا بيت الغربة وأنا بيت الوحدة وأنا بيت‬
‫التراب وأنا بيت الدود فإذا دفن العبد الؤمن قال له القب مرحبا وأهل أما إن كنت لحب من يشي على ظهري إل فإذ وليتك اليوم وصرت إل فسترى صنيعي بك قال فيتسع له مد بصره ويفتح له باب‬
‫إل النة وإذا دفن العبد الفاجر أو الكافر قال له القب ل مرحبا ول أهل أما إن كنت لبغض من يشي على ظهري إل فإذ وليتك اليوم وصرت إل فسترى صنيعي بك قال فيلتئم عليه حت تلتقي عليه‬
‫وتتلف أضلعه قال قال رسول ال صلى ال عليه وسلم بأصابعه فأدخل بعضها ف جوف بعض قال ويقيض ال له سبعي تنينا لو أن واحدا منها نفخ ف الرض ما أنبتت شيئا ما بقيت الدنيا فينهشنه‬
‫ويدشنه حت يفضي به إل الساب قال قال رسول ال صلى ال عليه وسلم إنا القب روضة من رياض النة أو حفرة من حفر النار قال أبو عيسى هذا حديث حسن غريب ل نعرفه إل من هذا‬
. ‫الوجه‬
The Messenger of Allah came out to his place of prayer and saw some people who seemed to be
grinning. He said to them: “Look, if you remembered the destroyer of pleasures it would distract you
from what I see [you doing]. Death [is the destroyer of pleasures]! Remember much the destroyer of
pleasures for not a day comes to the grave but that it speaks and says, ‘I am the house of banishment!
I am the house of loneliness! I am the house of worms!’ When the believing slave is buried the grave
says to him, ‘Welcome! Make yourself at home! Listen, you were the dearest person that walked upon
my back. Today I have been put in charge of you and you have come to me, so you will see what I will
do with you,’ and it spreads out for him as far as he can see and it opens for him a window to Paradise.
However, when a wicked slave or an unbeliever is buried the grave says to him, ‘No welcome to you
and no comfort for you! You were the most hateful to me of those who used to walk on my back so
since I have been put in charge of you today and since you have come to me you will see what I will do
with you,’ and it will compact about him until it crushes him causing his ribs to cross over one another.”
Then the Messenger of Allah made a motion with his fingers putting them inside one another, then he
said, “Allah will put over him seventy huge serpents. Were one of them to breath on earth nothing
 24

َ ‫ يُرْزَقُو‬/ “Do not consider those who have been slain in jihad for Allah to be dead; rather they
‫ن‬
are alive in the keeping of their Lord receiving their provision. (3:169)” However, it they
believe that then we will say to them: Many o f the prophets and many of the Companions
are better than the martyrs without any doubt so if it is established that the martyrs are
alive then for all the more reason it will be established that those who are better than them
are also alive.

In fact the fact that the prophets are alive in their graves is stated expressly in some hadith
[and I will mention some of them next] and indeed the Prophet saw Musa praying on the
Red Sandhill and he advised him many times when fifty daily prayers were being instituted
for every day and night until the prayers were reduced to five.40 Likewise he met Adam and
Ibraahim and other prophets ‫ عليهم السلم‬all of which shows that the souls of the prophets are
alive no doubt about it.

Concerning the proofs of the shariah that the dead are alive and under some
circumstances aware of the living and can hear them
One might be surprised to learn that all the personages that the Salafis look up to like Ibn
Taimiyyah, Ibn Qayyim al-Jauziyyah, Ibn Rajab, Ibn al-Katheer, al-Dhahabi, al-Shaukani, and
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab confirm that the dead do have awareness and that they are
frequently informed about the state of the living. Ibn al-Qayyim wrote a whole book reporting
numerous hadith describing the life of the grave and reporting dreams of great Muslims in which
they saw the dead and asked them about their life in the grave that would amaze the
uninitiated. In the introduction to his book, which he called Kitaab al-Rooh,41 which is
unquestionably his work, he wrote:

‫ ما من مسلم ير‬: ‫السألة الول وهي هل تعرف الموات زيارة الحياء وسلمهم أم ل قال ابن عبد الب ثبت عن النب صلى ال عليه وسلم أنه قال‬
. ‫على قب أخيه كان يعرفه ف الدنيا فيسلم عليه إل رد ال عليه روحه حت يرد عليه السلم فهذا نص ف أنه يعرفه بعينه ويرد عليه السلم‬

The first issue: Are the dead aware of the visits of the living to their grave and do they hear
their greeting of salaam?

Ibn Abd al-Barr said: It is established that the Prophet said: “No Muslim passes by the
grave of a brother that he knew in this world and greets him with salam except that Allah
returns his spirit to him so that he can return the greeting.” This is an authoritative text
(nass) showing that the dead recognizes the living and returns his greeting.

‫وف الصحيحي عنه صلى ال عليه وسلم من وجوه متعددة أنه أمر بقتلى بدر فألقوا ف قليب ث جاء حت وقف عليهم وناداهم بأسائهم يا فلن ابن‬
‫فلن ويا فلن ابن فلن هل وجدت ما وعدكم ربكم حقا فإن وجدت ما وعدن رب حقا فقال له عمر يا رسول ال ما تاطب من أقوام قد جيفوا‬
. ‫فقال والذي بعثن بالق ما أنتم بأسع لا أقول منهم ولكنهم ل يستطيعون جوابا‬
In the Saheehs of al-Bukhari and Muslim it was reported with a number of different chains of
narration that the Prophet ordered the slain [unbelievers] to be thrown into a pit [at Badr],
then [when the slain had been tossed into it] he came and stood over it and called each one
[of the slain] by name saying, “O so and so, o so and so, o so and so did you find what your
Lord promised you [that is, the realities of death and punishment] to be true? For I have

would grow as long as the world endured. Then they bite him and scratch him continuing to do so until
the Day of Judgment. The grave is either one of the gardens of Paradise or one of the pits of Hell.

40
Al-Bukhari reported it in his Saheeh, Kitaab Manaaqib al-Ansaar, Baab al-Mi‘raaj, hadith no. 3887
(Riyadh: Dar al-Salaam, 1419/1999).
. 1412/1991 ، ‫ بيوت‬، ‫ دار الفكر‬، 7 ‫ ص‬، ‫ كتاب الروح‬41
 25

found what my Lord promised me to be true [namely, victory over Quraish].” Umar said to
him [in astonishment], “O Messenger of Allah, you are addressing people who have become
cadavers!” He replied, “By Him who sent me with the truth, you do not hear what I say
better than they; however, they cannot reply.”

‫وثبت عنه صلى ال عليه وآله وسلم أن اليت يسمع قرع نعال الشيعي له إذا انصرفوا عنه وقد شرع النب صلى ال عليه وسلم لمته إذا سلموا على‬
‫أهل القبور أن يسلموا عليهم سلم من ياطبونه فيقول السلم عليكم دار قوم مؤمني وهذا خطاب لن يسمع ويعقل ولول ذلك لكان هذا الطاب‬
. ‫بنلة خطاب العدوم والماد والسلف ممعون على هذا وقد تواترت الثار عنهم بأن اليت يعرف زيارة الي له ويستبشر به‬
It is also confirmed that he said that the dead hears the thumping of the shoes of those that
attended his burial as they are going away.42 Furthermore, the Prophet instructed his
people to greet the dead in the grave yard with the greeting of “salam” as if they were
speaking to them by saying: “Peace be upon you, O house of believing people.” This is the
address for people who hear and understand; otherwise, this address would be for
nonexistent inanimate things [and would therefore be absurd; whereas, the holy law is never
absurd]. In fact, the early Muslims (al-salaf) are agreed [that is there is concensus] about
this [that is, that the dead are aware of their visitors and hear them]; indeed, hadith have
come in abundance confirming that the dead are aware of the visits of the living to their
graves and they rejoice about that.

‫قال أبو بكر عبد ال بن ممد بن عبيد بن أب الدنيا ف كتاب القبور باب معرفة الوتى بزيارة الحياء حدثنا ممد بن عون حدثنا يي بن يان عن عبد‬
‫ال بن سعان عن زيد بن أسلم عن عائشة رضى ال تعال عنها قالت قال رسول ال صلى ال عليه وسلم ما من رجل يزور قب أخيه ويلس عنده إل‬
. ‫استأنس به ورد عليه حت يقوم‬
Abu Bakr Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Ubaid ibn Abi Dunya [d. 281 h. / 894] said in his
Kitaab al-Quboor [The Book of the Grave] in a chapter called Ma‘rifah al-Mautaa bi Ziyaarah
al-Ahyaa’ [“The dead are aware of the visits by the living”]:

Muhammad ibn ‘Aun reported that Yahya ibn Yamaan reported from Abd Allah ibn
Sam‘aan from Zaid ibn Aslam from A’ishah that she said: The Messenger of Allah said:
“No man visits the grave of his brother and sits there with him except that he [the dead]
enjoys his company and replies to him [that is, to his greeting of salam] until he [the
visitor] gets up and leaves.”

‫حدثنا ممد بن قدامة الوهرى حدثنا معن بن عيسى القزاز أخبنا هشام بن سعد حدثنا زيد بن أسلم عن أب هريرة رضى ال تعال عنه قال إذا مر‬
. ‫الرجل بقب أخيه يعرفه فسلم عليه رد عليه السلم وعرفه وإذا مر بقب ل يعرفه فسلم عليه رد عليه السلم‬
Muhammad ibn Qudaamah al-Jauhari reported that Ma‘an ibn ‘Isa al-Qazzaz reported that
Zaid ibn Aslam reported that Abu Hurairah said: “When a man passes by the grave of a
brother that he used to know and greets him with salam he recognizes him and returns his
salam when he passes by the grave of someone he did not use to know and greets him with
salam he returns his salam.

Ibn al-Qayyim went on to enumerate a large number of hadith in this section. Notice that Ibn al-
Qayyim says that the fact that the dead are aware of the living and that they reply to their
greeting of salaam is a matter of consensus among the early Muslims ( al-salaf ). Why then do
those who give us all the hype about representing the salaf refuse to admit that the dead are
alive in their graves and under some circumstances become aware of the living and can hear
them and reply to their salam though the living usually do not hear it? The truth of the matter is
that if they admit that they will have gone half way to admitting that the proposition that the
dead can pray for us is a reasonable proposition, and if they reopen the debate they will have to
admit that asking the dead cannot involve any worship any more than asking the living does
and then they will have to admit that the rest of the ummah are not really polytheists or deviant
innovators and that would spell the end of their schismatic existence.
The muhaddith imam Abu Bakr al-Baihaqi (d. 458 h. / 1066; Nishapur) wrote a small book
called Hayaat al-Anbiyaa fee Quboorihim, which translates as “The Life of the Prophets in Their
42
Al-Bukhari and others reported it.
 26

Graves,” to show that they are alive in the world of the grave. The first hadith he reported was
the following hadith of Anas: ‫ النبياء أحياء ف قبورهم يصلّون‬/ “The prophets are alive in their graves and they
pray [there].” Al-Baihaqi narrated the hadith with three different chains of narration which
according to al-Baihaqi in view of their mutual corroboration are authentic. Noor al-Din al-
Haithami (d. 807 / 1405; Cairo) said in his Majma ‘ al-Zawaa’id 43 that Abu Ya‘la (307 h. / 919;
Mosul) and al-Bazzaar (d. 292 / 905; Ramla) also reported the above hadith from Anas and al-
Haithami stated that the report of Abu Ya‘la was rigorously authentic, and al-Suyooti (d. 911 /
1505; Cairo) mentioned the report of Abu Ya‘laa in his al-Jaami‘ al-Sagheer indicating that the
chain of narration was authentic ( hasan ) and Abu Ra’oof al-Munaawi (d. 1031 / 1622; Cairo)
declared in his commentary on al-Jaami‘ al-Sagheer known as al-Faid al-Qadeer that the hadith
is rigorously authentic ( saheeh ). Al-Munaawi points out that the prophets are better than the
martyrs and the martyrs are alive in their graves and receive provision by the explicit text of the
Qur’an:

‫سَتبْشِرُونَ بِاّلذِينَ َلمْ َي ْلحَقُوا ِب ِهمْ ِم ْن َخلْ ِف ِهمْ أَلّا‬

ْ َ‫ضِلهِ َوي‬
ْ َ‫ي ِبمَا آتَا ُهمُ الّلهُ ِمنْ ف‬
َ ِ‫سبَنّ اّلذِينَ ُقِتلُوا فِي َسبِيلِ الّلهِ أَ ْموَاتا َب ْل أَ ْحيَاءٌ ِعْندَ َرّب ِهمْ يُرْ َزقُونَ فَرِح‬َ ْ‫وَل َتح‬
َ‫ف َعَليْ ِهمْ وَل ُهمْ َيحْ َزنُون‬
ٌ ْ‫َخو‬
Do not consider those that are slain in jihad to be dead; nay they are alive exalted in the
sight of their Lord receiving their provision rejoicing in what their Lord has given them of His
grace and they are glad about the news [that Allah has given them] of those that did not join
them [in their martyrdom] whom they left behind [fighting in jihad] that they [those they left
behind] shall have no fear and they shall not grief [when they are resurrected]. (3:169-170)

Imam al-Nasafi (d. 710 / 1310; Baghdad) mentioned in his commentary of the Qur’an that the
verse indicates that the martyrs receive provision just like the living and even get food and
drink. Of course they are in the world of the grave not this world. Al-Nasafi mentioned that
some say the provision refers to what they will get in Paradise but he dismissed that as a weak
opinion in view of the fact that in that case the martyrs would not be special for all believers will
get provision in Paradise. Abd al-Rahman ibn Naasir al-Sa‘di (d. 1376 / 1956; Unaizah), who is
the grand shaikh of the ulama of Saudi Arabi, including Shaikh Bin Baaz and Shaikh ‘Uthaimeen,
stated in his commentary Taiseer al-Kareem al-Rahmaan,

