غلوDisease of Ghuluw

(Exaggeration)

Quran 5:77 Say, "O People of the Scripture, do not exceed limits/exaggerate (Taghlu = Ghuluw) in your religion

beyond the truth and do not follow the inclinations of a people who had gone astray before and misled many and

have strayed from the soundness of the way."

If you have any questions or messages for us, please contact us on

shiareformist@hotmail.com

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Mission Statement

ب ل لط

رجت

ما خ

، وإه

الا

ظ

ول

سدا

مف

ول

بطرا

ول

شرا

رج أ

خ

م أ

ي ل

أو

هى عن هعروف وأ

آمر بال

ن

ريد أ

ي صلى هللا عليه وآله، أ ت جد م

ح في أ

صل

لا

الب عليه السلمبي ط

بي علي بن أ

ي وأ سير بسيرة جد

ر وأ

ك

ى ال

“I did not come out seeking to do evil, nor seeking to have fun,

neither seeking corruption nor oppression, rather I came out to

reform my grandfather's (Prophet Muhammad (saww)) nation. I

want to enjoin the good and denounce the evil, and take the

course of my grandfather and father Ali Ibn Abi Talib (as)”

- Hussain Ibn Ali (as)

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Contents:

1. Introduction……………………………………..………………………….……4

2. Prerequisites: Terms and Concepts………………………………………………5

3. Some of the beliefs being preached……………………………...……...….……..7

4. What is Ghuluw?..…………………….……………………………….…............8

- Verses of Quran which mention ghuluw………………………...…………..……8

- Definition of Ghuluw according to the Ahlulbayt (as)……....…..………………...9

- Is Ghuluw bad?.……….…………………………………..………....…...……13

5. Belief that Allah (swt) has given the Prophet (saww) and Imams (as) the authority

of creation (khalq) and sustenance (rizq)……...……………...…….…...…….......16

6. How early texts were fabricated………………………..………….………..…..23

7. Do the Prophet (saww) and Imams (as) have knowledge of everything?...……...30

- Verses of Quran which go against this belief…………………………..……..30

- Views of Classical Scholars goes against this belief………………...………..37

- Narrations from Ahlulbayt (as) which go against this belief…….……………..43

8. Can we call upon or supplicate to anyone other than Allah (swt)?…….….…….47

- Two questions to ponder upon……………………………..……...…………….47

- Verses of Quran against calling upon anyone other than Allah (swt)….……..…...48

- Lessons of Dua from Ahlulbayt (as)…..………………..…………..………..….64

9. The criteria for acceptance of proofs……………..………….………...………..69

- What is NOT acceptable as a proof…………………...…………...………….…69

- What is acceptable as a proof……………………..……………..…….………..72

10. Refutation of weak arguments in the form of Question and Answer...………...74

- FAQ on Dua to other than Allah (swt)…………………………..………………74

- FAQ on Ilm al Ghayb……………………….………….………..……………..84

- FAQ on Tafweed……...……...………...…...……...……...……...……...……...….87

11. Conclusion…………………………………………………………..………………89

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ه واحد.…م إل

هك

ما إل

هي أ

ىحى إل م

ك

لث ر م

ا بش

هما أ

ل إه

ق

Say (O Muhammad): "I am only a man like you. It has been inspired to

me that your God is One God….

- Quran, 18:110, 41:6

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(1) Introduction:

Ghuluw (exaggeration) is indeed a very dangerous weapon of Shaitan; many previous nations

were damned because of this, but people don‟t seem to learn a lesson. Therefore Imam Ali (as)

says “Two kinds of people will be damned on my account, those who form exaggerated opinions

about me and those who underestimate me because of their hatred.” [1]

This small piece of research will give the readers an insight into the kinds of beliefs that were

propagated by some Ghali (exaggerator) groups in the times of the Imams (as); and even though

the Imams (as) condemned and cursed them in order to warn the people about them, yet many of

these beliefs found their way into the hadith collections, and till today they are being preached

from the pulpits (mimbar) not just by illiterate Zakireen but also by scholars with amamas

(Turbans) and hawza education.

In this book we will also try to expose some other new deviations that have entered the religion.

This research will present views based on the Quran, Hadith, logic and opinion of scholars.

Note: I take no responsibility for the beliefs of the people, and I would recommend everyone to

keep researching in this matter until they are satisfied and not just base their “Aqeeda” (Belief)

on this research.

____________________________________________________________________________

[1] Nahjul Balagha, Short saying #106.

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(2) Prerequisites: Some terms and concepts:

People who are not acquatinted with the study of religious texts need to first understand some

key terms and concepts which are very important. If you already know these things please

proceed to the next topic.

Terms:

Hadith (plural - Ahadith): Statement (Qaul) , action (Fe‟l) , Confirmation (Taqreer)[2] of the

Prophet (pbuh&hf) or Ahlulbayt (as).

Shia books of Hadith: The main Shia books of Hadith are

Al Kafi by Sheikh Muhammad ibn Yaqub al Kulaini (250 AH - 329 AH)

Man la Yahdharahul Faqih by Sheikh Al Saduq (306 AH - 381 AH)

Tahdhib al Ahkam by Sheikh Al Toosi (385 AH - 460 AH)

Al Istibsar by Sheikh al Toosi (385 AH - 460 AH) [3]

A brief introduction will be given about these books in due time so as to make it clear how these

books were written.

Other books that might come into discussion will be introduced in their correct place.

Chain of Narrators (Sanad): A Hadith has two parts, Sanad and Matn. Matn is the text of the

hadith, and Sanad is the chain of people who heard the hadith from each other reaching upto the

Ahlulbayt (as), at times the chain of narrators is larger than the text of hadith itself.

For example: A hadith in the book Al Amali of Sheikh Mufeed goes like this,

“Sheikh Mufeed says: Abul Hasan Ahmad bin Muhammad reported to me from his father, he

reported from Muhammad bin Hasan al saffar, he narrated from Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Isa,

he narrated from Muhammad bin Khalid al barqi that Hamdan bin Isa said: I requested from

Imam Musa Kadhim (as) that……………”

___________________________________________________________________________

[2] Confirmation (taqreer) means, if a certain act was performed in front of the Prophet

(pbuh&hf) or the Ahlulbayt (as), and they did not object to it, then such an action is considered

permissible.

[3] AH = After Hijrah. The above mentioned scholars of hadith were present either during or

soon after the Ghaybat e Sughra (Minor occultation) of Imam Mahdi (atfs). Imam Mahdi (atfs)

was born in 256 AH and went into Ghayba after about 5 years, and the minor occultation lasted

till 329 AH in which Imam (atfs) had contact with people through his appointed representatives.

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Ilm al Rejal (Science of men/narrators): This is a branch from the sciences of Hadith which

investigates the biography of the narrators of hadith, in order to ascertain whether a certain

hadith is reliable or not. The biographies of narrators of hadith are given in the books of Rejal.

Some important books of Rejal from the early scholars of hadith are, Rijal Kashi, Rejal Najashi

Al Rejal of Sheikh Toosi etc.

How were the early books of Hadith written?

This is something very important which needs to be understood, and will be helpful in the later

discussions.

The companions of the Imams (as) used to either meet them secretly in difficult times or attend

their classes in relatively easier times and would note down the ahadith narrated by the Imams

(as) on different matters, such as law, ethics, Quran etc. Some of their books were copied and

distributed widely, while some were hidden and lost. By the time of Sheikh Kulaini there were

about 400 books of the companions of the Imams (as) available, and these books are known as

“Usul arba‟ miya” (400 Usul). The early scholars like Sheikh Kulaini, Sheikh Saduq took these

books as their reference, and compiled the books of Hadith by classifying the Hadith from these

books under different chapters and topics.

Other than some extremist Akhbari Scholars, there is a consensus among the Shiite scholars that

these books are NOT 100% authentic, and every hadith is open to criticism and investigation.

Sahih Hadith: A Hadith which has an acceptable chain of narrators, i.e all the narrators are

trustworthy, and the hadith does not contradict any verse of the Quran. (Of course there are many

other details, discussions and rules concerning this, but that is out of the scope of this brief

research).

Important: A Hadith may be rejected even though it has a reliable chain of narrators, if it

contradicts the Quran, this is an important rule which needs to be kept in mind, further details

and references for this will be provided later.

Similarly a hadith which doesn‟t have a reliable chain of narrators, but is in line with the Quran

and other authentic narrations can be accepted in some cases.

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(3) Some of the beliefs being preached:

Some scholars are preaching that it is not Allah (swt), who has created the universe and who

provides us our sustenance directly, rather Allah (swt) only created the Ahlulbayt (as) and it is

the Ahlulbayt (as) who created everything else and it is they (as) who provide us our sustenance

(Of course all this with the permission of Allah).

And they quote some supposed hadith in favor of that, authenticity of which will be discussed in

the coming chapters.

Some scholars also claim that Ahlulbayt (as) manifest several attributes of Allah (swt) not just in

a limited manner but 100%.

In other words, Knowledge, Powers, Omnipresence, Hearing power, Seeing power of Ahlulbayt

(as) is for all practical purposes equal to the Knowledge, Powers, Omnipresence, Hearing

power, Seeing power of Allah (swt).

Ofcourse they do no not claim that Ahlulbayt (as) have acquired these traits independently,

rather it is Allah (swt) who has given all these characteristics to them (as). The only difference

they claim between Allah (swt) and Ahlulbayt (as) is that Allah (swt) is the creator and

Ahlulbayt (as) are the creation.

Many of these beliefs are a part and parcel of the general Shia‟s belief, especially in the Indo Pak

subcontinent, where people go and prostrate on graves, and call upon the Ahlulbayt (as) and even

Hazrat Zaynab (sa) and Hazrat Abbas (as), for their needs. It‟s very common to hear “Bibi gave

us a child”, “Maula Abbas gave us health” etc.

We will Inshallah examine the stance of the Imams (as) on such issues and how these

polytheistic deviations entered our religion.

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(4) What is Ghuluw?

Let‟s look at some Quranic verses which mention “Ghuluw”.

Surah Nisa, 4:171

O People of the Scripture, do not commit excess (Taghlu/ from Ghuluw) in your religion or say

about Allah except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, was but a messenger of Allah

and His word which He directed to Mary and a soul [created at a command] from Him. So

believe in Allah and His messengers. And do not say, "Three"; desist - it is better for you.

Indeed, Allah is but one God. Exalted is He above having a son. To Him belongs whatever is in

the heavens and whatever is on the earth. And sufficient is Allah as Disposer of affairs.

Surah Maeda, 5:77

Say, "O People of the Scripture, do not exceed limits (Taghlu/ from Ghuluw) in your religion

beyond the truth and do not follow the inclinations of a people who had gone astray before and

misled many and have strayed from the soundness of the way."

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These verses have been addressed to the “Bani Israel”, like many other verses in the Quran.

What significance do these verses have for us? Well, since we know that the Quran is a book of

guidance for us, Allah (swt) on many occasions, mentions the stories of past nations as an

example for us, and to warn us, so that we don‟t repeat the same mistakes they made.

Therefore, although the above verses have been addressed to the “Bani Israel” yet they have a

message for us too, and that is “Do not commit Ghuluw”.

Now let‟s look at some narrations from the Imams (as) on the specific type of Ghuluw we are

talking about.

Narration on Ghuluw:

Definition of Ghuluw: Based on the numerous narrations we have received from the Ahlulbayt

(as), the definition of “Ghuluw” is as follows: “Claiming something about the Ahlulbayt (as)

which they themselves did not claim about themselves.”

Now we will quote some narrations to establish the above definition of “Ghuluw”.

Hadith 1: This is a narration in Usul al Kafi,

Hamid ibn Ziyad has narrated from al-Hassan ibn Muhammad ibn Sama‟a from certain

individuals of his people from Aban from „Amr ibn Khalid from abu Ja‟far, recipient of divine

supreme covenant, who has said the following:

“Abu Ja‟far (Imam Baqir a.s), has said, „O the community of Shi‟a of the household of

Muhammad (s), be the central support (take the middle path) so that both al- Ghali

(exxagerators) and al-Tali (those left behind) refer to you.

‟ A man from Ansar (people of Madina) called Sa‟d, said, „May Allah keep my soul in service

for your cause, what is the meaning of al-Ghali?‟ The Imam said, „They are the people who say

about us what we do not say about ourselves. Thus, they are not of our people and we are not of

their people.‟

The man then asked, „Who are al-Tali?‟ The Imam said, „They are those who search for good.

They receive the good and are rewarded for it.‟

The Imam then turned to us and said, „I swear by Allah that we do not possess any amnesty from

Allah and there is no family relation between Allah and us nor do we possess any authority over

Allah. We do not seek nearness to Allah through any other means but obedience to Him.

Whoever of you is obedient to Allah, it will benefit him, and whoever of you is disobedient to

Allah, our guardianship, Wilayah, will not benefit him. What is the matter with you? Do not be

misled! What is the matter with you? Do not be misled!‟”

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Pic Reference: Usul al Kafi, Vol 2, Book of Belief and Disbelief, Ch 32, H 6

Hadith 2: Same narration has been quoted in the book Mishkat al Anwar

Amr ibn Yazeed narrated that Imam Baqir (a.s) said: „O the community of Shi‟a of the

household of Muhammad (s), be the central support (take the middle path) so that both al- Ghali

(exxagerators) and al-Tali (those left behind) refer to you.

‟ A man from Ansar (people of Madina) called Sa‟d, said, „May Allah keep my soul in service

for your cause, what is the meaning of al-Ghali?‟ The Imam said, „They are the people who say

about us what we do not say about ourselves. Thus, they are not of our people and we are not of

their people.‟

The man then asked, „Who are al-Tali?‟ The Imam said, „They are those who search for good.

They receive the good and are rewarded for it.‟

The Imam then turned to us and said, „I swear by Allah that we do not possess any amnesty from

Allah and there is no family relation between Allah and us nor do we possess any authority over

Allah. We do not seek nearness to Allah through any other means but obedience to Him.

Whoever of you is obedient to Allah, it will benefit him, and whoever of you is disobedient to

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Allah, our guardianship, Wilayah, will not benefit him. What is the matter with you? Do not be

misled! What is the matter with you? Do not be misled!‟”

Pic Reference: Mishkat al anwar Fi Ghurar al Akhbar, H 304

Hadith 3: A similar narration with different words has been narrated in Bihar al Anwar, from

Imam Sadiq (as).

From Aban bin Othman Abu „Abdullah (Imam Sadiq a.s) said: Curse of Allah be on Abdullah

bin Saba, he claimed Lordship for the Commander of Faithful (Imam Ali a.s), and the

Commander of faithful was not but a servant of Allah (swt), woe to those who lied against us,

and surely those who say about us what we do not say about ourselves, we dissociate ourselves

from them in front of Allah (swt), we dissociate ourselves from them in front of Allah (swt)!!!

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Pic Reference: Bihar al Anwar, Vol 25, Ch Rejection of Ghuluw, H 40

Hadith 4: While condemning a Ghali (exaggerator) called Mughira ibn Sa‟eed, Imam Sadiq (as)

repeats the definition of “Ghuluw”. In Rijal al Kashi, Ch 98 - On Mughira ibn Sa‟eed, Hadith

400.

The Imam (as) says “…..May the curse of Allah (swt) be on those who claim about us what we

have not claimed about ourselves…”

A similar definition is also given in a supplication of Imam al Ridha (as) against the Ghulat, in

the book al Eteqadaat of Sheikh Saduq, we will quote the full supplication in the upcoming

chapters.

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Is Ghuluw bad? :

In the previous section, while ascertaining the definition of Ghuluw, we also came across many

curses of the Imams (as) on such people pacticing it. Let us look at some more narrations about

the stance of the Imams (as) on Ghuluw.

Hadith 1: In saying no. 116 of Nahjul Balagha, and also in Bihar al Anwar, and numerous other

books, Imam Ali (as) is quoted to have said:

.٠هفاثب:حتغبيجغطلبي

Two kinds of people will be damned on my account.Those who form exaggerated opinion about

me out of love and those who under-estimate me because of hatred.

Hadith 2 & 3: Bihar al Anwar, Vol 25, there is a full chapter about those who exaggerate

(Ghulat), we will just quote two narrations from it.

Allah (swt) says in the Quran “Do not exaggerate in your religion and do not say about Allah

(swt) except the truth”, and Imam Ali (as) said “O Allah (swt), I dissociate myself from the

Ghulat (exaggerators) like Jesus (as)‟s dissociation from the Christians.

Imam Sadiq (as) says “The Ghulat (exaggerators) are the worst of Allah‟s creation, they belittle

Allah (swt) and they claim lordship for his servants, I swear by Allah (swt), the Ghulat are worse

than the Jews, Christians, Majoos and all those who associate with Allah (swt).

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Hadith 4: In Al Amali of Sheikh Toosi, pg 650, it has been narrated

Through Abdul Rahman bin Muslim, from Fudhayl bin Yasaar, who said: Imam Sadiq (as) said:

"Watch out for your youth and be vigilant in protecting them from the Ghulaat (extremists) lest

they corrupt their minds, because the Ghulaat are the worst of God's creation: they belittle

the greatness of Allah, and they claim divine attributes and qualities for the servants of Allah.

I swear by Allah, the Ghulaat (extremist Shias) are worse than the Jews and the Christians and

the Majoos and the (conventional) polytheists……"

Pic Reference: Al Amali Sheikh Toosi, Pg 650

Similarly in many other narrations which will be quoted in the coming chapters, the Imams (as)

clearly say that those who exaggerate our position (The Ghulat) are disbelievers (Kuffar) and

they are worse than all other deviated people.

The Imams (as), due to their experience of the Ghulat in their own time, and due to their far

sightedness, knew how dangerous this disease of Ghuluw is, and how it can take people away

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from the correct religion and make them busy in innovations and rituals which have no basis in

Islam.

This is the reason why the Imams (as) warned us, by harshly condemning and cursing the Ghulat,

so that we take all the necessary precautions in order to keep ourselves safe from this deadly

disease of Ghuluw, but unfortunately, these warnings of the Imams (as) were not narrated from

the pulpits (mimbar) and hence the people remained unaware of them and did not take the

necessary precautions to save themselves from Ghuluw.

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(5) Belief that Allah (swt) has given the Prophet (saww) and Imams (as) the

authority of creation (khalq) and sustenance (rizq)

It should be noted that people who called the Imams (as) God or gave them Godly attributes

were called Ghali/Ghulat, and those who believed that Allah (swt) has delegated (Tafweed) the

affair of creation and sustenance to the Ahlulbayt (as) were called “Mufawweda”. These groups

were active during the lives of many Imams (as), and were condemned and cursed by the Imams

(as). Here we will quote just some out of the many such narrations.

(a) First we quote from the book “Al Etiqadat” of Sheikh al Saduq, which he wrote about the

correct beliefs of the Shia. It should be kept in mind that Sheikh al Saduq was indisputably one

of the greatest scholars of the Shia, and his books lay the foundation of Shia faith.

Sheikh Abu Ja‟far (Saduq) says: Our belief concerning the “Ghulat” and “Mufawweda” is that they are

“Kuffar” (deniers) of Allah (swt). They are more wicked than the Jews and Christians, Fire worshippers, the

Qadarites or the Kharijites or any of the innovators (Ahlul Bidat) or those who hold views that lead astray….

Pic Reference: Al Eteqadat, Arabic text, Ch 37 “Chapter of belief concerning denial of Ghuluw and Tafweed”

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(b) Further under the same chapter Sheikh Saduq quotes a hadith from Imam al Ridha (as).

