The request for
something from the ‘Awliya Allah’ takes place in various ways which we shall
mention as under:
1. We request a living
personality to assist us in building a house or ask him to quench our thirst by
handing over the vessel of water which lies next to him.
2. We request a living
personality to pray for us and seek forgiveness for us from God.
Both these
cases are common, in that, we ask the person to do a work that is fully within
his natural capability to fulfil it. However, the first request is related to
the worldly affair and the second one to religious and heavenly affair.
3. We request a living
personality to perform a task without utilising any common and natural means.
For example, we ask him to cure the sick without treatment, find our lost one
or repay our debt.
In other words, we ask
him to fulfil our needs through miracle or wonder without having recourse to
the ordinary and natural tools.
4. The person
whom we ask is not alive but since we believe that he is alive in another abode
and is receiving his sustenance, we request from such a person to pray for us.
5. We request
from such a person to cure our sick and find our lost ones and through
utilising the spiritual powers bestowed upon him by Allah.
These two
cases, similar to the second and third one are a request to a living person
except that in those cases, the responsible authority is alive in this physical
and material world and in these last two cases the responsible authority is
physically dead but in reality is alive. We can never request from such a
person to help us in the material affairs through the ordinary channels. This
is because it is presumed that he has left this world and he is cut off from
the normal channels of this world.
In this way,
there are five types amongst which, three of them are related to request from
the living ones in the material world and two are related to the living ones in
another world.
We shall
discuss in this chapter, request to a living person in the material world and
discuss in the next chapter, request (for help) to the awliya Allah who are
living in another world.
Here is the description
of each of the three cases of the first type:
First Case:
Requesting for work and
help from a living person in the ordinary affairs of life which have natural
and ordinary causes, forms the basis of human civilization. The life of human beings
is established in this material world on the basis of cooperation. All those in
this world, who posses intellect, seek mutual assistance in their worldly
affairs. This matter is so obvious that nobody has ever found fault with it and
because our discussion is based on Qur’an and traditions, we shall restrain
ourselves at this point by quoting a verse. Zul-Qarnain while building the dam
against the oppression of Ya'juj and Ma’juj turned towards the
people of that place and said:
“Thus you only help me
with workers; I will make a fortified barrier between you and them.” (Kahaf:
95)
Second Case:
Requesting
someone to pray for good or seeking forgiveness from living persons in this
material world; the correctness and firmness of such a request from the living
is from the necessities related to the Holy Qur’an. Anyone having a little
acquaintance with the Holy Qur’an is aware that the ways of the Prophets was to
seek forgiveness for their ummah (nation) and or the ummah
themselves were placing such a request before the Prophets. Now we shall bring
here all the verses which have come down in this regard.
Of course, the verses
concerning this section are of several categories where, for the sake of
simplicity of the matter, we shall number them as follows:
(1)
Sometimes, God orders His Prophet to seek forgiveness for his people such as:
“Pardon them
therefore and ask pardon for them, and take counsel with them in the affair.” (Aal-e-Imran:
159)
“Accept their
pledge, and ask forgiveness for them from Allah, surely Allah is Forgiving,
Merciful.”
(Mumtahena: 12)
“Take alms
out of their property, you would cleanse them and purify them thereby, and pray
for them, surely your prayer is a relief to them, and Allah is Hearing,
Knowing.”
(Tauba: 103)
In this verse, Allah
directly commands the Holy Prophet (s) to pray for them and the effect of his
prayers is so quick that one feels comfort in one's heart after the prayers of
the Holy Prophet (s).
(2) Sometimes, the
Prophets themselves used to promise the sinners that they would seek
forgiveness for them under special circumstances.
(Tawhid in actions) and the
group of ‘Asharites differ in 
(Tawhid in attributes),
still all the Islamic sects have had one opinion in this respect and no Muslim
can deny this principle. And if there is any differences, they are all related
to 
(its
applicability); that is to say some of the Muslims imagine some of the actions
to be ‘ibadat (worship) whereas others consider that to be honour and
respect. Whatever dispute which exists is in
(minor type) i.e.
whether so and so act is ‘ibadat or not and not in 
(of major type)
i.e. ‘ibadat other than Allah amounts to polytheism and is forbidden. It
is here that we should properly clarify the meaning of ‘ibadat from the
viewpoint of dialect and the Qur’an and then the relevant duties and 
(applicability)
of the matters under discussion will automatically become clear. 
) and Submissiveness
(
) 
) and manifestation of meekness
or submissiveness (4) (
) Such an interpretation cannot give
a precise,correct and perfect meaning of the word of ‘ibada because: 
) then we
cannot issue an identity card of tawhid for anybody in this world and
cannot call anyone as a monotheist because man, by nature, is humble and meek
in front of the spiritual and material perfections of those who are above him
and better than him, like a student in front of his teacher, a child in front
of his teacher, a child in front of his father and mother, a lover in front of
his beloved one and so on. 
and has been translated into
Persian. 