‫ ل يطر ببالك وحسبانك أنم ماتوا وفقدوا وذهبت عنهم لذة الياة الدنيا والتمتع بزهرتا الذي يذر من فواته من جب عن القتال وزهد‬: ‫ أي‬، ‫أمواتا‬
‫ف الشهادة بل قد حصل لم أعظم ما يتنافسون ف التنافسون فهم أحياء عند ربم ف دار الكرامة ولفظ عند ربم يقتضى علو درجتهم وقربم من ربم‬
‫ أي مغتبطون بذلك وقد قرت به‬، ‫يرزقون من أنواع النعيم الذي ل يعلم وصفه إل من أنعم به عليهم ومع هذا صاروا فرحي با آتاهم ال من فضله‬
‫ فجمع ال لم بي نعيم الدنيا بالرزق ونعيم‬، ‫عيونم وفرحت به نفوسهم وذلك لسنه وكثرته وعظمته وكمال للذة ف والوصول إليه وعدم النغص‬
. ‫القلب والروح بالفرح با آتاهم من فضله‬
Don’t let it occur to you that they have died and are gone and are missing out on the
pleasures of this world and the enjoyment of its charms for fear of which loss the cowardly
refrain from fighting and flinch from martyrdom, rather they have achieved greater than
what those who chase after [the world] ever achieve, for they are alive ‫ عند ربهم‬in the abode of
grace. The term ‫[ عند ربهم‬which I translated above as “exalted in the sight of their Lord”]
indicates their exalted status and their nearness with their Lord. They are given provision of
different types of bliss the nature of which is only known to those who receive it and in
addition to this they become happy because of the grace their Lord has given them, that is
to say they rejoice over that and became glad because of the loveliness of the provision and
its amount and its exaltedness and because of the enormous pleasure they feel in taking it
and the absence of anything that spoils their pleasure. Allah combines for them the bliss of
this world with provision and the bliss of the heart and spirit with the happiness that He
grants them out of His grace.

. 1408/1987 ، ‫ بيوت‬، ‫ دار الريان للتراث ودار الكتاب العرب‬، 8/211 ، ‫ ممع الزوائد‬43
 27

Al-Shaukaani, one of the leaders of the Salafis, remonstrates with those who
twist the meanings of verses trying to show that seeking favor by mentioning
the dead is prohibited
It is usual for Ibn Taimiyyah and his blind followers the Salafis to try to intimidate naïve Muslims
into thinking that asking the dead to pray to Allah is condemned by the Qur’an and to this end
they cite a number of verses that are completely irrelevant though those who don’t examine
their meanings carefully might jump to the conclusion that they cover asking the dead to pray.
Muhammad ibn Ali al-Shaukaani (d. 1250 / 1834; San‘aa), whom the Salafis style as one of their
big seven imams along with Ibn Taimiyyah, Ibn al-Qayyim, Ibn Katheer, Ibn al-Rajab, al-Dhahabi,
and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, had some very pertinent remarks to make in this
connection in his al-Durr al-Nadeed fee Takhlees Kalimah al-Tauheed, a work devoted to beliefs
( ‘aqeedah ) in which he took up the question of tawassul and intercession in detail. Although in
the passage that follows al-Shaukaani is discussing al-tawassul which we will take up in detail a
little later his remarks apply just as much to the issue of seeking the prayers of the dead for his
discussion deals with what the verses do not mean. He remarks:

‫ ( مَا نَ ْعُب ُدهُ ْم إِلّا ِلُيقَ ّربُونَا إِلَى الّلهِ زُْلفَى) ونو قوله تعال ( َفلَا‬: ‫ولذا تعلم أن ما يورده الانعون من التوسل إل ال بالنبياء والصلحاء من نو قوله تعال‬
‫ستَجِيبُونَ َلهُم بِشَ ْي ٍء ) ليس بوارد بل هو من الستدلل على مل الناع با‬ ْ َ‫ح ّق وَاّلذِي َن يَ ْدعُونَ مِن دُوِنهِ َل ي‬
َ ‫َتدْعُوا َمعَ اللّهِ َأ َحدًا ) ونو قوله ( َلهُ َد ْعوَةُ اْل‬
‫ والتوسل بالعال مثلً ل يعبده بل علم أن له مزية عند‬، ‫ فإن قولم ( مَا نَ ْعُب ُدهُمْ إِلّا ِلُيقَ ّربُونَا إِلَى اللّ ِه زُلْفَى ) مصرح بأنم عبدوهم لذلك‬. ‫هو أجنب عنه‬
‫ يا ال ويا فلن‬: ‫ كأن يقول‬، ‫ وكذلك قوله تعال (َفلَا َت ْدعُوا َمعَ الّلهِ أَ َحدًا ) فإنه نى عن أن يدعى مع ال غيه‬، ‫ال بمله العلم فتوسل به لذلك‬
‫ كما توسل الثلثة الذين انطبقت عليهم الصخرة بصال‬، ‫والتوسل بالعال مثلً ل يدع إل ال وإنا وقع منه التوسل إليه بعمل صال عمله بعض عباده‬
‫ والتوسل بالعال مثلً ل‬، ‫ فإن هؤلء دعوا من ل يستجيب لم ول يدعوا ربم الذي يستجيب لم‬، ) ‫ وكذلك قوله ( والذين يدعون من دونه‬، ‫أعمالم‬
44
. ‫يدع إل ال ول يدع غيه دونه ول دعا غيه معه‬
For this reason you can see that those who prohibit seeking [from Allah] for the sake of the
prophets and the righteous on the basis [of what they understand from] the likes of the
verse ‫ وَالّذِينَ اتّخَذُوا ِمنْ دُوِنهِ َأ ْولِيَاءَ مَا نَعُْبدُهُ ْم إِلّا لِيُ َقرّبُونَا ِإلَى اللّهِ زُْلفَى‬/ “Those who take helpers other than Him saying
‘We do not worship them except that they bring us closer to Allah’” (39:3), and ‫ فَل تَدْعُو مَعَ اللّ ِه أَحَدا‬/
“So do not call upon [that is, do not worship—al-Baidaawi] along with Allah anyone else”
(72:18), and ٍ‫حقّ وَالّذِينَ َيدْعُونَ ِمنْ دُوِنهِ ل َيسْتَجِيبُونَ َلهُمْ بِشَ ْيء‬ َ ‫ لَهُ دَ ْعوَةُ اْل‬/ “He answers the prayer of truth while those
who call upon others than Allah they will never be answered at all” (13:14), do not argue
appropriately; rather, they adduce texts that are not relevant to the argument, for His words
‫ مَا َنعْبُدُ ُهمْ ِإلّا ِليُ َقرّبُونَا إِلَى اللّ ِه زُْلفَى‬/ “We do not worship them except that they bring us closer to Allah”
declare explicitly that they were worshipping others [their idols] for that reason, whereas the
one who seeks [from Allah] for the sake of a learned scholar (‘aalim) for example does not
worship him, rather he believes that that ‘aalim has a special relationship with Allah on
account of his having acquired knowledge and for that reason he seeks [from Allah] for the
sake of him because of that [that is because He has favor or because he has knowledge
which earned him favor]. Likewise their adducing the words of the verse ‫ فَل تَدْعُو مَعَ اللّ ِه أَحَدا‬/ “So do
not call upon45 along with Allah anyone else” is inept because the verse only prohibits calling
others along with Allah for example by saying “O Allah and O so and so”! Whereas the one
who seeks favor [from Allah] for the sake of the ‘aalim for example does not call upon any
but Allah; rather he seeks the favor of Allah for the sake of the righteous deeds that one of
His slaves has done46 in the same way that the three men who were trapped by the boulder

. 1493/1993 ، ‫ بيوت‬، ‫ دار الندوة الديدة‬، 29-28 ‫ ص‬، ‫ الدر النضيد ف إخلص كلمة التوحيد للشوكان‬44
45
Actually the phrase ‫ فل تدعو‬here means “don’t pray to,” or “don’t worship,” as al-Baidaawi and others have
affirmed. However, since at first glance and outwardly the meaning is “to call on” and that is the meaning
al-Shaukaani is in the process of refuting I have left it as “do not call upon.” He is looking at the question
from another angle and as the English say “there is more than one way to skin a cat.” Keep this in mind
with the next couple of citations that al-Shaukaani makes as well.
46
Al-Shaukaani is suggesting that a person becomes righteous by virtue of his deeds as he becomes
knowledgeable by virtue of his knowledge. In effect he is saying that a person is what he does. Now while
this point of view is useful in illustrating the issue of tawassul it is not completely true for as the Prophet
 28

sought favor for the sake of their pious deeds. Similarly their adducing the words of the
verse ٍ‫ وَالّذِينَ َيدْعُونَ ِمنْ دُوِنهِ ل َيسْتَجِيبُونَ َلهُمْ بِشَ ْيء‬/ “those who call upon others than Allah they will never be
answered at all” is inept because those referred to in the verse called upon what can never
answer them [that is their idols] and they did not call their Lord who can answer them,
whereas the one who seeks favor for the sake of the ‘aalim for example does not call on any
but Allah; he does not pray to other than Him besides Him and he does not call upon pray to
others with Him.

‫ كاستدللم بقـوله‬، ‫فإذا عرفت هذا ل يفف عليك دفع ما يورده الانعون للتوسل من الدلة الارجية عن مل الناع خروجا زائدا على ما ذكرناه‬
‫ يوم ل تلك نفس لنفسٍ شيئا والمر يومئذ ل ) فإن هذه الية الشريفة ليس فيها إل أنه‬، ‫ ث ما أدراك ما يوم الدين‬، ‫تعال ( وما أدراك ما يوم الدين‬
‫ وأنه ليس لغيه من المر شيء والتوسل بنب من النبياء أو عال من العلماء هو ل يعتقد أن لن توسل به مشاركة ال‬، ‫تعال النفرد بالمر ف يوم الدين‬
47
. ‫جل جلله ف أمر يوم الدين ومن اعتقد هذا لعبد من العباد سواء أكان نبيا أو غي نب فهو ف ضلل مبي‬
So if he have understand this it will not escape you how to counter texts that those who
prohibit tawassul [and for that matter seeking the intercession of the dead] bring that are
even more irrelevant to the topic under discussion than the texts that I have mentioned
above; for example their citing as a proof His words ٍ‫ يوم ل تلك نفس لنفس‬، ‫ ث ما أدراك ما يوم الدين‬، ‫وما أدراك ما يوم الدين‬
‫ شيئا والمر يومئذ ل‬/ “And what will teach you what the Day of Judgment is? Again [I ask]: What will
teach you what is the Day of Judgment? It is a day in which no soul will benefit any other
soul at all and the decision that day will be entirely up to Allah” (82:17-19), for these noble
verses only show that Allah alone will decide on the Day of Judgment and that no one else
will share with Him in the decision48, whereas the one who seeks favor for the sake of one of
the prophets or one of the ulama he does not believe that the one for whose sake he seeks
favor is an associate of Allah [in that he possesses independent and efficient power] on
the Day of Judgment. Whoever believes that any slave [of Allah] has that [that is, such
independent power] whether it be a prophet or other than a prophet he is obviously astray
[that is, an unbeliever].

Proofs from the Book and the sunnah on the legitimacy of asking the dead to
pray for us and examples of that from the era of the Companions and early
Muslims ( al-salaf )

In what has preceded we have seen that Allah often shows mercy to some of His slaves for the
sake of other slaves and we have seen that the dead are alive and aware and can pray and
under some circumstances can hear the living and we have see that those who ask the dead to
pray for them do so in the belief that the dead might become an occasion for Allah’s creating for
them some benefit or warding off some harm just as the living might be such an occasion not in
the belief that the dead have independent power to create benefit or to ward off harm. It
follows from the fact that the dead can pray and can hearing the living that they can pray for
them too. [NB: Check to make sure that a sufficient number of proofs has preceded to establish
that the dead can and do pray.] Whoever, after admitting the first two premises yet denies our
conclusion is being unreasonable. Furthermore, once it is established that it is permissible for us
to seek from the believers their prayers for us it follows that we can seek them from them

said: “The intention of the believer is better than what he does.” It was reported by al-Tabaraani in his al-
Kabeer and by al-Baihaqi in his al-Sunan al-Sughraa and in his Shu‘ab al-Eemaan from Sahl ibn Sa‘d. In fact
al-Shaukaani is putting the cart before the horse here. A good person is good because of the heart of his
heart which is called ‫ السريرة‬/ al-sareerah in Arabic. His deeds indeed his whole life proves what he is just as
an evil person is evil in the heart of his heart and his deeds his life prove what he is.
. 29 ‫ ص‬، ‫ الدر النضيد ف تليص كلمة التوحيد‬47
48
As the Christians imagine for example by claiming that Jesus being coequal will have his say. However,
the fact that Allah is alone in deciding does not preclude that some may intercede with His permission as
al-Nasafi mentioned in commenting on the words quoted above. Witness as just one example that the
Qur’an declares ِ‫ مَ ْن ذَا الّذِي َيشْفَ ُع ِعنْ َدهُ إِلّا ِبِإذْنِه‬/ “Who is there that can intercede except with His permission” (2:255).
What is impossible is that any should exercise his will in defiance of Allah or intercede with Him against His
will; however, the believers may intercede with Him if He wishes.
 29

whether they are dead or alive given that the souls endures after death. However, we need not
restrict ourselves to logical inferences for there are plenty of indications in the Book and sunnah
that establish that the dead may pray to Allah for the living is warranted by the Book or the
sunnah contrary to what Ibn Taimiyyah and his followers let on.
Allah declares in his inimitable Book:

