Prophet saws and wasila
Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,
As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. (May Allah's
Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)
One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:
Assalamo Alaikum
Brother you first told that don`t take the wasila of anyone else`s even of
Prophet Muhammad (saws), this is not his teaching. Now in question about Adhan
you are talking about wasila of Prophet Muhammad (saws).
Jabir reported that the Prophet (saws) said, "Whoever says (after) hearing
the call to prayer, `O Allah, Lord of this complete call and of the established
prayers, grant Muhammad the place of wasilah, the most virtuous place, and
raise him to a praiseworthy position that you have promised him,` will have my
intercession made permissible for him on the Day of Judgement. (Related by
al-Bukhari.)
Allah Hafiz
(There
may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum
does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from
our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)
Answer:
In the
name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness.
Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray,
none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no
person, no grave, no prophet, no imam,
no dai, nobody!) worthy of
worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad(saws) is His
slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.
Dear and
beloved brother in Islam, there is no doubt that there is a concept of ‘shafaa’
or intercession in Islam; and when taken in the right context it clearly
strengthens the concept of ‘Tawheed’ or Oneness of Allah Subhanah, where the
Majestic Lord is the One Who Alone chooses who will be the intercessor and who
will be those for whom intercession can be accepted by Him.
Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 39 Surah Zumar verses 44: What! Have they taken besides Allah others as
‘shofa’a’ (intercessors)? Say to them,
“Will they intercede even if they have no power whatever nor understanding?” Say, “Shafa’a is wholly in the Power of
Allah Alone!”. His is the Kingdom
of the heavens and the earth. Then to
Him you will be returned.
Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 34 Surah Saba verse 26: Say,
“Our Lord will gather us all together,
then He will Judge between us with Truth. He Alone is the One Who Decides, and He Alone Knows everything.”
Allah
Subhanah has reserved ‘a’ place of honor in
'Abdullah
ibn 'Amr related that the Messenger of Allah (saws) said, "If you hear the
call to prayer, repeat after it. Then supplicate for me, for whoever makes one
supplication for me, Allah makes ten for him. Then ask Allah to grant me the
place of wasilah. It is a place in
Related by Muslim.
Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 17 Surah Israa verse 79: And pray in the small watches of the morning: (it would be) an
additional prayer (or spiritual profit) for thee (O Prophet (saws)): soon will
thy Lord raise thee (O Prophet (saws)) to a station of ‘Mahmuda’ (praise and
glory)
Sahih Al-Bukhari Hadith 1.331 Narrated
by Jabir bin Abdullah
The Prophet (saws) said, "I have been given five things
which were not given to any one else before me.
1. Allah made me
victorious by awe, (by His frightening my enemies) for a distance of one month's
journey.
2. The earth has been
made for me (and for my followers) a place for praying and a thing to perform
Tayammum, therefore anyone of my followers can pray wherever the time of a
prayer is due.
3. The booty has been
made Halal (lawful) for me yet it was not lawful for anyone else before me.
4. I have been
given the right of intercession (on the Day of Resurrection).
5. Every Prophet used
to be sent to his nation only but I have been sent to all mankind.
Thus in
essence, and when taken in the right context, there is a provision for
intercession on the Day of Judgement in Islam; but the determination of who
will be the intercessor and who will receive intercession is something that the
Majestic and Supreme Lord Alone will Decide and Decree.
Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 20 Surah Taha verses 108-109: On
that Day the people will come straight to the call of the summoner! No one will dare show any haughtiness, and all the voices will be hushed before the
Merciful and you will hear nothing but a whispering mumur. On that Day,
no intercession shall avail save his, whom the Merciful may allow to
intercede and be pleased to give him a hearing.
Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 19 Surah Maryam verses 87: (On
that Day) no one shall have the ability to make ‘shafaa’, except the one who may have received
permission from the Merciful.
But
unfortunately, what some misguided people have done is, from themselves and
without any right whatsoever, they have chosen their own intercessors to
intercede for them on the Day of Judgement!
This is a thoroughly wrong and fatal interpretation of the concept of
intercession the misguided people have invented for themselves, whereby they
start doing deeds to please their intercessors, and thus associate themselves
with the heinous and unforgivable sin of ‘shirk’!
It is
this false interpretation of ‘waseelah’ or intercession which the misguided
people have invented for themselves, which is absolutely and completely
baseless and which has been sufficiently declared as an absolute falsehood in
various Aayahs in the Holy Quran.
Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 6 Surah Anam verse 94: (And
Allah will say), “So, you have come
before Us all alone, as We created you
at first. Now, you have left behind all that We gave you in
the world. Now We do not see with you
those ‘shufa’a’(intercessors), who, you believed, had a share in moulding your destinies! All the relations between you and them have
been cut off, and all those, in whom you trusted, have left you in the lurch.”
Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 10 Surah Yunus
verse 18: These people worship beside Allah those which can neither harm
nor benefit them, and say, “These are our ‘shofa’a’ (intercessors) with
Allah!” O Mohammed, tell them, “Do
you wish to inform Allah of that thing which He knows to be neither in the
heavens nor in the earth?” He is
absolutely free from, and exalted above
the shirk that they commit.
Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 41 Surah Ha Meem Sajdah verse 47-48: Then on the Day when Allah will
call out to the people asking, “Where are those associates of Mine?” They will say, “We have submitted: there is none of us to bear witness to that.” At that time, all those deities whom they used to invoke
before this, shall be lost to
them, and they will realize that they
have no refuge.
A simple
worldly example will make the matter of intercession very clear. On the day of graduation from any university,
the moderators of the university invite and honor a ‘chief guest’ to give away
the certificates to those who have passed their examinations. It is the moderators of the university alone
who decide who will be their ‘chief guest’ and who amongst the students have
passed the examinations, and will thus receive their graduation
certificates. Neither the ‘chief guest’
nor the students have the right or privilege to choose their ‘chief guest’, nor
does the ‘chief guest’ have a right to award the graduation certificate to the
student who has failed the examinations.
It is the moderators of the university who alone decide who will be the
‘chief guest’ and it is they alone who determine who amongst the students
deserve to be certified.
Similarly,
Allah Subhanah will honor one amongst His fortunate slaves and grant him the
place called ‘Al-Waseelah’, and Allah Subhanah will choose whomever He Wills to
forgive, and then honor this fortunate person of ‘Al-Waseelah’ if he would
intercede for them; and that fortunate person will thus be honored as the
‘intercessor’ in the Presence of all mankind on the Day of Judgment! Neither the intercessor nor those who are
being forgiven will have the power to make any decisions on that Day, for it
will be Allah Subhanah Alone Who will be the Maalik of that Inevitable Day of
Judgment!
We humbly
pray and beseech the Merciful Lord that He honor and bless and grant this lofty
and honorable status of ‘Al-Waseelah’ to our beloved Prophet, Mohamed ar-Rasool
Allah (saws) on the Day of Judgment; and we, in all humility and hope and
extreme fear, beg our Lord that we be amongst those whom Allah Subhanah has
chosen to be forgiven and thus granted the intercession of the noble Messenger
of Allah (saws). Ameen.
My
beloved and dear Brother in Islam, this concept of ‘waseelah’ and intercession
is so pivotal, that when taken in the wrong context, has allowed the Shaytaan
to lead many amongst mankind to the heinous and unforgivable path of
‘shirk’! Without exception, all the
nations that were destroyed and related by Allah Subhanah in the Glorious Quran
were victims of this false belief of intercession, whereby they invented their
own deities and invoked them to intercede for them in the Presence of the
Majestic Lord; and thus became involved in the heinous sin of ‘shirk’!
Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 39 Surah Zumur verse 2-3: So worship Allah
Alone, making your religion His
exclusively. Beware! Religion is the exclusive Right of Allah. As for those who have taken other ‘auliyas’
(guardians) with Allah (and justify their this conduct by saying): “We serve
them only that they may bring us closer to Allah.” Allah will surely judge between them
concerning all that in which they differ.
Allah does not show guidance to any liar and denier of the Truth.
It is
indeed unfortunate, that even after having believed in the Quran and in the
Last Messenger of Allah (saws), many amongst the Muslim Ummah have fallen in
this exact same trap of Shaytaan and chosen their own intercessors without any
right or authority! They invoke the
graves of their intercessors, celebrate and commemorate their birthdays and
their death-days, feed people in their names, and invoke them at all times to
intercede for them in the Presence of Allah Subhanah for all their needs! Little do they realize that this is precisely
the sin of ‘shirk’ that overwhelmed those nations who were destroyed by Allah
Subhanah before them!
May Allah
Subhanah have mercy on the Muslim Ummah and save them from this evil and
heinous temptation of the Shaytaan who leads them to ‘shirk’.
Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 16 Surah Nahl verse 98-100: Then, when you begin to recite the Quran, seek Allah’s refuge against the accursed
Shaitaan, for he has no power over those
who believe and put their trust in Allah.
Shaitaan has power (to inspire)
only over those people, who make him
their patron, and practice ‘shirk’ by
his temptation.
My
beloved and dear Brother in Islam, if in spite of our best efforts, and due to
the shortcomings in our writing and explanations, if we have not been able to
completely clarify this concept of ‘waseelah’ , or if there is any doubt in
your mind regarding this concept of ‘intercession’; we humbly request you to
ask us or any good scholar as many questions as you may like to clarify and
fully understand this concept of ‘intercession’ from the Truth of the Quran and
Sunnah. This concept is so pivotal in
the deen, that if understood or taken in the wrong context, it leads straight
to the path of the unforgivable and heinous sin of ‘shirk’.
If one
trusts, obeys, and follows the guidance and commands of
Allah and His Messenger (saws), he can
be assured of never ever being misled;
but if one believes, obeys and
follows any other guidance, other than
that of Allah and His Messenger (saws),
he can be assured of being led astray.
Whatever
written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance,
and whatever of error is of me. Allah
Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.
Your Brother in Islam,
Burhan
Wister