And Imam `Ali ar-Rida (as), used to say in his prayer:

O God, I seek absolution from Thee in respect of Thy Strength and Power. There is neither strength nor power

save in Thee.

O God, I declare myself before Thee as having nothing to do with those who assert in respect of us things which

we ourselves do not know.

O God, to Thee belongs creation and Thou possesses the power of command; "Thee (alone) do we worship and

from Thee do we seek help".

O God, Thou art our Creator, and the Creator of our ancestors, near and remote.

O God, none deserves lordship save Thee; and divinity befits none except to Thee. So do Thou curse the

Christians who belittled Thy greatness, and do Thou curse those who declare Thee to resemble Thy Creature.

O God, verily we are Thy slaves and the sons of Thy slaves. We have no power over ourselves in respect of

profit, loss, death, life or resurrection (nushur).

O God, he who asserts that we (the Imams) have the power of creation and providing (for mankind), we

(Imams) seek absolution from Thee in respect of him, an absolution similar to that of Jesus, son of Mary, in

respect of the Christians.

O God, we have never called upon them to assert what they do assert; so do not punish us for what they say and

forgive us for what they allege.

"My Lord! leave not one of the disbelievers in the land"(71:26).

"If Thou shouldst leave them. they will mislead Thy slaves and will beget none save lewd ingrates"(71:27)

(c) He quotes another hadith from Imam as Sadiq (as).

And it is related from Zurara that he said: I said to Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq that a man from among the descendants

of Abdu'l-lah ibn Saba' is a believer in (the doctrine of) delegation (tafwid). And he said: And what is tafwid? I

(Zurara) said: According to him Allah (swt), (in the first instance) created Muhammad and 'Ali, and then

delegated the matter (of creation) to them, and these two created and gave sustenance, and caused life and

death. The Imam said: He, the enemy of Allah, has lied. When you return to him recite to him the verse of the

Chapter of The Thunder (Ra‟ad ch 13): "Or assign they unto Allah partners who created the like of His creation

so that the creation (which they made and His creation) seemed alike to them? Say: Allah is the Creator of all

things, and He is the One, the Almighty" (13:16). Then I went to the man and informed him of what Imam Ja'far

as-Sadiq had said: And he became as if I had forced him to swallow stones or as though he were struck dumb.

Picture references for the above two narrations are on the next page.

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Pic Reference: Al Eteqadat, Arabic text, Ch 37 “Chapter of belief concerning denial of Ghuluw and Tafweed”

__________________________________________________________________________________________

(d) Now we quote from the book “Uyun Akhbar al Ridha” which is also an early book of hadith written by

Sheikh al Saduq, in which he compiles the narrations from/about Imam al Ridha (as).

In Vol 2, chapter 46, Hadith 3

Muhammad ibn Ali Majilawayh narrated that Ali ibn Ibrahim ibn Hashem quoted on the authority of his father,

on the authority of Yasir, the servant: I asked Al-Ridha (as), “What do you think about turning over the affairs

(Tafweed)? He (as) answered, “Allah (swt) has turned over the affairs of His Religion to His Prophet (saww)

and said, “…So take what the Apostle assigns to you, and deny yourselves that which he withholds from you..”

(59:7). God, however, will not turn over the affairs of Creation and provision of the sustenance to the Prophet

(saww).”

Then Al-Ridha (as) added, “In fact, the Honorable the Exalted God said, „…Allah is the Creator of all things…‟

(39:62)

God also said, „It is Allah Who has created you: further, He has provided for your sustenance; then He will

cause you to die; and again He will give you life. Are there any of your (false) „partners‟ who can do any single

one of these things? Glory be to Him! and high is He above the partners they attribute (to him)!‟” (30:40)

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(e) In the very next narration, i.e, ch 46, Hadith 4

Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Abi Bashshar - may God be pleased with him - narrated that Abul Faraj al-Mudhaffar

ibn Ahmad ibn AlHassan al-Qazvini quoted on the authority of Al-Abbas ibn Muhammad ibn Qasim ibn Hamza

ibn Musa ibn Ja‟far (s), on the authority of Al-Hassan ibn Sahl al-Qummi, on the authority of Muhammad ibn

Khalid, on the authority of Abi Hashem al-Ja‟fari that he had asked Abal Hassan Al-Reza (s) about the

“Ghulat” and those who believed in (God) turning over the affairs (Tafweed). The Imam (s) replied, “The

Ghulat are unbelievers (Kuffar) and those who believe in (God) turning over the affairs (to the Prophet (saww)

and Ahlulbayt (as)) (i.e tafweed) are polytheists. Whoever associates with them; visits them; eats or drinks with

them; becomes related to them; gives a daughter in marriage to or marries with one of their daughters; grants

them immunity; considers them honest in keeping what they are entrusted with; or acknowledges what they say

or assists them in what they say has exited from the circle of the Mastery of the Honorable the Exalted God, the

Mastery of God‟s Prophet (s) and the Mastery of us - the Members of the Holy Household.”

Pic Reference: Uyun Akhbar al Ridha, Arabic text, Ch 46, Hadith 3 and 4

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(f) Same narration is quoted in Bihar al Anwar, Volume 25, of Allama al Majlisi.

……Abi Hashem al-Ja‟fari that he had asked Abal Hassan Al-Reza (s) about the “Ghulat” and those who

believed in (God) turning over the affairs (Tafweed). The Imam (s) replied, “The Ghulat are unbelievers

(Kuffar) and those who believe in (God) turning over the affairs (to the Prophet (saww) and Ahlulbayt (as)) (i.e

tafweed) are polytheists. Whoever associates with them; visits them; eats or drinks with them; becomes related

to them; gives a daughter in marriage to or marries with one of their daughters; grants them immunity; considers

them honest in keeping what they are entrusted with; or acknowledges what they say or assists them in what

they say has exited from the circle of the Mastery of the Honorable the Exalted God, the Mastery of God‟s

Prophet (s) and the Mastery of us - the Members of the Holy Household.”

Pic Reference: Bihar al Anwar,vol 25, Arabic text, Ch Rejection of Ghuluw, Hadith 19

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(g) In the book “Al Ehtijaj”, is a narration from Imam Zamana (atfs) about the Ghulat (exaggerators).

The Imam (as) says: “O Muhammad ibn Ali (al Karkhi), Allah (swt) is much higher, greater, purer and worthy

of praise than everything else. Undoubtedly, we (Imams (as)) are not just, not equal to Allah (swt) in His

knowledge, and His power, but no one has the knowledge of the unseen (Ilm al ghayb) except Allah (swt) as He

says in his book (Quran) “Say (O Prophet), "None in the heavens and earth knows the unseen except Allah…”

(27:65).

I (as) and all the forefathers of the previous Imams (as), be it Adam (as), or Ibrahim (as), or Musa (as), and all

other Prophets (as), and the last Prophet, Muhammad (saww), and Imam Ali (as) and all other Imams (as) till

the end of my age and till the end of time will always be servents (abd) of Allah. And Allah (swt) says in His

book “And whoever turns away from My remembrance - indeed, he will have a depressed life, and We will

gather him on the Day of Resurrection blind. He will say, "My Lord, why have you raised me blind while I was

[once] seeing? [ Allah ] will say, "Thus did Our signs come to you, and you forgot them; and thus will you this

Day be forgotten." (20:124-126).

O Muhammad ibn Ali (al Karkhi), our ignorant and stupid shias, and other whose belief (Iman) on the religion

is not even equal to that of a mosquito have hurt us. I take Allah (swt) who has no partners as my witness, and

even though this is enough as a witness, I also take the Prophet Muhammad (saww) and all the angels and

prophets as witness. And I take you and all those who listen to this letter as witness that in front of Allah (swt)

and His Messenger (saww) I will disassociate and damn those people who believe that we have the knowledge

of unseen, or that we have a share in the kingdom (Mulk) of Allah (swt), and that our station is higher than the

station that has been fixed by Allah (swt) which is what I have pointed out in the beginning of the letter. And I

warn you that whoever I disassociate myself with, Allah (swt) His angel and all His prophets (as) also dissociate

themselves with him, and I leave it upon your neck (O Muhammad ibn Ali) to spread this message and you will

not hide it from anyone, so that this message becomes clear for our Shia and our lovers………and whoever gets

this message from me and does not act upon it, he will be deserving of the damnation (la‟anat) of Allah (swt).”

Pic Reference: Al Ehtijaj, Arabic text, Ch Ehtijaj of Imam al Hujja

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(6) How early texts were fabricated:

In this section, we will briefly explain how fabricated narrations entered the religious texts.

There were groups of exaggerators (Ghulat) and fabricators during the times of almost all Imams (as).

According to some researchers, these could be divided into three main groups.

One group constituted the enemies of Ahlulbayt (as), who would serve the oppressive governments by

fabricating exaggerated narrations regarding the virtues of the Imams (as) so as to bring blame and censure on

the followers of the Imams (as) for being extremists and cause them to be accused of having become

unbelievers.

Second were those people who wanted leadership and to make the prohibited pleasures permissible, these

people fabricated narrations to attract the naïve followers of the Imams (as) towards themselves.

Third group were the excessive and sentimental lovers of the Imams (as) who would either fabricate

exaggerated traditions or just spread the already fabricated traditions without pondering about their authenticity.

These kinds of people would get into the circles of the companions of the Imams (as) and would get hold of

their books, with the purported aim of copying them. These books had the collection of authentic narrations of

the Imams (as). After getting these books, these fabricators would concoct traditions and insert them in the

newly copied manuscripts that were then spread to various places and, as a result, these false traditions became

distributed amongst the public at large with their attribution to the Imams (as). In those days, there were no

printing presses and the manuscripts used to be written down by copyists and there was hardly any opportunity

to compare the copied work with the original in order to verify that there had been no additions or subtractions.

People who gained access to these copied manuscripts assumed that all the narrations reported in them were

true and in harmony with the original manuscripts.

Here we would give some example from the books of history and the books of Ilm al Rijal (For intro to ilm al

rijal please see Ch2, Prerequisites: Terms and Concepts).

(1) In the book “Kamal ud Deen wa Tamam un N‟ema”, while answering one of the questions of the

Zaydiyya sect about why, in spite of the presence of Imams (as), there was/is so much difference among the

Imamiyya Shia themselves, Sheikh Saduq writes:

So I say, relying on the Almighty Allah: The difference between Imamiyah is from those liars who, like

in every period of time, entered their folds till the problem became serious. The elders of Shias were

pious, striving and they referred to the righteous people. They never had personal views and could not

discriminate (between authentic and fabricated traditions). That is why they accepted traditions from and

trusted even those who had concealed their identity. When this went on increasing and the reality

became known to the people they complained to their Imams about it, so the Imams ordered them to

take (only) those traditions and narrations that are accepted by all. But they did not do so and continued

in their previous attitude. Thus betrayal was from their side and not from their Imams. The Imams also

did not become aware of the false and true traditions that had got mixed as they were not having the

knowledge of the Unseen (ilm al ghayb). He (i.e The Imam a.s) is a righteous slave of Allah having

knowledge of the Book and Sunnah and among the traditions of Shias he becomes familiar only with

those that reach him.

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Pic Reference: Kamal ud Deen, Sheikh Saduq, Pg 112.

(2) In Uyun Akhbar al Ridha, of Sheikh al Saduq, In a narration Imam Ridha (as) warns one of his

companions about the kinds of traditions fabricated by his enemies.

…..Ibn Abi Mahmood added, “I told Al-Reza (s), „O son of the Prophet of God! There are traditions with us

about the nobility of the Commander of the Faithful (s) and the nobilities of you - the Members of the Holy

Household - which I do not observe in you. Should we believe in those traditions?” The Imam (s) said, „O Ibn

Abi Mahmood! My father (s) narrated that his father (s) quoted on the authority of his grandfather (s) that God‟s

Prophet (s) said, „Whoever listens to someone‟s speech is worshiping him. If the speaker is talking on behalf of

God, then he has worshipped God. However, if the speaker is talking on behalf of Satan, then he has

worshipped Satan.‟‟

The Imam (s) then added, „O Ibn Abi Mahmood! Our enemies have faked three types of traditions regarding us,

which are of the following types: 1- Exaggeration 2- Belittling and 3- Wickedness of our enemies and swearing

at them. When the people hear their traditions exaggerating about us, they will denounce us and say that the

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Shiites believe in the divinity of their Divine Leaders. When they hear their traditions belittling us, they will

believe them. They will swear at us - the Members of the Holy Household - when they hear the traditions about

the wickedness of our enemies and their being sweared at, while the Honorable the Exalted God has said,

„Revile not ye those whom they call upon besides God, lest they out of spite revile God in their ignorance….‟”

(6:108).

Pic Reference: Uyun Akhbar al Ridha, Arabic text, Volume 1 Ch 28

__________________________________________________________________________________________

(3) Abu al Khattab: One of the worst groups among such groups was called the “Khattabiya”. In the time of

Imam al Sadiq (as) there was a man called Abu al-Khattab, who called Imam al Sadiq (as) God and claimed

prophethood for himself. His group fabricated hundreds if not thousands of narrations, some about the

exaggerated status of the Imams (as), some allowing the impermissible things, and some twisted interpretations

of the Quranic verses.

In order to gain esteem and stature for himself in the eyes of the public, Abu al Khattab would go to Madina to

meet Imam Sadiq (as) and after that fabricate hadith praising himself and attribute them to the Imam (as).

For instance, it is reported in Rijal al Kashi, that Abu al Khattab fabricated a hadith and attributed it to Imam

Sadiq (as) in which the Imam supposedly put his hand on the chest of Abu al khattab, and said “We (Ahlulbayt)

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have the knowledge of unseen (ilm al ghayb)” and said that “Abu al khattab is the treasure of our (Ahlulbayt‟s)

knowledge and he is the place where all out secrets are housed”. When the Imam (as) was informed about this,

he totally rejected the incident and said “By Allah except whom there is no God, we do not have the knowledge

of unseen…..”

Picture Reference: Rijal Kashi, chapter about Abu al Khattab, Arabic text

Abu al Khattab and his group would twist the meaning of the Quran, for example there is a hadith reported in

Rijal Kashi and Bihar al Anwar and other books which say that Imam Sadiq (as) supposedly said “We are the

Salat in the Quran, we are the Zakat in the Quran, we are the Sawm in the Quran and we are the Hajj in the

Quran……and we are the Ka‟abah of Allah and we are the direction towards the face of Allah, such that

wherever you turn, you will see the face of Allah……and our enemies in the Quran have been given the terms

such as Fahsha (illicit relationship), Munkar (immoral and unethical), Baghi (rebel), Khamr (intoxication),

Maysar and Qimar (gambling), Maytah (carrion), Dam (blood) and pig‟s meet”.

Surprisingly these kinds of narrations have been quoted by some grand scholars in their books too, although

there are clear narrations which deny such traditions.

For example in Rijal Kashi, after repeating all these things, Imam (as) says “This is not the case and it is not the

custom of Allah (swt) to speak with his creation by the use of words and address them in a manner such that

they would not comprehend or understand”

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Picture Reference: Rijal Kashi, chapter about Abu al Khattab, Arabic text

And there are many more narrations which totally reject this type of twisting of the verses of the Quran.

(4) Mughira bin Sa‟eed: Another person who would fabricate ahadith was Mughira bin Sa‟eed.

In Rijal Kashi:

Imam al Ridha (as) says: “Mughira bin Sa‟eed attributed lies to Abu Jafar (Imam Baqir (as))….”

Imam Sadiq (as) says: “May the curse of Allah be on Mughira, he attributed lies to my father…..May Allah

curse those who say about us what we have not said about our own selves.”

Imam Sadiq (as) says: “Do not accept any narration except that which is in line with the Quran and Sunnah, or

what you find in the narrations of the previous Imams (as), because Mughira bin Sa‟eed, may curse of Allah be

on him, inserted such narrations in the books of the companions of my father (Imam Baqir (as)) which he (as)

had never said…..”

Yununs ibn Abd al Rahman was a great scholar and a companion of Imam Ridha (as), he travelled to Iraq and

found the followers of Imam Baqir (as) and Imam Sadiq (as), he heard ahadith from them, recorded them and

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also obtained some manuscripts from them and copied them too, when he returned from Iraq he met Imam al

Ridha (as) and presented those compilations of ahadith to Imam al Ridha (as) for authentication. The Imam

accepted to undertake the task and went through the ahadith carefully. The outcome of Imam‟s (as) study was

that a major portion of those narrations were false and fabricated. Imam Ridha (as) said: “These ahadith are not

from Imam Sadiq (as) and without a doubt they have been attributed to the Imam (as) by Abu al Khattab, may

God‟s curse be on Abu al Khattab, that till today in the works of the companions of Imam Sadiq (as), the

followers of Abu al Khattab who are shrewd and deceptive are able to insert false ahadith into these

manuscripts. You should not accept any hadith that is attributed to us if it is in conflict with the Quran because

whatever we say is in harmony with the Quran and Sunnah of the Prophet (saww) as we only narrate from God

and his messenger.”

Picture Reference: Rijal Kashi, chapter about Mughira bin Sa‟eed, Arabic text

And there are many more such narrations which explicitly say that Abu al Khattab and his followers secretly

inserted fabricated narrations in the books of the companions of the Imams (as), such that even Ilm al Rijal is

not enough to identify such narrations, because the names of these fabricators do not come in the chain of the

narrators, hence we need to turn all the narrations back to the Quran and see if they agree with the Quran or not.

Such things continued even after Abu al Khattab, other fabricators like Mughira bin Sa‟eed, Abu Samina etc

kept fabricating traditions during the lives of all other Imams (as).

An important point is that the same fabricated books of the companions of the Imams (as) were used by Sheikh

Kulaini, Sheikh Saduq etc to compile the main shia books of hadith, therefore many fabricated narrations found

their way into the main shia texts.

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This is why we find so many contradicting narrations, some ahadith suggest that the Quran was changed and

originally it had 17000 verses, some narrations suggest that the Imams (as) know everything from the past and

the future from the time they are born, some suggest that Imams (as) created the universe and they still manage

all affairs, and many more such bizarre traditions which go totally against the Quran and established Sunnah.

Another narration from Imam al Sadiq (as) suggests that Mughira bin sa‟eed fabricated narrations of

exaggeration (Ghuluw).

Imam Sadiq (as) says: “Mughira consistently and intentionally used to attribute lies to my father by borrowing

the books of the companions of my father through the intermediary of his followers who concealed their true

identity. They would take the manuscripts of the companions of my father on a loan and give them to Mughira.

Then, he would secretly insert the beliefs of unbelievers and zindiq (heretics) and attribute them to my father.

These copied manuscripts containing the wrong beliefs were given to his companions and he would instruct

them to distribute them widely among the shias. Therefore all that which is of an extremist tendency (Ghuluw)

in the works of the companions of my father is in actuality fabricated hadith reports that were inserted by

Mughira and his followers.”

Picture Reference: Rijal Kashi, chapter about Mughira bin Sa‟eed, Arabic text

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(7) Do the Prophet (saww) and Imams (as) have knowledge of everything?

Now that we have seen how thousands of narrations were fabricated by different groups and inserted into the

books of the companions of our Imams (as), let us take a look at how these false beliefs openly and clearly

contradict the Quran.

