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:

Kindly pls send me answer to the following question:

One more thing, about Syedna, I have seen many miracles performed by him and we have personally witnessed it, ( after all channels exhausted), like people getting children by his blessing thru' Allah, people getting cured in good health again by his blessing thru' Allah and so on, the list is endless and this is no joke but real.  What have you to say about this?

Looking forward to your answer by return.

Your brother In Islam,

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Answer:

Miracles of Syedna

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and who-ever 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.

I just want to comment on your question, giving you clear evidence from the Holy Quran … so that we can understand this concept of Miracles from Allah.

You say that you have personally witnessed the miracles by the Syedna!!!! Brother, I want you to realize that what you might have witnessed is the Act of Allah, not a miracle. Lets take your example, that a couple does not have children and they went to the Syedna (or anybody or anything else) and made ‘arz’ or supplication for him to help them get a child from Allah. And as you have mentioned, they went to everybody and everything else and exhausted ‘all’ the channels to get a child, before they went to the Syedna. Then soon after this the couple had a child! And this is what you witnessed… that the couple had a child!!!!!

The truth is brother, that Allah tested the couple and held blessing them with a child for an appointed time. Allah wants to see what the couple does as a test … Do they implore, beg, supplicate, and invoke Allah Alone? Or, do they lose hope in Allah, and start finding their own helpers and supporters with Allah… thus they go to every grave and shrine or ‘pious’ person to help them with Allah? Thus, after exhausting ‘all’ the channels, this couple went to the Syedna. It so happened, that the time for the test set for this couple to remain childless got over and Allah blessed them with the child. If they had begged and invoked Allah Alone, they would still have got the same child at the same time! The Syedna (or anything else for that matter) made no difference in the birth of the child.

But since the last hope this couple had placed was on the Syedna, rather than always placing their hope in Allah Alone, they started thanking the Syedna for their new born child, instead of being grateful to the Creator, Allah Subhanah Alone! … For it was Allah Who blessed them with this child … and no one had any role or power to change or arrange for this child to be born!

Allah cites a similar case in the Holy Quran in Chapter 7 Surah Aaraft verses 189-198: Then, when a man covered a woman, she bore a light burden with which she moved about. But when she became heavy with it, both of them prayed together to Allah, their Lord: “If You give us a sound child, we will be grateful to you.” But when Allah gave them a child of sound body and sound mind, they both began to associate partners with Allah for His Favor. Allah is Exalted and far above what they associate with Him. How foolish are these people! They associate with Allah partners who do not create anything, but are themselves created! Who cannot help them nor have the power to help themselves! If you invite them to follow the Right Way, they will not follow you! It will be all the same for you whether you call them or keep silent. Those whom you invoke with Allah are MERE SERVANTS OF ALLAH LIKE YOU! Just invoke them, and if what you say of them be true, they will answer your prayers! Have they feet that they should walk with them? Or have they hands that they should hold with them? Or have they eyes that they should see with them? Or have they ears that they should hear with them? Tell them, O Mohammed, “Call up the partners you have set up, and then all of you sit down together and plot against me, and give me no respite. My Protector and Helper is Allah, Who has sent down this Book (Al Quran), and, it is He who protects the righteous people. On the contrary, those whom you call besides Allah, cannot help you nor can they even help themselves! Nay, if you call them to the Right Way, they cannot even hear what you say; though it would appear to you that they are looking at you, if fact, they do not see anything!

Subhan Allah! How Allah cites clear examples in the Quran to show us the clear difference between ‘tawheed’ and ‘shirk’!!!

The same thing is true with the healing of some of the people afflicted by the test of sickness from Allah. On the appointed time, it is Allah Who heals the disease. Whether they went to the Syedna or not, Allah would have removed the sickness on the appointed time. No one has any power to influence any of Allah’s Decisions.

Thus what you saw and call miracles of the Syedna, were in fact the Decree of our Lord and Creator Allah, which were bound to happen… whether the childless couple or the sick invoked the Syedna or not! At the end of the appointed term of their test, Allah would have blessed them if He Willed!

Brother, just lets use our commonsense for a minute! If the Syedna could indeed get a child from Allah, there would not be a single couple in his family who are childless, or even in the Bohra community! My own uncle and my own brother are childless, and they went to the Syedna (and every grave and place you can imagine) for years, to get a child of their own. My uncle died childless a couple of years ago, and my brother who is close to 50 years of age, is still childless! Now, because nothing happened, they say it is the Will of Allah and do not blame the Syedna for remaining childless. If the Syedna could indeed perform this miracle of getting a child from Allah to anyone that goes to him, there should not be a single childless person in the community!!! But that is obviously not the case!

