The issue of Shafaa
Mu
As Salaam Aleikum wa
Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. (May Allah
One of our
brothers/sisters has asked this question:
Salaams,
Can you let me know in the light of Quran where it is mentioned that we cannot
take Mannat of somebody, I do understand that by doing this we are associating
partners with allah, but in other sence we are asking god through them or
through his prophets. This question was asked by one of my bohri friend who
fails to understand that we cannot associate anybody with allah & gives me
examples of Offices where the boss is not availbale for everybody one has to go
through this managers... etc... Please give me quotations for Quran where my
above questions answer are
there......
(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:
The
issue of Shafaa’
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.
The only reason someone would
take a ‘mannat’ of someone is that he wants something from that being! And get that thing, or get his prayers answered, the person will then try to please the being
whose ‘mannat’ he has taken. If the ‘mannat’ is taken on a grave, then the person will try and visit it for a
number of days, or travel to it if it
is in a distant place, or feed some
people in the grave’s name (niyaaz), or
maybe he might take ‘mannat’ to spread a ‘chaadar’ on the grave, etc. The only reason one does any or all of
these acts is that he wants this dead person in the grave to get his prayers
answered from Allah Subhanah! THIS IS
PRECISELY WHAT THE HOLY QURAN HAS TERMED THE HENIOUS SIN OF ‘SHIRK’, OR ASSOCIATING OTHER BEINGS WITH
ALLAH!
‘Shirk’ is taking the intercession of someone who is non-existent,
an idol, a dead person, a grave,
or even a living person who is not directly in your company, and requesting them to get something for you
from Allah; or even requesting any of
the above to take your message to Allah;
or even talking to Allah directly and asking Allah to give you your
wish, in ‘sadaqa’ or ‘waseela’ of so
and so grave or dead person! This sort
of invocation is precisely what Allah terms as ‘shirk’ in the Holy Quran. And brother, this is stated so many times in the Quran, and in so many different ways, that there is absolutely no room for
mis-interpretation or mis-understanding.
Allah mentions all the concepts and manifestations of this heinous
‘sin’ very clearly in the Glorious
Quran, and there absolutely no chance
of any mis-understanding. The only way
that some people would not recognize,
and practice this horrendous and abominable sin, is if they do not understand the Holy Quran,
or are kept away from its clear guidance and teachings.
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’ 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.
How clear is the above aayah of
the Holy Quran! The people who invoke
or call these Maulas, and
Auliyaas, and graves of their pious
holy men of days gone by, know that
these people cannot actually give them anything. They assume that by invoking these names, they will get closer
to Allah! This is precisely what Allah
terms ‘shirk’.
Allah says in the Holy
Quran Chapter 10 Surah Yunus verse 18:These people serve 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 not in the heavens, or in the earth?” He is absolutely free from,
and exalted above the shirk that they commit.
Glory be to Allah, the
Supreme!! Just see what Allah says in
the above aayah…. These people invoke others besides Allah, and say ‘These are
our intercessors with Allah!’. Then
Allah says, “Do you wish to inform
Allah of something which He does not already Know?” Allah knows even the secrets of our hearts! We do not need to ask somebody to take our
message to Allah, as Allah already
knows what is in our hearts. He Alone
has the Power to hear us when we call
on Him! He Alone has the Power to grant
us what we ask of Him! He Alone has
the Power to grant us our wishes and our prayers and our supplications…. Thus
He commands us to invoke Him Alone, and
show our humility and subservience to Him Alone… and nobody else… If we beg
someone else, we have give the right
that was due to Allah to somebody else,
and that is ‘shirk’… or associating another being with Allah!!!
Just imagine, one might be in,
lets say,
Even if this person asks Allah
directly, to give him so and so, using the ‘waseelah’ and in the ‘sadaqa’ of
his Maula, or someone dead, or the imam, or the ‘ahle bayt’, or
Hadrat Ali (r.a.), or even the Prophet
of Allah (saws)… That is precisely
what is ‘shirk’. Because he assumes
that the person who is dead for 1400 years ,
no matter who the person is,
from the Messenger of Allah (saws) to anybody else, can actually hear his supplication, understand it, and has the power to fulfill his prayer!!! This is absolutely a form of ‘shirk’!!!
