Ask Imam :: Fatwa on the Prohibition of “Ya Rasul Allah Madad”
The Question:
I just wanted to get one thing more cleared up. The folks at sunnipath,seem to give the impression that permissibility of using words like “Yarasoolullah madad” is the view of majority of ummah
The Answer:
It is important to understand a fundamental issue regarding substantiations in Shari’ah. The order and sequence of substantiations is as follows: a)Qur’aan, b) Hadith, c) Ijmaa and, d) Qiyaas (analogy)
Majority ruling as a substantiation follows far beyond the four fundamental substantiations. It is only when there are no substantiations preceding that and there are differences of opinion among contemporary Ulama. The issue in reference, saying ‘Yaa Rasoolullah’ and seeking help from Rasoolullah[sallallaahu alayhi wasallam] is clear. Only Allah is Omnipresent and we seek the help of Allah Alone. It is obsolutely incorrect to regard Rasulullah [sallallaahu alayhi wasallam] as Omnipresent and address him as ‘Yaa Rasoolullah’ with that belief. It is also incorrect to seek the assistance of Rasoolullah [sallallaahu alayhi wasallam] and address him as ‘Yaa Madad’. The prohibition of these two issues are clearly in the very first source of substantiations – the Qur’aan. There is no need to consider the issue from an angle of majority view. Consider this – Allah condemns Kufr whereas the majority of the world is in Kufr. Will that make Kufr correct?
Comment: How does that make one different from Salafis?
Imam Taqi al-Din Subki makes clear that tawassul (seeking means) and istighatha (calling upon others) are conceptually the very same, and that they were both permitted by the imams of early and late Islamic scholarship, without noteworthy disagreement until Ibn Taymiyya came along in the 7th Islamic Century.
Imam Muhammad Zahid al-Kawthari wrote a brilliant treatise, Mahq al-Taqawwul fi Mas’alat al-Tawassul (see Arabic text), explaining how the permissibility of tawassul is entailed by sound Sunni understanding of Divine Oneness and the difference between means and effects.
Imam Kawthari (Allah have mercy on him) is regarded as an Imam in the Islamic Sciences and the “Sword of Ahl al-Sunna” by the ulema across the Muslim lands was because he truly had [a] mastery right across the Islamic sciences; [b] very wide reading built on that mastery; [c] clear understanding of the way of Ahl al-Sunna; [d] commitment to that way.
As for Istighatha [calling upon the dead], see:
Istighatha: Calling Someone Other Than Allah for Help
Calling on Other than Allah?
Related answers:
Sunni Saint Worshippers? - Shaykh Nuh Keller
Istighatha: Calling Someone Other ThanAllah for Help - Shaykh Muhammad ibn Adam
Tawassul Through the Awliya
Tawassul through the pious
Making tawassul through one’s actions
Tawassul of `Umar through al-`Abbas
Al-Shafi`i’s Tawassul with Abu Hanifa
Calling on Other than Allah?
We need to understand a few issues:
a) It is a fundamental belief of Muslims that only Allah benefits or harms; that only Allah gives and takes;
b) It is also a fundamental belief of Muslims that Allah has created means for humans to take;
c) However, the relationship between these created means and their effects is only normative: it is Allah who creates the means, and Allah who creates the results.