At this point we should remind the readers about the instruction of Imam al Ridha (as) where he says:

…You should not accept any hadith that is attributed to us if it is in conflict with the Quran because whatever

we say is in harmony with the Quran and Sunnah of the Prophet (saww) as we only narrate from God and his

messenger.” (Rijal Kashi)

Imam Sadiq (as) says: “Do not accept any narration except that which is in line with the Quran and Sunnah, or

what you find in the narrations of the previous Imams (as), because Mughira bin Sa‟eed, may curse of Allah be

on him, inserted such narrations in the books of the companions of my father (Imam Baqir (as)) which he (as)

had never said…..” (Rijal Kashi)

First let us state what the present day general Shia belief is regarding the knowledge of Prophet (saww) and the

Imams (as).

Most Shias believe that the Prophet (saww) and Imams (as) have full knowledge of everything from the past

and future, from the time they are born, to be precise, not just since they are born, rather since much before that.

It is also believed that the Prophet (saww) and Imams (as) were already aware of the Quran, even before it was

revealed, and a popular incident is repeatedly narrated in religious lectures, which says that when Imams Ali

(as) was born and was in the arms of the Prophet (saww) he recited the whole Quran (even though the Quran

had not been revealed at that time.)

Let us look at what the Quran has to say regarding this?

Verse 1:

After narrating the story of Prophet Nuh (as), Allah (swt) says to Prophet Muhammad (saww), in Surah Hud

11:49

ذهك ث اءي ةأ ك د اانغ إن ا اكد ي د ذ ؼه أ ل يك ال ثميل ز

ف اطثش الث ح إ انؼ ر م نه

That is from the news of the unseen which We reveal to you, [O Muhammad]. You knew it not, neither you nor

your people, before this. So be patient; indeed, the [best] outcome is for the righteous.

This is such a clear verse, Allah (swt) is clearly saying that Rasulallah (saww) did not know about this (events

of Nuh a.s) before it was revealed to him in the Quran. Allah (swt) made it crystal clear by adding “..neither you

nor your people, before this”.

Bearing in mind that the (so called) scholars are very good at twisting the meaning of verses to suit their beliefs,

if the verse had only said “..You (oh Prophet) did not know this..”, the scholars could have said, well this verse

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is talking about Alam e Dharr, or Alam al arwah, even before Adam was created, that is the time when Allah

(swt) revealed to our Prophet (saww) the story of Nooh. Well Allah (swt) clarified it by saying “..neither you

nor your people..” knew it “BEFORE THIS..”, which clearly shows that Allah (swt) is talking about this world,

not some other realm.

This clearly proves that the Prophet (saww) does not know everything from the past (like story of Nuh (as)), and

this also proves that the Prophet (saww) was not even aware of the Quran before it was revealed to him in this

world.

Verse 2:

In Surah Saad 38:67-70, Allah (swt) instructs the Prophet (saww) to say to the people

لم ظى ث ؤ ػ

ا ي ا ك ن ػهى ي ل تان إرال ػه خر ظ

ث ي اأ ا زش أ إل إن إد

Say, "It is great news from which you turn away.

I had no knowledge of the exalted assembly [of angels] when they were disputing [the creation of Adam].

It has not been revealed to me except that I am a clear warner."

Mala e A‟ala, according to most Mufassireen refers to the incident when Angels were asked to Prostrate in front

of Adam (as), and there was a controversy. Irrespective of what it means, one thing is clear, that the Prophet

(saww) was not aware of “Mala e A‟ala” when it took place, even though according to popular belief, the

Prophet (saww) was created much before Adam (as), so he (saww) should have witnessed whatever happened

in Mala e A‟ala.

Verse 3:

Allah (swt) says to Rasulallah (saww) in Surah Tawba 9:101

انف اقل ه داػ ش ذ ح ي مان أ ي ابي افم ال ػش ن كىي د ي

ظى اب ػ ز ػ إن د ش ثى ذ ش تىي ز ؼ ىع ؼه ى ذ ذ ؼه

And among those around you of the Bedouins are hypocrites, and [also] from the people of Madinah.

They have become accustomed to hypocrisy. You, [O Muhammad], do not know them, [but] We know

them. We will punish them twice [in this world]; then they will be returned to a great punishment.

Not just, past and future, like any normal human being, the Prophet (saww) was even unaware of the people of

his own time, and in his own city, that‟s why Allah (swt) says “You do not know them…”.

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Verse 4:

Before narrating the story of Prophet Yusuf (as), Allah says to Rasulallah (saww) in Surah Yusuf 12:3

ك مض ذ ه ػ اانم ظ ضأ دغ ات د ك أ اإن ز إانمشآ يكد ل ثه ن

افه انغ

We relate to you, [O Muhammad], the best of stories in what We have revealed to you of this Qur'an although

you were, before it, among the unaware.

An argument is made that the word “ghaafil” does not mean “unaware” rather it means that Rasulallah (saww)

was aware, but did not tell the people.

Well why would Allah (swt) call Rasulallah (saww) "Ghafil" (which is a negative word) while Rasulallah

(saww) only says something when Allah asks him to say it?

Also if we assume that Rasulallah (saww) knew everything, then Nauzobillah even when he died he was

ghaafil, because he did not tell the people all that he knew in his life. This is clearly illogical.

Also see 6:131, 6:156, 7:172 etc where word ghaafil is used for being "unaware"

Verse 5:

In Surah Ahqaf 46:9, Allah (swt) asks Rasulallah (saww) to say to his people

الم تذػاكدي عمي اانش ي اأ دس تمفؼ ي ل تكى أ ذ ثغإ اإل ي د إن

ا ي أ ا زش إل ث ي

Say, "I am not something new among the messengers, nor do I know what will be done with me or with you. I

only follow that which is revealed to me, and I am not but a clear warner."

Some people say, well when this verse says “What will be done with me and you” it is talking about Day of

Judgment, and that is not included in Ilm al Ghayb, rather everything that happens before the Day of Judgment

is included in Ilm al ghayb.

This is against what Imam Ali (as) has been quoted to have said in Nahjul Balagha, Sermon 128. While Imam

Ali (as) was informing the people of certain future events, a person from the tribe of Kalb stood up and said “O

Amir al-mu'minin, you have been given knowledge of Ghayb. (Because this companion was thinking, if the

Imam doesn't have Ilmul Ghayb, then how can he tell us about these future events, but the Imam corrected him

as you will see below:)

Whereupon Amir al-mu'minin (as) laughed and said to the man who belonged to the tribe of Banu Kalb:

"O brother of Kalb! This is not knowledge of hidden things (`ilmu'l-ghayb); rather, these are simply matters I

have learned from a possessor of knowledge (i.e. the Prophet) who knew them. As for knowledge of Ghyab,

that encompasses the knowledge of the Day of Judgement, and the things covered by Allah in the verse:

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“Verily, Allah is He with Whom is the knowledge of the Hour; He sends down the rain, and He knows what is

in the wombs. No soul knows what it will earn tomorrow, and no soul knows in what land it will die..” (Qur'an,

31:34)

Therefore, Allah alone knows what is there in the wombs, whether male or female, ugly or handsome, generous

or miserly, mischievous or pious, and who will be the fuel for Hell and who will be in the company of the

Prophets in Paradise. This is the knowledge of the hidden things which is not known to anyone save Allah.

Other than this is that whose knowledge Allah passed on to His Prophet and he passed it on to me, and prayed

for me that my bosom may retain it and my ribs may hold it."

As we can see, according to Imam Ali (as), the Day of Judgment is included in Ilm al Ghayb, therefore not

having knowledge about the Day of Judgment implies not having Ilm al ghayb.

Verse 6:

Allah (swt) instructs Rasulallah (saww) to say to his people, in Surah An‟aam 6:50

لم ػذن كىأ للل ائ ض خ للا ل ة أ ػه ى انغ ل ه ك إن كىأ لل ي أ ذ ثغإ

اإل ي د إن ملم غر انث ظشال ػ أ ف ل ذ ر ف ك ش

"Say [O Muhammad]: I do not say to you, I have with me the treasures of Allah, nor do I have knowledge of the

Ghayb (unseen), nor do I say to you that I am an angel; I do not follow aught save that which is revealed to me.

Say: Are the blind and the seeing one alike? Do you not then reflect?"

Some people reply to this by saying that the Prophet (saww) did not say “ I don‟t have knowledge of Ghayb

(unseen)”, rather he (saww) is saying to the Mushrikeen that “I DO NOT SAY TO YOU that I have Ilm al

Ghayb”. Which means, he has knowledge of unseen, but he is just not saying it to the Mushrikeen.

What an illogical argument!! If we see the list of things which Rasulallah (saww) mentions that he will not say

to the Mushrikeen, it also includes “nor do I say to you that I am an angel”, So does this mean that Rasulallah

(saww) is an angel, but he is just not saying it to the Mushrikeen?

Verse 7:

Allah (swt) instructs the Prophet (saww) to say to his people, in Surah A‟araf 7:188

لم فؼان فغأ يهكل ل ا ش اإل ض اء ي ش للا ن ة أ ػه ىكد عر كث شخانغ ل

شي اانخ ي غ ءي انغ أ اإ ت شش زش إل و نم ؤي

Say, "I hold not for myself [the power of] benefit or harm, except what Allah has willed. And if I knew the

unseen, I could have acquired much good (wealth), and no harm would have touched me. I am not except a

warner and a bringer of good tidings to a people who believe."

What is this knowledge, which, if Rasulallah (saww) had, he could have acquired much good, and no harm

would have touched him?

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If an argument is made that this only means that his knowledge is not independent, rather given by Allah, then a

question is raised, how is it possible that ONLY if Rasulallah (saww) had independent knowledge of unseen,

only then he "could have acquired much good, and no harm would have touched him", why is the same thing

not possible with the same knowledge of unseen given by Allah?

For example, as person trips and falls down, and then he says “I already knew I will trip over here”, so someone

asks him “Well if you knew you will trip over here, why weren‟t you careful?”, so the other person replies by

saying, “Because this is not my independent knowledge, someone else had told me”, so it will be said “it

doesn‟t matter whether your knowledge was independent or dependent, the point is, you had the knowledge, so

you should have used it”.

Another point to ponder is, if the Prophet (saww) had knowledge of unseen, no harm would have touched him.

Let‟s look for an incident where some harm touched the Prophet (saww). In Battle of Uhud, some companions

left their positions and left the Prophet (saww) unsafe, and hence the Prophet (saww) was hurt by the enemy, so

some harm touched him, clearly if the Prophet (saww) knew the unseen, according to the verse, no harm would

have touched him, but since harm did touch him, we know that he did not have knowledge of unseen.

Verse 8:

Allah (swt) instructs the Prophet (saww) to say to the people, in Surah ash Shura 42:52

نك ز اك د ك أ سداإن أ يش اي ا اذ ذسكد ي انكر ابي ل ا كال ن

ه ا ؼ ذساج ت اءي ش ػث اد اي إ ك ذ ن ر اط إن غر مى طش ي

"And thus did We reveal to you an inspired book by Our command. You did not know what the Book

was, nor (what) the faith (was), but We made it a light, guiding thereby whom We please of Our

servants; and most surely you show the way to the right path!”

This clearly shows that Rasulallah (saww) did not know about the Quran before it was revealed to him

nor did he know about the faith. This does not mean that he used to worship idols. Since the Prophet

(saww) was born in a house whose members were on the religion of Ibrahim (as), and were pure

monotheists, there is no question of idol worship.

Verse 9:

When the people asked the Prophet (saww) about the time of the Day of Judgement, see what Allah

(swt) asks the Prophet (saww) to reply. In Surah Mulk 67:25-26

ادل ػذإكرىط اان ز ر ي من

ث ي اأ ا زش إ للا اانؼهىػذ لمإ

And they say, "When is this promise (day of judgment), if you should be truthful?"

Say, "The knowledge is only with Allah, and I am only a clear warner."

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Verse 10:

Again in Surah Jinn 72:25

لم اأ ل شة أ دسإ ي ذ مأ وذػ جؼ تن ذس أ ي

Say, "I do not know if what you are promised (day of judgment) is near or if my Lord will grant for it a

[long] period."

People claim, that all the verses in the Quran which allude to the fact that the Prophet (saww) did not

have Ilm al Ghayb only mean that the Prophet (saww) did not have “Independent” Ilm al Ghayb, rather

his knowledge is “dependent” on Allah. These people cannot apply this principle here, because even if

the Prophet (saww) had “dependent” knowledge from Allah (swt) about the Day of Judgment, he

(saww) would not say “I do not know if what you are promised is near or……”. He could have said “I

know when the promise will be fulfilled, but this is secret knowledge which cannot be revealed” but he

(saww) did not say that.

Verse 11:

Allah (swt) says to the Prophet (saww), in Surah Ghafir 40:78

ن م ذ ه ا سعلأ سع ىل ثهك ي ظ اي ي ك ل ظ ه ىػ ي ك مظضن ىي ه ػ

ا ي ا عل ك أ نش تآ ح ؤذ إل تئر للا ا اء ف ئر أ يشج للا كلض غش تانذ خ

انك ثطه ان

And We have already sent messengers before you. Among them are those [whose stories] We have

related to you, and among them are those [whose stories] We have not related to you. And it was not for

any messenger to bring a sign [or verse] except by permission of Allah. So when the command of Allah

comes, it will be concluded in truth, and the falsifiers will thereupon lose [all]

There are messengers who‟s story has not been related to Rasulallah (saww), and if Allah did not tell

Rasulallah (saww) surely there is no other way he can know.

If an argument is made that this ayat is not addressed to Rasulallah (saww) rather to his people, this can

be refuted as Allah says, "qasasna 'ALAIKA" not "'alaikum", also in the translation of Quran by Ali Quli

Qarai (Shia translator of Quran), whenever something is addressed to Rasulallah, the word "you" is

written in italics, and in the translation of this ayat also "you" is written in italics, therefore there is no

doubt that this ayat is addressed to Rasulallah (saww).

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Verse 12:

In Surah Nisa 4:164, Allah (swt) says to the Prophet (saww)

سعل ظ اىل ذ ك ل ظ ه سعلل ثميػ ك مظظىن ى ه ػ ه ى ك للا يع

ا ذ كه

And [We sent] messengers about whom We have related [their stories] to you before and messengers

about whom We have not related to you. And Allah spoke to Moses with [direct] speech.

Again, if Allah (swt) did not relate the stories of some messengers to Rasulallah (saww), then he has no

other way to know them.

Verse 13:

Allah (swt) says in Surah Ibrahim 14:9

ث ؤ ؤذكىأ ن ى ول ثهكىيان ز اد ح ل ػ د ث ان ز ىي ت ؼذ ىل ؼه

إل للا ذى اء اخسعهىج اتانث د ىف ش ذ ىفأ ا ل اناأ ف ف ش اإ ا اك ت

أسعهرى إ ت اش ك ن فا ذ ذػ اي يشة إن

Has there not reached you the news of those before you - the people of Noah and 'Aad and Thamud and

those after them? No one knows them but Allah. Their messengers brought them clear proofs, but they

returned their hands to their mouths and said, "Indeed, we disbelieve in that with which you have been

sent, and indeed we are, about that to which you invite us, in disquieting doubt."

"No one knows them except Allah", does Rasulallah (saww) come in "except Allah" or not? ofcourse he

does, it means clearly that the knowledge of those after 'Aad and Thamud is not with Rasulallah (saww),

as it is ONLY with Allah and there is no exception to this.

Now that we have clearly established from the Quran, that the Prophet (saww), and hence the Imams,

did not have the knowledge of everything, they only knew what Allah (swt) had revealed to the Prophet

(saww). Let‟s look at the views of some classical scholars and some narrations regarding this.

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Views of some Classical Scholars about Ilm al Ghayb:

1. In his book, Kamal ud Deen, Sheikh Saduq says, on page 109 and 112

“And whoever professes that “the occurrences become apparent to Allah (swt), through

consideration and gained knowledge”, then such a person is a disbeliever (kafir) in Allah (swt). And

what was other than this, then it is the belief of the Mughiriah sect, and anyone who attributes the

knowledge of unseen (ghaib) to the Imams (as), then that is an act of disbelief (Kufr) in Allah (swt)

and a departure from Islam according to us.” (Kamal ud Deen, Saduq, Pg 109)

And in another place, on page 112, he says

“…Also, the Imam was not aware of these confusing and contradictory claims that were transmitted

by the narrators of Hadith because he does not know the unseen, rather he is just a pious slave of

Allah (swt) who knows the Quran and Sunnah, and he only knows about those affairs of his shias

which are reported to him” (Kamal ud Deen, Saduq, Pg 112)

Pic Reference: Kamal ud Deen, Sheikh Saduq, Pg 109 & Pg 112.

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2. In the book Masail al Ukbariya, where Sheikh Mufeed answers the questions sent to him by people,

on Page 69, question number 20

Shaikh Mufid (413 AH) was asked, as found in his book Masail al Akbariyah (Page 69-72, question

number 20) as follows: "There is a consensus among us Shias that the Imam knows what is going to

happen, so what was wrong with Imam Ali (as) that he still proceeded to the mosque despite

knowing that he would be killed, as well as knowing his killer and the time of his death.And

similarly what was wrong with Imam Hussain (as) that he also proceeded to Kufa despite

knowing that they will let him down and will not help him, and that he would be killed in this travel.

And why is it that when him and his companions were cornered at Karbala, and while he knew that

they would be denied access to water, if he had dug into the ground even for about an arm‟s length

he would have struck water but despite that he did not dig for water to support himself and got

martyred thirsty. And why did Imam al Hasan (as) enter into a promise with Muawiyah and made

peace despite knowing that he would break the promise, not prove faithful and kill the shias of his

father.”

So Shaikh Mufid replied to this claim about the Imam knowing the future:

"The consensus of the Shia scholars is the opposite of that, and Shia scholars have never consented

upon this notion that the Imams know the future.”

Pic Reference: Al Masail Al Ukbariya, Sheikh Mufeed, pg 69

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3. In his book “Al Awail al Maqalaat”, Sheikh Mufeed writes

“As for saying that the Imams know ghaib, so it is an extremely evil and corrupt belief....”

Pic Reference: Al Awail al Maqalaat, Sheikh Mufeed, Pg 67

4. Shaikh Tusi wrote in his book Talkhis al Shafi (Volume 1 page 252):

"…We do not consider it necessary for the Imam to have any knowledge of things which is not

directly related to Islamic laws….”

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Pic Reference: Talkhis al shafi, Sheikh Toosi, Pg 252

5. In Majma ul Bayan, which is one of the most popular Shia Tafseer of Quran, Allama Tabarsi writes

for the commentary of this verse (Surah al Hud Verse 123) "And for Allah is the knowledge of ghaib

of the skies and the earth"

"We do not know of any Shia scholar who permits attributing the knowledge of ghaib to any of the

makhlooq (creatures) for the only one who is worthy of being characterized by such an attribute is

the one who possesses all knowledge without acquisition. And this is true only for Allah whose

knowledge is eternal and He knows everything by Himself (without acquiring it from any source).

None is a partner of Him in this attribute and whoever believes that anyone other than Allah knows

ghaib then he is outside the fold of Islam. Now as for what has been narrated by the Shias and non

Shias among the ahadith of Imam Ali where he mentions some events which would take place in the

future, so all that knowledge is what he inherited from the Prophet who in turn was informed by

Allah (about some limited future events). So those ahadith do not at all mean that the Imams have

knowledge of ghaib.

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Pic Reference: Majmaul Bayan, Vol 5, Pg 273

6. Ibn Shahr Ashoob writes in his book, Mutashabih Al Quran

“The Prophet and the Imam must have full knowledge of the Islamic laws, but it is not necessary

upon them to have knowledge of ghaib, after all that would then mean that they are partners of

Allah.”