‫س ُهمْ جَاءُوكَ فَا ْستَغْ َفرُوا الّلهَ وَا ْستَغْ َفرَ َل ُهمُ ال ّرسُولُ َلوَ َجدُوا اللّهَ َتوّابا رَحِيما‬
َ ُ‫ع بِإِذْ ِن الّلهِ وََلوْ َأّن ُهمْ إِ ْذ َظَلمُوا َأنْف‬
َ ‫وَمَا أَ ْر َس ْلنَا ِمنْ َرسُولٍ إِلّا ِلُيطَا‬
We have not sent any prophet except that he should be obeyed by the permission of Allah. If
only when they wronged themselves they came to you and asked Allah to forgive them and
the Messenger asked for their forgiveness they would find Allah most forgiving and merciful.
(4:64)

As Taqi al-Din al-Subki and many other ulama mentioned this verse is unconditional in its
implication and applies just as much after the Prophet’s death as during his life time because as
al-Kauthari mentioned in his Mahq al-Taqawwul restricting its applicability “to the period before
his death is a restriction without any proof rather following ones whim; taking unconditional
statements [ al-mutlaq ] to be unconditional [in their applicability] is a matter agreed upon
among the orthodox authorities [ ahl al-haqq ] and [they insist that] conditionality can only be
established by an [admissible] proof, and there is no proof showing conditionality in this
instance [the verse we have cited in the Prophet’s seeking forgiveness is mentioned for those
who come to him]; in fact the fuqahaa’ of the four madhhabs even the Hanbalis insist that the
applicability of the verse is general and includes the period after death and [after all] the
prophets are alive in their graves.” Wahbi Sulaiman Ghaawaji in his annotations to al-Kauthari’s
Mahq al-Taqawwul quoted Dr. Abd al-Latif Saalih Farfoor’s book on the principles of fiqh known
as al-Wajeez fi Usool Istinbaat al-Ahkaam:‫ حكم الطلق أن يري على إطلقه ما ل يقم دليل على تقييده نصا أو دللة‬/ “The
rule governing unconditional statements is that they must be applied without any conditionality
as long as there is no text qualifying the unconditional statement.” The difference of opinion
among the ulama exists only when there is a qualifying statement for some insisted that it could
not qualify even then unless certain conditions were met. Haafiz Ibn Katheer (d. 774 / 1373;
Damascus) did not restrict the application of this verse to the lifetime of the Prophet in
commenting on it in his commentary which is so popular with the Salafis, for he said there:

‫وقوله ولو أنم إذا ظلموا أنفسهم الية يرشد تعال العصاة والذنبي إذا وقع منهم الطأ والعصيان أن يأتوا إل الرسول صلى ال عليه وسلم فيستغفروا‬
. ‫ال عنده ويسألوه أن يغفر لم فإنم إذا فعلوا ذلك تاب ال عليهم ورحهم وغفر لم ولذا قال لوجدوا ال توابا رحيما‬
His statement ‫جدُوا اللّ َه َتوّابا رَحِيما‬
َ َ‫س ُهمْ جَاءُوكَ فَا ْستَغْ َفرُوا الّلهَ وَا ْستَغْ َفرَ َل ُهمُ ال ّرسُولُ َلو‬
َ ُ‫ وََل ْو َأّنهُمْ إِ ْذ َظَلمُوا َأنْف‬/ “If only when
they wronged themselves they came to you and asked Allah to forgive them and the
Messenger asked for their forgiveness they would find Allah most forgiving and merciful,
(4:64)” informs you that if the disobedient and the sinful when they committed some sin or
disobedience were to come to the Messenger and to ask Allah for forgiveness in his
presence [that is the presence of the Messenger ] then Allah would relent towards them
and show them mercy and forgive them and for this reason He says ‫جدُوا الّلهَ َتوّابا رَحِيما‬
َ َ‫ َلو‬/ “they
would find Allah most forgiving and merciful.”

‫وقد ذكر جاعة منهم الشيخ أبو منصور الصباغ ف كتابه الشامل الكاية الشهورة عن العتب قال كنت جالسا عند قب النب صلى ال عليه وسلم فجاء‬
‫أعراب فقال السلم عليك يا رسول ال سعت ال يقول ولو أنم إذ ظلموا أنفسهم جاؤك فاستغفروا ال واستغفر لم الرسول لوجدوا ال توابا رحيما‬
‫وقد جئتك مستغفرا لذنب مستشفعا بك إل رب ث أنشأ يقول يا خي من دفنت بالقاع أعظمه فطاب من طيبهن القاع والكم نفسي الفداء لقب‬
‫أنت ساكنه فيه العفاف وفيه الود والكرم ث انصرف العراب فغلبتن عين فرأيت النب صلى ال عليه وآله وسلم ف النوم فقال يا عتب إلق العراب‬
. ‫فبشره أن ال قد غفر له‬
 30

A number of the commentators among them Shaikh Abu Mansoor al-Sibaagh [d. 477 / 1084;
Baghdad]49 in his book al-Shaamil mentioned the famous story of al-‘Utbi [a Companion] who
said:

I was sitting at the grave of the Prophet when a bedouin came and said:

Peace be upon you O Messenger of Allah. I heard that Allah said, ْ‫س ُهم‬
َ ُ‫وََل ْو َأّنهُمْ إِ ْذ َظَلمُوا َأنْف‬
‫ جَاءُوكَ فَا ْستَغْفَرُوا اللّهَ وَاسْتَ ْغفَ َر َل ُهمُ ال ّرسُولُ َل َو َجدُوا الّلهَ َتوّابا َرحِيما‬/ “If only when they wronged themselves
they came to you and asked Allah to forgive them and the Messenger asked for their
forgiveness they would find Allah most forgiving and merciful, (4:64)” and I have
come to you seeking forgiveness for my sin and seeking your intercession for me with
my Lord, then he recited [in verse], “O you the best whose bones were ever buried in
a plain so that the plain and the hill became fragrant with their scent, my soul be the
ransom for the grave in which you dwell! In it there is uprightness and generosity
and honor!”

Then the bedouin went away and my eye overcame me [and I dozed] and saw the
Prophet in sleep who said: “O ‘Utbi catch up to the bedouin and give him the good
news that Allah has forgiven him.”

Here we have a Companion’s tacit approval of a man’s seeking the Prophet’s intercession and
his forgiveness which is to be taken as seeking the Prophet’s prayer for his forgiveness, and the
man was a Follower if the bedouin was not himself a Companion and that may well have been
since some of the reports indicate that he came along shortly after the burial of the Prophet .
Imam al-Qurtubi mentioned the same story and a similar interpretation of the verse in his
commentary and neither he nor Ibn Katheer made any remark indicating any weakness in the
hadith. The fuqahaa’ have mentioned this story when they discuss the rite of visiting the grave
of the Prophet towards the end of their discussions of the rites of hajj.
Among those who mentioned the story was the Hanbali imam Muwaffaq ibn Qudaamah (d.
620 / 1223; Damascus) and Imam al-Nawawi (d. 676 / 1277). Ibn Taimiyyah said about Ibn
Qudaamah: “No many ever entered Shaam after al-Auzaa‘i [d. 157 / 774; Beirut] more learned in
fiqh than Shaikh al-Muwaffaq.”50 As Shaikh al-Islam al-Mardaawi (d. 885 /1480; Damascus) in
the introduction to his al-Insaaf fee Ma ‘rifah al-Raajih min al-Khilaaf ‘ala Madhhab al-Imam
Ahmad ibn Hanbal, an encyclopedic work on Hanbali fiqh distinguished by its dependability in
deciding the strong position or the strongest when there is disagreement among the ulama of
the madhhab, mentioned that the two ultimate sources for fatwa in the Hanbali madhab are the
“Two Shaikhs”: Ibn Qudaamah and Majd ibn Taimiyyah. Al-Mirdaawi quoted Ibn Rajab (795 /
1393; Damascus) from his al-Tabaqaat: “The people of our times and those before them in fiqh
in respect of the authorities and the books to the Two Shaikhs: al-Muwaffaq [ibn Qudaamah] and
Majd [Ibn Taimiyyah (d.652 / 1254; Harran), who was the grandfather of Taqi Ibn Taimiyyah with
whom we are contending].”51 Ibn Qudaamah in his Sharh al-Kabeer towards the end of his
section on hajj discusses the rite of visiting the “grave of the Prophet ” after hajj and after
declaring the visit to be mustahabb, contrary to Ibn Taimiyyah who prohibited undertaking a
journey to Medinah with the intention to visit the grave although he permitted undertaking the
journey to visit the masjid of Medinah,52 and that of course requires a journey. Ibn Qudaamah
49
I presume Ibn Katheer is referring to the author of the famous work in Shafi fiqh, al-Shaamil, Abu Nasr
Ibn al-Sabbaagh rather than Abu Mansoor al-Sabbaagh for which latter I kind not find any match. As for
the former his name is Abd al-Sayyid ibn Muhammad who taught Shafi fiqh in the famous madrasah known
as “al-Nizaamiyyah.”
. ‫م‬1997 ، ‫ الطبعة الول‬، ‫ بيوت‬، ‫ دار الصادر‬، 4/151 ، ‫ هـ‬928 ‫ لجي الدين ال ُعلَيْمِي التوف سنة‬، ‫ النهج الحد ف تراجم أصحاب المام أحد‬50
. ‫ الطبعة الثانية‬، ‫ دار إحياء التراث العرب و مؤسسة التاريخ العرب بيوت‬، 1/17 ، ‫ النصاف للمرداوي‬51
52
Ibn Hajr al-‘Asqalaani intimated that the ulama wrongly accused Ibn Taimiyyah of this shocking opinion,
but Shaikh Bin Baaz in a footnote pointed out that indeed Ibn Taimiyyah insisted on this position and that
there was no need to be ashamed of it for it is the right opinion. See Fath al-Bari , the edition with the
annotations of Shaikh Bin Baaz. Indeed Ibn Taimiyyah has made his postion quite clear in many places in
his works. He holds that one may not intend to journey to Medinah to visit the grave of the Prophet
 31

relates the story of al-‘Utbi in the way that Ibn al-Katheer did53 and then a little later he mentions
what the visitor to the grave of the Prophet should say when he stands there before it for the
first time. He starts off mentioning that one should face the grave not the qiblah [the direction
of Makkah], and then mentions that the visitor should say recite salaam and certain praises and
glorifications of the Prophet then he says that one should say:

‫سهُ ْم جَاءُوكَ فَاسْتَ ْغفَرُوا الّلهَ وَا ْستَ ْغفَ َر َل ُهمُ ال ّرسُولُ َلوَ َجدُوا الّلهَ َتوّابا َرحِيما وقد أتيتك مستغفرا من‬ َ ُ‫اللهم إنك قلت وقولك الق وََلوْ َأّنهُ ْم إِذْ َظَلمُوا َأْنف‬
‫ اللهم اجعله أول الشافعي وأنح السائلي وأكرم‬، ‫ذنوب مستشفعا بك إل رب فأسألك يا رب أن توجب ل الغفرة كما أوجبتها لن أتاه ف حياته‬
. ‫الولي والخرين برحتك يا أرحم الراحي‬
O Allah You said—and Your word is true—َ‫جدُوا اللّه‬ َ َ‫س ُهمْ جَاءُوكَ فَا ْستَغْ َفرُوا الّلهَ وَا ْستَغْ َفرَ َل ُهمُ ال ّرسُولُ َلو‬َ ُ‫وََل ْو َأّنهُمْ إِ ْذ َظَلمُوا َأنْف‬
‫ َتوّابا رَحِيما‬/ “If only when they wronged themselves they came to you and asked Allah to forgive
them and the Messenger asked for their forgiveness they would find Allah most forgiving and
merciful,” and I have come to you [O Prophet] seeking forgiveness for my sins and seeking
your intercession for me with my Lord, so I ask You my Lord to grant me forgiveness as You
granted forgiveness to those who came to him during his lifetime. O Allah make him the first
of intercessors and the most successful of petitioners and the most honorable of the first
[generations of mankind] and the last for the sake of Your mercy O You the most merciful of
those who show mercy!