If the Syedna could indeed perform a miracle and heal somebody’s disease, he should have performed this miracle on his late wife who died some years ago in London! He should have performed this ‘miracle’ on his late father or his family members, many of whom are still afflicted with sickness and many of whom have died of diseases. He should have performed this ‘miracle’ on his followers … and there would be no sickness or diseases in the community! Again, obviously, that is not the case!

The truth is, brother, the Syedna (or anybody or any grave for that matter) has no power at all to change or influence Allah’s Decrees and Decisions in the least … not here in this world, and neither in the Hereafter! These miracles that you say you ‘witnessed’ yourself, are nothing but the Decisions and Decrees of Allah Subhanah… and no one else.

All Allah wanted to do was test the person concerned, whether when inflicted with a calamity, he invokes and keeps his hopes with Allah Alone; or does he lose hope in Allah, and go to other ‘deities’ to get his job done. If he invokes Allah Alone, he passes the test; and if he invokes any other ‘deity’, he fails the test miserably and is involved in manifest ‘shirk’! Whether he invoked Allah Alone, or through any ‘deity’, at the end of the test as determined by Allah, he would have got what he hoped for anyways, if Allah has so Willed! Allah is Far Exalted and High above the things that they associate with Him.

This invocation of other beings and ‘deities’ with Allah, is exactly and precisely what Allah terms the heinous crime of ‘shirk’ in the Holy Quran! Allah wants the true believers to leave aside everything, and come to His Invocation and His Worship Alone. He states time and time again in the Glorious Quran, that these other beings whom people invoke have absolutely no power to do anything. All Power rests with Allah Alone.

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 7 Surah Aaraf verses 197: Those whom you call besides Allah, cannot help you, nor can they help themselves.

Here Allah declares that the ones who are invoked, cannot neither help you nor themselves! And then there are people who believe that the Syedna can do miracles!

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 34 Surah Saba verses 22: (O Prophet) say, “Call on those whom you invoke as deities besides Allah. They neither own an atom’s weight of anything in the heavens, nor in the earth. Nor have they anything to share in either, nor is any of them a helper of Allah”

Allah says that these ‘deities’ who are invoked are so powerless, that they do not even own an atoms’ weight of anything in the heavens and the earth, and nor are any of them a helper of Allah. How can this mere and powerless human possibly bless someone with a child or heal his disease?

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 22 Surah Hajj verses 13: Then, instead of Allah, he invokes those who can do him neither harm nor good. This is the last extremity of deviation. He invokes those who are more likely to do him harm, than good! What an evil ‘maula’ he chooses, and what an evil companion.

Allah calls invoking anybody other than Him, “The Last Extremity of Deviation!”. Because he lost hope in Allah and invoked other deities, Allah says that these deities became the ‘sabab’ for this person committing shirk and thus actually harmed him. Then Allah declares, “What an Evil Maula” this person chooses, and “What an evil companion”. Subhan Allah!

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 36 Surah Yaa Seen verses 74-75: Yet, they have set up others besides Allah, hoping that they would be helped! They (those invoked) do not have the power to help them, yet these people stand as an ever ready troop at their service!

And this is exactly what happens. Instead of being grateful to Allah, this person who got blessed with the child, becomes grateful to the Syedna, and stands with hands folded, head bowed, and even performs the ‘sajdah tus shukr’ in the Syedna’s presence! And all this he does as a sign of gratefulness for the ‘ehsaan’ done on him by the Syedna… whereas it was Allah Who did the favor upon him. Glorified is Allah and Exalted High above the ‘shirk’ these people commit!

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 22 Surah Hajj verse73: O mankind! A parable is related to you, so listen to it! Those on whom you call besides Allah, cannot create a fly, even though they may all combine together for this purpose! Nay! If a fly snatches away anything from them, they would have no power to release it from the fly! How weak are the those who petition, and how weak are those to whom they supplicate!

If anyone thinks that the Syedna or any of the other self-made intercessors have any power of Allah, they should read the above aayah carefully! Allah relates a parable to make us understand that these people whom we think have so much sway and influence with Allah to do any ‘miracle’ they want… in Truth are so helpless that even if all of them combined together they cannot create even an insignificant ‘fly’! (How could they possibly get someone a child!)

And if a fly snatches away anything from them, these supposedly ‘great’ and ‘powerful’ deities do not have the power to release it from them! This is how powerless and weak they are!

