Dua: The Weapon of the Believer Making dua to Allah can be easily underestimated. We must trust Allah but sometimes our own insecurities drive us to worrying and being scared that our duas won’t be answered. Allah Listens to All our duas and He is the Best Disposer of our affairs. If you put your trust in Allah, then put your trust fully in Allah and be content and at peace knowing that Allah Will Look after you. It is important that everyone has a correct understanding of dua and particularly WHO you are asking your dua from. You can only make duas to Allah because it is only Allah Who Can Answer you dua, Who Knows your situation, Knows what is best for you and Has the Power to Grant that dua. There are many Muslims who also make the mistake of thinking that they can make duas by ‘going through’ other people or objects or animals. We can ask living people to make a dua for us, but we do not ask living people to grant that dua or ask dead people, or objects or animals to grant that dua. Here’s an extract from the book “ Du’a, The Weapon Of The Believer “, which you can download also here. “Chapter 4: Du’a to other than Allah is Shirk From what has preceded, it is clear du’a can only be directed towards Allah alone. Say (O Muhammad): “I make du’a only to my Lord (Allah alone), and I associate none as partners along with Him.” [Surah al-Jinn, v20] To make du’a to other than Allah is pure shirk (associating partners with Allah), which is the one sin that Allah will not forgive. This is due to the fact that the one that makes a du’a to other than Allah is in fact attributing to a created object characteristics and attributes that only Allah has. So, the person who makes a du’a to a saint, or rock, or idol, believes that that object: can hear him, and has eternal life, and is capable of responding to his invocation, and has knowledge of his situation, and can see the state that he is in, and has mercy upon him, and has the power to grant him what he wishes. Yet, the perfection of all of these attributes is only with Allah. It is only Allah that can Hear everything, in fact, Allah Knows our very thoughts even if we do not vocalise them. It is only Allah that Knows our situation perfectly, and has a Divine Mercy for us, and is All-Powerful in responding to our requests. Allah describes all other objects which du’a is made to in the following verse: If you invoke (or call upon) them, they hear not your call, and even if they were to hear (you), they could not grant your (request) to you. And on the Day of Resurrection, they will disown your worshipping them. And none can inform you (O Muhammad) like Him Who is the All-Knower (of each and everything) [Surah al-Fafir, v14] So the object that is called upon besides Allah, whether it is an idol or a dead saint, cannot hear such calls in the first place. They do not have the perfect Attribute that al-Sami (The Hearer of Everything) has, and even if they are alive and have a sense of hearing, this sense is extremely limited, for they can only hear within a very small distance, if the voice is loud enough. Can such restricted hearing be compared in any way to the attributes of al-Sami ? Allah then states that, even if they could hear such calls, they would not be able to respond to them. Thus because these objects simply do not have the power or capability to respond to any requests. Allah describes these worshipped objects as: He calls besides Allah that which hurts him not nor profits him. That is a straying far away. He calls unto him whose harm is nearer than this profit: certainly, an evil mawla (patron) and certainly an evil friend! [Surah al-Hajj, v12-13] So the person calling an object besides Allah is in reality calling something that can neither benefit him nor harm him in this world. Although these objects can, in and of themselves cause no harm, by calling them instead of Allah, a person brings harm upon himself by committing shirk so what an evil and foolish act it is. As Allah says: And who is more astray than one who makes a dua to other than Allah – who will not answer him until the Day of Resurrection, and who are (even) unaware of their duas to them? [Surah al-Ahqaf, v5] The object that is called besides Allah does not even know it is being called, and if du’a were made to them until the Day of Judgement, nothing would occur! In fact, look at the example that Allah gave of the one who calls to other than Allah: Say (O Muhammad ( ﷺ )): “Shall we invoke others besides Allah (false deities), that can do us neither good nor harm, and shall we turn on our heels after Allah has guided us? Like one whom the devils have made to go astray, confused (wandering) through the earth, his companions calling him to guidance (saying): ‘Come to us” Say: “Verily, Allah’s Guidance is the only guidance, and we have been commanded to submit (ourselves) to the Lord of the Worlds.” [Surah al-Anam, v71] So from all this it is apparent that anyone who makes a du a to other than Allah has committed a form of major shirk rather, the greatest form of shirk! And whoever makes a du’a to (or worships) other than Allah, any other god, of whom he has no proof, then his reckoning is only with his Lord. Surely, the disbelievers will not be successful. [Surah al-Muminun, v117] It is irrelevant what excuses, or distorted logic, those that make du’a to other than Allah use to try to justify this shirk for the reality of an act is not affected by invented names given to it. So you find some of them claiming that they are only calling out to ‘holy’ people, whereas others use the concept of intercession {shafa’ah) to justify this shirk. Yet others pervert the correct understanding tabarruk (seeking blessings from an object), while others use the concept of tawassul (seeking a means of nearness to Allah). No matter what means a person seeks to use, the fact should be clear to everyone that to call upon a dead person, or an angel, or a prophet, or a rock or stone, or a deity other than Allah, is the essence of shirk concerning which there is no difference of opinion amongst Muslims. This type oi shirk is the worst type, for it is directing the greatest act of worship to other than Allah. A person who commits this type of shirk has removed himself from the fold of Islam, and this act of his is no different from prostrating to an idol. Despite the clarity of this type of shirk it is appalling to note that such acts are rampant amongst many Muslim societies and cultures. It is possible to hear a person who believes that he is Muslim, and might even be praying or fasting, call out, ‘O ‘ Abd al-Qadir al- Jilani! Save me!’ And here is another one that makes a du’a, ‘O Badawi! O Tijani! O Rifaai!* Guide me! Help me! Give me my sustenance! Take care of my needs!’ And yet a third might say, ‘O Muhammad, ( ﷺ )! Grant me a righteous child!’ So they call out to ‘pious’ saints, believing that these saints have the power to respond to their du as, or that they have a right over Allah that Allah answers their prayers. Another manifestation of this evil is the culture of grave-worship that is predominant in certain Muslim countries. The erecting of beautiful structures over the graves of ‘holy’ people, and travelling distances to visit these graves, is forbidden in Islam for the very reason that such glorification leads to shirk. It is even prohibited to pray (perform salat) in front of a grave, even though the salat is to Allah, so what is the case of the one who actually makes a du a to the dead? Similarly, others use these dead ‘saints’ as intercessors between them and Allah, thinking that, by using these people as intermediaries, their du’as will have a stronger chance of being accepted by Allah. This act of theirs is based on their own ignorance, for the Arabs at the time of the Prophet ( ﷺ ) would worship their idols with the exact same excuse — that they were only trying to come closer to Allah – and yet, despite this excuse, Allah considered them to be committing shirk. The reason for this being that the pure concept of tawheed in Islam does not allow for any intermediaries between man and Allah when it comes to the worship of Allah. Worship is a right that is due only to Allah, and it is shirk to divert any act of worship to other than Allah. To conclude, du’a is one of the greatest acts of worship, and therefore to make a du a to other than Allah is the essence of shirk . And there is no difference in making du’a to a prophet, or an angel, or a pious person, or to a grave, a star, a rock, or a stone; all of these are created objects, and cannot compare in any way to Allah. Likewise, there is no difference if a person makes du’a to them or uses them as intermediaries between him and Allah; both of these acts are manifestations of shirk.” * These are all names of Sufi ‘saints. Although it is possible that some of these personalities might have been pious servants of Allah, there is no doubt that what their followers are doing is major shirk.
Posted on: Sat, 11 Oct 2014 06:41:27 +0000
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