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Pic Reference: Mutashabih al Quran, Ibn Shahr Ashoob, Pg 211.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

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Narrations of Ahlulbayt (as) about Ilm al Ghayb.

1. In a Sahih Narration, in Amali Sheikh Mufeed, Yahya b. Abdullah b. al-Hasan and I were with

Abul Hasan (Imam Ridha a.s), peace be upon him, and Yahya asked him: "May I be your ransom,

they think that you have the knowledge of the unseen (Ilmul Ghaib)." He said: "Glory be to Allah!

Place your hand over my head. For, By Allah, there does not remain a hair on my head and on my

body except that it stood up (Goosebumps). Then he said: "No, By Allah, it is nothing but what we

have inherited from the Prophet (peace be upon him and his progeny)."

Pic Reference: Amali Sheikh Mufeed, Majlis 3, H 5.

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2. The same Sahih narration has been mentioned in Rijal al Kashi

Pic Reference: Rijal Kashi, Pg 250.

3. In another Sahih narration in Rijal kashi,

it is narrated from Ibn Abi Umair, from shu‟aib, from Abi Baseer, who said: I said to Abi Abdullah

(Imam Sadiq a.s) “Indeed they claim!!!” Imams (as) asked: “And what do they claim?”

I said “They claim that you know the (number of the) drops of the rain, and the number of stars and

(the number of) leaves on trees, and the weight of what is in the seas and number of (the particles in

the) sand.

So the Imam (as) raised his hand towards the sky and said: “Subhanallah! Subhanalla! No one knows

all this except for Allah (swt)”

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Pic Reference: Rijal al Kashi, Pg 251.

4. In Nahj balagha, in Sermon 128, Imam Ali (as) discloses some events of the future, so one of the

companions said to him: O Amir al-mu'minin, you have been given (Ilm al Ghayb) knowledge of

hidden things.

Whereupon Amir al-mu'minin laughed and said to the man who belonged to the tribe of Banu Kalb:

O brother of Kalb! This is not knowledge of hidden things (`ilmu'l-ghayb), these matters have been

acquired from him (the Prophet) who knew them. As regard knowledge of hidden things, that

includes knowledge of the Day of Judgment, and the things covered by Allah in the verse:

“Verily, Allah is He with Whom is the knowledge of the Hour; He sends down the rain, and He

knows what is in the wombs. No soul knows what it will earn tomorrow, and no soul knows in what

land it will die..” (Qur'an, 31:34)

Therefore, Allah alone knows what is there in the wombs, whether male or female, ugly or

handsome, generous or miserly, mischievous or pious, and who will be the fuel for Hell and

who will be in the company of the Prophets in Paradise. This is the knowledge of the hidden

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things which is not known to anyone save Allah. All else (that we know) is that whose knowledge

Allah passed on to His Prophet and he passed it on to me, and prayed for me that my bosom may

retain it and my ribs may hold it.

This shows that whenever the Imams (as) said something about specific future events, it was not due to

Ilm al ghayb, but rather due to what had been narrated by Rasulallah (saww) who in turn received it

from Allah (swt).

5. In Uyun Akhbar al Ridhaof Sheikh Saduq, It has been narrated

…The man asked, “What is the proof of a Divine Leader?” The Imam (s) replied, “It is knowledge

and the fulfillment of our prayers.”

The man asked, “How can you tell what is going to happen in the future?” The Imam (s) replied, “It

is due to the Trusted Covenant which we have inherited from God‟s Prophet (s).

The man asked, “How do you become aware of the people‟s secret intentions?” The Imam (s) asked,

“Have you not been told about the saying of the Messenger (s)?: „Fear the insight of the believer

since he looks through a God-given light.‟” The man replied, “Yes.” The Imam (s) said, “All

believers have an insight with which they look through a God-given light according to the degree of

their faith, insight and knowledge. God has given us - the Divine Leaders - as much insight as He

has bestowed upon all the believers….”

This shows that the Imams (as) at times used to predict things due to their insight and far

sightedness, which Allah (swt) bestows to other believers too, it is not Ilm al ghayb.

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6. In a letter in Nahjul Balagha, which Imam Ali (as) sent to Munzir ibn Jarud Abdi:

The fact is that piety, honesty and righteousness of your father made me misjudge your character. I

thought you were a worthy son of a worthy father and were following him in his honesty and

righteousness. But all of a sudden I received about you news which confirms the fact that you do not

check and control your inordinate desires, that you do not attach any importance to your life after

death and you want to adorn and beautify your life at the cost of your salvation and that you are

forsaking your religion to provide for your relatives.

If all that is reported to me about you is correct, then the very camel you own or even the strap-shoe

is superior to you. You and men of your calibre are not the persons to be confided with the financial

affairs of a country or to be assigned to important vacancies of the State or to be entrusted to check

and control dishonesty and disloyalty. Therefore, as soon as you receive this letter come back to me.

As we can see, Imam Ali (as) did not have knowledge about the character of Munzir ibn Jarud, and

hence he misjudged his character. Also, further the Imam (as) says, “If all that is reported to me

about you is correct”, which means that Imam (as) is not even sure if the report he has received are

correct.

This shows that the Imams (as) were normal human being, sometimes they predicted accurately

because of their insight, and sometimes they misjudged.

Furthermore, if the Imams (as) had Ilm al Ghayb, i.e knowledge of every minute detail of the

universe, knowledge of the past and future, then how can they be role models for us?

If we assume this kind of knowledge for them, then there is no lesson for us in the incidents where

the Imams (as) controlled their anger and replied politely in the face of insults and humiliation from

the enemy, because anyone can prepare and control himself if he knows what‟s going to happen, the

real test is when you have no idea and out of nowhere someone comes and starts abusing you, and in

that moment you control your anger.

Also, if we assume this kind of knowledge for the Imams (as), then there would be no virtue for

Imam Ali (as) to have slept on the bed of the Prophet (saww) on the night of hijra, because any tom

dick and harry could do that if they were sure that they won‟t be harmed, but the virtue of Imam Ali

(as) lies in the fact that he did not know if he would wake up the next morning or he would be killed,

and yet he slept on the bed of the Prophet (saww) to save his (saww) life.

So these people, who claim these supernatural powers and supernatural knowledge for the Imams

(as) to raise their status, in reality out of their ignorance, insult the Imams (as) and degrade their

status, and make it seem impossible for us to take lessons from the Imams (as).

Therefore we should reject and condemn those who narrated fabricated incidents that attribute Ilm al

ghayb to the Imams (as), like the incident where Imam Ali (as) says that I never kill a person in

battle until I have seen that there is no believer in his next 7 generations, this kind of incidents totally

contradict the Quran and narrations of Ahlulbayt (as), as we have seen above, Imam Ali (as) quoted

the verse of quran and said that no one knows what is in the womb of a woman except Allah (swt),

let alone knowing if that child would be a believer or non believer.

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(8) Can we call upon or supplicate to other than Allah (swt)?

It is very popular and normal among the Shia masses to call upon (supplicate to) the Prophet (saww) and

specially the Imams (as) without realizing how big a sin this is, and is a kind of Shirk as we shall establish

through the Quran and the Narrations of Ahlulbayt (as).

Before proceeding, let‟s first see what the Quran says about “Shirk”.

Indeed, Allah does not forgive association (Shirk) with Him, but He forgives what is less than that for

whom He wills. And he who associates others with Allah has certainly fabricated a tremendous sin.

(4:48)

Indeed, Allah does not forgive association (Shirk) with Him, but He forgives what is less than that for

whom He wills. And he who associates others with Allah has certainly gone far astray. (4:116)

Allah (swt) Himself is Stating that He Will forgive any sin except for Shirk.

In Surah An‟aam 83-88 , Allah (swt) mentions 18 of his noble Prophets (as) and say that even if they

committed shirk, all their good deeds would be wiped off.

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And that was Our [conclusive] argument which We gave Abraham against his people. We raise by degrees

whom We will. Indeed, your Lord is Wise and Knowing.

And We gave to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - all [of them] We guided. And Noah, We guided before; and

among his descendants, David and Solomon and Job and Joseph and Moses and Aaron. Thus do We

reward the doers of good.

And Zechariah and John and Jesus and Elias - and all were of the righteous.

And Ishmael and Elisha and Jonah and Lot - and all [of them] We preferred over the worlds.

And [some] among their fathers and their descendants and their brothers - and We chose them and We

guided them to a straight path.

That is the guidance of Allah by which He guides whomever He wills of His servants. But if they had

associated others with Allah, then worthless for them would be whatever they were doing.

From this we see that Shirk is such a serious crime that Allah (swt) would have nullified the deeds of 18

of his noble Prophet (as) IF they had committed Shirk, therefore we should be extra cautious that we

don‟t fall into this sin, and since this sin can nullify all other good deeds, Shaitan puts all his efforts into

causing people to fall into this sin.

Two questions to ponder upon:

Q1. If we call upon the Imams (as), irrespective of whether we consider them dependent or

independent, it would imply that we believe that the Imams (as) listen to us. Now, at the same time,

thousands of people in different parts of the world might be calling upon the Imams (as) too, so we

believe that the Imams (as) listen to everyone at the same time. This would mean that we consider the

Imams (as) “All hearing”, which is the characteristic of Allah (swt) as has been mentioned repeatedly

in the Quran. Also in the supplications of Ahlulbayt (as) they address Allah (swt) in these words, Imam

Ali (as) says

بئ ال٠غطاغ غ,٠ب ع غػ ال٠شغع ٠بO the one Whose hearing of one side does not restrict Him to hear the other side and those who question

Him do not put him in fallacy…….

If the Imam (as) himself has the same quality, why would he praise Allah (swt) with a quality which is

not specific to Allah (swt), rather it is found in his creation too?

So the first Question to ponder upon is, do the Imams (as) even hear us? And if we believe that the do

hear us, isn‟t this “shirk” in the “sifaat” (Attributes) of Allah (swt)?

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We challenge anyone to bring one “Sahih” (authentic) hadith or verse of Quran, which proves that

Rasulallah (saww) or the Imams (as) can hear us now.

Q2. Has Allah (swt) given the Imams (as) the authority to provide us safety, help, give us children, or

sustenance etc?

Again we challenge anyone to bring one “Sahih” (authentic) hadith or verse of Quran, which proves

that Rasulallah (saww) or the Imams (as) have been bestowed with such authority and power by Allah

(swt).

(To reply to our challenge please write to us on shiareformist@hotmail.com)

Clear verses of the Quran about not calling upon other than Allah (swt):

Before we proceed in the discussion and quote some verses from the Quran, it will only be fair that we

inform the readers that the majority of the mainstream scholars are not totally ignorant about these

verses, rather they try to refute most of these verses by saying that these verse are only addressed to the

mushrikeen (polytheists) of Mecca and these verses only prohibit the calling upon of Idols, therefore we

cannot use these verses as a proof against calling upon the Prophet (saww) and Imams (as).

We will inshallah examine this claim, and see if the verses really talk about only the idols or they give

us some general principles.

We will go in an order, starting from the first surah.

Verse 1: Surah Fatiha, 1:5

You (Alone) we worship, and you (Alone) we ask for help

a) Explaining “Taqdeem”: The meaning of this above statement could have been simply conveyed as

“nabuduka wa nastaeenuk” which means “We worship you and we seek help from you”. But Allah

Chose a different format: He Taught us to say “Iyyaka Nabudu wa iyyaka nastaeen”, so what you

observe here is that the second person pronoun (ka) has been brought before the verb (nabudu)

instead of after it. This is called “Taqdeem” in Arabic, and it signifies “Iktisaas”, i.e. exclusivity.

That is to say that the verse is saying: “Only you do we worship (O Allah) and only You do we seek

help from”.

b) Allah (swt) asks us to repeat this sentence at least 10 times every day in our prayer, yet we don‟t

ponder upon it.

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c) One might say, “well, surely we seek Allah (swt)’s help, but to seek His help, we call upon the

Imams (as), so they can intermediate between us and Allah (swt) to transfer our request for help to

Allah (swt).”

But this statement is absurd, because just before the “asking for help” phrase, the verse also says

“you (alone) we worship”, so can we now worship the Imams (as) instead of Allah (swt) and expect

them to transfer our worship to Allah (swt) (like we do in our supplications)? No.

Islam teaches us to have a direct relationship with Allah (swt), and even for supplication, Allah (swt)

never taught us the rule of “intermediaries” in the Quran, rather Allah (swt) says “Call upon me, and

I will respond to you” (40:60). So if anyone wants Allah (swt)‟s help, they should call upon Allah

(swt) Himself, not anyone else.

d) As we can see, this verse has nothing to do with the idols, rather it is a general rule.

e) One might say, “does it mean we cannot seek help from the people around us either?”

Well, this is not what we mean to say. Asking each other for help in the physical world has been

established by numerous examples of previous prophets (as) in the Quran and from the life of our

Prophet (saww) and Imams (as) too, but what is problematic is calling upon someone across the

curtain of ghayb (i.e. someone who is in a different realm of existence such as Barzakh), and that is

something we have no proof for, nor did the Prophet (saww) and Imams (as) ever do it, or teach us to

do it in any of their authentic narrations.

Verse 2: Surah Baqara, 2:107

Do you not know that to Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth and [that] you have

not besides Allah any protector or any helper?

a) The verse clearly says that we have NO Protector or helper other than Allah (swt), and that is why

the Prophet (saww) and Imams (as) themselves used to supplicate to Allah (swt) excessively for

protection and help.

b) One might say, that “we also consider Allah (swt) as the ultimate helper and protector, but when we

say things like “Ya Ali Madad” or “Ya Mola Abbas” etc, we call upon them considering them to be

dependent on Allah (swt), and we seek their help based on the power that Allah (swt) has bestowed

upon them.”

We challenge anyone, to bring “authentic” proof that Allah (swt) has given them this power to

help us, and Allah (swt) or the Imams (as) have taught us to seek help in this way.

Even though the above point can never be proven, yet even if we assume that Allah (swt) indeed

helps us through them, and they themselves don‟t have the authority to help us, then it would be

like calling upon the angel of death not to take our soul and prolong our life, or calling upon

angels for rain, since we know that Allah (swt) has appointed angels for these tasks. But this

would be absurd, since the angel of death and the angel of rain only act when Allah (swt) orders

them, so praying to them would be useless for us. Would it be logical to approach the “Sabab”

(cause) which is Allah (swt) or the means (who have no authority)?

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Based on this understanding, we come to know that even if we consider the Prophet (saww) and

Imams (as) as the means through which Allah (swt) helps us (though we have no proof for that),

yet it would be illogical to ask them for help.

After this understanding if anyone still calls upon the Imams (as) for help, then he/she would be

proving from his/her action that they don‟t consider the Imams (as) to be dependent on Allah

(swt) rather they consider them independent, and they only fool themselves and others when they

claim that they consider the Imams (as) to be totally dependent on Allah (swt). And they would

be like the ones being referred to in the following verse:

And the Day We will gather them all together; then We will say to those who associated others

with Allah, "Where are your 'partners' that you used to claim [with Him]?"

Then there will be no [excuse upon] examination except they will say, "By Allah, our Lord, we

were not those who associated."

Look! How they lie against themselves! But the (lie) which they invented will disappear from

them. (6:21-24)

Verse 3: Surah Ma‟eda, 5:116

And when Allah will say: O Isa son of Marium! did you say to men, Take me and my mother for two

gods besides Allah…

As far as the divinity of Jesus Christ is concerned, most Christians agree on it, and consider it to be

part of their core beliefs. So it is understandable why Allah (swt) Is Asking Prophet Isa (as) as to

whether he had any role in promoting the concept of his own divinity.

But why does Allah (swt) Include Bibi Maryam (as) in the question?

In other words, why does Allah (swt) Ask Prophet Isa (as) if he ever taught the people that they must

consider his mother as a "god" besides Allah?

Did the Christians ever claim that the Virgin Mary was a "god" besides God?

Did they ever worship her in a way in which God should only be worshipped?

Even when we look back at history, we don't find any solid or concrete evidence for the existence of

Christian sect in history that openly declared that the Virgin Mary was a "god."

Then why is Allah (SWT) implicitly Accusing the Christians of having made Mary into a "god" besides

God?

This is a critical factor that has even been acknowledged by scholars of Tafseer such as Allama

Tabatabaai in his Tafseerul Meezan, where he writes while commenting on 05:116:

The first noteworthy point over here is that Allah (SWT) Doesn't Say that the Christians called Bibi

Maryam (as) "god" or referred to her as a divine entity. Rather Allah (SWT) Uses the term

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"Ittikhaadhul ilaah" (to take as God or to treat as God). And as Allama rightfully points out “to take

someone or treat someone as "god" is different from calling someone "god" or declaring someone to

be "god."”

This means that it is entirely possible for a person to take an entity as a "god" besides Allah or treat

an entity as a "god" besides Allah even without calling that entity "god" openly and without even

realizing that they may be doing so.

In other words, there are certain things which are only reserved for Allah. If you take those things

and associate them or ascribe them to other than Allah, then you have taken that entity as a "god",

even if you openly declare that you don't consider that entity to be "god."

Allama Tabatabaai mentions some of those things which are exclusively reserved for Allah, and he

mentions: دػبءثبءاعزغبثخاعزشفغ (supplication, glorification, seeking help, and seeking

intercession), - these things can only be done in front of Allah behind the curtain of Ghayb (i.e. there

is no harm if human beings do these things among each other, as long as they are in the physical

realm following the natural laws of cause and effect.)

An example of catholic supplication to Mary can be seen here, see how similar this supplication is to

how some shia supplicate to the Imams (as).

“O Mother of Perpetual Help, thou art the dispenser of all the goods which God grants to us

miserable sinners, and for this reason, has He made thee so powerful, so rich, and so bountiful, that

thou mayest help us in our misery. Thou art the advocate of the most wretched and abandoned

sinners who have recourse to thee; come, then, to my help, dearest Mother, for I recommend myself

to thee. In thy hands, I place my eternal salvation and to thee do I entrust my soul. Count me among

thy most devoted servants; take me under thy protection, and it is enough for me; for, if thou protect

me, dear Mother, I fear nothing; not from my sins, because thou wilt obtain for me the pardon of

them; nor from the devils, because thou art more powerful than all hell together; not even from

Jesus, my Judge Himself, because, by one prayer from thee, He will be appeased. But one thing I

fear; that, in the hour of temptation, I may neglect to call on thee, and thus perish miserably. Obtain

for me then the pardon of my sins, love for Jesus, final perseverance, and the grace always to have

recourse to thee, O Mother of

Perpetual Help."(3 Hail Mary's)

Source: http://www.dailycatholic.org/perpetua.htm

Read the above supplication carefully and see how the Christian consider Mary as being totally

dependent on God, and believe that all the powers she has, have been granted to her by God, and

only consider her as an intermediary to God.

But since they have no proof that God indeed has given her all these powers, therefore Allah (swt)

considers this “Shirk”.

Similarly, since we have absolutely no authentic proof that the Imams (as) have been bestowed with

these powers, therefore if we call upon them even after considering them totally dependent on Allah

(swt), yet it would be “shirk” in the eyes of Allah (swt).

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Verse 4: Surah An‟aam, 6:63-64

Say, "Who rescues you from the darkness of the land and sea [when] you call upon Him imploring

[aloud] and privately, 'If He should save us from this [crisis], we will surely be among the thankful.”

Say, "It is Allah who saves you from it and from every distress; then you [still] associate others with

Him."

This verse clearly says that it is only Allah (swt) who protects us from EVERY distress (karb).