And people have created all these stories and fantasies of their ‘power’ and their ‘miracles’!!! Subhan Allah … Glorified is Allah above what they associate with Him.

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 10 Surah Yunus verses 106-107: And do not call besides Allah, any being that can neither do you any good nor any harm. For if you will do so, you shall be one of the doers of wrong. If Allah afflicts you with a calamity, there is none to remove it, but He Himself. Likewise, if Allah wills to bestow a favor on you, there is none to withhold Allah’s bounty. He bestows His bounty on anyone of His servants He wills. And He is The Forgiving, The Merciful.

Here Allah declares the formula for success! If Allah afflicts anyone with a calamity, there is NO ONE who can claim to remove it but Allah Himself! And if Allah wills to bestow a favor, there is NO ONE who can withhold this favor! Allah does whatever He wants!

I wonder where Syedna would fit into this equation?

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 39 Surah Zumar verse 8: When an affliction befalls man, he calls upon his Lord, turning to Him in penitence. Then, when Allah blesses him with His favor, the person forgets the affliction for which he was calling on Allah before, and sets up others as equals with Allah, thus misleading others from Allah’s Way. (O Prophet, tell him): “Enjoy your disbelief for a while. You shall certainly go to Hell!”

This is exactly what happens everytime with the people who are bent on committing shirk and invoking other beings with Allah! As soon as Allah removes the affliction, they bow down in ‘sajdah tus shukr’ to the Syedna and the graves of his ancestors! Allah has promised the everlasting Fire of Hell to those who commit such acts of shirk!!!

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 39 Surah Zumar verses 44-46: When Allah Alone is mentioned, the hearts of those who do not believe in the Hereafter, are filled with anguish! But when others besides Allah are mentioned, they are at once filled with joy! Say (O Prophet), “O Allah! Creator of the heavens and the earth, Knower of the unseen and the seen! You Alone shall judge between Your servants concerning in which they have been differing.”

How Allah says and declares the Truth in various ways! Tell them to come to the worship and invocation of Allah Alone, and they are filled with anguish and despair! Tell them to come to the ‘majlis’ and ‘deedar’ and ‘kadambosi’ of the Syedna, and they are willing to travel 3000 miles!

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 18 Surah Kahf verses 103-106: Tell them (O Mohamed), “Should We tell you who are the most unsuccessful people and miserable failures in regard to their deeds? They are those, all whose endeavors in the worldly life, had gone astray from the Right Way, but all along they were under the delusion that everything they were doing, was rightly directed! Those are the people who rejected the Revelations of their Lord and did not believe that they would ever go before Him. Therefore all their deeds were lost, for We shall assign no weight to them on the Day of Resurrection. Their recompense is Hell for the disbelief they showed, and for the mockery they adopted in regard to My Aayahs and My Messengers!”

Here Allah declares that all the time in the world these people who had gone astray from the Quran, did deeds thinking Allah would be pleased with them and they were the ‘only’ ones who were Rightly Guided! Allah calls them the most unsuccessful and miserable failures!!! Allah says that He shall not assign any weight to their deeds and throw them into the Fire of Hell.

My beloved brothers, Fear Allah, and Fear the Hell Fire… and leave invoking all these self-made ‘deities’ and come to the invocation of Allah Subhanah Alone!

And never ever despair of Allah’s Mercy. Allah Himself says that He is quite near to his slaves and He Himself hears our prayers and our invocations … and He Himself answers our prayers. He says again and again in the Quran to invoke Him Alone, but some ‘mis-guided’ people are so much in despair of Allah’s Mercy, that they insist on going to Him through an intermediary and thus get involved in the heinous crime of Shirk!

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chater 40 Surah Mumin verse 60: And Your Lord says, “Call upon Me. I will answer your prayers. Those who disdain My worship on account of arrogance, shall certainly enter Hell in disgrace!”

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 2 Surah Baqarah verse 186: And if My servants ask you, O Prophet, concerning Me, tell them that I am quite near to them. I hear and answer the prayer of the suppliant, when he calls on Me. So let them respond to My call and believe in Me. (Convey this to them), perhaps they may be guided aright!

May Allah guide us all to read and understand the Glorious Quran and keep us far away from this heinous crime of ‘shirk’ and all its manifestations.

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.

May Allah guide you and us to read and understand the simple and plain words of the Glorious Quran. May Allah increase our knowledge from the Holy Quran. May Allah guide us to the Siraat al Mustaqeem.

Your brother and well wisher in Islam,

Burhan