Ibn Qudaamah mentioned seeking the Prophet’s intercession in his al-Mughni 54 as well but he
did not mention there the story of al-‘Utbi. Now observe that the man who according to Ibn
Taimiyyah was the most learned man that ever appeared in Greater Syria after al-Auzaa‘i, and
who according to the Hanbali ulama is one of the “Two Shaikhs,” that is one of two supreme
authorities in the madhhab, clearly endorses visiting the grave of the Prophet to seek his
intercession and prayer, yet Ibn Taimiyyah has told us that…[NB: Complete this mentioning a
typical harangue of Ibn Taimiyyah]. Ibn Qudaamah was not alone in advocating this rather the
position is quite representative of the madhhab, which certainly should be no surprise
considering Ibn Qudaamah’s rank in the madhhab. Al-Kauthari reported that the Hanbali imam
Abu al-Wafaa’ ibn ‘Aqeel (d. 513 / 1119), who Ibn al-Jauzi described as “the imam of his time,”55
mentioned in his al-Tadhkirah a formula of salam and glorification of the Prophet for the visitor
to his grave similar to what Ibn Qudaamah stated above then he has:

‫سهُ ْم جَاءُوكَ فَاسْتَ ْغفَرُوا الّلهَ وَا ْستَ ْغفَ َر َل ُهمُ ال ّرسُولُ َلوَ َجدُوا الّلهَ َتوّابا َرحِيما وقد أتيتك نبيك تائبا‬ َ ُ‫اللهم إنك قلت وقولك الق وََلوْ َأّنهُ ْم إِذْ َظَلمُوا َأْنف‬
‫ يا رسول ال إن‬، ‫ اللهم إن أتوجه إليك بنيّك صلى ال عليه وسلم نب الرحة‬، ‫مستغفرا فأسألك أن توجب ل الغفرة كما أوجبتها لن أتاه ف حياته‬
‫ اللهم اجعل ممدا أول الشافعي وأنح السائلي وأكرم الولي‬، ‫ اللهم إن أسألك بقه أن تغفر ل ذنوب‬، ‫أتوجه بك إل رب ليغفر ل ذنوب‬
‫ اللهم كما آمنَا به ول نره وصدقناه ول نلقه فأدخلنا مدخله واحشرنا ف زمرته وأوردنا حوضه واسقنا بكأسه صافيا رويا سائغا هنيا ل نظمأ‬، ‫والخرين‬
56
. ‫بعده أبدا غي خزايا ول ناكثي ول مارقي ول مغضوبه عليهم ول الضالي واجعلنا من أهل شفاعته‬
O Allah You said—and Your word is true—َ‫جدُوا اللّه‬ َ َ‫س ُهمْ جَاءُوكَ فَا ْستَغْ َفرُوا الّلهَ وَا ْستَغْ َفرَ َل ُهمُ ال ّرسُولُ َلو‬َ ُ‫وََل ْو َأّنهُمْ إِ ْذ َظَلمُوا َأنْف‬
‫ َتوّابا رَحِيما‬/ “If only when they wronged themselves they came to you and asked Allah to forgive
them and the Messenger asked for their forgiveness they would find Allah most forgiving and
merciful,” and I have come to Your Prophet repenting and asking forgiveness, so I ask You to
grant me forgiveness as You granted forgiveness to those who came to him in his lifetime. O
Allah I ask You Your favor for the sake of Your Prophet , the Prophet of Mercy. O Messenger
although one may intend the journey to visit the Masjid of Medinah and when one is there one may visit
the grave and give the Prophet salaam and pray for him but not ask for his intercession nor ask Allah for
his favor for this sake nor even pray to Allah at the grave.
. ‫ دار الكتب العرب بيوت‬، 3/494 ، ‫ الشرح الكي لبن القدامة على هامش كباب الغن‬53
. ‫ بيوت‬، ‫ دار الكتاب العرب‬، 3/590 ، ‫ الغن لبن قدامة‬54
. 1419/1998 ، ‫ الطبعة الادي غشرة‬، ‫ بيوت‬، ‫ مؤسسة الرسالة‬، 19/447 ، ‫ ذكره الذهب ف سي أعلم النبلء‬55
. ‫ القاهرة‬، ‫ مكتبة زهران‬، 181-180 ‫ ص‬، ‫ السيف الصقيل للسبكي ومعه تكملة الرد على نونية ابن القيم للكوثري‬56
 32

of Allah, I seek Allah’s favor for your sake that He should forgive me my sins. O Allah I ask
You for his sake that You forgive me my sins. O Allah make Muhammad the first of
intercessors and the most successful of petitioners and the most honorable of the first
[generations of mankind] and the last. O Allah since we have believed in him although we
did not see him and since we have taken what he said to be true although we did not meet
him bring us together with him and gather us in his company and bring us to his mere [pool]
and give us to drink from it from his cup, a clear quenching easy to swallow wholesome
draught such that we never thirst after that ever

Shaikh al-Islam Mansoor ibn Yoonus al-Bahooti (d. 1051 / 1641; Cairo), mufti of the Hanbalis in
his day in Cairo and the author of Kashaaf al-Qinaa‘, a popular book of fiqh with later Hanbali
ulama including the Hanbali ulama of Saudi Arabia today, mentioned in that book a petition very
similar to Ibn ‘Aqeel’s above and then he mentioned the story of al-‘Utbi similar to what Ibn al-
Katheer mentioned and he mentioned that one should say all this facing the grave of the
Prophet not the qiblah.57 ‘Allaamah Mustafa ibn Sa‘d al-Suyooti al-Ruhaibaani (d. 1243 / 1827;
Damascus), the Hanbali mufti of Damascus in his day, the author of Mataalib Uli al-Nuhaa fee
Sharh Ghaayah al-Muntahaa, another important and famous work of Hanbali fiqh, mentioned
something very similar to what Ibn Qudaamah mentioned including seeking the intercession of
the Prophet 58 although he did not mention the story of al-‘Utbi.
So as you can see from the foregoing citation the great authorities of the Hanbali Madhhab
are agreed on the question of visiting the Prophet’s grave , and seeking his intercession and
praying to Allah at is grave and for the sake of him. Indeed, the former Hanbali Mufti of Kuwait
Shaikh Muhammad ibn Sulaimaan al-Jarrah (d. 1417 / 1996; Kuwait) wrote59 to Shaikh Abd al-
Rahmaan al-Sa‘di al-Tameemi (d. 1376 / 1956; ‘Unaizah), the shaikh of Shaikh Abd al-‘Azeez ibn
Baaz, and Shaikh Saailh al-‘Uthaimeen, asking him about tawassul and seeking intercession and
Shaikh al-Sa‘di answered:

‫ ونقلهم عن المام أحد رحه ال أنه قال ف‬، ‫تسألون حفظكم ال عن ذكر الصحاب رحهم ال أنه يوز التوسل بالصالي والستشفاع بم إل ال‬
‫ مرادهم رحهم ال قول الداعي ف دعائه اللهم إن أتوسل إليك‬. ‫ تسألون عن مراد الصحاب بذلك‬، ‫منسكه أن يتوسل بالنب صلى ال عليه وسلم‬
‫ فكثي من أهل العلم من النابلة والشافعية وغيهم‬، ‫ والسألة أصلها متلف فيها‬، ‫ فهم رحهم ال أجازوها ول يستحبوها‬، ‫بنيَك ممد أو باه الصالي‬
، ‫ وأما القول الخر وهو الصواب‬، ‫ وبعضهم يستحب ذلك‬، ‫يوزون ذلك ومنهم من يستحب وكلم أصحابنا يتنل على هذا القول الجيز للتوسل بم‬
60
… ‫فإنه ل يوز التوسل بالرسول ول بالصالي على هذا الوجه الذكور‬
You ask—may Allah protect you—about our companions’ [the Hanbali ulama]—may Allah
show them mercy—mentioning that it is permissible to ask Allah Allah for the sake of the
pious [ tawassul ] and likewise to seek their prayer to Allah [ istishfaa‘ ] and their reporting
from Imam Ahmad that he said in his al-Mansak that it is permissible to ask Allah for the
sake of the Prophet [ tawassul ]. You ask what do they mean by that. They mean—may
Allah show them mercy—that one who prays says in his prayer “O Allah I seek for favor for
the sake of Your Prophet Muhammad” or “for the honor of the righteous.” They permitted
that but did not say that it was desirable ( mustahabb ). In fact the principle on which the
question is based is a controversial one.61 Many of the learned among the Hanbali and Shafi
ulama and others permit that and some of them and the statements of our companions fall
in with the opinion that it is permissible while some of them hold that it is desirable. The

. 1418/1997 ، ‫ بيوت‬، ‫ دار الكتب العلمية‬، 600-2/599 ، ‫ كشف القِناع للبهوت‬57

. 1421/2000 ، ‫ الطبعة الثالثة‬، 3/363 ، ‫ مطالب أول النُهى ف شرح غاية النتهى للمصطفي الرحيبان‬58
59
The letter was published in a work on the life and teachings of Shaikh al-Jarraah published in Kuwait by
one of the students of the shaikh in 1417/1998 under the name ‫عال كويت وفقيهها وفرضيها الشيخ ممد بن سليمان الراح وسيته ومراسلته‬
‫ وآثاره العلمية‬.
. 1418/1998 ، ‫ الكويت‬، ‫ مركز البحوث والدراسات الكويتية‬، ‫ وليد عبد ال النيس‬.‫ تأليف د‬، ‫ عال كويت وفقيهها وفرضيها الشيخ ممد بن سليمان الراح وسيته ومراسلته وآثاره العلمية‬60
61
Notice how Shaikh Sa‘di contradicts himself for after admitting that the Hanbali ulama permitted
tawassul and istishfaa‘ he says that the issue is a controversial one. What he means to say is that the
Hanbali ulama all agreed but Ibn Taimiyyah and his followers disagreed with them but he didn’t come out
and say it because that would make him look bad.
 33

other opinion and it’s the correct one is that that is not permitted neither with respect to the
Messenger nor with respect to the pious in the way that was described above….

Notice that Shaikh Sa‘di admits that most of the Hanbali ulama permitted tawassul and
istishfaa‘. Yes he claimed that they did not say that it was desirable but that is not correct. We
have already seen that Ibn Qudaamah one of the supreme authorities of the madhhab and Ibn
‘Aqeel and al-Bahooti and Mustafa al-Ruhaaibi mention that visiting the grave of the Prophet is
desirable and then they instruct the people to recite specific formulas of greeting and
glorification and to make tawassul and istishfaa’ implying quite obviously that doing that is also
most desirable because it is the whole point of the visit and its climax. I just wanted to wanted
to register the admission of the grand shaikh of the great shaikhs of today’s Salafis that most of
the Hanbalis don’t denounce tawassul and isitishfaa’ as neither bid‘ah nor shirk but as
permissible. We can live with their not admitting tawassul and isitishfaa’ to be desirable or not
the sound position; we cannot live with them saying it’s bid‘ah and shirk because that brings
untold strife to the Muslims.
The great Shafi ulama also permitted tawassul and istishfaa’ and they prescribed it during
the rite of the visit to the Prophet’s grave which they said was desirable and a matter for which
journey was thus also desirable. Many of them mentioned the story of al-‘Utbi in their works
among them Imam al-Nawawi (d. 676 / 1277) and Ibn Hajr al-Haithami (d. 974 h. / 1567;
Makkah), two distinguished imams of the madhhab. There is general agreement among the
Shafi ulama after the time of al-Nawawi that the fatwa should be taken from the opinion of al-
Nawawi and al-Rafi‘ and these two are referred to as the “Two Shaikhs of the Early Ulama.” After
the time of Ibn Hajr there is general agreement that the fatwa should be taken from the opinion
of Ibn Hajr and Shams al-Ramli and these two shaikhs are referred to as the “Two Shaikhs of the
Later Ulama.” Generally Ibn Hajr and al-Ramli follow the “Two Shaikhs of the Early Ulama”
although they exercise their judgment in interpreting their intent and in deciding which one to
follow when they two of them differ. That’s off the topic I just want to show how exalted is the
status of these ulama in the Shafi Madhhab to help the uninitiated reader to accord their
opinions their due importance and authority.
Imam al-Nawawi says in his al-Majmoo‘ah Sharh al-Muhadhhab

‫ث يرجع إل موقفه الول قبالة وجه رسول ال صلى ال عليه وسلم ويتوسل به ف حق نفسه ويسشفع به إل ربه سبحانه وتعال ومن أحسن ما يقال ما‬
‫ كنت جالسا عند قب النب صلى ال عليه وسلم فجاء أعراب فقال السلم‬: ‫حكاه الاوردي وأبو الطيب وسائر أصحابنا عن العتب مستحسني له قال‬
‫عليك يا رسول ال سعت ال يقول ولو أنم إذ ظلموا أنفسهم جاؤك فاستغفروا ال واستغفر لم الرسول لوجدوا ال توابا رحيما وقد جئتك مستغفرا‬
‫لذنب مستشفعا بك إل رب ث أنشأ يقول يا خي من دفنت بالقاع أعظمه فطاب من طيبهن القاع والكم نفسي الفداء لقب أنت ساكنه فيه‬
‫العفاف وفيه الود والكرم أنت الشفيع الذي ترجى شفاعته على الصراط إذا ما زلّت القدم وصاحباك فل أنساها أبدا منَي السلم عليكم ما‬
62
. ‫جرى القلم ث انصرف فغلبتن عين فرأيت رسول ال صلى ال عليه وآله وسلم ف النوم فقال يا عتب إلق العراب فبشره أن ال قد غفر له‬
Then he [the visitor to the grave of the Prophet ] should return to the place he stood first
[that is, where he stood a little while ago before he greeted Abu Bakr and Umar] opposite the
face of the Messenger of Allah and he should seek Allah’s favor through him and he should
seek his intercession for him with Allah and among the best things that he might say is
what is al-Maawardi and Abu al-Tayyib [al-Tabari] and all the rest of our companions have
reported with approval from al-‘Utbi that he said….

Thereafter al-Nawawi quoted exactly what Ibn Katheer mentioned above. Notice that al-Nawawi
states that all of the Shafi ulama have reported with approval the story of al-‘Utba in which there
is tawassul and istishfaa‘ and thus we have testimony from Imam al-Nawawi that all Shafi ulama
endorse tawassul and istishfaa‘ and recommend it particularly at the grave of the Prophet .
Imam al-Nawawi mentioned a similar thing in his al-Idaah fee Manaasik al-Hajj and Ibn Hajr al-
Haithami in his commentary on al-Idaah wrote a whole page defending the practice of tawassul
and istishfaa‘ claiming that it was the practice of the early Muslims and he presented a number

. 1415/1995 ، ‫ دار إحياء التراث العرب‬، 257-8/256 ، ‫ كتاب الجموع شرح الهذب للنووي‬62
 34

of proofs from the sunnah and practice of the Companions for their legitimacy which I will not
cite here not wishing to anticipate ourselves.63

However, Abd Allah al-Ghumaari mentioned that Ibn Abd al-Haadi in his refutation of al-
Subki’s Shifaa’ al-Siqaam took issue with al-Subki for mentioning the story claiming that it is
forged. Al-Ghumari pointed out that while the different chains of narration of this story may be
weak there is no narrator in their chains of narration who was accused of forgery or even
suspected of it, so that the most that can be said in criticism of the story is that its individual
chains of narration are weak. If the story was forged the fact would never have escaped the
likes of Ibn al-Katheer and al-Subki and al-Qurtubi and in that case they would not have
mentioned the story at all. However, al-Ghumaari also pointed out that the story is not adduced
as an independent proof of the legitimacy of seeking the prayer of the Prophet but as a
supplementary factor confirming that the above-cited verse is unconditional in its applicability, a
fact that is already known by dint of the received rule to which I have referred. [NB: Mention the
rule that weak hadith are admissible in interpretation of verses.]