Otherwise Allah (swt) should have said, “Allah (swt), His prophet and the Imams after him protect

you from every distress..”, but there is no such verse in the Quran.

This verse is also a refutation of the fabricated supplication

اغالػ١احغ١أخ١هثحكوشثئوشفاغالػ١احغ١أخ١جػاىشةوبشف٠ب O remover of distress (karb) from the face of your brother Hussain (as), remove my distress (karb)

by the right of your brother Hussain (as).

Subhanallah!!!! Now Allah (swt) is out of the picture, dua is directed to Abbas (as) and wasila is of

Imam Hussain (as). But people will call this “wasila” too and try to defend themselves with the

argument of “dependent” and “independent”.

Anyway, the verses 6:63-64 clearly refute the claim of this supplication, as it says that the only one

who can relieve you of your distress is Allah (swt) and not Hazrat Abbas (as).

Verse 5: Surah An‟aam, 6:71

Say, "Shall we call upon instead of Allah that which neither benefits us nor harms us and be turned

back on our heels after Allah has guided us? [We would then be] like one whom the devils enticed

[to wander] upon the earth confused, [while] he has companions inviting him to guidance, [calling],

'Come to us.' " Say, "Indeed, the guidance of Allah is the [only] guidance; and we have been

commanded to submit to the Lord of the worlds

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In reply to this verse, it is said that “these verse are clearly addressed to the mushrikeen of Mecca,

and instruct them not to invoke the idols, since the verse says “"Shall we invoke instead of Allah that

which neither benefits us nor harms..”

How can this be for the Prophet (saww) and the Imams (as)? How can you assume that the Prophet

(saww) and Imams (as) cannot benefit or harm us?”

This argument can be easily refuted using other verses of the Quran.

In 72:21, Allah (swt) asks the Prophet (saww) to tell the people, Say "Indeed, I do not possess for

you [the power of] harm or good."

Not just others, the Prophet (saww) does not even have the power of benefit or harm over his

own self, as can be seen in the verses of Quran. •

In 7:188 and 10:49 Allah (swt) says: Say (O Muhammad SAW): "I possess no power of benefit or

harm for myself except as Allah wills.

So how can it be that the Prophet cannot benefit us or harm us? What does it mean? Once again,..

from behind the curtain of Ghayb (i.e. human beings may harm or benefit each other, as long as they

are in the physical realm following the natural laws of cause and effect). The Mushrikeen prayed to

Idols, not because they thought them to be "independent of God", but because they believed they

could help them, or harm them, from behind the curtain of ghayb. Of course these Idols were not

doing anything physical and natural to benefit or harm them. Their assumption was that the Idols

could benefit them or harm from behind the curtain of Ghayb. But even the Prophet (saww) cannot do

that, as can be seen above from 72:21, 7:188 and 10:49.

So now that it‟s clear that the Prophet (saww) and therefore the Imams (as) cannot benefit or harm us,

therefore according to the verse "Shall we call upon instead of Allah that which neither benefits us

nor harms us and be turned back on our heels after Allah has guided us?...”, we cannot call upon the

Prophet (saww) and Imams (as).

Verse 6: Surah A‟raf,7:37-38

And who is more unjust than one who invents about Allah a lie or denies His verses? Those will

attain their portion of the decree until when Our messengers (Angels) come to them to take them in

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death, they will say, "Where are those you used to call upon besides Allah?" They will say, "They

have departed from us," and will bear witness against themselves that they were disbelievers.

Isn‟t it better that we realize the error of our ways, before we are made to realize it in our grave? And

we find out that we had been erroneous in blindly following our forefathers and top shot scholars

while they won‟t be able to help us or take the burden of our sins on their shoulders, because this is

what the next verse seems to suggest. In the next verse the Quran says (in 7:38)

[ Allah ] will say, "Enter among nations which had passed on before you of jinn and mankind into

the Fire." Every time a nation enters, it will curse its sister until, when they have all overtaken one

another therein, the last of them will say about the first of them "Our Lord, these had misled us, so

give them a double punishment of the Fire. He will say, "For each is double, but you do not know.

It seems from this verse (and from many other verses of the Quran), that most people will enter the

fire of hell because of blind following, and when they meet those they had followed blindly, they

would curse each other.

Those who had followed their forefathers and scholars blindly, would ask Allah (swt) to punish them

(forefathers and scholars) double the punishment, but surprisingly, Allah (swt) will give double the

punishment to both the groups. The followers will be punished because they did not use their

intellect and followed their misguided forefathers and scholars blindly.

Verse 7: Surah A‟raf, 7:194

Verily those whom you call upon besides Allah are servants like unto you: Call upon them, and let

them listen to your prayer, if ye are (indeed) truthful!

No doubt that this verse are referring to the Idols of the mushrikeen, but at the same time, Allah

(swt) gives us a general principle, that if those we call upon are “Servants (of Allah) like us”, then

we cannot call upon them. This is very logical, because anyone who is a servant of Allah (swt) does

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not have the power to listen to everyone at the same time like Allah (swt), neither do they have the

power to help us.

Isn‟t the Prophet (saww) [and Imam (as)] servant of Allah (swt)? Yes he is, and we recite that in the

Tashahud in every prayer.

Verse 8: Surah Yunus, 10:66

Now, surely, whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth is Allah's; and what do they

pursue who call upon partners besides Allah?; they do not follow (anything) but conjectures, and

they only make surmises (supposing something without evidence).

In many places in the Quran, “Calling upon other than Allah (swt)” and “Shirk” have been

associated with “Dhann (conjecture)” and “Iftirah on Allah (lying about Allah)”. This is because if a

person sincerely follows what Allah (swt) reveals in his holy scriptures, no one would ever fall into

the sin of shirk.

A person would only fall into “Shrik” if he puts his conviction on “Dhann”, and gives the attributes

of Allah (swt) to His other servants. Without “Dhann” and without “lying about Allah (swt)” it‟s

impossible to do such a thing.

Shaheed Mutahhari in his paper “Understanding the Uniqueness of the Quran” says:

“Among various sources of error mentioned by the Quran, one is that of taking conjecture (Dhann)

and hypothesis for certainty and conviction. If a person were to adhere to the principle of putting

conviction only in certainties and of not confusing between conjecture and certainties, he would not

fall into error.”

Then he quotes the verse of the Quran :

(6:116): “If you obey the most part of those on earth, they will lead you astray from the path of God:

they follow only surmise, merely conjecturing.”

(17:36): “And pursue not that you have no knowledge of…..”

Quran also says about “dhann” (conjecture, assumption etc) in:

(58:28): “...They follow nothing but “Dhann”, and indeed, “Dhann” avails not against the truth at all.

(10:36): “And most of them follow not except “Dhann”. Indeed “Dhann” avails not against the truth

at all….”

From this we come to know that Allah (swt) wants us to follow only certainties, and not Dhann, and

He also warns us that most people follow Dhann and therefore are misguided.

This is the mistake most ghaali shias have made, they have taken as certainties what they hear from

the pulpit (mimbar) and what they read in fabricated narrations, even though it‟s all “Dhann”. If we

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took our beliefs from the Quran and authentic narrations of Ahlulbayt (as) we would never fall into

this error.

Verse 9: Surah Yunus, 10:106-107

And do not call besides Allah on that which can neither benefit you nor harm you, for if you do then

surely you will in that case be of the unjust.

And if Allah should afflict you with harm, then there is none to remove it but He; and if He intends

good to you there is none to repel His grace; He brings it to whom He pleases of His servants; and

He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.

Clearly this verse prohibits us from calling upon anyone other than Allah (swt), and it also gives the

reason that “if Allah should afflict you with harm, then there is none to remove it but He; and if He

intends good to you there is none to repel His grace; He brings it to whom He pleases of His

servants”.

Doesn‟t this reason apply to the Ahlulbayt (as) as well? Can the Imams (as) remove any harm if

Allah (swt) intends it?

Verse 10: Surah Ra‟ad, 13:14

To Him [alone] is the true supplication. And those they call upon other than Him do not respond to

them with a thing, except as one who stretches his hands toward water [from afar, calling it] to reach

his mouth, but it will not reach it [thus]. And the supplication of the disbelievers is not but in error

[i.e. futility].

Allah (swt) says “Those they call besides Him…”, now surely the Prophet (saww) and Imams (as)

come under “other than Allah” since we know that they are not Allah. Therefore this verse prohibits

us from calling upon them.

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Verse 11: Surah Nahl, 16:85-86

And when those who wronged see the punishment, it will not be lightened for them, nor will they be

reprieved

And when the ones who associated (others with Him) see their associates, they will say, "Our Lord,

these are our associates whom we used to call upon apart from You." They will then reply them the

saying, "Surely you are liars indeed."

a) In this verse, those who were being called upon other than Allah (swt) have been called

“Shuraka” of Allah (swt), i.e partners of Allah (swt). This indicated that calling upon anyone

other than Allah (swt) is Shirk.

b) It also seems from this verse that those we call upon other than Allah (swt) have no idea that we

call upon them, since they cannot hear us, and that is why they reply by saying “"Surely you are

liars indeed."

Verse 12: Surah Isra, 17:56-57

Say, "Call upon those you have claimed besides Him, for they do not possess the [ability for]

removal of adversity from you or [for its] transfer [to someone else]."

Those whom they call upon [themselves] seek means of access to their Lord, [striving as to] which

of them would be nearest, and they hope for His mercy and fear His punishment. Indeed, the

punishment of your Lord is ever feared.

This verse is clearly not about the idols of the mushrikeen. Since the verse says “Those whom they

call upon [themselves] seek means of access to their Lord, [striving as to] which of them would be

nearest, and they hope for His mercy and fear His punishment.”

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Again Allah (swt) is giving us a general principle, that if you call upon those who themselves seek

means of nearness to Allah (swt) then, and hope for his mercy and fear his punishment, then

“Indeed, the punishment of your Lord is ever feared.”

Don‟t the Prophet (saww) and Imams (as) fall into this category? Don‟t they themselves seek means

of nearness to Allah (swt) by excessive salat, zakat, taqwa etc? And don‟t they hope for Allah

(swt)‟s mercy and fear his punishment? Surely, anyone who has read the lives of the Imams (as) and

anyone who has read their supplications will know that they were indeed like that, rather they were

at the peak of these traits.

Therefore they come under the category of entities this verse is implicitly forbidding us from calling

upon.

Verse 13: Surah Naml, 27:59-64

Say, [O Muhammad], "Praise be to Allah, and peace upon His servants whom He has chosen. Is

Allah better or what they associate with Him?"

Who is it that created the heavens and the earth and sent down for you rain from the sky, causing to

grow thereby gardens of joyful beauty which you could not [otherwise] have grown the trees

thereof? Is there a deity with Allah? [No], but they are a people who ascribe equals [to Him].

Who is it that made the earth a stable ground and placed within it rivers and made for it firmly set

mountains and placed between the two seas a barrier? Is there a deity with Allah? [No], but most of

them do not know.

Who is it that responds to the desperate one when he calls upon Him and removes evil and makes

you inheritors of the earth? Is there a deity with Allah? Little do you remember.

In these verses, Allah (swt) mentions some characteristics which are specific to Allah (swt), like

creation of heavens and earth, sending down rain from sky, causing the trees to grow, causing the

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rivers to flow, placing the mountains etc, and in the same list Allah (swt) mentions that characteristic

of “responding to the desperate one when he calls for help and removing the evil…”, it clearly points

to the fact that like the all other characteristics mentioned in this verse, “responding to the call of the

distressed” is also a characteristic specific to Allah (swt).

Verse 14: Surah Ahzab, 33:17

Say, "Who is it that can protect you from Allah if He intends for you an ill or intends for you a

mercy?" And they will not find for themselves besides Allah any protector or any helper.

This is a very clear verse, since Allah (swt) is the ultimate cause of everything, and since he is the

decision maker, then “Who is it that can protect you from Allah if He intends for you an ill or

intends for you a mercy”.

This verse again makes it clear, like many other verses, that we have no protector or helper other

than Allah (swt), therefore we should call upon him for help.

Verse 15: Surah Saba, 34:22

Say, [O Muhammad], "Call upon those you claim besides Allah." They do not possess an atom's

weight [of ability] in the heavens or on the earth, and they do not have therein any partnership [with

Him], nor is there for Him from among them any assistant.

Verse 16: Surah Fatir, 35:13-14

He causes the night to enter the day, and He causes the day to enter the night and has subjected the

sun and the moon - each running [its course] for a specified term. That is Allah, your Lord; to Him

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belongs sovereignty. And those whom you call upon other than Him do not possess [as much as] the

membrane of a date seed.

If you call upon them, they do not hear your supplication; and if they heard, they would not respond

to you. And on the Day of Resurrection they will deny your association. And none can inform you

like [one] Acquainted [with all matters].

Allah (swt) mentions three points about those who are called upon other than Him (swt).

1) They don‟t hear our supplication

2) If they could hear, they wouldn‟t respond

3) On the day of resurrection they will deny our association

Do we have any authentic proof that the Imams (as) hear our supplications? No

If they heard, do we have proof that they can respond to our supplication? No

Then this verse has a message for us, that the Imams (as) will deny our association on the day of

resurrection like they have warned us in many of their narrations, that they will dissociate from the

“ghulat” (exaggerators) like the dissociation of Jesus from the Christians (refer to the narrations in

the beginning of this book).

Verse 17: Surah Fatir, 35:40

Say, "Have you considered your 'partners' whom you call upon besides Allah? Show me what they

have created from the earth, or have they partnership [with Him] in the heavens? Or have We given

them a book so they are [standing] on evidence therefrom? [No], rather, the wrongdoers do not

promise each other except delusion."

Subhanallah! Allah (swt) again gives us some general principles. Those we call upon other than

Allah (swt), i.e the Prophet (saww) and Imams (as).

1) Have they created anything in the universe? No

2) Do they have partnership with Allah (swt)? No

3) Has Allah (swt) sent any book which allows us to call upon them? No

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Then, “the wrongdoers do not promise each other except delusion.”

So anyone who teaches us to call upon the Imams (as) and promises us that they will respond

because they have been empowered to do so by Allah (swt) - anyone who says something like this is

only promising us a delusion according to this verse.

Verse 18: Surah Zumar, 39:38

And should you ask them, Who created the heavens and the earth? They would most certainly say:

Allah. Say: “Have you then considered that what you call upon besides Allah, would they, if Allah

desire to afflict me with harm, be the removers of His harm, or (would they), if Allah desire to show

me mercy, be the withholders of His mercy?” Say: “Allah is sufficient for me; on Him do the reliant

rely.”

Verse 19: Surah Ahqaf, 46:4-5

Say, [O Muhammad], "Have you considered that which you call upon besides Allah? Show me what

they have created of the earth; or did they have partnership in [creation of] the heavens? Bring me a

scripture [revealed] before this or a [remaining] trace of knowledge, if you should be truthful."

And who is more astray than he who calls upon besides Allah those who will not respond to him

until the Day of Resurrection, and they, of their invocation, are unaware.

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Again Allah (swt) gives some characteristics, which if not fulfilled for an entity, then it‟s not

permissible to call upon them.

a) Have they created anything?

b) Did they have partnership with Allah (swt)

c) Another valid reason to call upon someone other than Allah (swt) is would be if Allah (swt)

himself asked us to call upon them in his scripture, since Allah (swt) says “Bring me a scripture

[revealed] before this or a [remaining] trace of knowledge, if you should be truthful."

If none of the above conditions are fulfilled, then Allah (swt) says “who is more astray than he who

calls upon besides Allah those who will not respond to him until the Day of Resurrection, and they,

of their invocation, are unaware.”

Verse 20: Surah Jinn, 72:18

And that the masjids are for Allah, so do not invoke with Allah anyone.

Verse 21: Surah Jinn, 72:20

Say, [O Muhammad], "I only call upon my Lord and do not associate with Him anyone."

In this verse again, “calling upon” and “shirk (association)” have been linked, which indicated that,

calling upon anyone other than Allah (swt) is Shirk.

With this, we conclude the discussion of the verses of the Quran which prove that calling upon

anyone other than Allah (swt) is Shirk. Even though this should be more than enough, but since the

words and actions of the pure Ahlulbayt (as) further explain the Quran, therefore we will give some

examples from the supplications and narrations of Ahlulbayt (as).

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Lessons on Dua from Ahlulbayt (as)

Dua (supplication) is „ibadat (worship):

Everyone, including those who call upon other than Allah (swt), know that „ibadat (worship) is only

for Allah (swt), and we cannot worship anyone other than Allah (swt).

So if we can prove that Dua is also an „ibadat, then it would imply that Dua should also be only

directed to Allah (swt) since we know that it not permissible to worship anyone other than Allah

(swt), in other words, if we direct our Duas to anyone other than Allah (swt) then we have

worshipped them, and that is shirk.

a) اذػبءخاؼجبدح Dua is the brain of worship.

This narration is one accepted by both Shia and Sunni scholars.

b) In the book Uddat ud Daee of Allama Ibn Fahd al Hilli, regarding the verse (40:60) “And

your Lord says: Call upon Me, I will answer you; surely those who are too proud for My

worship shall soon enter hell abased.”

Hadith 51: Zurarah quotes Imam Baqir (as) as saying:

God says: “those who are too proud for my worship will enter hell abased”, worship here

means “Dua” which is the best form of worship.

c) Same thing has been mentioned by Imam Sadiq (as) in Hadith 53

Imam (as) says: “Dua is the same worship that has been mentioned in the Quranic verse

“those who are too proud for my worship will enter hell abased”, call upon God and do not

say the die is cast (i.e do not say that my destiny has been fixed so supplication is of no use).”

d) In the same book, in Hadith 61 it is mentioned

Muawiya ibn Ammar says: I said to Imam Sadiq (as): Two worshippers begin prayer at the

same time. One of them recites more verses from the Quran and the other has more Dua.

They complete their prayer at the same time. Which one is more virtuous?

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Imam (as) said: “Both are virtuous and good.”

I said that I know both are good but I would like to know which one is better? He (as) said:

“Dua is better. Have you not heard God saying: Call upon me, I will answer you. Those who

are too proud for my worship will enter hell abased.”

By God, Dua is a worship. By God Dua is the most profound worship.”

Set your hopes only in Allah (swt):

In the book Uddat ud Daee, in Hadith 342, it is mention

If one of you wishes to be such that whenever he desires something from God, He will fulfill, he

should stop setting his hope on people and instead sets his hope only in God. When God finds such a

state in someone‟s heart, He will fulfill whatever he desires.

Advise of Imam Ali (as):

In Nahjul Balagha, Letter 31 “Advice to one of his sons after returning from the Battle of Siffin in

one place Imam Ali (as) says

أخصف بغػض٠ض. فحش٠ض، بئو جئ ه،فاهر بئئ سنو جئفغهفأ أ ب حش ا ؼطبء ا ث١ذ غأخشثه،فا ا

In all affairs resign yourself to Allah, because you will thus be resigning yourself to a secure shelter

and a strong protector. You should ask only from your Lord because in His hand is all the giving and

depriving.

In another place in the same letter Imam Ali (as) says

شن أ هثبالجبثخ، رىف ػبء، هفاذ االسضلذأر اد ب اغ خضائ ازث١ذ أ اػ جئهئ ٠ ، ٠حججهػ ث١ ث١ه ٠جؼ ه، ١شح رغزشح رغأ١ؼط١ه، أ

ثخ از أعأد ؼهئ ٠ ، ٠شفغهئ١Know that He Who owns the treasuries of the heavens and of the earth has permitted you to pray to

Him and has promised you acceptance of the prayer. He has commanded you to beg from Him in

order that He may give you and to seek His mercy in order that He may have mercy on you. He has

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not placed any thing between you and Him that may veil Him from you. He has not required you to

get a mediator for you to Him, and if you err, He has not prevented you from repentance.