Allah says in the Holy
Quran Chapter 46 Surah Ahqaf verses 4-6: Prophet, say to them, "Have you
ever seen them with open eyes those whom you invoke instead of Allah? Show me
what they have created in the earth? Or have they any share in the creation and
control of the heavens? Bring me a Book revealed before this, or produce some
remnant of knowledge in support of your beliefs if you are truthful." And
who could be further astray than the one who invokes, instead of Allah, those
who cannot answer him till the Day of Resurrection. Nay, they are even UNAWARE
THAT THEY ARE BEING INVOKED. And when all mankind shall be gathered together
(on the Day of Qiyamah), they (the so called leaders and intercessors) will
become enemies of those who invoked them and they will DISOWN THEIR WORSHIP!!!
Allah says in the Holy
Quran Chapter 7 Surah Aaraf verse 190-196: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
Allah says in the Holy
Quran Chapter 16 Surah Nahl verse 20-21:All the other beings, whom the people
invoke with Allah, create nothing! Nay, they are themselves created. They are DEAD, not living, and they do not
at all know themselves when they shall again be raised to life!
Allah says in the Holy
Quran Chapter 22 Surah Hajj verse 71-72:They worship besides Allah those for
whom Allah has sent down NO AUTHORITY! Nor they themselves have any knowledge
about them. Such transgressors have no
helper! And when our CLEAR REVELATIONS
are recited to them, you perceive signs of disdain on the faces of the
disbelievers, as though they were going to ASSUALT those who recite our
Revelations to them!
Allah says in the Holy
Quran Chapter 33 Surah Ahzab verse 66-68:On the Day their faces are rolled
about on the Fire, they will say, “Would that we had obeyed Allah and His
Messenger!” And they will say, “O our
Lord, we obeyed our CHIEFS and our GREAT MEN, and they led us astray from the
Right Path. O our Lord, give them a
double chastisement and curse them severely”.
Allah is the One Who hears
everything! Allah Alone is the One Who
can answer your prayers! Allah Alone
is the One Who deserves our invocation and our supplication! Allah Alone is the One Who has all the
Powers with Himself!!! Sharing or
giving any of Allah’s Beautiful Attributes to anyone of his created slaves or
things, is one of the biggest forms of ‘shirk’.
We all agree that a Hindu who
prays in front of his idol of Ram, Sita, Ganpati, whatever, commits
‘shirk’. He stands in front of his idol,
and asks the idol to give him this and that.
He knows that the idol cannot give him anything, as it is only a piece
of stone or clay! What he implies is
either, Ram or Sita or whatever can
hear him, or that Ram or Sita can influence
the One Being who Created everything,
and get these things for him!
This belief we all agree is shirk!
But when a muslim stands in front
of the grave and prays to the person who is dead for hundreds of years, and
asks him for this favor and that, we don’t call it shirk!!! Again, the person standing and supplicating
at the grave, knows that the grave cannot do anything … It is only sand and
stones!!! But implies and assumes that
the person who was buried in this place hundreds of years ago is alive, has the
power to hear him, has the power to understand the language he is speaking, has
the power to take his message to the One Being Who Created everything, or has the power to get these things for
him!!! What is the difference between
the actions of the Hindu who invokes his idols, and the muslim who invokes the
graves of his pious holy men? Both of
them are involved in the most heinous and horrendous of all sins, ‘SHIRK’!!!!!!
It is a major misconception and
misunderstanding that the pagans of Makkah like Abu Jahl and Abu Lahab, etc.
did not believe in Allah. They all
believed Allah created them and everything else in existence! They believed Allah was the One who gives
life and ordains death! They believed
Allah was the One who created the Sun and the Moon! They believed the Kaabah was Allah’s House and was built by
their forefathers Ismail (a.s.) and Ibrahim (a.s.)! They regularly did ‘tawaaf’ of the Kaabah, performed ‘Umrah’, and
even performed the ‘Hajj’! They were the caretakers of the Kaabah, and the
custodians of the waters of ‘zam zam’! They believed in Allah! But they built these idols and images,
most of whom were the images of their forefathers and some were the images of
their holy and pious men of days gone by.