. 1419/1999 ، ‫ مكة‬، ‫ مكتبة نزار مصطفى الباز‬، 491-490 ‫ ص‬، ‫ شرح اليضاح لبن حجر‬63
Chapter 4
The practice of tawassul and the proofs of its legitimacy from the
Book and the sunnah and the sayings of the early Muslims ( al-salaf )
Let us now go back and investigate the nature of seeking Allah’s favor through something dear
to Him which as we have mentioned is called tawassul in Arabic. The Shafi imam Taqi al-Din al-
Subki (d. 756 / 1355; Cairo) in his book Shifaa’ al-Siqaam, the classic text on the issue of visiting
the grave of the Prophet , declared:

‫ أسألك بكل‬: ‫ ويكون ذكر الحبوب أو التعظيم سببا للجابة كما ف الدعية الصحيحة الأثورة‬، ‫ولسنا سائلي ف ذلك غي ال تعال ول داعي إل إيّاه‬
‫ الديث الغار الذي فيه‬. ‫اسم لك وأسألك بأسائك السن وأسألك بأنك أنب ال وأعوذ برضاك من سخطك وبعاقاتك من عقوبتك و بك منك‬
‫ فال سؤول فهذه الدعوات كل ها هو ال وحده لشر يك له وال سؤول به متلف ول‬، ‫الدعاء بالعمال ال صالة و هو من الحاد يث ال صحيحة الشهورة‬
‫ كذلك السؤال بالنب صلى ال عليه وسلم ليس سؤال للنب صلى ال عليه وسلم بل بال به وإذا جاز السؤال‬، ‫يوجب ذلك إشراكا ولسؤال غي ال‬
. ‫بالعمال وهي ملوقة فالسؤال بالنب صلى ال عليه وسلم أول‬
In this [that is in asking Allah for the sake of the Prophet , which as we said is called
tawassul ] we are not asking other than Allah ‫ تعالى‬or supplicating anybody but Him, and
furthermore the mention of that which is beloved or revered [by Allah] is only [taken to be] a
[likely] occasion/contributing factor [sabab ]64 for the answering of [our] prayer. Such [a
manner of supplicating Allah] is to be found in the authentic supplications reported from the
Prophet , for example ‫ أسألك بكل اسم لك‬/ “I ask You for the sake of every name that is Yours,” and
‫ أسألك بأسمائك الحسنى‬/ “I ask for the sake of Your beautiful names,” and ‫ أسألك بأنك أنت ال‬/ “I ask You by
the fact that You are Allah,” and ‫ وأعوذ برضاك من سخطك وبمعاقاتك من عقوبتك وبك منك‬/ “I seek refuge in Your
approval from Your anger and in Your forgiveness from Your punishment and [I seek refuge65]
in You from You. Furthermore, the hadith of the cave 66 instances [an example of] praying to
Allah for the sake of ones good deeds and it a famous and rigorously authentic hadith. So
[notice that] in all these supplications the one who is supplicated is none other than Allah
and Him alone, He who has no partner [in the Godhead and the divine attributes] while that
for whose sake we ask varies67 [in the different examples], yet that does not mean that we
are associating others with Him [in His divinity] or that we are asking other than Allah. In the
same way when we ask for the sake of the Prophet we are not asking from the Prophet ,
rather we are asking Allah on account of 68
the Prophet . [Consider] that since it is allowed
64
Here we should refrain from translating sabab as cause because sabab is distinct from efficient cause
and that is precisely what al-Subki means to point out here. The best term that I have been able to think of
so far for sabab is “occasion”; technically speaking it means that which leads to the existence of thing
while not actually producing it. On the other hand, the theologians refer to that which is the effective
cause of a thing as its ‫ علة‬/ ‘illah, which is technically defined as that on which the existence of a thing
depends but which is extraneous to the thing while acting upon it as al-Shareef al-Jurjaani mentioned in his
al-Ta‘reefaat. A condition on the other hand is extraneous to the being of a thing although the existence of
the thing depends upon it while it is not produced by it. A sabab differs from the condition in that the
existence of a thing does not depend on its sabab while it does depend on its condition. The discussion of
this matter is taken up at length in the books on the principles of fiqh as also in the books of kalaam.
65
This additional wording appears in the version reported by Malik, Ahmad, Muslim, al-Tirmidhi, Abu
Dawood, al-Nisaa’i, Ibn Maajah, Ibn Khuzaimah, Ibn Hibbaan, al-Haakim, al-Baihaqi and others while it is
omitted in a version reported by Malik, Ibn Khuzaimah, al-Haakim, Ibn Hibbaan, al-Baihaqi, al-Tabaraani, al-
Daraqutni and others.
66
Al-Subki is referring to the hadith of reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim and others which we will cite at
length shortly.
67
In the examples that al-Subki has given although the one who is asked is the same He is asked by His
different names or His different attributes which while they refer to the same being they indicate different
aspects of that being.
68
Those of you who can read the Arabic and who are following it here should be careful to note here that
although the preposition (harf ) connected to Allah and to the Prophet is in both cases ‫ باء‬in each case it
has a different meaning. As I already mentioned above Ibn Hishaam has mentioned that ‫ باء‬can assume
fourteen different meanings. In this passage the ‫ باء‬connected to Allah carries the meaning of ‫ التعدية‬while in
 36

to ask for the sake of deeds which are but created things then to ask for the sake of the
Prophet is all the more permissible [seeing that he is the best of all created things].69

The hadith of the cave which al-Subki has referred to is a famous hadith and a rigorously
authentic one. It was reported from Ibn Umar by Ahmad and al-Bukhari and Muslim and Abu
Dawood and others.70 Al-Bukhaari reported this hadith from Ibn Umar in each of the chapters
called Kitaab al-Buyoo ‘ and Kitaab Ahaadeeth al-Anbiyaa’ and and Kitaab al-Adab and Kitaab al-
Harth wa al-Mazaari‘ah and in each place with a slightly different wording. Here follows the text
and translation of the report mentioned by al-Bukhari in his Saheeh 71 in the chapter he called
Kitaab al-Harth wa al-Mazaari‘ah:

‫ بينما ثلثة نفر يشون أخذهم‬: ‫) عن عبد ال بن عمر رضي ال عنهما عن النب صلى ال عليه وسلم قال‬2165( ‫روى البخاري ف كتاب الزارعة‬
‫الطر فأووا إل غار ف جبل فانطت على فم غارهم صخرة من البل فانطبقت عليهم فقال بعضهم لبعض انظروا أعمال عملتموها صالة ل فادعوا ال‬
‫با لعله يفرجها عنكم قال أحدهم اللهم إنه كان ل والدان شيخان كبيان ول صبية صغار كنت أرعى عليهم فإذا رحت عليهم حلبت فبدأت بوالدي‬
‫أسقيهما قبل بن وإن استأخرت ذات يوم فلم آت حت أمسيت فوجدتما ناما فحلبت كما كنت أحلب فقمت عند رؤوسهما أكره أن أوقظهما وأكره‬
‫أن أسقي الصبية والصبية يتضاغون عند قدمي حت طلع الفجر فإن كنت تعلم أن فعلته ابتغاء وجهك فافرج لنا فرجة نرى منها السماء ففرج ال فرأوا‬
‫السماء وقال الخر اللهم إنا كانت ل بنت عم أحببتها كأشد ما يب الرجال النساء فطلبت منها فأبت حت أتيتها بائة دينار فبغيت حت جعتها فلما‬
‫وقعت بي رجليها قالت يا عبد ال اتق ال ول تفتح الات إل بقه فقمت فإن كنت تعلم أن فعلته ابتغاء وجهك فافرج عنا فرجة ففرج وقال الثالث‬
‫اللهم إن استأجرت أجيا بفرق أرز فلما قضى عمله قال أعطن حقي فعرضت عليه فرغب عنه فلم أزل أزرعه حت جعت منه بقرا وراعيها فجاءن‬
‫فقال اتق ال فقلت اذهب إل ذلك البقر ورعاتا فخذ فقال اتق ال ول تستهزئ ب فقلت إن ل أستهزئ بك فخذ فأخذه فإن كنت تعلم أن فعلت‬
. ‫ذلك ابتغاء وجهك فافرج ما بقي ففرج ال‬
Ibn Umar reported that the Prophet said: Three men72 were walking along when they were
overtaken by rain so they took cover in a cave in a mountain but a boulder on the mountain
fell down over the mouth of the cave and it closed them in. One of them said to the others:
“Think of some good deed that you did for the sake of Allah and pray for the sake of it and
maybe He will open it for you.”
So one of them said: “O Allah, I had two parents who were very old and I had small
children and I used to tend to flocks for them and when I would come to them in the evening
I would milk [some of the animals] for them and I would begin by giving my parents to drink
before my children. One day I became delayed and I did not come to them until it was night
when I found my parents asleep. I milked the animals as usual and then waited at their
heads not wishing to wake them and not wishing to give my children to drink before them.
The children cried at my feet until the dawn of day. So if You know that I did that seeking
your favor73 then open for us a gap that we may see the sky.” So Allah opened for them a
gap and they could see the sky.

relation to the Prophet it carries the meaning of ‫ الستعانة‬.

69
Quoted from al-Subki’s Shifaa’ al-Siqaam fee Ziyaarah Khair al-Anaam (Lailpur: al-Maktabah al-
Nooriyyah, n.d.), p. 164.
70
The hadith was also reported from Anas with a rigorously authentic (saheeh) chain of narration according
to Ibn Hajr al-‘Asqalaani in his Fath al-Baari (Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, n.d.), 6:510-511, by al-Tabaraani in his
Kitaab al-Du ‘aa and also from Abu Hurairah with an authentic (hasan) chain of narration and it was
reported by Ibn Hibbaan in his Saheeh he said. Furthermore he said that al-Tabaraani reported another
version of the same hadith from Abu Hurairah and Nu‘maan ibn Basheer with three different chains of
narration all of which he said were authentic, one of which was also reported by Ahmad and al-Bazzaar. He
said also that the same hadith was reported by Ali and ‘Uqbah ibn ‘Aamir and Abd Allah ibn ‘Amr ibn
al-‘Aas and Ibn Abi Aufaa with weak chains of narration. Al-Tabaraani has mentioned their chains of
narration as did Abu ‘Awaanah he said.
71
See Ibn Hajr al-‘Asqalaani’s Fath al-Baari (Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, n.d.), 5:16, hadith no. 2333, Kitaab al-Harth
wa al-Mazaari‘ah.
72
Ibn Hajr al-‘Asqalaani in his Fath al-Baari ( 6:507) mentioned that in the hadith of ‘Uqbah ibn ‘Aamir
reported by al-Tabaraani in his Kitaab al-Du‘aa it is mentioned that the three men were Israelites. In the
version of this hadith reported by al-Bukhaari in his chapter Kitaab Ahaadeeth al-Anbiyaa’ what is
mentioned is “three men of those lived before you.”
 37

Another one said: “O Allah, I used to have a cousin [the daughter of my paternal uncle]
and I used to love her as dearly as a man can love women so I asked her for herself but she
refused unless I presented her one hundred dinars. So I strove until I collected that amount
and [I presented it to her and she surrendered herself to me] but when I got down between
her legs she said: ‘O slave of Allah fear Allah and do not open the seal 74 except by its right
[that is except by marrying me],’ so I got up from her. So if you know that I did that seeking
Your favor then open for us a gap.” So He opened [for them a gap].
The third one said: “O Allah, I hired a man for one faraq75 of rice and then when he had
finished his work he demanded his right and when I presented it to him he did not want it
[because he thought it was too little pay] and so [I kept it] and continued to cultivate it until
[it became a lot] and I bought some cows [with what it produced] and a herdsman 76 for
them and finally he came to me and said: “Fear Allah [and give what I deserve]”! So I said to
him: “Go and take those cows and their herdsman.” He replied: “Fear Allah and don’t mock
me”! I said: “Look I’m not mocking you. Take them”! So he took them. So if You know that I
did that seeking your favor then open what remains [to be opened for us to get out] and so
Allah opened [what they needed to get out].

What al-Subki was urging is that if we are permitted to seek Allah’s favor for the sake of
good deeds, which after all are mere accidents and mindless phenomena, then it would seem to
follow logically that we must then be able all the more to seek His favor for the sake of the doers
of those deeds who are creatures possessed of minds and free will. Conversely, if supplicating
Allah for the sake of a pious person involves the committing of any shirk, then too the
supplicating Him for the sake of ones good deeds must also be shirk, but since no one ever
claimed that supplicating Him for the sake of ones good deeds was shirk it follows that
supplicating Him for the sake of a pious soul cannot be shirk.
At this point one may say that this all seems reasonable enough but what about seeking the
favor of Allah ( tawassul )by mentioning the souls of the dead or by seeking their intercession is
not this shirk or innovation. The answer in the case of seeking his favor ( tawassul ) is that what
counts is Allah’s love for the thing through which we seek His favor so the question to be asked
does Allah’s love for a pious soul cease when he dies or not? Obviously, the death of a pious
believing soul confirms Allah’s love for it for all eternity because it is the final moment that
counts so for all the more reason the favor of Allah may be sought through mentioning the souls
of the dead.