Further he says

فزح زبة،ثبةه ثبةا غبد٠زفارا;االعزؼزبة ئراذاءن،ع بج١ز ان،ػ فأفع١ذج

أثثثزثحبجزه،ئ١ دفغه،راد شى ه،ئ١ اعزىشفز ز،وشثه اعزؼ ػ

سن، زأ عأ خضائ ز بسح ػ٠مذسال غ١ش،ئػطبئ بس،ص٠بدح خاالػ صح

، عؼخاالثذا .االسصاق ث فبر١ح٠ذ٠هفجؼ بخضائ ث هأر ف١ غأز ،

He has opened for you the door of repentance. Therefore, whenever you call Him He hears your call,

and whenever you whisper to Him He knows the whisper. You place before Him your needs, unveil

yourself before Him, complain to Him of your worries, beseech Him to remove your troubles, seek

His help in your affairs and ask from the treasuries of His mercy that which no one else has power to

give, namely length of life, health of body and increase in sustenance. Then He has placed the keys

of His treasuries in your hands in the sense that He has shown you the way to ask Him.

Dua of Fatima (as):

Following Dua has been mentioned in Mafatihul Jinan “Dua of Salat-e-Fatima Zahra (as)”.

٠ب ٠ب،٠ذػسة غ١ش١ظ ل١ظ ٠ب٠خش،اف هد١ظ ٠ب،٠زم

ص٠ش١ظ ٠ب٠إر، ٠ب٠شش،حبجت١ظ اة١ظ ٠ب،٠غشث ػ٠ضدادال

إايوثشح جدا وشب ئالاغ ػ ةوثشح صفحب ػفا ئالاز ذػص ح آي ذ ح

افؼ وزاوزاث

O He! Besides whom there is no lord to whom to address Du‟a (to be Invoked). O He, above whom

there is no god to be feared. O He, except whom there is no master to be obeyed. O He, who has no

counselor to be approached. O He, who has no attendant to be bribed. O He, who has no doorkeeper

to be fooled. O He, who gives generously, liberally irrespective of the demands, and (deals not) with

numerous sins but mercifully and kindly. Send blessings upon Muhammad (sawa) and his progeny,

and grant my prayers (Du‟a, desires)

Dua of Imam Ali ibn Hussain Zainul Abideen (as):

If we read the supplications of Imam Zainul Abideen (as) in Sahifa Sajjadiya, we do not find any

supplication addressed to anyone other than Allah (swt). Rather we find supplications that prohibit

such an act.

In Dua no. 13 (His Supplication in Seeking Needs from Allah) of Sahifa sajjadiya the Imam (as)

says:

ذن ػ خز يعذ حب فSo he who strives to remedy his lack through what is with Thee

ثهفمذغتحبجز فغ فمشػ صشفا سا and wishes to turn poverty away from himself through Thee has sought his need

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بف ج أرغجز ب ظب in the most likely place and come to his request from the right quarter.

ب جؼعجتجح مهأ خ ئأحذ ثحبجز ج ر But he who turns in his need toward one of Thy creatures or assigns the cause of its being granted

ب حش ض دهفمذرؼشto other than Thee, has exposed himself to deprivation

داالحغب ذنف ػ اعزحك and deserves to miss Thy beneficence.

ئ١هحبجخ ذأ ـبج شػ لـذلص O God, I have a need of Thee: my exertion has fallen short of it

بح١ رمطؼذد and my stratagems have been cut back before reaching it.

ائجئ١ ٠شفغح بئ فغسفؼ ذ ع ه My soul induced me to present it to him who presents his needs to Thee

ه ػ ال٠غزغفغجبر and can do nothing without Thee in his requests,

خبغئ١ ا ص صخ but this is one the slips of the offenders,

ػث زج١ ػثشادا شح one of the stumbles of the sinners!

غفز ذثززو١شن زج ا ثThen through Thy reminding me, I was aroused from my heedlessness,

صز ف١مه عذثز through Thy giving success, I stood up from my slip,

ػثـشر ىصذثزغـذ٠ذنػ سجؼذ and through Thy pointing the way, I returned and withdrew from my stumble.

حزبجـب حزبج سثو١ف٠غأي ذ:عجحب ل I said: Glory be to my Lord! How can the needy ask from the needy?

ؼذ؟ ئ ؼذ ٠شغت أ How can the destitute beseech the destitute?

غجخ ثبش فمصذره٠بئSo I went straight to Thee, my God, in beseeching,

Dua Abu Hamza thumali of Imam Zainul Abideen (as):

ذ ح ا اٱزلل ببد٠ حبجزشئذو All Praise is for Allah whom I call upon with my needs whenever I wish

ا خ شئذح١ثث شف١غثغ١شغش and I entrust Him with my secrets without an intercessor

حبجزف١مع and He grants me my wishes

ذ ح ا غ١شدػاالٱزلل

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All Praise is for Allah whom I do not plead to anyone but Him

د غ١شدػ دػبئ٠غزجت for if I pleaded to others, they would not grant me

further in the dua he says….

لذ ثطجزئ١هلصذد And I have sought You for my wish

ذ ج ر ثحبجزئ١ه and directed my need to You

ذ جؼ ٱعزغبثزثه and I depend on You for my rescue

ثذػبئه ع ر Through supplication I seek near to you

He (as) also says…..

فضػ٠ب ذ وشثزػ O the shelter I seek when I am in misfortune

٠ب ث ذغ رػ شذ O my Aid whenever hardships hit me

ا١هفضػذTo You have I resorted

ثهاعزغثذزدWith You have I sought refuge and haven

الارثغانTo none save You shall I ever resort

الاغتافشجاالهFrom none save You shall I ever seek for relief

Dua Makaremul Akhlaaq:

ا ذثهأصياجؼ شسح،ػ ذهأعأاع حبجخ،ػ عا ذئ١هأرعش غىخ،ػ الاخععالاظطشسد،ئراثغ١شنثبالعزؼبخرفز عالافزمشد،ئراغ١شنغإايثب ئثبزعش

جذ،ئراده ؼهخزالهثزهكفأعزحس ٠بئػشاظه، أسح ١ اح اش

“…Oh Allah! Make me leap to thee in times of distress; ask from thee in times of need, and plea to

thee in times of misery. Tempt me not to seek help from other than you when I am distressed, or to

humble myself in asking from someone else when I am poor, or to plea with someone less than thee

when in state of fear – for then (if I do that) I would deserve Thy abandonment, Thy withholding,

and Thy turning away, O Most Merciful of the merciful! …”

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The criteria for acceptance of proofs:

One might ask, what are the criteria for what should be accepted as “arguments” and “proofs”? Since

every religion has a logic and proof, and every Islamic sect has its proofs from the Quran and

Hadith, how can we decide what is acceptable and what is not?

These are some very important questions, and we will inshallah try to explain in brief the criteria for

acceptance of proofs.

What is NOT acceptable as a proof:

We would first like to explain, what is not acceptable as a valid proof, so that the critical ones of the

readers use this as a weapon against those who try to fool (religious) people with bogus proofs.

The proofs based on “Dhann” ( ظ )should not be accepted at any cost. Now we shall define

“Dhann” and explain why we are saying that proofs based on “Dhann” should not be accepted.

Dhann literally means “guesswork”, “conjecture”, “assumption” etc, basically whatever is not

certain and defenitive is “Dhann”.

Logically this is the most appropriate approach, since if “Dhann” was allowed as a proof, then

anyone can make up any absured belief and give proofs based on “Dhann”, for example, claiming

that Jesus is the son of God because he did not have a father, or claiming that Jesus is God because

he gave life to the dead etc.

In contrast to that, it would be logical to base our beliefs on things which are “defenitive” (qat‟y,

.soon we shall explain what that is ,( لطؼ

Even though just based on logic we can easily conclude that we should not accept proofs based on

“Dhann” in religion, but since we are discussing religion here, texual proof is very important,

therefore we will mention the verses of the Quran that gave us this approach.

The Quran has again and again given us examples of previous nations who deviated from the right

path, and the reason for their deviation was that they followed “Dhann”. Here we quote some verse

of the Quran which mention “Dhann”.

Verse 1: Surah Baqara, 2:78

Allah (swt) while commenting on the Jews and Christians, who deviated from the real religion sent

by Allah (swt), says:

٠ظ ئال ئ ب أ ىزبةئال ا ال٠ؼ ١ أ

And there are among them illiterates, who know not the Book, but (see therein their own) desires,

and they do nothing but conjecture (Yadhunnoon/ from Dhann).

Allah (swt) gives two characteristics of these deviated people:

1) They do not know the book (sent by Allah (swt) to them).

2) They follow “Dhann” (conjecture, guesswork etc).

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Verse 2: Surah An‟aam, 6:116

اظ ئال ٠زجؼ ئ للا عج١ نػ فالسض٠ع رطغأوثش ئ

٠خشص ئال ئ

And if you obey most of those in the earth, they will lead you astray from Allah's way; they

follow but conjecture and they only lie.

In this verse Allah (swt) highlights two important points:

1) We should not follow anyone blindly, since if we obey most of those on earth they will lead us

astray.

2) Most people are astray because, they follow “Dhann”.

Verse 3: Surah An‟aam 139-148

Some mushrikeen had fabricated certain laws regarding consuming the meat of cattle. Though this

sounds like a harmless thing, but when we read the Quran we find out that making up religious rules

which Allah (swt) has not issued is a big thing in the eyes of Allah (swt).

ئ اجب أص ػ حش خبصخزوسب ؼب ال ز بفثط لبا

ػ١ حى١ ئ صف ششوبءع١جض٠ ف١ ف ١زخ ٠ى

They say: "What is in the wombs of such and such cattle is specially reserved (for food) for our

men, and forbidden to our women; but if it is still-born, then all have share therein. For their

(false) attribution (of superstitions to Allah), He will soon punish them: for He is full of wisdom

and knowledge. (6:139)

After a few ayaat, Allah (swt) again comes back to this, and says:

أ حش وش٠ آز ل ؼضاث١ ا اث١ أ اع اج ب١خأص ث

صبدل١ ز و ئ جئثؼ ث١١ ال أسحب ذػ١ باشز أ ث١١ ال

Eight in pairs - two of sheep and two of goats. Say: Has He forbidden the two males or the two

females or that which the wombs of the two females contain? Inform me with knowledge if you

are truthful. (6:143)

ذ باشز أ ث١١ ال أ حش وش٠ آز ل جمشاث١ ا اث١ ث ال

أظ زاف ث للا بو ص ذاءئر ش ز و أ ث١١ ال أسحب ػ١

١ اظب م ذا ال٠ للا ئ ابطثغ١شػ وزث ب١ع ػللا افزش

And two of camels and two of cows. Say: Has He forbidden the two males or the two females or

that which the wombs of the two females contain? Or were you witnesses when Allah enjoined

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you this? Who, then, is more unjust than he who forges a lie against Allah that he should lead

astray men without knowledge? Surely Allah does not guide the unjust people. (6:144)

ء ش ب الحش الآثبؤب بأششوب شبءللا أششوا ع١مياز٠

ػ ذو ػ رالاثأعبل حز لج هوزةاز٠وز

رخشص ئال ز أ ئ اظ ئال رزجؼ فزخشجبئ

Those who give partners (to Allah) will say: "If Allah had wished, we should not have given

partners to Him nor would our fathers; nor should we have forbidden (to ourselves) anything."

So did their ancestors argue falsely, until they tasted of Our wrath. Say: "Have ye any (certain)

knowledge? If so, produce it before us. Ye follow nothing but conjecture: ye do nothing but lie."

(6:148)

Important points to be noted:

1) From 6:139 we deduce that, fabricating something and attributing it to Allah (swt), be it a

belief or a law, is something punishable as per the Quran. This kind of Fabrication is called

“iftirah „ala Allah” (fabricating a lie upon Allah (swt)).

2) From 6:143, 6:144, we deduce that if we claim something about Allah (swt) we should have

proof for it based on “certain knowledge” or “we ourselves should have seen Allah (swt)

doing what we claim about him” otherwise it is considered “iftirah on Allah”. There is one

more proof acceptable in the court of Allah (swt) which has been mentioned elsewhere in the

Quran, and that is “having proof from a scripture sent by Allah (swt) (mentioned in 37:157,

46:4-5). What is “certain knowledge” will be discussed soon.

3) In 6:148 again, Allah (swt) says that these people only follow “Dhann”.

Verse 5: Surah Yunus, 10:36

ب ث ػ١ للا ش١ئ بئ حك ا ال٠غ اظ ظ بئ ئال ب٠زجغأوثش

٠فؼ

Most of them follow not but conjecture (Dhann). Assuredly conjecture (Dhann) can by no means

take the place of truth. Lo! Allah is Aware of what they do.

In this verse Allah (swt) informs us that “Dhann” and “Truth” are two different things, and

“Dhann” can never take the place of truth.

Verse 6: Surah Yunus 10:66

٠ذػ ب٠زجغاز٠ فالسض اد ب فاغ لل أالئ

ش للا د ٠خشص ئال ئ اظ ئال ٠زجؼ شوبءئ

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Behold! verily to Allah belong all creatures in the heavens and on earth. What do they follow who

worship as His "partners" other than Allah? They follow nothing but conjecture (Dhann) and they do

nothing but lie.

Verse 7: Surah Jathiya, 45:24

هثز ب ش اذ ىبئال ب٠ ح١ب د ١ب ح١برباذ ئال ب لبا

٠ظ ئال ئ ػAnd they say: "What is there but our life in this world? We shall die and we live and nothing but

Time can destroy us." But of that they have no knowledge: they merely conjecture (Dhann).

Verse 8: Surah Najm, 53:23

آثبؤو ز بأ ١ز بءع أع ئال ئ ئ طب ع ب ث ضيللا بأ ذ ا سث مذجبء فظ ال بر اظ ئال ٠زجؼ

These (Lat, Uzza and Manat) are nothing but names which you and your forefathers have invented,

for Allah has vested no authority in them. The unbelievers follow nothing but mere conjecture

(Dhann) and the whims of their own souls, even though right guidance has already come to them

from their Rabb.

From the verse above it is clear that “Dhann” is something that has been severely condemned in the

Quran, and one of the characteristics of deviated people is that they follow “Dhann”. If we claim

anything about Allah (swt) based on “Dhann” then that falls in the category of “iftirah”, i.e lying

upon Allah (swt), and numerous times in the Quran Allah (swt) says “who is more unjust than the

one who fabricates a lie against Allah (swt)” (6:93, 6:144, 7:37, 10:17, 11:18, 29:68).

Therefore it is proven that we cannot base our arguments on Dhann. But what is Dhann and what is

certainity, we shall explore that more in the next section.

What is acceptable as a proof:

Now that we have proven in the previous section that arguments and proofs should not be based on

“Dhann” rather on “certain knowledge”, let‟s briefly explain what we mean by certain knowledge.

Within the religious texts, if a text has two qualities then it is considered as “Qat‟y (لطؼ) definitive, following are the two qualities:

1) Qat‟y us Sudoor (لطؼاصذس): This means that we should have definite knowledge that the

particular text has come from Allah (swt) or from the Prophet (saww) or his Ahlulbayt (as).

So when a verse of the Quran is used, then that is qat‟y us sudoor, since we know that the Quran

we have is the same book which was revealed to Rasulallah (saww), how do we know that is

another discussion.

The problem comes when “hadith” is quoted as a proof, because as we have seen in the

beginning of this book, the hadith literature has been immensely fabricated, a lot of narrations

have been attributed to the Prophet (saww) and Imams (as) which they never said. Just to have an

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idea, Ayatullah Behboodi, a grand scholar of hadith analyzed all the narrations in Al Kafi, and

his conclusion (in his book Sahih al Kafi) was that about 75% narrations in Al Kafi are Daeef

(weak/unacceptable).

Another grand scholar, Ayatullah Asif Mohsini analyzed all the narrations of Bihar al Anwar

which is in 110 volume, when he compiled only the authentic narrations it took just 2 volumes.

So how can we be sure that a narration is “qat‟y us sudoor”?, according to scholars of hadith

(refer to Mu‟jam Rijal al Hadith of Ayatullah Khoei), even a hadith with an authentic (sahih)

chain of narrators is not “qat‟y us sudoor” rather is is “Dhann”, what that means is, even if we

have a chain of reliable narrators for a hadith connecting to the Imams (as), still we cannot be

sure that the Imams (as) really said that. Some of the reason for this maybe:

a) Many fabricators of hadith were so clever that they would fabricate hadith and stick it

with an authentic chain of narrators in their books, so it is impossible to catch such

narrations. One such fabricator was Abu al Mufaddal, whose register was found by Ibn al

Ghadairi (grand scholar of rijal), and he found that in the register on one side there were

only authentic chains of narrators without any hadith and on the other side were

fabricated narrations without chain of narrators, you can guess what this person was

doing.

b) Even if the chain of narrators is authentic, yet a lot of times the narrators would mix up

narrations, or forget the correct narration, or rephrase the narrations in their own words,

etc, so we cannot be sure that what the narrator has narrated is exactly what the Imam (as)

said.

So the solution for this is that, only narrations which are “Mutawatir” are considered “Qat‟y us

sudoor”. Mutawatir means, a narration that has been narrated with so many Sahih chains of

narrators that there is no doubt that it has originated from the Prophet (saw) or Imam (as).

2) Qat‟y ud Dalala (لطؼاذالخ): Qat‟y ud Dalala means that the text should be unequivocal, i.e it

should not have numerous possible and legal interpretations, rather it should have one clear

meaning. Also, there should be a connection between the text and what is being proved, so for

example an argument like, “Imam Ali (as) can give life to the dead because Quran says Jesus

gave life to the dead”, is not Qat‟y us Dalala, many people actually fall for such arguments, even

though there is no connection between the two, just because Jesus did something does not

necessitate that Imam Ali (as) would do that too.

Summary:

1. Proofs based on Dhann are not acceptable; rather the proof should be qat‟y.

2. Proof should be Qat‟y us sudoor and Qat‟y ud dalala.

3. Qat‟y proofs are only clear verses of Quran and Mutawatir Narrations.

There is an Ijma (consensus) of both Shia and Sunni scholars about this condition for acceptance of

proof atleast in theory, since they don‟t always apply it in practice, and if they did, we wouldn‟t have

so many differences among the different sects, these differences exists because every sect has taken

its own “dhann” (doubtful things) as “certainities” and turned them into “beliefs” (Aqaid).

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Refutation of weak arguments in the form of Question and

Answers.

FAQ on Dua to other than Allah (swt):

Question 1:

We don‟t consider the Imams (as) to be independent; we consider them to be dependent on

Allah (swt), so how is it shirk to supplicate to the Imams (as)?

Answer:

This argument of dependent and independent is one of the favorite arguments of those who call upon

other than Allah (swt), but sadly as convincing as it may sound on the surface, this argument does

not hold water when critically analyzed.

Firstly, like we have already said in the discussion under verse 2, if we really consider the Imams

(as) to be totally dependent on Allah (swt), i.e the Imam (as) can only come and help us, or give us

sustenance, if Allah (swt) allows them, and if Allah (swt) does not allow them, then they cannot help

us, then it‟s useless to call upon the Imams (as) because Allah (swt) is the ultimate decision maker. It

would be like praying to the angel of death not to take our soul, which is very illogical, because the

angel of death does not have decision making power; he is totally dependent on Allah (swt).