The Question:
I just wanted to get one thing more cleared up. The folks at sunnipath,seem to give the impression that permissibility of using words like “Yarasoolullah madad” is the view of majority of ummah
The Answer:
It is important to understand a fundamental issue regarding substantiations in Shari’ah. The order and sequence of substantiations is as follows: a)Qur’aan, b) Hadith, c) Ijmaa and, d) Qiyaas (analogy)
Majority ruling as a substantiation follows far beyond the four fundamental substantiations. It is only when there are no substantiations preceding that and there are differences of opinion among contemporary Ulama. The issue in reference, saying ‘Yaa Rasoolullah’ and seeking help from Rasoolullah[sallallaahu alayhi wasallam] is clear. Only Allah is Omnipresent and we seek the help of Allah Alone. It is obsolutely incorrect to regard Rasulullah [sallallaahu alayhi wasallam] as Omnipresent and address him as ‘Yaa Rasoolullah’ with that belief. It is also incorrect to seek the assistance of Rasoolullah [sallallaahu alayhi wasallam] and address him as ‘Yaa Madad’. The prohibition of these two issues are clearly in the very first source of substantiations – the Qur’aan. There is no need to consider the issue from an angle of majority view. Consider this – Allah condemns Kufr whereas the majority of the world is in Kufr. Will that make Kufr correct?
Comment: How does that make one different from Salafis?
Imam Taqi al-Din Subki makes clear that tawassul (seeking means) and istighatha (calling upon others) are conceptually the very same, and that they were both permitted by the imams of early and late Islamic scholarship, without noteworthy disagreement until Ibn Taymiyya came along in the 7th Islamic Century.
Imam Muhammad Zahid al-Kawthari wrote a brilliant treatise, Mahq al-Taqawwul fi Mas’alat al-Tawassul (see Arabic text), explaining how the permissibility of tawassul is entailed by sound Sunni understanding of Divine Oneness and the difference between means and effects.
Imam Kawthari (Allah have mercy on him) is regarded as an Imam in the Islamic Sciences and the “Sword of Ahl al-Sunna” by the ulema across the Muslim lands was because he truly had [a] mastery right across the Islamic sciences; [b] very wide reading built on that mastery; [c] clear understanding of the way of Ahl al-Sunna; [d] commitment to that way.
As for Istighatha [calling upon the dead], see:
Istighatha: Calling Someone Other Than Allah for Help
Calling on Other than Allah?
Related answers:
Sunni Saint Worshippers? - Shaykh Nuh Keller
Istighatha: Calling Someone Other ThanAllah for Help - Shaykh Muhammad ibn Adam
Tawassul Through the Awliya
Tawassul through the pious
Making tawassul through one’s actions
Tawassul of `Umar through al-`Abbas
Al-Shafi`i’s Tawassul with Abu Hanifa
Calling on Other than Allah?
We need to understand a few issues:
a) It is a fundamental belief of Muslims that only Allah benefits or harms; that only Allah gives and takes;
b) It is also a fundamental belief of Muslims that Allah has created means for humans to take;
c) However, the relationship between these created means and their effects is only normative: it is Allah who creates the means, and Allah who creates the results.
This is why Shaykh Abd al-Rahman al-Shaghouri (Allah have mercy on him), the great spiritual guide and master of the sciences of faith (aqida) from Damascus, explained, “Taking means is necessary, and denying that they are effective is necessary. Whoever negates means is denying the Wisdom of Allah, and whoever relies upon means is associating others with Allah.”
This is the understanding upon which Muslims ‘call upon other than Allah.’
It is no different from taking medicine when sick, or going to a mechanic when your car is giving trouble: if you think that the medicine itself creates the healing, or that the mechanic is the one himself creates the fixing, then you have serious innovation in belief. It is conceptually the same as asking another Muslim in person to make dua for us–we do so understanding that their dua for us is a means, and that it is Allah alone who gives.The sound understanding is that Allah creates the healing when you use the medicine, and He creates the fixing when the mechanic does their job: we affirm these means, but also affirm that it is Allah who created both the means and the resultant effect.
This is pure affirmation of Divine Oneness. How can it ‘smack of shirk’?
A few nice songs:
Ya Imam al-Rusli - Ustadh Mahmoud Faris
Ya Rasul Allahi Ya Sanadi - Maghribi
al-Wadhifa al-Shadhiliyya - Recited by Shaykh Amjad Rasheed. The Wadhifa contains a high understanding of the spiritual reality of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him).
Madad Ya Rasul Allah - Khalid Belrhouzi