[NB: Check for cohesion here because you pulled out a long section in proof that the dead are
alive and aware and put it ahead.]
Knowing that the dead are aware and can hear and having learned that intercession is a fact,
the question may arise that is their any indication from the Qur’an or authentic hadith that they
can intercede for the living. The answer is indeed there are. In fact the Qur’an indicates that
the believers may seek the intercession of the Prophet before he came into existence and
during his lifetime and after he has left this world. As for seeking it before he came into the
existence Allah says:

73
The expression here translates literally “for Your face.” According to Abu al-Baqaa al-Kafawi in his al-
Kulliyaat the term in the verse ‫ إنا نطعمكم لوجه ال‬means “We only feed you for the favor of Allah. (76:9)” He
listed a number of other figurative meanings of the word ‫ وجه‬. The most appropriate of the meanings that
he mentioned given the context of this hadith is “favor.”
74
According to Ibn Hajr (6:509) “seal” here is used as a metaphor for virginity.
75
A faraq is a cubic measure of three saa according to Fath al-Baari (6:507). A saa is cubic measure the
amount of which is disputed among the ulama; Abu Haneefah held that it was 8 artaal while Malik and the
ulama of Medinah held it to be 5 1/3 artaal as al-Faiyoomi mentioned in his al-Misbaah al-Muneer. Imam
Malik claimed to have at his disposal the measures used by the Companions for they had been inherited by
their grandchildren and descendents in Medinah. Nuh Keller in his Reliance of the Traveller calculates the
saa as 2.03 liters.
76
It seems the herdsman was a slave because according to Fath al-Baari (6:508) in another version of this
hadith, which al-Bukhari reported in Kitaab al-Anbiyaa’ and according to Saalim’s transmission of Saheeh
al-Bukhaari, there is “His pay multiplied until it produced a lot of wealth” and in this same version there is
“So I said to him: ‘All that you see of camels and cows and sheep and slaves is from your pay.’”
 38

. َ‫سَت ْفِتحُو َن عَلَى اّلذِينَ كَفَرُوا َفلَمّا جَا َء ُهمْ مَا عَرَفُوا كَفَرُوا ِبهِ َفَل ْعنَ ُة الّلهِ َعلَى الْكَافِرِين‬
ْ َ‫ق ِلمَا مَ َع ُهمْ َوكَانُوا ِمنْ َقْبلُ ي‬
ٌ ّ‫صد‬
َ ‫وََلمّا جَا َءهُمْ ِكتَابٌ ِم ْن ِعنْدِ الّلهِ ُم‬
Then when a book [the Qur’an] came to them [the Jews—al-Baghawi] confirming what was
with them [the Torah], and before that [the revelation of the Qur’an—al-Baghawi] they used
to pray for victory [for his sake—al-Baghawi] over those whose disbelieved [the pagan Arabs
—al-Baghawi], and then when he whom they were informed about came to them they
disbelieved in him. Then let the curse of Allah be on the unbelievers. (2:89)

Imam al-Baghawi (d. 510 / 1117) in commenting on this verse in his Ma‘aalim al-Tanzeel said:

‫ولا جاءهم كتاب من عند ال يعن القرآن مصدق موافق لا معهم يعن التوراة وكانوا يعن اليهود من قبل مبعث ممد صلى ال عليه وسلم يستفحون‬
‫يستنصرون على الذين كفروا على مشركي العرب وذلك أنم كانوا يقولون إذا أحزنم أمر ودههم عدو اللهم انصرنا عليهم بالنب البعوث ف آخر‬
‫الزمان الذي ند صفته ف التوراة فكانوا ينصرون وكانوا يقولون لعدائهم من الشركي قد أظل زمان نب يرج بتصديق ما قلنا فنقتلكم معه قتل عاد‬
‫وثود وإرم فلما جاءهم ما عرفوا يعن ممدا صلى ال عليه وسلم من غي بن إسرائيل وعرفوا نعته وصفته كفروا به بغيا وحسدا فلعنة ال على الكافرين‬
.
When a book, that is the Qur’an, came to them [the Jews] from Allah confirming what was
with them, that is the Torah, and they, that is the Jews, before the advent of Muhammad
used to seek victory over the unbelievers, that is the pagan Arabs, for they used to say when
they were in a predicament and hard pressed by the enemy, “O Allah grant us victory for the
sake of the prophet that will be sent at the end of time whose description is mentioned in the
Torah,” and they used to get victory and they used to say to their enemies, the pagans, “The
time is near that a prophet will come forth to confirm what we have said and then we will kill
you with him the way ‘Ad and Thamood and Iram were killed.” However, when he about
whom they were formed came forth, that is Muhammad and he was not an Israelite
although they were informed of his description they disbelieved in him in rebellion and out of
jealousy, so let the curse of Allah be on the unbelievers.

Al-Suyooti reported in his commentary on the Qur’an, al-Durr al-Manthoor, in which he collected
the hadith that relate to Qur’anic commentary, the following reports that indicate that the Jews
used to ask Allah victory for the sake of Muhammad .:

‫وأخرج أبو نعيم ف الدلئل من طريق عطاء والضحاك عن ابن عباس قال كانت يهود بن قريظة والنضي من قبل أن يبعث ممد صلى ال عليه وسلم‬
‫يستفتحون ال يدعون على الذين كفروا ويقولون اللهم إنا نستنصرك بق النب المي إل نصرتنا عليهم فينصرون فلما جاءهم ما عرفوا يريد ممدا ول‬
77
. ‫يشكوا فيه كفروا به‬
Abu Nu‘aim [al-Isfahaani (d.430 / 1038; Isfahan)] reported in his Dalaa’il [al-Nuboowwah] by
way of ‘Ataa’ from al-Dahhaak from Ibn ‘Abbas that he said:

Before the advent of Muhammad the Jews of the tribes of Quraizah and Nadeer used to
ask Allah for victory over those whose disbelieved saying: “O Allah, we ask your help to
gain victory over for the sake of the illiterate prophet,” and they used to gain victory.
However, when he about whom they were informed, that is Muhammad appeared they
disbelieved in him though they had no doubt [that he was the promised prophet].

‫وأخرج أبو نعيم ف الدلئل من طريق الكلب عن أب صال عن ابن عباس قال كان يهود أهل الدينة قبل قدوم النب صلى ال عليه وسلم إذا قاتلوا من‬
‫يليهم من مشركي العرب من أسد وغطفان وجهينة وعذرة يستفتحون عليهم ويستنصرون يدعون عليهم باسم نب ال فيقولون اللهم ربنا انصرنا عليهم‬
. ‫باسم نبيك وبكتابك الذي تنل عليه الذي وعدتنا إنك باعثه ف آخر الزمان‬
Abu Nu‘aim reported in his Dalaa’il [al-Nuboowwah] by way of al-Kalbi from Abu Saalih from
Ibn ‘Abbas that he said:

. 1411/1990 ، ‫ بيوت‬، ‫ دار الكتب العلمية‬، 1/89 ، ‫ الدر النثور‬77

 39

Before the advent of the Prophet when the Jews of Medinah used to fight the pagan
Arabs who lived beside them, the tribes of Asad and Ghatafaan and Juhainah and
‘Adharah, they used to seek victory over them and they used to ask for help against
them in the name of [for the sake of] the prophet of Allah saying: “O Allah, help us
against them in the name of [for the sake of] Your prophet [that you have promised] and
in the name of Your book that you will reveal to him who You have promised to send to us
at the end of time.”

‫وأخرج الاكم والبيهقي ف الدلئل بسند ضعيف عن ابن عباس قال كانت يهود خيب تقاتل غطفان فكلما التقوا هزمت يهود فعاذت بذا الدعاء‬
‫اللهم إنا نسألك بق ممد النب المي الذي وعدتنا أن ترجه لنا ف آخر الزمان إل نصرتنا عليهم فكانوا إذا التقوا دعوا بذا فهزموا غطفان فلما بعث‬
. ‫النب صلى ال عليه وسلم كفروا به فأنزل ال وكانوا من قبل يستفتحون على الذين كفروا يعن وقد كانوا يستفتحون بك يا ممد‬
Al-Haakim and al-Baihaqi in his Dalaa’il [al-Nuboowwah] reported with a weak chain of
narration from Ibn ‘Abbas that he said: The Jews of Khaibar used to fight [the tribe of]
Ghatafaan and every time they would encounter them the Jews would be defeated, so they
resorted to this prayer: “O Allah, we ask you for the sake of the illiterate prophet that You
have promised to send him to us at the end of time to help defeat them,” and when they
would encounter Ghatafan and pray this prayer they would defeat them. Then when the
Prophet was sent they disbelieved in him so that Allah revealed ‫وكانوا من قبل يستفتحون على الذين‬
‫ كفروا‬/ “and before that they used to pray for victory over the unbelievers,” that is they used
to pray for victory for your sake O Muhammad.”

True some reports indicate that the Jews used to threaten their enemies the pagan Arabs of the
tribes of ‘Aus and Khazraj that a prophet was about to appear and when he appeared the Jews
would fight their enemies and destroy them. Such reports do not preclude that the Jews also
used to ask Allah for victory for the sake of the prophet who they were promised would appear
at the end of time because it is quite possible that the Jews used to do both things or sometimes
one and sometimes the other. Al-Suyooti mentioned a number of such reports that indicate that
including the following report of al-Baihaqi’s Dalaa’il al-Nuboowah:

‫وأخرج البيهقي ف الدلئل من طريق السدي عن أب مالك وعن أب صال عن ابن عباس وعن مرة عن ابن مسعود وناس من الصحابة ف الية قال‬
‫كانت العرب تر باليهود فيؤذونم وكانوا يدون ممدا ف التوراة فيسألون ال أن يبعثه نبيا فيقاتلون معه العرب فلما جاءهم ممد كفروا به حي ل‬
. ‫يكن من بن إسرائيل‬
Al-Baihaqi reported in his Dalaa’il [al-Nuboowwah] by way of al-Suddi from Abu Malik and
from Abu Saalih from Ibn Abbas and from Murrah from Ibn Mas‘ood and some of the
Companions concerning the verse: “The Arabs used to pass by the Jews and harm them.
Finding Muhammad [described] in the Torah they [the Jews] used to pray to Allah to send
them a prophet to fight with them the Arabs, but then when Muhammad came to them they
disbelieved in him since he was not an Israelite ”

There are also hadith show that people the permissibility of seeking Allah’s favor through the
mention of Muhammad before he was born. Al-Haakim reported with a chain of narration in
his al-Mustadrak that Umar said:

‫ حدثنا أبو سعيد عمرو بن ممد بن منصور العدل حدثنا أبو السن ممد بن إسحاق بن إبراهيم النظلي حدثنا أبو الارث عبد ال بن مسلم‬4228
‫الفهري حدثنا إساعيل بن مسلمة أنبأ عبد الرحن بن زيد بن أسلم عن أبيه عن جده عن عمر بن الطاب رضي ال عنه قال قال رسول ال صلى ال‬
‫ لا اقترف آدم الطيئة قال يا رب أسألك بق ممد لا غفرت ل فقال ال يا آدم وكيف عرفت ممدا ول أخلقه قال يا رب لنك لا‬: ‫عليه وسلم‬
‫خلقتن بيدك ونفخت ف من روحك رفعت رأسي فرأيت على قوائم العرش مكتوبا ل إله إل ال ممد رسول ال فعلمت أنك ل تضف إل اسك إل‬
‫أحب اللق إليك فقال ال صدقت يا آدم إنه لحب اللق إل ادعن بقه فقد غفرت لك ولول ممد ما خلقتك هذا حديث صحيح السناد وهو أول‬
. ‫حديث ذكرته لعبد الرحن بن زيد بن أسلم ف هذا الكتاب‬
 40

The Messenger of Allah said: When Adam committed his sin he said: “O Lord I ask you for
the sake of Muhammad that you forgive me.” Allah said: “O Adam, how do you know about
Muhammad when I have not created him yet?” He replied: “O my Lord, [I know about him]
because when you created me with special care [literally: with Your own two hands”] and put
into me the spirit [literally: “Your spirit”] I raised up my head and saw written on the legs of
the Throne ‫ ل إله إل ال ممد رسول ال‬/ ‘There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger
of Allah,’ so I knew that You would not ascribe to your name any but the most beloved to You
of Your creation.” Allah said: “You have spoken truly, O Adam. He is the most beloved to me
of all the creation. Since you have prayed to Me for his sake, I have forgiven you. If it were
not for Muhammad I would not have created you.”

Al-Hakim (d.405 h. / 1014) declared that the hadith’s chain of narration was rigorously authentic
and he added that it was the first hadith of Abd al-Rahman ibn Zaid ibn Aslam al-‘Adawi (d. 182
h.) that he mentioned in his book. However, al-Dhahabi (d. 748 / 1348; Damascus) declared
that the hadith to be forged and that Abd al-Rahman to be ‫ واه‬/ “extremely weak.” However, it
seems that al-Dhahabi has no basis for declaring the hadith to be forged because the problem
with the hadith is Abd al-Rahman and al-Dhahabi himself in his al-Kaashif said, “They held him
to be weak,” and that is a mild form of criticism for the hadith of a narrator about whom this is
said will not be demoted to less than weak. If al-Dhahabi judged it to be forged on the basis of
the text of the hadith that is his own opinion for others more learned than he in the field of fiqh
and beliefs like al-Baihaqi and Taqi al-Subki held the hadith to be weak but not forged. Al-
Kauthari who cited this hadith in his Mahq al-Taqawwal mentioned Abd al-Rahman ibn Zaid ibn
Aslam but he said that the hadith was corroborated by other chains of narration for al-Tabaraani
also reported it in his al-Ausat and in his al-Sagheer although al-Haithami said that there were
narrators in their chains of narration that he did not know. Then al-Kauthari said that while Malik
held Zaid to be weak and others followed him they did not accuse of him of lying rather of
making mistakes. Ibn Hajr stated in his al-Taqreeb that he was weak only. Wahbi Sulaiman
Ghawaaji mentioned in a note (n. 4; p. 140) to Mahq al-Taqawwal that Moroccan muhaddith Abd
Allah ibn al-Siddeeq al-Ghumari (d. 1413 / 1993; Tanja) said: “The truth is that the hadith is not
rigorously authentic but not it is not forged as al-Baihaqi mentioned in his Dalaa’il al-
Nuboowwah and I quoted him and rejected the opinion of al-Dhahabi for six different reasons
and I mentioned what corroborates this hadith in my Radd al-Muhkam al-Mateen and I also cited
a parallel narration that strengthens this hadith and upgrades it [according to the received rule
among muhaddiths ] to the rank of hasan li ghairhi [that is, authentic by virtue of mutual
corroboration].