They believed that these pious and holy men were close to Allah, and if
asked through them, Allah would have to grant them their requests and
prayers! This is precisely what Allah
termed as ‘shirk’ in the Holy Quran, and this is precisely why Allah condemned
them!
The only way to recognize this
abominable crime of ‘shirk’ is to read the Holy Quran with understanding. All the communities that Allah relates in
the Holy Quran who were destroyed by Him, they were destroyed because they were
guilty of this one heinous, horrendous, and unforgivable sin: SHIRK!!
Allah forgives any sin He pleases,
except this one sin of ‘shirk’!!!
And unfortunately, a multitude
of muslims are involved in this very crime… May Allah guide them to read and
understand the Quran, so that they can
recognize and stay away from this abominable crime!!!!
Allah says in the
Quran: Chapter 4 Surah An-Nisa Verse 48: Shirk (associating other deities with
Allah) is the only sin that Allah does not forgive, and He forgives, whomsoever
He pleases, sins other than this. For
whosoever associates any other partner with Allah, does indeed forge a big lie
and commits the most heinous sin.
Allah says in the Holy
Quran Chapter 5 Surah Maidah verse 72: Whoever commits ‘shirk’ (invoking
anything with Allah), Allah shall
forbid for him Paradise, and Hell shall
be his abode. And for such wrong
doers there will be no one to help.
Allah says in the Holy
Quran Chapter 39 Surah Zumar verse 65-66: If you commit ‘shirk’ all your works
will be rendered vain and you will be among the losers. Therefore,
you should worship Allah Alone,
and be among His grateful servants.
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.
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 in the Holy
Quran Chapter 3 Surah Ale Imran verses160: If Allah helps you, none can overcome you! And if Allah forsakes you, who is there,
then, after Allah that can help you?
Therefore, the true believers should trust in Allah Alone.
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!
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.
Allah says in the Holy
Quran Chapter 17 Surah Isra (Bani Israel) verses 56-57:(O Prophet) say, “You
may call for help those, besides
Allah, whom you fancy. They have neither the power to remove your
troubles from you, nor change them!” In
fact, those beings whom these people call for help themselves seek the means of
approach to Allah, and vie with one another to be nearer to Him, and hope for
His Mercy and fear His Wrath. The fact
is that the Wrath of your Lord is a thing to be dreaded!
The fact is that the
whole Quran is full of aayahs explaining this sin of ‘shirk’ in detail! But in our laziness, heedlessness and
negligence, we just do not take the time and effort to read the Message that
Allah Himself has revealed for our guidance.
We take the word of some self-proclaimed holy men, and assume that they
are guiding us towards the Quran and Allah,
when in fact they are guiding us towards themselves, their ancestors and most definitely the
everlasting torture of Hell Fire! We
make every excuse we can to not understand the clear teachings of the Holy
Quran!
Your Question: This question was asked by one of my bohri
friend who fails to understand that we cannot associate anybody with allah
& gives me examples of Offices where the boss is not availbale for
everybody one has to go through this managers... etc...
This is the standard examples the
doers of ‘shirk’ use to justify their heinous and unforgivable crime of
‘shrik’!!!! The key phrase in your
Bohri friends argument is that if ‘the boss is not available’….. What we need to explain to him is that our
Lord is always available… 24 hours a day,
7 days a week, 365 a year!! Our Lord is the One Who Created everything
that exists; He neither sleeps nor
tires; He Alone is in charge of
everything; He has the Power to listen
to our prayers directly; and He Alone
has the Power to answer them if He wills.
Just see what Allah is calling
upon us to do… He commands us to call
upon Him Alone, for He Alone can answer
our prayers. He says that is quite
near to us; He hears and answers the
prayers of the supplicant.
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!
Allah says in the Holy
Quran Chapter 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!”
In this imperfect and
corrupt world, one might need to go
through managers to the boss, or
through a minister to the king; but
not when our Boss, our Merciful Lord is
always available. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year…. His gates are always open…. All we need to do
is raise our hands and call upon Him!
Those who believe that Allah is busy and not available, have just not understood the Power, Majesty,
Might, and Glory of Allah
Subhanah!
May Allah guide you
and us all to the Straight Path of Islam.
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