Therefore on the first level it‟s useless to call upon the Imams (as) even if we consider them to be

totally dependent on Allah (swt) in helping us (which we have no proof for).

It is such a simple logic that we should try to convince the decision maker rather than the (one we

consider to be the) means. In the worldly matters we would never make such an illogical mistake

since then we would incur material losses, but since religion is just a pack of rituals for us and not

reality, we don‟t mind being illogical.

It‟s impossible for people to call upon anyone other than Allah (swt), unless they believe that the

entity they are calling upon has some independent power to make decision and help us, therefore

how ever much these people defend themselves by saying that we consider the Imams (as) to be

dependent, it‟s not true, and they are only lying to themselves as the Quran says “And the Day We

will gather them all together; then We will say to those who associated others with Allah,

"Where are your 'partners' that you used to claim [with Him]?"

Then there will be no [excuse upon] examination except they will say, "By Allah, our Lord, we were

not those who associated."

Look! How they lie against themselves! But the (lie) which they invented will disappear from them.”

(6:21-24)

Secondly, considering them dependent on Allah (swt) (especially when it‟s not true) doesn‟t make it

any less of shirk, as we have already discussed under verse 3 (5:116), Christians call upon Mary

considering her to be totally dependent on Allah (swt), yet in the eyes of Allah (swt) it is shirk.

Similarly, Christians do not believe that Jesus attained the station of being God‟s son independently,

rather God took him as a son, yet the Quran calls this kufr and shirk.

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Interestingly, even the polytheists of Mecca did not consider their idols to be independent rather they

considered them to be their intercessors with Allah (swt) as can be seen in Surah Yunus verse 18,

And they worship other than Allah that which neither harms them nor benefits them, and they say,

"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

Thirdly, we have no authentic proof that Allah (swt) has given the Imams (as) the duty to help us, or

give sustenance etc.

Question 2:

Tawassul is proven from Quran, since in the Quran we see, Prophet Yaqub‟s sons asked him

to ask Allah for forgiveness, also Allah says in the Quran to the munafiqeen, if you had asked

the prophet for forgiveness we would have forgiven you….Doesn‟t this prove that we are

allowed to supplicate to the Prophets? Or atleast call upon them to supplicate to Allah on our

behalf?

Answer:

There is no problem in asking a person to supplicate to Allah (swt) for our forgiveness, or to pray for

us, this is a very good act. The problem is, we can ask a person who is in the physical realm, within

the natural cause and effects, not someone who is in “ghayb” for us.

If the Prophet (saww) and Imams (as) are alive in front of us then we can ask them to pray for us, it‟s

very simple, but now that they are not present with us, it‟s illogical to do that.

Question 3:

In the Quran in 2:154 and 3:169 Allah (swt) says that those who are martyred in the way of

Allah (swt) are not dead rather they are alive, and we know that it is not shirk to ask for help

from those who are alive. Keeping that in mind, how is it shirk to ask for help from the Imams

(as)?

Answer:

We will answer this question in 3 parts.

1. Let‟s for some time assume that the verse proves that the Prophet (Saww) and Imams (as) are

alive like anyone else is alive in this world. But does that make them “All hearing”? Does being

alive make a person “All hearing”? No it doesn‟t, we are all alive, but we can‟t hear thousands of

people speaking at the same time, from thousands of kilometers (which is what we assume about

the Imams (as) while calling upon them).

Now someone might say that how can we compare the Imams (as) with normal people? This

question is an emotional one; do we have any proof that the Imams (as) were given supernatural

power of being “All hearing” or being present everywhere? No, there is no such authentic proof.

And it is also apparent from their lives, we hear every year in Musaib in majalis, when Muslim

ibn aqeel was going to be killed, he was desperate to send the news to Imam Husain (aS) that

people have turned their backs, he was so desperate that he even asked Umar ibn sa‟ad to convey

his message to Imam Husain (as). Surely Muslim ibn Aqeel had more ma‟arefat of Imam (as)

than us, he should have just called out “My dear master Imam Husain (as), people have turned

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their backs on you, don‟t come towards Kufa”, as simple as that, rather than trying to take help

from their staunch enemy Umar ibn Sa‟ad, but did that happen? No it didn‟t.

So the summary of point 1 is that even if we assume that they are alive like us, still it wouldn‟t

be logical to call upon them, as being alive is not = all hearing.

2. In the first point we assumed that the Prophet (saww) and Imams (as) are alive like us, but is that

what the verse of the Quran means?

Refer to any popular Tafseer of the Quran, for example Tafseer al Mizan of Allama Tabatabai, or

Tafseer Namuna of Ayatullah Makarem Shirazi, or the Tafseer of aAytullah Kamal Faghih Imani

etc, all of them say that this verse is talking about Barzakh, which means that the “Shaheed being

alive” does not mean that they are alive like us in this physical realm within the natural cause and

effect.

Rather, they are alive in a realm that is ghayb (unseen) to us. Just like the Angels and Jinn are

also in a realm that is ghayb (unseen) to us. We are not allowed to call upon any of them. We call

only upon God from the realm of the unseen. A person typically calls out to an entity from

behind the curtain of ghayb when they are not confident of succeeding in a task in this world, so

they seek support from a superior power above this world, that can effect change from outside

into this world. That for us is Allah (swt). To call upon any other from behind the curtain of

ghayb, is to do dua to them, & give a partner to Allah (swt).

3. Even logically it would be incorrect to believe that they are alive like normal people, because if

they were alive like normal people, then all the laws of normal people should apply to them,

which means

- their wives should not become widow, and should not be allowed to marry anyone (but on the

contrary, Imams (as)‟s wives became widow and married others)

- their wealths should not be distributed among their children and wives etc like its distributed

for dead people (on the contrary it was indeed distributed, and Imams (as) wrote their will

(wasiyat) as to how things are to be handled after them)

- you cannot have two Imams (as) at the same time, therefore every Imam became Imam only

after the death of the previous Imam, which shows that their previous Imams really died.

So how can we say that only some laws of alive people apply to them (like asking them to

supplicate) but other laws don‟t apply (like the ones stated above) ?

If this was the case, we should have a special hadith which tells us that they are alive after death,

but since their life is a bit different, therefore the above laws will not apply to them, but some

laws (like asking them to supplicate) will still apply. Unfortunately there is no such hadith.

- In Quran Allah (swt) warns the people not to turn back after the Prophet passes away, 3:144

“Muhammad is not but a messenger. [Other] messengers have passed on before him. So if he

was to die or be killed, would you turn back on your heels [to unbelief]? And he who turns back

on his heels will never harm Allah at all; but Allah will reward the grateful.”

All this clearly shows that Prophet (saww) and Imams (as) really passed away, and are not in the

normal cause and effect of this physical world.

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Summary of Answer 3:

1- Even if Imams (as) are alive, that doesn‟t mean they are “All hearing”.

2- The verse of Quran does not mean that Imams (as) are alive like us.

3- It‟s logically incorrect to consider them alive like us, since the laws of shariat which

apply to people who are alive do not apply to them.

4- Hence this argument in no way justifies calling upon the Imams (as).

Question 4:

We don‟t call upon other than Allah (swt), we only believe in “Wasila”, which is not shirk,

moreover the Quran in 5:35 orders us to seek “Wasila”. Therefore there is nothing wrong in

what we do.

Answer:

It is an easy way out to term everything we do as “Wasila” without trying to know what “wasila”

means in the Quran and narrations of ahlulbayt (as). Taking intermediaries with Allah (swt) is not

“wasila” according to the Quran.

When Quran says “seek wasila to Him”, we assume that it means we should call upon other than

Him (swt) to reach Him (swt), this is because that is what we have been fed from the mimbar.

The reality is, when the Quran says “wasila” it doesn‟t refer to human intermediaries, rather Imam

Ali (as) tells us in Nahjul Balagha what wasila is, in Khutbatul wasila.

Imam Ali (as) says:

“Verily, the best means (wasila) by which the seekers of nearness to Allah, the Glorified, the

Exalted, seek nearness, is the belief (Al-Imaan) in Him and His Prophet, struggling in His cause, for

it is the high pinnacle of Islam, and (to believe in) the Kalimatul Ikhlaas (the expression of Divine

Purification) for it represents the Fitra (Sound innate disposition/nature with which human beings are

created), and the establishment of prayer for it is (the basis of) community, the payment of Zakat for

it is a compulsory obligation, fasting for the month of Ramadhan for it is a shield against the

punishment of God, the performance of Hajj of the House of Allah and its Umra for these two acts

repel poverty and wash away sins; regard for kinship (Silatu Rahim) for it increases wealth and

length of life, giving alms secretly for it protects against bad deaths, and extending benefits (to

people) for it saves one from disgrace…………”

Source: Nahjul Balagha, Sermon no. 110 (or 109 in some versions)

As we can see, Imam Ali (as) talks about the best Waseelahs that can bring us close to Allah (swt),

and interestingly enough, there is no mention of the Ahlul Bayt (as) in the Khutbah, showing us that

when Allah (swt) commands us to seek means of nearness to Him, He is asking us to focus on those

actions which bring us close to Him – which the Imam (as) then goes on to list. Allah (swt) is not

asking us to seek intercessors as is implied by the contention. The functions of Imams is guidance

i.e. “mentioning wasail to us”.. not as intermediaries (that is: waseelah of hidaayah, not waseelah of

mediation).

Also as we have already explained, if we call upon the Imams (as) (even though considering it to be

wasila) then it would mean that we consider them to be “All hearing” which is an attribute of Allah

(swt).

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Question 5:

How can you say that asking the Imams (as) to pray for us is wrong, when our Imams (as)

have taught us Dua Tawassul which is very popular, and in this Dua we call upon the Imams

(as) to pray for us and to intercede for us on the Day of Judgment?

Answer:

Dua Tawassul cannot be used as a proof, since it is not proven to be from the Imam (as). Also in this

Dua we call upon the Imams (as), which means that we consider the Imams (as) to be “all hearing”

which is a sifat of Allah (swt).

Now let‟s briefly explain why this Dua is not even authentic.

This Dua does not have a “Sanad” (chain of narrators).

This Dua was for the first time mentioned in Bihar al Anwar of Allama Majlisi, (around 700 years

after the Ghayba).

When mentioning this Dua, Allama Majlisi writes:

"I say: I found in an old manuscript of the books by some of our companions, may Allah be pleased

with them, the following wording, "this du`a is narrated by Muhammad b. Babawayh, may Allah

have mercy on him, from the Imams, and he said, "I never performed Tawassul for any matter

except that I found the effect of the response quickly."

Source:

al-Majlisi, Bihaar Al-Anwaar, vol. 99, ch. 10, pg. 247

Issues raised:

1.) al-Majlisi (d. 1111 AH) is reporting it on the authority of al-Saduq (d. 381 AH), but there is an

approximately 700 year gap between the two scholars. (The scholars of Rijaal stipulate that in order

for you to credibly narrate a Riwaayah from someone, you should hear it directly from the person

concerned.) Majlisi has not provided a Tareeq (chain of people) connecting him to Sheikh Sadooq

for this particular narration.

2.) It has also been claimed that no one else recorded this du`a until al-Majlisi (d. 1111 AH), not al-

Tusi in his Misbaah, not Ibn Tawus in his many du`a books, not even al- Kaf`ami in his du`a books.

How did this dua remain hidden for so many centuries from the sight of great Shia scholars and

Muhadditheen, only to resurface in the time of al-Majlisi?

Well, as you know, many Ghaali practices (such as the third Shahaadah in Adhan) were not

endorsed/approved by Shia scholars for centuries, until the Safavid period started, thereafter man

formerly Ghaali beliefs, practices and Riwaayaat were welcomed into mainstream Shiaism. Dua

Tawassul definitely seems to be one of them.

3.) How was al-Majlisi able to ascertain that the manuscript was indeed al-Saduq's? Because his

name was written? On the basis of his handwriting? Back in the day, there was no way to 100%

ascertain the date of authorship of the manuscripts, other than the date written on the manuscript

itself. Today, we are able to scientifically date the manuscripts to their time periods.

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4.) Even if we were to assume that this manuscript was indeed al-Saduq's, how certain are we that its

text had not been tempered with, and no one came after al-Saduq and added or deleted certain words,

phrases, etc.

If people could add Ahadith to the books of the 5th and 6th Imam (as is clear from the statements of

Imam Ridha (as)), then where does Sheikh Sadooq stand?

5.) We do not have a chain for Dua-e-Tawassul connecting Sheikh Sadooq to an Imam, which is

why it is not even known for certain which Imam taught Dua-e-Tawassul.

No serious scholar of Rijaal worth his salt would entertain a Riwaayah that has such serious

problems and flaws in its transmission. And we can especially not rely on chain-less Riwaayaat in

such controversial and risky matters, as that would be very imprudent and unwise.

So any argument based on Dua-e-Tawassul carries no weight.

Question 6:

Supplicating to the Imams (as) cannot be wrong because we have seen many people who

supplicate to the Imams (as) and their wishes are fulfilled. If supplicating to them is wrong

then how come their wishes are fulfilled?

Answer:

If this argument was correct then supplicating to Jesus, Ram, Hanuman, Ganesh, Tree, Rat, Snake

etc would also be correct, since those who supplicate to all the above have their wishes fulfilled too.

Therefore mere fulfillment of wishes does not prove the correctness of the way of supplication.

This can be demonstrated from a simple example, a person who works to earn money also gets

money, and a person who steals also gets money, but the first way is correct and the second one is

not.

Allah (swt) gives sustenance to everyone irrespective of their way of supplicating, but He (swt) has

told us the correct and incorrect ways in the Quran, therefore we will be judged on that basis.

Question 7:

If calling upon anyone other than Allah (swt) is not allowed then what is “Nad e Ali”?

Answer:

Nade Ali is not mentioned in even a single hadith, rather it is only mentioned as a poem in later

books. The earliest source for it is Shaikh al Kaf'ami (d. 905 AH), who mentioned it in his book

"Misbah" claiming that he saw a handwritten note from Shahid al Awwal saying that this poem (i.e.

nade ali) should be recited for difficulties. The latter scholars who quoted it from Kaf'ami (such as

Allamah Majlisi, Muhadith Noori and Ayatullah Ali Namazi Shahroodi) also made it clear that it is

only a poem, not a hadith.

Akhbari scholars, like usooli scholars, are not a homogenous group, and thus had different views.

The strict akhbaris like Shaikh Hurr al Amili believed in doing tawassul only as per what's

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mentioned in ahadith from reliable books like kutub al arba (hence no nade ali, dua tawassul etc for

him). There is no concrete evidence to suggest that Nade Aliyyan or Dua Tawassul even existed in

the times of classical scholars like Shaikh Kulaini, Saduq, Tusi, and Mufid etc, and so there is no

way we can attribute them to the Imams of the Ahlul Bayt (as).

Question 8:

Ziyarat Jaamea Kabira is one of the most popular ziyaraat, and it describes the high status of

the Imams (as), after reading this ziyarat there seems nothing wrong in asking the Imams (as)

for help, since this ziyarat says that everything that we receive is through them and every

supplication goes through them etc.

Answer:

Ziyarat Jaamea is not proven to be from the Imams (as), since its chain of narrators is not “Sahih”.

Many lines in this ziyarat are contradictory to the Quran too (which we shall explain in a separate

document inshallah).

Here is the Sanad as we find it in Al-Uyoon Akhbar ar Ridha:

لائل(انغلوػهانشضاأخثاسػ)كراتفللاسدانظذقتاتاتانذذثشخساالذ:

دذثا ذتأدذتػه ذػ،للاسضانذلاقػشاتيذ انغا،أدذاتيذ تانذغانساق،ػثذللاتػه

ذدذثا:لاناة،انكرشاوتأدذتإتشاى ذدذثا:لاناالعذانذغأتانكف،ػثذللاأتتيذ إعاػمتيذ

ذتنؼهلهد:لالانخؼػشاتيعدذثا:لالانثشيكانك تيذ ذتجؼفشتيعتػه تيذ تػه

(1)… للاسعلاتػهـانغلوػهىـطانةأتتػهتانذغ

Here is the sanad as we find in al-Faqeeh

لالفمذ(انفمذضشلي)كرابفأيا:

ذس ذتنؼهلهدلالانخؼ،ػثذللاتيعدذثا:لالانثشيك،إعاػمتيذ تجؼفشتيعتػهتيذ

ذ ادذاصسخإراكايلتهغاألنللللاسعلاتاػه:انغلوػهىطانةأتتػهتانذغتػهتيذ

( 2...)يكى

1/303انشضاأخثاسػ (1) .

2/906انفمذضشلي (2) .

Both chains narrators are invalid.

The first one mentions Musa bin Imraan al-Nakha'ee as the primary narrator, while the other one

gives his name as Musa bin Abdillah al-Nakha'ee, however both are Majhool (Unknown).

Some scholars have even claimed there is only one Nakha'ee mentioned in the books of Rijaal, and

he is the person to whom Imam Ridha (as) said (After hearing him narrate a false narration): "Get

out, May Allah Send His La'nah on you, and on the one who narrated this Hadith to you.

See for yourself:

إلانذذثسجالكرةفنذانظ دذثكينؼللانؼكػاخشج:»انغلوػهانشضاػلالادذ خؼ !».

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Allamah Mamqaani (One of the well known grand scholars of Rijal) has admitted that both Musa

bin Abdillah and Musa bin Imraan are Majhool, however, it is also mentioned and acknowledged by

him that Musa bin Abdillah was reported to be a drinker of Nabeedh (makes a lot of sense to me,

since only someone under the influence of something like nabeedh or alcohol would invent an anti-

Quranic Ziyaarah like al-Jaamiah):

.( لذ)انايماانكثشانشجانلال

دانأإلإياياكظاش،(ع)انجادأطذابيسجانف(س)انشخػذ:شاوتػثذانهكتػثذللاتيع"–أ

إنلظزانثششبنىياناػثذانهكتيعك(س)انظذقممانظنانؼثاطتإتشاىذشجحفيشلذيجل،

ن،تششتاانخثشنشغثلثاءوكمفأذا،تششتاانكشاػاخجؼاكااإتشاى،فششتانركمنأ

انخؼػثذللاتيعكػهشاذنؼذورنكغشزاكأك .