The report of Maalik al-Daar

[NB: Weave this into the above coherently.] For example there is the famous and rigorously
authentic ( saheeh ) report ( athar ) known as Athar Maalik al-Daar. The reason it is referred to
as Athar Maalik al-Daar is that it was reported by Maalik ibn ‘Iyaad the freedman of Umar who
bore the nickname Maalik al-Dar. He was given that name, which means “the keeper of the
house,” because Umar charged him with keeping the money and property collected for zakaat
that was kept in a special compound ( daar ). After Umar, Uthman also gave him that charge as
was reported in al-Isaabah and Tabaqaat ibn Sa‘d according to what Muhammad Zaahid al-
Kauthari (d. 1371 / 1952; Cairo) mentioned in his article Mahq al-Taqawwul. Ibn Hajr
al-‘Asqalaani mentioned the text of the hadith in his Fath al-Baari, which is perhaps the most
celebrated commentary on Saheeh al-Bukhari that exists, saying:

‫وروى بن أب شيبة بإسناد صحيح من رواية أب صال السمان عن مالك الداري وكان خازن عمر قال أصاب الناس قحط ف زمن عمر فجاء رجل إل‬
‫قب النب صلى ال عليه وسلم فقال يا رسول ال استسق لمتك فإنم قد هلكوا فأتى الرجل ف النام فقيل ه ائت عمر الديث وقد روى سيف ف‬
78
. ‫الفتوح أن الذي رأى النام الذكور هو بلل بن الارث الزن أحد الصحابة‬
Ibn Abi Shaibah reported with a rigorously authentic ( saheeh ) chain of narration by way of
Abu Saalih al-Samaan from Maalik al-Dar, who was the treasurer of Umar, said:

. 2/495 ، ‫ دار الفكر‬، ‫ فتح الباري‬78

 41

The people were afflicted with a drought during the time of Umar ibn al-Khattaab. [One
day] a man came to the grave of the Prophet and said: “O Messenger of Allah, pray
rain for your nation that they be given rain, for the people have well-nigh perished.” The
Messenger of Allah came to him in a dream and said to him, “Go to Umar79 [and give
him my salaam and tell him that they will get rain and tell him to be easy [on the
people].” The man came to Umar and told him that and he wept and said, “O Allah I
have not spared any effort except what was beyond my power.”]

Saif [ibn Umar al-Asadi al-Tameemi (d. 200 / 815; Baghdad)] in his book al-Futooh [al-
Kabeer]that the person who had the dream was Bilaal ibn al-Haarith al-Muzani, who was on
of the Companions.
Now it is with good reason that Ibn Hajr declared the hadith to be rigorously authentic ( saheeh
): the narrators with the exception of Maalik al-Daar are all great imams, narrators of the highest
caliber and reliability, narrators depended upon by none less than Imam al-Bukhari and Imam
Muslim.
Know that the chain of narration is this: Ibn Abi Shaibah from Abu Mu‘aawiyah from al-
A‘mash from Abu Saalih from Maalik al-Daar.
Now Ibn Abi Shaibah, the author of the huge and famous collection of hadith known as
Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaibah in which the athar we are concerned with is reported, according to
what Ibn Hajr says in his Taqreeb al-Tahdheeb (3575), an abridged dictionary of the narrators of
hadith in the six standard collections, is Abu Bakr Abd Allah ibn Muhammad of Kufah (d. 235),
who he said is ‫ ثقة حافظ‬/ thiqah haafiz (“utterly reliable, having a vast memory”), a double term,
which, as Ibn Hajr mentions in the introduction to his book, indicates the highest degree of
reliability after the Companions; this is the degree of the imams from whom we ask about other
narrators while no one asks about them. Ahmad and al-Bukhaari and Muslim and Abu Haneefah
and Malik and men like them are in this category. Imam al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawood, al-
Nisaa’i and Ibn Maajah of the six imams reported hadith from Ibn Abu Bakr Abi Shaibah, who is
to be distinguished from his brother Uthmaan who was also an utterly reliable narrator.
Abu Mu‘aawiyah is Muhammad ibn Khaazim of Kufah (d. 195) who Ibn Hajr mentioned (5841)
is ‫ ثقة أحفظ الناس لحديث العمش وقد يثم في حديث غيره‬/ “utterly reliable, the most reliable of people concerning
the hadith of al-A‘mash though he might sometimes make mistakes in the hadith of others.” He
indicated that his hadith were reported by all six of the imams (that is Bukhari, Muslim, Abu
Dawood, al-Tirmidhi, al-Nisaa’i, and Ibn Maajah). [Attention Muhammad Yusaf: Abu Mu‘aawiyah
was among those that was accused of Irjaa’ though his hadith are reported by al-Bukhari.]
Al-A ‘mash according to Ibn Hajr (2615) is Sulaimaan ibn Mihraan al-Asadi of Kufah (d. 147),
who he described with the double term ‫ ثقة حافظ‬the same as Ibn Abi Shaibah. However, he
mentioned that he indulges in tadlees, that is he used occasionally to omit the name of his
shaikh in hadith while naming the shaikh of his shaikh in such a way that the listener would be
led to believe that it was another person from . However, as Ibn Hajr mentioned in his booklet
on the subject of tadlees, there are different degrees of tadlees: the first and second degrees
are of such a mild and unserious nature that as Ibn Hajr avers their hadith are accepted without
prejudice and for this reason we find that al-Bukhari and Muslim filled their collections with the
hadith of al-A ‘mash even when he reported saying “from so and so” instead of saying “so and
so reported to me” or “so and so narrated to me.”
Ibn Hajr was not the only imam to judge this athar to be rigorously authentic for before him
Ibn Katheer etc.

Those who seek any flimsy pretence to reject this hadith mention that Saif, who reported
that the person who addressed the Prophet was Bilaal al-Haarthi, is weak; however as
Mahmood Sa‘eed Mamdooh, one of the leading muhaddiths of this day, said in his Raf‘ al-
Manaarah fi Takhreej Ahaadeeth al-Tawassul wa al-Ziyaarah, regardless of whether or not we
hold Bilaal to be a Companion the proof in this hadith is afforded by the acquiescence of Umar,

79
Ibn Hajr did not complete the hadith which I have anyways completed here within brackets; rather Ibn
Hajr wrote al-hadith which according to the convention of the ulama means and so on to the end of the
hadith; we would say something like etc. in such a situation. I have completed the hadith from the report
of Ibn Abi Shaibah as it was cited by Mahmood Sa‘eed Mamdooh in his Raf‘ al-Manaarah fi Takhreej
Ahaadeeth al-Tawassul wa al-Ziyaarah (1417/1997), p. 262.
 42

for were seeking the Prophet’s prayer after his death prohibited, Umar would have
reprimanded him, whereas he accepted his deed and believed in his vision for he wept upon
hearing the Prophet’s instruction for him. The same point was made by al-Kauthari in his
Mahq al-Taqawwul where he expressed that the fact that this story was brought to the attention
of Umar without him objecting shows that what that man did was acceptable to all of the
Companions because the news of whatever is brought to the attention of any caliph becomes
well-known and widespread, yet no one objected that that was a bid'ah or shirk.
Al-Kauthari further pointed out that in this hadith we see that the Prophet prayed for the
Muslims after he had left this world and gone to barzakh, that is the world of the grave, and
moreover that he understood what the petitioner asked him. Furthermore, the Prophet
influenced things in this world by appearing in a dream and telling the man who petitioned him
to go to Umar and tell him that they would get rain and that Umar should be gentle.
Another contemporary specialist in hadith, Shaikh Muhammad Abd al-Hakeem Sharaf al-
Qaadari, of Lahore Pakistan, has discussed the question of tawassul with special reference to
Athar Maalik al-Dar in an excellent booklet published in Arabic under the title ‫دراسة علمية حول مبحث‬
‫ التوسل مع تحقيق أثر بلل بن الحارث المزني الصحابي رضي ال عنه‬/ Diraasah ‘ilmiyyah haula mabhath al-tawassul ma‘
tahqeeq athar Bilaal ibn al-Haarith al-Muzani al-Sahaabi (1408/1988). Shaikh Abd al-Hakeem
cited the works of no less than sixteen works of famous muhaddithon who mentioned this hadith
with approval including Ibn Taimiyyah.

• Ibn Abi Shaibah in his al-Musannif

• Ibn Abi Khaithamah according to al-Isaabah of Ibn Hajr
• Al-Baihaqi in his Dalaa'il al-Nuboowah
• Al-Khaleeli in his al-Irshaad
• Ibn Abd al-Barr in his al-Isti'aab

As we have seen from the citation of Ibn Hajr he declared the athar of Maalik al-Daar to be
rigorously authentic; Shaikh Mahmood mentioned that Ibn Katheer also mentioned that it was
rigorously authentic while he said Ibn Taimiyyah acknowledged it to be an established report in
his Iqtidaa’ Siraat al-Mustaqeem. Shaikh Mahmood said Ibn Katheer mentioned that the athar
was rigorously authentic in two places, one his al-Bidaayah wa al-Nihaayah, and the other his
Jaami ‘ al-Masaaneed.80
Shaikh Mahmood mentioned that notwithstanding the authentication of the athar by the
above-mentioned imams, Nasr al-Albaani and others tried to discredit this hadith in a number of
ways because it goes against his persuasion. We will consider now those criticisms and
objections. Those who are satisfied with the judgment of the above three imams may like to
skip this section and go on to the next; they are invited to do so unless they wish to see a live
sampling of the subterfuges that Albani and the likes of him are wont to resort to in defending
their prepossessions. The section will also instruct the unwary how easily one might be
deceived if one takes Albani’s assertions about hadith and narrators of hadith at face value
rather than checking what unbiased and trustworthy authorities have said on the matter.

Rejoinder to the criticisms of Athar Malik al-Dar made by Shaikh Albaani and
others

Shaikh Albaani and others tried to discount the athar alleging the following five points:

1. Al-A‘mash, who figures in its chain of narration ( sanad ) is known to be a mudallis, that is
to say one who reports something from the shaikh of his shaikh in a way that gives the
impression that he heard directly from his shaikh Abu Saalih, and he has used to wording
“from” rather than “reported to me” or “narrated to me” which means that whether or

‫ وقال‬، 2/495 ‫ وابن حجر ف الفتح‬، 7/101 ‫ وقد صحّحه الافظان ابن كثي ف البداية‬، ‫ قلت إسناده صحيح‬: 263 ‫ ص‬، ‫ ونصّ كلم الشيخ ممود كما ف رفع النارة له‬80
. 373 ‫ إسناده جيد قوي اهـ وأقر ابن تيمية بثبوته ف اقتضاء صراط الستقيم ص‬: 1/223 – ‫ابن كثي ف جامع السانيد – مسند عمر‬
 43

not he heard directly from Abu Saalih is not known. That means the hadith is
discontinuous and therefore weak.
2. Maalik al-Dar is majhool, that is to say his ‘adaalah / “integrity” is not established.81
3. There is suspicion of discontinuity between Abu Saalih and Maalik al-Daar.
4. Even if the athar is rigorously authentic still it affords no proof since the athar revolves
upon the statement of a person who is unknown since Saif’s claim that he is Bilaal ibn al-
Haarith is inadmissible given the fact that the authorities are agreed that Saif himself is
weak. This criticism has already been answered above.
5. Maalik

[NB: Continue from here.] and he claimed that Malik al-Dar is unknown. Now the first thing to be
said in answer to this objection to the hadith is the most of the fuqaha’ of this ummah consider
the Companions the Followers and the Followers of the Followers as all rigorously reliable so in
their opinion even if Malik al-Dar is unknown that would not impair the hadith and it is the
fuqaha’ who have the final word in what serves as a valid proof for the rules of the shariah since
it is they are the competent authorities in this field and those who are qualified to choose and
infer. Nonetheless, al-Bukhari in his Taareekh, which is a dictionary of narrators, said he was
known and so did Ibn Sa‘d in his Tabaqaat, which is an encyclopedic work of biography on
Companions and Followers. Ibn Hajr in his biographical article on Maalik al-Daar in his al-
Isaabah (which contains biographical information on 12,000 Companions) said that Maalik al-
Daar is utterly reliable ( thiqah ) and that means his identity was not only know but that his utter
reliability was also established. Ibn Hajr said that neither Umar nor Uthman would ever put a
man in charge of the public treasury for the poor unless he was utterly reliable and he quoted
the great muhaddith, the expert on narrators and the status of hadith, Ali al-Madeeni, (d. 234
/849) to that effect. Indeed, Ibn Hajr claimed in his al-Isaabah that the Malik al-Dar was a junior
Companion, that is one who saw the Prophet when he, the Companion, was young, and if that
is true then there is no question about the reliability of Maalik al-Dar among the muhaddiths
either. Mahmood Sa‘eed Mamdooh and Shaikh Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Yahya, a contemporary
‘alim and author of a devastating refutation of al-Albaani’s book on tawassul, pointed out that
Ibn Hajr said that this hadith was saheeh in his Fath al-Bari, as we have already seen, and
Shaikh Mahmood said that Ibn Katheer also said it was saheeh in his al-Bidaayah wa al-Nihaayah
and even Ibn Taimiyah said it was an established hadith ( thaabit ) in his Iqtidaa Siraat al-
Mustaqeem. Knowing that, whoever refuses to accept the hadith is clearly more interested in
rescuing prepossessed opinions and pulling the party line than in opening up to the truth.
Albaani had other objections to the hadith all of which were answered at length by Shaikh
Mahmood in fourteen pages of discussion. Given that the hadith was authenticated by
authorities of far greater stature and competence than Albani I see no need to prolong the
discussion here by attending to the inept objections of Albani—a drowning man clutches at
straws.

