Call Upon Allah by the Status of the Prophet (saw)
5) To call upon Allah alone, asking Him by His Prophet is a valid difference of opinion in Fiqh where none is censured. For example: O Allah! I ask you alone by Your noble Prophet!
This type of tawassul does not entail Shirk by agreement, but it is, nevertheless, a bida’i tawassul, over which the scholars have differed.
Bida’i tawassul is, as al-‘Allama Hasan al-Shatti al-Dimashqi al-Hanbali says while commenting on Matalib Ulin-Nuha, quoting Ibn ‘al-Imad al-Hanbali: ‘Tawassul through the righteous is for one to say: O Allah! I make tawassul to you through your Prophet Muhammad SallAllahu ‘alaihi wa-sallam, or someone else, that you fulfil my need’
Take note, that the tawassul referred to here involves directly calling upon Allah and addressing Him alone, by the right of His creation. It does not involve calling upon anyone other than Allah, for that will be dealt with later on.
This type of Tawassul is differed over amongst the scholars, including the Hanbalis.
Some scholars, including Ibn Qudama allow this type of Tawassul, while other scholars, such as Ibn Taymiyya do not allow it.
The issue of tawassul is linked to swearing an oath by the Prophet – SallAllahu ‘alaihi wa-sallam.
Most of the scholars
Read MoreCall Upon Other than Allah to Intercede with Allah
3) To call upon other than Allah, asking them to intercede for us with Allah is also Shirk. For example: O Prophet! Intercede for us with Allah!
The following verdict from Allah about intercession should suffice:
“They worship besides Allah that which neither harms them nor benefits them, saying: These are our intercessors with Allah. Say: Do you inform Allah of something He does not know in the heavens or on the earth? Exalted is He and high above what they associate with Him!” (Yunus 18)
The Hanafi Maturidi theolgian, al-Taftazani states that the Shirk only occured amongst the pagans when “one of them died, who possessed a high station with Allah, they took an sculpture resembling him and exalted him, thereby seeking his intercession (tashaffu’an) and and taking him as means (tawassulan).” Sharh al-Maqasid
The Shafi’i-Ash’arite theologian, al-Razi states in his Tafseer: “Those who said: ‘We only worship these idols, which are sculptures of angels, so that they intercede for us. Hence, Allah falsified their claim saying: ‘No intercession will be of benefit with Him, except for one He permits’. Hence, there is no benefit in you worshiping other than Allah, for Allah does not permit intercession for one who worships other than Him. You, by asking for intercession, have lost the right of intercession.”
He also says:
Read MoreCalling Upon Other than Allah while believing He will Answer
2) To call upon other than Allah for a need, such as rain, etc, while believing that only Allah will answer the call is Shirk, by agreement. For example: O Prophet! Send us rain!
Firstly, The Prophet – SallAllahu ‘alaihi wa-sallam – made takfeer of the pagans for merely calling upon other than Allah, even though they explicitly declared that Allah is the only Lord, the Creator, the Provider.
This is reflected in the following verse:
‘Say: Who provides for you from the heavens and the earth? Or who controls hearing and sight and who brings the living out of the dead and brings the dead out of the living and who arranges [every] matter? They will say: Allah. So say: Then will you not fear Him?’
As it is clear that although the pagans believed that Allah is the only provider, they still called upon their idols, claiming that they are merely their intercessors.
Similarly, Allah said of the pagans:
‘Most of them do not believe in Allah, except that they associate partners unto Him’
Al-Tabari says in his tafseer: Their belief in Allah is their saying: Allah is our Creator, our Provider, who gives us death and gives us life; while their Shirk is to attribute partners unto Allah in His worship and invocation.
Secondly,
Read MoreAsking the Prophet (saw) Or the Dead to Supplicate for You
4) To call upon the Prophet, asking him to make du’a for us is Shirk. For example: O Prophet! Ask Allah to grant us rain!
Some of the contemporary scholars opined that if one were to ask the Prophet to make dua to Allah at his grave, it would not be Shirk, but Bid’ah being on the brink of Shirk. The reason for this, as they say, is that if one believes in two premises;
i) The dead can hear (understanding of some evidences)
ii) the dead can supplicate (unsubstantiated assumption)
He can then ask the dead to make dua for him, just as he would when he was alive.
They argue on this basis that it is not Shirk, but definitely a door to Shirk and a despicable bidah which none of the early Muslims performed.
They also back their claim with a misunderstood statement of Ibn Taymiyya where he says that such action is a bidah.
This opinion is problematic due to a number of reasons:
Read MoreNuzool
Nuzool is one of the most controversial attributes for the people of kalam. The basis of it is a hadith which has been narrated by 39 Sahabah, and is recorded in practically every book of hadith (most notably Bukhari and Muslim).
The following is one of the narrations of it,
Abu Huraira reported Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: Our Lord, the Blessed and the Exalted, descends every night to the lowest heaven when one-third of the latter part of the night is left, and says: Who supplicates Me so that I may answer him? Who asks Me so that I may give to him? Who asks Me forgiveness so that I may forgive him? [Muslim]
This hadith is explicit and nothing can be understood from it except the fact that indeed it is Allah(swt) who descends and asks who is asking of HIM so that HE may forgive us.
Some of the mutakallimoon tried to argue that this means His Mercy descends and not Him. The response to this is that aside from the fact that this is ta’wil, the hadith mentions “Allah Tabaraku wa Ta’aala descends” so how could it make sense that “His Mercy the Exalted and Most High” descends?
There is an ijmaa’ of the early scholars on this issue as well. Fudayl ibn Iyaad (d. 187AH) said that if someone says I do not believe in a Lord that descends, to say I believe in a Lord that does as He wills.
This hadith as mentioned, is mutawaatir, and has hundreds of chains of narration. See again the contradiction of the people who say they will only take mutawaatir narrations in Aqeedah, and then reject this narration.
Another argument they employ is to use logic and say that it is always the last third of the night somewhere, so is Allah constantly descending? ibn Taymiyyah responded to this by saying that this is a perfect example of the methodology of the people of kalam. Time and space are both created, so how can they try to confine the Creator who is far above time and space to these restrictions?
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