سارف،(ع)انادػهػػ،انثشيك،إعاػمتيذذػانشاذنغائشانجايؼحانضاسجتابفانرزةفس

يشاذةنثاانرضحانفظهحانضاسجزيثماناديلاذهمفتمالػرماد،طذخإياياكػهاضذحدلنحنا

".ذؼانللاػذانؼهىف،لادحغشنشجالاكرةفركشإانىانشاح،يمثلانذغايانشجمكػهشادج(ع)الئح

( 232ص3جانمالذمخ)

ػػػ،ػثذانهانكف،أتتيذذػانفميانشتابفانظذقسلذ:انخؼػشاتيع"-ب

.يجلدانانفه،انخؼضذتػشاتيعتؼاتؼضافانؼهم،كرابأعاذفذكشسضذ،تانذغ

( 232ص3جانمالذمخ)

http://al-meshkah.com/maaref_detail.php?id=4046

http://al-meshkah.com/maaref_detail.php?id=4046

Ayatullah Sayyid Abul Qasim al-Khui, one of the greatest scholars of Rijaal in the twentieth

century, declared Musa bin Imraan al-Nakha'ee, the principal narrator of this Ziyaarah, as per the

Sanad given in al-Uyoon, to be dhaeef:

انخؼػشاتيعتضؼفانخئانغذاػرشاف:

جذػأتػيذذتجؼفشػابغشتػهػتاعاد]261/1[الخثاسيؼاػانعائميانضتسانثابف

تتانذغضؼفح«تانجطذشثال،انهذاػفاانشاسبدفا(:آنػهللاطه)للاسعللال»لال

غشابتػه،ضذتانذغ،انخؼػشااتيع،إتشاى .

http://www.al-khoei.us/books/index.php?id=4948

انظذس : ١طفذح9010:انمشاء||انفم:انمغى||انذشيحانكاعة-انؼايلخفانفماحيظثاح:انكراب

انهذحدهكدشيح

What's more, Sayyid Khui also testified that the Tareeq (path/chain) from Sheikh Sadooq to

Mohammad bin Ismaaeel is not Saheeh due to the fact that the following narrators are all Majhool:

Ali bin Ahmad bin Musa

Mohammad bin Ahmad al-Sinaani

Al-Husayn bin Ibraheem bin Ahmad

Mohammad bin Abi Abdillah al-Koofi

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See the statement of Sayyid Khui for yourself:

للاسضانكاذة،شاوتأدذتإتشاىتانذغانغا،أدذتيذذيع،تأدذتػه:إنانظذقطشك

طذخغشانطشكانثشيك،إعاػمتيذذػانكف،ػثذللاأتتيذذػػى، نىسانزكانظذقيشاخل

ذثكفىشد .

Hence, there is no way the Sanad of this Ziyaarah can be authenticated by anyone who is a proper

scholar of Ilme Rijaal.

Question 9:

“Calling upon” in the Quran is used for worship not for supplication, therefore whenever it

says do not call upon other than Allah (swt), it means do not worship other than Allah (swt).

Answer:

There is no proof for this, rather in Arabic "دػا" is for calling someone not for worshiping someone,

anyone who claims otherwise is either ignorant of the Arabic language, or is intentionally twisting

the verses of Quran.

However, if this "دػا" / "calling someone" is the kind that seeks help from an entity beyond the

curtain of ghayb (going beyond the natural world that God has placed us in, and seeking help from

across its boundaries) then this calling simultaneously becomes a worship (due to seeking help from

beyond the hudood/boundaries/limits that God has established for us). When the Musrikeen of

Makkah were worshiping their intercessor-idols, did they believe that the stones and rocks were

powerful? Or did they believe that the spirits represented by them were powerful intercessors? It was

the latter, just as is the case with Hindus today. So if someone is seeking out the holy spirit

represented by the rock (who exists in a world outside our realm -- which is what is done) then

indeed such calling upon is simultaneously a worship. And yes, God has forbidden it. Let us ask

ourselves,.. when we call out to the Prophet (saww) or Imams (as), are we seeking holy spirits from a

realm beyond the hudood/boundaries that God has confined us to? Well, of course (i.e. Barzakh).

Then such calling is a forbidden worship.

Question 10:

We say “assalamu alaika ya ayyuha nabiyyu” in every prayer, this mean that the Prophet

(saww) listens to us. Also we have in history that the Prophet (saww) addressed the dead

people after the battle of badr, and Imam Ali (as) addressed the dead people after battle of

Nahrawan, also in the Quran Prophet Saleh (as) addresses the dead people of his nation after

they were destroyed by Allah‟s punishment (7:79) and Prophet Shuayb (as) address dead

people of his nation (7:93). Doesn‟t all this prove that dead can hear us?

Answer:

Again on the surface these arguments sound convincing, but when looked at critically, what the

questioner has concluded is not the only possible conclusion.

1. As for saying “Assalamu alaika ya ayyuha nabiyyu”, in Arabic it is fine, since Salaam is a prayer

addressed to Allah no matter whom you send it on. That is to say a Salaam is actually a Dua

addressed to Allah, no matter whom you direct it towards.

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When I say Salaam alaykum to you, I am not the one sending peace on you. How can I give you

peace when I don't own peace and have no control over it? Thus, even when I address a Salaam

to you, it doesn't have anything to do with whether you can hear me or not, since it is only a

prayer to Allah to send Salaam on you.

2. As for the Prophet (saww) addressing people after badr, that is not mentioned in our books,

rather it is mostly narrated from Bukhari, even then since it is not “mutawatir” is not enough to

build our Aqeeda on, since it is not “qat‟y us sudoor” which is one of the conditions for

acceptance of proof.

For the sake of argument even if we accept that such a thing happened, then it could be argued

that it was figurative, it could also be argued that since the Prophets addressed them immediately

after their death their souls may have been lingering around, because some Riwaayaat indicate

that the soul hovers over the body until the body is buried, also the Prophet (saw) addressed them

from a small distance, not thousands of miles away, and the same argument can be made for the

incident of Imam Ali (as) after Nahrawan and what is mentioned about Prophet Saleh (as) and

Shuayb (as). So these incidents are not “qat‟y ud dalala” which is also a condition for acceptance

of proof.

3. Another strong argument to show that addressing someone does not imply that they hear you is

that, for all we know, there is nothing to indicate that they were actually speaking to them.

Perhaps they were only making a statement, and expressing their grief. After all, in Arabic

literature and culture, it is very common to address even inanimate objects such as the sun,

moon, earth, stars, etc. It doesn't necessarily mean that the sun, moon, etc. can hear us.

This is also proven from the Quran since when all the people went and Prophet Ibrahim (as) was

alone with the idols, in Surah Saffat (37:90-92), he (as) addressed the idols, 37:91 “Then he

turned to their gods and said, "Do you not eat?”” 37:92 “What is [wrong] with you that you do

not speak?", so can we conclude from this that the Idols can hear us? Ofcourse not, rather this is

figurative.

4. Atleast in 3 places in the Quran, Allah (swt) says “You cannot make the dead/those in grave

hear” 27: 80; 30: 52; and 35: 22.

Question 11:

Sermon 234 of Nahjul Balagha proves that the Prophet (saww) can hear us after his death and

the kind of wasila we use in Dua Tawassul is correct. Because in this sermon Imam Ali (as)

while shrouding the Prophet (saww) says “May my father and my mother be your ransom, do

remember us (well) when you are in the presence of your Sustainer, and keep us in your

mind."

Answer:

Nahjul Balagha is not 100% authentic, and its sermons do not have “chain of narrators”, but we do

find the chain of narrators for most of its sermons in other books. This sermon has been narrated in

the book Amaali Sheikh Mufeed.

Following chain of narrators has been mentioned for this sermon:

Abu Nasr Muhammad b. al-Husain al-Muqri al-Baseer reported to me from Abdullah b. Yahya al-

Qattan, who reported from Ahmad b. al-Husain b. Saeed al- Qarshi, who reported from his father,

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who reported from al-Husain b. Mukhariq, from Abdul Samad b. Ali, from his father, from Abdullah

b. Abbas - may Allah be pleased with him, who said:

All the narrators marked with red are “Majhool”, i.e “unknown”, and Ahmad b. al-Husain b. Saeed

al-Qurashi is weak, and has been declared “Ghali” (exaggerator) by many classical scholars and

even Ayatullah Khoei in his Mu‟jam Rijal al Hadith.

Therefore the sanad of this sermon is “daeef”, hence it is not proven to be true, therefore we cannot

base our belief on this sermon.

_________________________________________________________________________________

FAQ on Ilm al Ghayb:

Question 1:

It can be proven from the Quran that Imam Ali (as) had knowledge of everything from the

past and future.

a) Quran says that every dry and wet thing has been mentioned in the Quran

b) Quran also says about Imam Ali (as) that he had the knowledge of the whole book

c) Hence it‟s proven that Imam Ali (as) had knowledge of everything

Answer:

This argument is weak like a spider‟s web. Let‟s analyze all the three points mentioned in the

Question.

a) It is wrong to say that “every dry and wet” (i.e everything) is in the Quran.

They base their claim on this verse:

Quran says in 6:59

“And with Him are the keys of the unseen treasures-- none knows them but He; and He knows

what is in the land and the sea, and there falls not a leaf but He knows it, nor a grain in the

darkness of the earth, nor anything wet nor dry but (it is all) in a clear book (Kitabim Mubeen).”

Those who make the argument mentioned in the question think that “Kitabim mubeen” in this verse

means Quran, but there is no way to prove that. It is only their guess (Dhann) that “Kitabim

Mubeen” here refers to the Quran, a better tafseer would be that “Kitabim Mubeen” means “Lauh al

Mahfooz”, since we know everything is preserved in “Lauh al Mahfooz”, moreover we know that

the Quran doesn‟t mention everything (from the past and future), and this can be proven from many

examples in the Quran itself, but here we will mention only one example.

The Quran says in 9:101

“And among those around you of the bedouins are hypocrites, and [also] from the people of

Madinah. They have become accustomed to hypocrisy. You, [O Muhammad], do not know them,

[but] We know them. We will punish them twice [in this world]; then they will be returned to a great

punishment.”

We would like to ask a question, if the Quran indeed mention everything (maybe in its batin), then

how come the Prophet (saww) does not know the hypocrites? If the Quran mentioned everything, it

85

should have mentioned something through which the Prophet (saww) could recognize the hypocrites

too.

This shows that “kitabim mubeen” in 6:59 is not the Quran.

b) Now they connect the above verse (6:59) to verse 13:43, and claim that this verse says that Imam

Ali (as) has total knowledge of the book, and the book in this verse is same as the “kitabim

mubeen” in verse 6:59. Therefore Imam Ali (as) has knowledge of everything.

The Quran says in 13:43

And those who have disbelieved say, "You are not a messenger." Say, [O Muhammad],

"Sufficient is Allah as Witness between me and you, and one who has knowledge of the book

(ilm al kitab)."

Now which “kitab” has been mentioned in this verse? Is it Quran? Is it some other book?

Well it‟s unclear.

The point is, do we know for sure that the “kitabim mubeen” in 6:59 and “kitab” in 13:43 are the

same?

Another claim they make is that “one who has knowledge of the book” refers specifically to Imam

Ali (as), even though there is no “Sahih” (authentic) hadith in favor of that.

As we can see how much conjecture (Dhann) is required to use this as a proof for claiming

knowledge of everything for Imam Ali (as).

Summary:

a) No proof for the claim that “kitabim mubeen” in 6:59 refers to Quran.

b) No proof that for the claim that “kitab” in 13:43 is same as “kitabim mubeen” in 6:59

c) No authentic proof that “one with knowledge of book” in 13:43 is specifically for Imam Ali (as).

On the other hand, we have abundant proof from Quran and lives of the Prophet (saww) and Imams

(as) that they did not have knowledge of everything.

Question 2:

All the verse of the Quran which negate Ilm al Ghayb for the Prophet (saww) only point to the

fact that he did not have independent knowledge; rather Allah (swt) gave him the knowledge

of everything. This does not mean that the Prophet (saww) does not know everything.

Answer:

This argument seems good on the surface, but when applied to all the verses, it does not hold water.

Ex1: In 7:188

لم فؼان فغأ يهكل ل ا ش اإل ض اء ي ش للا ن ة أ ػه ىكد عر كث شخانغ ل ي

ش اانخ ي غ انغءي أ اإ ت شش زش إل و نم ؤي

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Say, "I hold not for myself [the power of] benefit or harm, except what Allah has willed. And if I knew the

unseen, I could have acquired much good (wealth), and no harm would have touched me. I am not except a

warner and a bringer of good tidings to a people who believe."

In this verse, having of ilm al ghayb has been related to “acquiring much good” and “not touching of

any harm”, how can we apply the “independent and acquired” argument here?

It does not matter whether the Prophet (saww) had independent or acquired “ilm al ghayb”, the point

is, if he had it, he could have acquired much good and no harm would have touched him.

We know that a lot of harm did come to our Prophet (saww), people left him in the battle of Uhud,

he was tortured, garbage was thrown at him etc, the Prophet (saww) is being asked to say in the

above verse, that if he had ilm al ghayb he could have prevented all this from happening.

Clearly the argument of “independent and acquired” cannot be applied here.

Ex2: In 72:25

لم اأ ل شة أ دسإ ي ذ مأ وذػ جؼ تن ذس أ ي

Say, "I do not know if what you are promised (day of judgment) is near or if my Lord will grant for

it a [long] period."

If the Prophet (saww) had acquired knowledge about the time of Day of Judgment, why would he be

asked to say that he does not know? He should have said “My lord has informed me of it, but this is

a secret knowledge which cannot be revealed”, but that‟s not what he says.

We cannot apply the “independent and acquired” argument here.

Question 3:

The Quran was not revealed to the Prophet (saww) in this world, rather it was revealed to him

in some other realm before anything else was created. Therefore whenever Allah (swt) says to

the Prophet (saww) about any incident that “you did not know this”, or “ you were not aware

of this” then He (swt) is talking about that realm, not this world.

Answer:

There is no proof for claiming that the Quran was not revealed in this world rather in some other

realm before the creation of everything. We challenge anyone to bring such a proof

(reply on: shiareformist@hotmail.com)

This can also be refuted through the Quran itself.

Before the Battale of Tabuk, some hypocrites came to the Prophet (saww) to ask for permission to

stay behind and not participate in the battle, so the Prophet (saww) gave them permission, so Allah

(swt) revealed the verse (9:43):

May Allah pardon you, [O Muhammad]; why did you give them permission [to remain behind]?

[You should not have] until it was evident to you who were truthful and you knew [who were] the

liars.

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First of all, this proves that the Prophet (saww) did not know who the liars among them were and

who the truthful ones were.

Secondly, if we assume, as the questioner says, that the Quran was revealed to the Prophet (saww)

before he even came to this world, then how is it possible that the Prophet (saww) already knew

about the above verse, and hence knew that he should not give permission to the hypocrites to stay

behind, yet when the time came he gave permission to the hypocrites without ascertaining who were

truthful and who were liars.

This and many other such examples in the Quran, prove that the claim that the Quran was revealed

to the Prophet (saww) before he even came to this world is a lie and anti Quranic.

FAQ on Tafweed:

Question 1:

In the Quran Allah (swt) says in one place that it is He who takes the souls at the time of death

(39:42, 6:60) and in another place the Quran says that it is the Angel of death who takes the

souls (32:11), we decude from it that Allah (swt) has delegated the task of taking souls to the

Angel of death, therefore both the verse are correct. So this shows that Allah (swt) does not

perform every task directly, rather He delegates the tasks to his creatures, so if we believe that

the Imams (as) have been delegated with the task of creation, helping and sustenance, how is

that shirk?

Answer:

It is true that Allah (swt) can do things though means (always or somettimes, we cannot say anything

about that). Now since the Quran tells us that taking of soul is something that Allah (swt) does

through the Angel of death, therefore we believe in it. But no where in the Quran or any authentic

hadith does it say that Allah (swt) has delegated the affair of creation or help or rizq to the Imams

(as), rather we have abundant proof against it. The Quran always attributes the affair or creation and

sustenance to Allah (swt), and in the narrations which we have already quoted Imams (as) have

denied any kind of delegation.

It is true that delegation (tafweed) is a possibility, but everything that is possible does not happen,

therefore just because delegation is not impossible, it does not mean we attribute it to the Imams

(as), because the Imams (as) themselves never claimed it for themselves, and as per the deiftinition

of “Ghuluw”, if we day anything about the Imams (as) that they themselves have not claimed about

themselves thenwe would be indulging in Ghuluw.

Now the belief in itself might atleast constitute “Ghuluw” and “iftirah” (lying upon Allah), but since

this belief has some consequences like calling upon the Imams (as) for help, for rizq, for offsprings,

then this turns into shirk. Again, people who indulge in this might not consider the Imams (as) to be

independent theoretically, but as we have already explained, if you call upon anyone other than

Allah (swt) then this action of yours is a witness to your belief in the independence of the entity,

since if you considered that Allah (swt) is the ultimate decision maker, and He has all the power to

provide or not to provide, then it would be illogical to call upon anyone other than Him, who you

acknowledge does not have independent giving or decision making power.

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Question 2:

Our Imams (as) are higher in position than the Angels and previous Prophets (as), so if Allah

(swt) has given these supernatural powers to Angels and previous Prophets (as), how is it

possible that He did not give these powers to our Imams (as)?

Answer:

1) There is not Qat‟y proof that the Imams (as) are higher than the Angels and previous Prophet

(as). It‟s actually illogical to compare Imams (as) with Angels, we cannot compare apples

and oranges. We can compare two entities who have the same duties and tasks, where as the

Imam (as) have totally different duties than angels.

2) Let‟s assume that the claim that Imams (as) are higher in status than Angels and previous

Prophets (as) is true, how does that prove that they should have the same or more powers that

Angels and previous Prophet (as) had? This logic itself is “Dhann”.

Has Allah (swt) informed us in the Quran that I will give more supernatural powers to the

one who is higher in position? No, there is no such rule, therefore even if we assume that the

Imams (as) are higher in status, still it‟s impossible to prove such supernatural powers for

them.

3) Lets assume that the rule stated in point 2 is true, then how can we assume that “giving of

supernatural powers” is greater in the eyes of Allah (swt) than “giving the task of teaching

and spreading the religion of Islam” ? Isn‟t it possible that in the eyes of Allah (swt) the latter

is greater?

As we can see, this argument is full of “Dhann”.

Question 3:

Do you have the kind of proof that you are asking others to provide? Do you have quranic

verse which say that Prophet (saww) and Imams (as) don‟t have the power to create and give

sustenance? Or do you have mutawatir ahadith?

Answer:

One who makes a claim should give proof. So if you claim that unicorns exist, then it is you who has

to give proof for it. For me, the non existence of proof of unicorns is the proof of its non existence.

Similarly, the non existence of definitive proof for your claim is enough proof to reject this claim.

Also, your logic is flawed, because if the same argument was used by Christians when they

manufactured the belief that Jesus is the son of God, you wouldn‟t find it logical. A Christian could

very well argue that “show me where does the bible say that Jesus is NOT the son of God”, and he is

right, the bible does not say that, because when the bible was revealed such a belief did not exist. But

since when the Quran was revealed this belief already existed, that is why the Quran denies that

Jesus is the son of God. Christians‟ position was wrong even before Quran was revealed, not because

the Bible supposedly says “jesus is not the son of God”, but because the (original) Bible never

mentioned that “Jesus is the son of God”.

So the non existence of proof for a belief is enough evidence to reject that belief.

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Conclusion:

Every child born in this world adopts the religions beliefs and traditions of his forefathers, when they

grow up, some of them keep following the same things blindly while others think critically and have

the courage to reject all that is wrong. While on one hand, we the Muslims, and especially the shias

expect people from all other religions and sects to discover the error of their ways and come to our

way, but on the other hand we don‟t apply the same principle to ourselves, isn‟t it equally possible

that we ourselves had been wrong all this time?

We say to ourselves and to others, “how is it possible that our grand scholars did not discover such

simple things?”, but when a sunni makes the same argument we find it illogical, when a christian

makes a similar argument we find it even more illogical. The fact is, scholars are not the criterion

between truth and falsehood, because every sect and every religious group has grand scholars, and

these grand scholars defend silly and vague ideas all their lives, this is why Allah (swt) never asked

us in the Quran to follow scholars blindly, rather he has warned us against it in many places.

With that background in mind, we invite the redears to again critically ponder upon whatever has

been discussed in this book. Go to the scholars you trust and ask them to answer these questions and

if by chance their answers sound convincing then send us their answers on our email id

(shiareformist@hotmail.com).