There are other authentic hadiths that show that the dead can pray for the living and that
they are aware of what happens to the living. One of them is known as the hadith of the
presentation of deeds which al-Bazzaar reported from Ibn Masud that the Prophet said:

‫ وما رأيت من شر استغفرت ل‬، ‫ فما رأيت من خي حدت ال عليه‬، ‫ ووفات خي لكم تعرض عل يّ أعمالكم‬، ‫حيات خي لكم تدثون ويدث لكم‬
. ‫لكم‬
My life is good for you because you ask me questions and I answer them and my death is
good for you because your deeds will be presented to me, so what I see is good I will
thank Allah for that and what I see that is bad I will ask Allah to forgive you.

Wahbi Sulaiman Ghaawiji, a contemporary Syrian scholar, in his annotation to al-Kauthari's

article on al-tawassul, which Shaikh Wahbi published himself, said that the hadith was reported
by al-Bazaar (d. 292 / 905; Ramla) in his al-Musnad and that al-Suyooti (d. 911 / 1505; Cairo)
said that it was saheeh, and Shaikh Mahmood Sa‘eed Mamdooh mentioned that al-Suyooti said
that in his book al-Khasaa’is as well as in his book Takhreej Ahaadeeth al-Shifaa’, and both of

. ‫ الكلم هنا ف جهالة الال ل ف جهالة العي إذ مالك معروف العي بل مرية إذ روى عنه أكثر من اثنان‬81
 44

them mentioned that Noor al-Din al-Haithami (d. 807 / 1405; Cairo), the author of the hadith
collection Majma‘ al-Zawaa’id, said the hadith’s narrators are narrators used by al-Bukhari in his
al-Saheeh, and Zain al-Din al-Iraqi and his son Wali al-Din al-Iraqi both said that it was good and
al-Nawawi? and Ibn Hajr al-Asqalaani [where?] and al-Munaawi (d. 1031 / 1622; Cairo) reported
these authentications of the hadith. Mahmood Sa‘eed Mamdooh mentioned some of the above
authentications and affirmed that the hadith was rigorously authentic. His teacher, the
muhaddith Abd Allah al-Ghumaari (d. 1413 / 1993; Tanja), wrote a whole book on this hadith
which has been published under the name Nihaayah al-Aamaal fi Sharh was Tasheeh Hadith ‘Ard
al-A‘maal and he mentioned in it twenty different chains of narration for it and other
Companions have also reported it.

Quite a number of great authorities among the muhaddithoon and fuqahaa’ have written
books and essays on the subject to debunk the claim of Ibn Taimiyyah that tawassul is an
unauthorized innovation or shirk as he often insinuated and as many Salafis today insist. One of
the first to write in defense of tawassul was Taqi al-Din al-Subki; he did that in the book we have
already cited above named Shifaa’ al-Siqaam. A follower of Ibn Taimiyyah, indeed one of his
student a man named Ibn Abd al-Haadi82 (d. 744 / 1343; Damascus) tried to refute al-Subki in a
work he named Al-Sarim al-Munki fi Radd ‘ala al-Subki but he did not address the main issues or
successfully show that al-Subki’s authentication of relevant hadith was untenable or that his
interpretation those hadith was incorrect and rather he bickered about petty details as was
shown by Noor al-Din al-Samhoodi83 (d. 911 / 1506; Medinah) in his Nusrah al-Imaam al-Subki bi
Radd al-Saarim al-Munki. Muhammad Zahid al-Kauthari (d. 1371 / 1952; Cairo), the former
Deputy Grand Mufti of the Ottoman Empire and one of the most outstanding theologians and
muhaddiths of the fourteenth century of Islam, mentioned that quite a number of people wrote
works refuting Ibn Abd al-Haadi and among those that he mentioned in addition to al-Samhoodi
who I mentioned above were Ibn Hajr al-‘Asqalaani (d. 852 / 1449; Cairo) in his al-Inaarah bi
Turuq Ahaadith al-Ziyaarah and Muhammad ibn ‘Alaan al-Siddiqi (d. 1057 / 1647; Makkah) in his
al-Mubarrid al-Mubki fi Radd al-Saarim al-Munki. Ibn Hajr al-Haitami took up the issue of
debunking Ibn Taimiyyah’s claims in his al-Jauhar al-Munazzam fi Ziyaarah al-Nabi al-Mu‘azzam
and I have translated a relevant section of that work that was quoted by Yusaf ibn Ismaa’il al-
Nabhaani (d. 1350 /1932; Palestine), the former Mufti of Beirut in his Shawaahid al-Haqq which is
a large book dedicated to the question of intercession and tawassul. Al-Kauthari said that the
best work ever written on the subject from the point of view of enumerating and discussing the
relevant hadith was the book Jawaaz al-Istighaathah wa al-Tawassul by the Hanafi imam and
muhaddith of Medinah, Muhammad ‘Aabid al-Sindi (d. 1257 / 1843; Medinah).84 In recent times
in response to wide spread Salafi propaganda quite a number of excellent works have been
written on the subject. We have already referred to al-Nabhaani’s Shawaahid al-Haqq. Among
other works is a book to which we have already had occasion to refer in this essay, Mahq
al-Taqawwal fi Mas’alah al-Tawassul by al-Kauthari which was published in 1417/1997 with
copious footnotes and an introduction by the Syrian scholar Wahbi Sulaimaan Ghaawiji. Shaikh
Ghaawaji included in that publication a number excellent articles on the subject by the
muhaddith of Azhar Shaikh Yusaf Ahmad Dijwi (d. 1365 / 1946; Cairo) which both first appeared
in Azhar University’s monthly magazine, Majallah al-Azhar in 1350/1931. Another excellent work
dedicated to the subject of tawassul intercession and visiting the grave of the Prophet is Abd
Allah al-Ghumaari’s (d. 1413 / 1993; Tanja)al-Radd al-Huhkam al-Mubeen ‘Ala al-Qaul al-
Mubeen85 and his Irghaam al-Mubtadi ‘ al-Ghabi bi Jawaaz al-Tawassul bi al-Nabbi (1409/1989)
which is a very short but excellent work establishing the authenticity of the hadith of the blind

82
His name was Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abd al-Haadi but he is more famous by the name Ibn Abd al-
Haadi. He is the author of a large number of books including a famous biography of Ibn Taimiyyah.
83
His name was Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Abd Allah ibn Ahmad al-Hasani, a Shafi ‘alim who was Mufti of
Medinah: he is famous for his book on the history of Medinah called Wafaa’ al-Wafaa’bi Akhbaar Dar al-
Mustafaa in which he also took up the issue of tawassul and intercession in considerable detail.
84
His name was Muhammad ‘Aabid ibn ‘Ali al-Sindi al-Ansaari. He was a great muhaddith. A
contemporary Syrian scholar, Saa’id Bakdaash of Medinah, has written a book on his life and works. Al-
Sindi’s commentary on al-Durr al-Mukhtaar rivals Ibn ‘Aabideen’s Radd al-Muhtaar in thoroughness and
exhaustiveness; he called it Tawaali ‘ al—Anwaar ‘ala Durr al-Mukhtaar. Al-Sindi’s Jawaaz al-Istighaathah
wa al-Tawassul according to al-Zirikli’s al-‘Alaam is to be found in manuscript form in the library of Rabat in
Morrocco known as Khazaanah al-Rabaat, ( Majmoo‘ah al-Kataani 1756).
85
(Cairo: Maktabah al-Qaahirah, 2nd ed. 1406/1986)
 45

man reported by al-Tirmidhi and others that we will mention presently and refuting the attempts
of Albani to dismiss the hadith as weak. I have already translated this latter work. Another
excellent modern work on the same topic is Mafaahim Tajibu An Tusahh by the late Sayyid
Muhammad Ali al-Maliki of Makkah (d. 1425 /2004; Makkah) as also his Shifaa’ al-Fu’aad bi
Ziyaarah Khair al-‘Ibaad and his Minhaaj al-Salaf fi Fahm al-Nusoos. Another modern work that
treats the question exhaustively is Musa Muhammad ‘Ali’s Haqeeqah al-Tawassul wa al-
Waseelah.86 Lastly I will mention the monumental work of the contemporary Egytian muhaddith
to whom along with his book(d. 1031 / 1622; Cairo) I have already referred, Mahmood Sa‘eed al-
Mamdooh, Raf‘ al-Manaarah li Takhreej Ahaadeeth al-Tawassul wa al-Ziyaarah. In this work
Shaikh Mahmood discussed a good number of hadith related to both the question of tawassul
and visiting the grave of the Prophet in exhaustive detail quoting what the great muhaddiths
of the past had said about the hadith and wherever necessary discussing in an expert manner
the status of the individual narrators of the hadith according to the opinions of the competent
authorities. In doing so Shaikh Mahmood dealt with objections raised by Ibn Taimiyyah and Ibn
Abd al-Hadi and Albaani and the likes of them in a truly masterful way. The work is a veritable
tour de force in the field of criticism of narrators and the principles of the science of hadith; it
leaves little room for controversy.

There is no help and no harm no deliverance and no forgiveness except with Allah and in this we
fully agree with Ibn Taimiyyah who stated in his al-Fataawaa:

‫ وأن كل غوث فمن عنده وإن كان جعل ذلك على يدي غيه فالقيقة له‬، ‫يب على كل مكلف أن يعلم أن ل غوث ول مغيث على الطلق إل ال‬
87
. ‫سبحانه وتعال ولغيه ماز‬
Every responsible person is obliged to know that there is no absolutely no deliverance and
no deliverer except Allah and that any help is from Him alone and that if it is ascribed to
other than Him [in the Book and the sunnah and sayings of the Companions and al-salaf ]
then it is actually His help exalted and glorious is He though it is ascribed to others in a
manner of speaking ( majaaz ).

Note for insertion at appropriate place

Ibn Taimiyyah stated in his al-Fataawaa 1:211:

‫فنقول قول السائل ل تعال أسألك بق فلن وفلن من اللئكة والنبياء والصالي وغيهم أو باه فلن أو برمة فلن يقتضى أن هؤلء لم عند ال‬
‫جاه وهذا صحيح فإن هؤلء لم عند ال منلة وجاه وحرمة يقتضى أن يرفع ال درجاتم ويعظم أقدارهم ويقبل شفاعتهم إذا شفعوا مع أنه سبحانه‬
‫قال من ذا الذى يشفع عنده إل بإذنه ويقتضى أيضا أن من اتبعهم واقتدى بم فيما سن له القتداء بم فيه كان سعيدا ومن أطاع أمرهم الذى بلغوه عن‬
‫ال كان سعيدا ولكن ليس نفس مرد قدرهم وجاههم ما يقتضى إجابة دعائه إذا سأل ال بم حت يسأل ال بذلك بل جاههم ينفعه أيضا إذا اتبعهم‬
. ‫وأطاعهم فيما أمروا به عن ال أو تأسى بم فيما سنوه للمؤمني وينفعه أيضا إذا دعوا له وشفعوا فيه‬
We declare: A person’s petition to Allah—exalted is He—that I ask You for the sake of [literally by
the right of] so and so of the angels or the prophet or one of the righteous or other than them or
by the honor of so and so or by the holiness [ hurmah ] of so and so requires that those have
honor in the sight of Allah, and that is correct.

Shaikh al-Islam Shams al-Din Ibn Muflih (d. 763 / 1362; Damascus) was a Hanbali imam of
exalted stature, a student of Ibn Taimiyyah and al-Dhahabi and al-Mizzi. About whom Ibn al-
Qayyim said: “There is no one under the done of the stars more learned about the madhhab of
Imam Ahmad than Ibn Muflih,”88 and al-Mardaawi in the introduction to his al-Insaaf said about
him and his famous and highly authoritative book Kitaab al-Furoo‘: “If there is a difference of
opinion among the companions [the Hanbali ulama] about which of conflicting opinions is the
sounder one then what is to be relied upon in order to ascertain the [dependable] madhhab is
what the author [that is, Ibn Qudaamah] and Majd [Ibn Taimiyyah (d.652 / 1254; Harran) the
86

. ‫ مصورة من الطبعة الول للحكومة السعودية‬، ‫ طبعة مؤسسة الرسالة ببيوت‬، 111-1/110 ، ‫ مموعة فتاوى ابن تيمية‬87
. ‫م‬1997 ، ‫ الطبعة الول‬، ‫ بيوت‬، ‫ دار الصادر‬، 5/118 ، ‫ لجي الدين ال ُعلَيْمِي التوف سنة‬، ‫ النهج الحد ف تراجم أصحاب المام أحد‬88
 46

grandfather of our Taqi Ibn Taimiyyah with whom we content] and the author of al-Furoo‘ and the
author of al-Qawaa‘id al-Fiqhiyyah [Ibn Rajab] … ”and he named some eight more great
authorities and then mentioned, “and if they disagreed then the madhhab is what the author of
al-Furoo‘ opted for in most issues but if he simply said they disagreed then the madhhab is what
the ‘Two Shaikhs’ said, I mean to say the author [Ibn Qudaamah] and Majd.” Now this statement
illustrious imam to whose opinion the ulama of the madhhab resort when there is controversy
said in his opus work al-Furoo‘ :
One stroke of sharp saber
A bright burst of dawn,
A dark night has lifted;
With its dragon is gone