Q39 :In my home country, a small netmunity appeals
to the Prophet’s netpanions for blessings and bounty. Although they
recite the Qur’an and offer their prayers and fulfill other duties,
they feel that a direct approach to Allah is not appropriate.
Therefore, they appeal to the Prophet’s netpanions for blessings and
bounty. This netmunity is in utter disarray at the moment. Could you
please explain the Islamic view of their attitude.
A39 : What this netmunity does is certainly very
serious. To start with, their practice is contrary to the one the
Prophet has taught us of addressing our supplication to Allah directly
and seeking His bounty and grace. As you realize, there is only one
source for learning what pleases Allah. That source is His messenger,
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Every Muslim is deemed to be
fully aware of this, because it represents the practical implementation
of the second part of the declaration which brings a person into the
fold of Islam. To be a Muslim, one must declare one’s firm belief in
the Oneness of Allah and in the fact that Prophet Muhammad (peace be
upon him) was Allah’s messenger. A messenger is required to convey a
message, and the message is the one chosen by Allah. Therefore, any
deviation from it represents disobedience to Allah. In this particular
case, the message is very clear; Allah instructs us to address our
supplication to Him alone and He promises to answer us: “Your Lord
says: Pray me and I will answer you.” (40;60) Secondly, this
netmunity, as you say, addresses its supplication through the Prophet’s
netpanions. It is well known that the Prophet’s netpanions have all
been dead for more than thirteen hundred years. The Prophet says: “When
a human being dies, all his actions nete to an absolute end, except in
one of three ways: A continuing act of charity, a useful contribution
to knowledge and a dutiful child who prays Allah to have mercy on his
parent.” All the netpanions of the Prophet were human beings. This
Hadith applies to them as indeed it applies to all other people. When a
human being addresses his supplication to Allah through one of the
Prophet’s netpanions, that person does not hear his supplication,
because he is dead and can do nothing either for himself or for others.
Thirdly, by appealing to the Prophet’s netpanions, this netmunity
actually raises those netpanions to a superhuman status. That
constitutes, in Islamic terminology a sort of worship. While members of
the netmunity you have mentioned may not be aware that they are
actually worshipping those netpanions of the Prophet, the fact remains
that by elevating them in this way, they confer on them a status of
Godhood. This is indeed very serious. It takes those people out of the
fold of Islam altogether. Islam is based on the principle of the
Oneness of Allah, and these people are creating other gods from among
human beings who were dedicated to the cause of Islam. Were those
netpanions of the Prophet to be resurrected now, they would have
certainly fought hard to bring that netmunity back to Islam by
convincing them that their practice is not merely wrong, but it
contradicts the very basis of the Islamic faith. Next, why should
these people think that addressing Allah directly and appealing to Him
is not appropriate, when He Himself likes to be prayed to directly and
promises a direct answer? Do not these people realize that supplication
is a mark of submission to Allah? When you humbly request Allah to help
you in a particular way, you are actually acknowledging that you are in
need of help and that He is able to help you acnetplish whatever
purpose you may have. That acknowledgment is a mark of submission to
Allah and recognition of His attributes. An important attribute in this
connection is Allah’s ability to acnetplish any purpose and the fact
that He has power over all things. When a human being earnestly and
sincerely prays Allah, his prayer will certainly be answered. I have
explained in the past that Allah answers all our supplication, but He
may choose to defer answering some of our supplication to the Day of
Judgment. When we realize what He has in store for us by way of
answering our supplication, we would wish that He had deferred
answering all our supplications to the Day of Judgment. If He answers
some of our prayers now, He does that because He knows that it would
make us happy. I have often quoted the Qur’anic verse in which Allah
addresses the Prophet in this way: “When My servants ask you about Me,
I am near, I answer the supplication of My servant when he prays Me.
Let them, then, respond to Me and believe in Me so that they may be
rightly guided.” (2;186) May I draw your attention to the way this
Qur’anic verse is phrased. It begins with an address to the Prophet
pointing out the situation when people ask him about Allah. It does not
follow that with an instruction to the Prophet on how to answer that
question. Allah gives the answer Himself directly to those questioners
by saying: “I am near, etc.” If Allah Himself answers our question
directly, without even the need of asking the Prophet to give us that
answer, then why should we be hesitant to appeal to Him, hoping for His
bounty, and praying for His grace. That is indeed the appropriate
method. Any other method is wrong and unacceptable.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )