[ Shaykh Abd al-Qadir Husayn (HafizahuLlahu ta'ala) on istighatha The second one has a similar point to what Hadrat Shaykh al-Hadith Allama Sharf Qadri رحمة الله عليه mentions.
in tarikh baghdad 7/7 [it is narrated in first person, i have reworded it]. waqidi was a wheat merchant and had about 100,000 silver (dirham) due to others; he lost his money and went to iraq to meet yahya ibn khalid (al-barmaki). and thereafter he became a qadi. --- another anecdote in tarikh baghdad, v7/p30: once waqidi fell in hardship and eid was approaching. his maid came to him and said, "eid is coming and we have nothing in the house." so waqidi went to borrow something from a trader friend. he explained the situation to him and the friend gave him a sealed pouch with 1200 dirham [silver coins]. he had reached home when a hashimi [i.e. from ahl bayt] friend of mine met me complaining of his financial trouble and seeking a loan. he didn't say anything and then went inside and told his wife about it. she said: "what have you decided to do?" he said: "i will share half of what is in this pouch" she replied: "you did nothing - and you just went to the trader to ask and he gave you 1200 dirham. and then a person from the family of RasulAllah sallALlahu alayhi wa sallam came to you in dire need, and you say that you will give him only half of what the trader gave you? this won't do. give the entire bag of money to him." so waqidi gave the pouch [sealed as it was] to his hashimi friend. thereafter, the trader friend was also a friend of the hashimi went to him [the hashimi] asking for a loan! the hashimi friend took out the bag and wanted to give him something, but the trader recognised the pouch as his own [which he had given waqidi] so he left the hashimi and came to waqidi and told him about it. meanwhile a messenger came from yahya ibn khalid with a message that said: "i was busy with some work for amiru'l mu'minin so i couldn't see you." [meaning, you can come now to meet me] so waqidi rode out to meet yahya and when he met him told him the story of the pouch. yahya told to his slave: "bring those gold coins here [dinar]" the slave brought 10,000 dinar [gold coins]. yahya told waqidi: "take 2000 for yourself, 2000 for your [trader] friend, 2000 for your hashimi friend., and the remaining 4000 is for your wife - for she is the most generous of you all" ====
min aqayid ahl al-sunnah. https://archive.org/details/MinAqaedAhlESunnahByAllamaMuhammadAbdulHakeemSharafQadri_201509 ---- in allamah sharaf's book linked above, p.163 ---- waqidi is a historian. some scholars have accused him of doing forgery, some have accused him of lying, but later ulama have deemed him weak. his books are however used in anecdotes of sahabah and histories, which ulama of hadith are lenient. siyar of imam dhahabi: 9/454 muhammad ibn umar ibn waqid al-aslami, client of waqidi al-madani - he was a judge and author of books and battle chronicles [maghazi]. he is the great scholar [allamah], the imam, abu abdullah. one of the major sources of knowledge [awyiatu'l ilm], though there is common agreement that he is weak. ---- on 9/457, he says: ibn sa'ad said in "tabaqat al-kubra": he was a client of abdullah ibn buraydah al-aslami. he proceeded to baghdad on account of debts that he racked up in the year 180 AH. he couldn't get rid of it there [i.e. his financial condition didn't improve] so he went to syria and raqqah and then returned. ma'amun appointed him as a judge when he returned from khorasan, he made him the judge of the mahdi military camp and he remained thus until his death in baghdad on the 11th of dhu'l hijjah in the year, 207 AH. bukhari said: [hadith imams] are silent about him; ahmad and ibn numayr abandoned him. muslim and others have said: he is matruk [rejected] nasayi said: he is not trustworthy [thiqah] khaTib said: he is one such scholar whose fame is spread from east to west. his books are widely available in subjects such as battle chronicles, biographies, chronologies, fiqh. he was a very generous man, honourable and famous for his generosity. ---in tabaqat ibn sa'ad, lengthy stories of how he fell in debt and his travels are mentioned on 7/603; entry #2273. also, a shorter bio in 9/336, entry #4328. imam dhahabi concludes on 9/469: it has been said earlier that waqidi is weak, however, he is needed [his reports are cited] in battle-chronicles and histories. we narrate his reports without critical analysis [or without presenting them as compelling evidence]. in matters of fara'id/inheritance, he should not be mentioned. the six books, musnad of imam ahmad and other compilations of fiqh rulings: we see that they are lenient in mentioning reports of weak narrators - rather even rejected [matruk] narrators would not narrate from muhammad ibn umar, even though - in my opinion, in spite of his being weak, his hadith should be written down and narrated because i do not accuse him of forging hadith; and concerning statements of those who abandoned him is due to carelessness of some sort - and similarly, the opinion of those who graded him as trustworthy is not reliable either - such as zayd, abu ubayd, saaghani, harbi, ma'an, tammam and tens of hadith scholars because today, it is commonly agreed that he is not a reliable hadith reporter [laysa bi hujjah] - and his hadith also contain a number of flimsy reports. may Allah have mercy upon him.
Asalam Alaikum Shaykh, Few questions, What is the name of this book by ʿAllāmah Sharaf? Is al-Wāqidī not considered a liar and rejected one who cannot be cited by the majority? What page is the quote of Ḥāfiẓ Ibn ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī on and can it be authentically attributed to him? Jazakallah Khair
Qasida Numaniyyah attributed to Imam Abu Hanifa radi Allahu 3anhu is very popular amongst Turks - much more than desis for some reason Text here - https://archive.org/details/qaseeda-noman-in-arabic-khuddam-e-tehreek-e-labbaik-pk/page/n15/mode/2up Urdu sharh by an aalim i'm not aware of - Mawlana Muhammad Aazam - https://archive.org/details/QaseedaNauman/page/n1/mode/1up Turkish recitation -
these are not "preconceived notions". this was only husn zann on behalf of the shaykh. i have immense respect for him and acknowledge his yeoman's service to ahlussunnah, especially razawi studies. he was a towering ridawi. may Allah ta'ala reward him on behalf of ahl al-sunnah. i have read his works and gained immense benefit and insights. BUT, i am no muqallid of the shaykh. i don't have to follow every opinion of his. thereafter, the very statement "better option" is baseless. which other scholar who allowed isti'anah said it? on what basis is it better? unless one is a blind follower of the shaykh, there has to be legal basis for "better" option. feelings are personal; fatwa is based on evidence. we cannot argue like deobandis, who will ignore a mountain of evidence and will point to a molehill that may appear to be in their favour. preconceived notions, anyone... : ) --- this is the wrong approach. we cannot create categories and limits based on our opinion and anecdotal evidence. am sorry if i sound belligerent, but it appears that you still are not clear about the issue yourself. that is why you speak of "asking Allah first and practicing limited waseela & istighatha". i strongly suggest you read alahazrat's "barakat al-imdad" [which shaykh sharaf raHimahullah has quoted in translation in this very book; in fact, major arguments of the chapter are derived from this work]. --- however, i understand what you wish to say - and probably what sh. asrar wanted to say - but have not articulated it properly. some among the awaam do not say: 'ya Allah' at all and they even say 'ya ghawth' in certain places where they shouldn't due to adab. for example, i was asked to lead prayer in a private gathering of sunnis, and during iqamah, when we stood up at Hayfalah, one of the elderly sunnis stood up saying "ya ghawth paak". i was distressed and i said: 'while we consider it permissible, we must avoid it in places such as this - in a masjid at the time of prayer, etc.' do we say this inside prayer? of course not. it will invalidate your prayer EVEN if it is nafilah. when someone says: narah e takbir. will you say: 'ya ghawth paak'? certainly not. so dhikr of Allah, always. you go up in a lift/stairs you say: "Allahu akbar". you go down you say: "sub'HanAllah". this is sunnah. this is dhikr of Allah. you go to bed, you say: "Allahumma..." you wake up, you say: "Alhamdulillah..." you go to toilet you say: "Allahumma inni a'udhu bika..." you come out you say: "Alhamdullillah..." you start eating you say: "bismillah..." you end by saying: "Alhamdulillah..." this is dhikr Allah - always. after salat, you do dua. there are a dozen formulae from the qur'an and hadith: "Allahumma a'yinni ala dhikrika wa shukrika" "Allahumma antas Salam.." "Allahumma la maaniy lima a'atayta..." "Allahummakfini bi Halalika..." "Allahumma inni as'aluka'l huda wa't tuqaa.." "Rabbana aatina..." "Rabbigh'fir..." "Allahumma inni a'udhu bika mina'l hammi wa'l Hazan..." "Rabbi'ghfir wa'rHam..." "Rabbana hablana min azwajina.." "Rabbana laa tuzigh qulubana ba'ada idh hadaytana..." ---- the awam should be taught to do this regularly. they can also say: 'ya RasulAllah' and 'ya ghawth' as intercession - but NOT replace these, NOR MORE than this. so when alahazrat says: bayth'tay uth'tay madad kay wastay / ya RasulAllah kaha phir tujh ko kyaa.. means, tawassul IN ADDITION to dhikr-Allah and dua' of Allah ta'ala. NOT REPLACING it. al-iyadhu billah. for example allamah sharaf cites the practice of sahabah during a battle. don't tell me allamah sharaf wants to say: "it is better to do otherwise..." and imam ibn hajar al-asqalani and shah waliyullah dihlawi: --- Allah ta'ala knows best.
regardless - allamah sharaf is not alahazrat. he can have his opinion, and you can have yours. i do not agree with him and this opinion of his - if indeed so - is simply ignored. RasulAllah sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam taught the prayer with istighatha. there can be no 'better' opinion than this. if anyone in our time thinks they OR the scholars of our time are more pious, righteous and more knowledgeable than the following, i can only pity their ignorance. some (among numerous) ulama who permitted and practised istighatha: - alahazrat - shaykh abdul aziz dihlawi - shah abdul haqq muhaddith dihlawi - mulla ali al-qari - imam ibn hajar al-haytami - imam al-jazry - imam subki and many others. --- so many fallacies in that. istighatha is a form of tawassul. it IS tawassul. so asking awliya is ASKING Allah as clarified by shah abdul-aziz and others. also, if you say this is not the case and asking anbiya is DIFFERENT from asking Allah, in which case the person will become a mushrik. and in which case, "better" makes no sense - because one cannot "choose" from 'shirk or better'; it has to be ONLY one, and then 'better' is meaningless. on p.184 he quotes alahazrat and titles this as the "aqidah of ahl al-sunnah"
1) As for it being an ambiguous phrase, it is pretty clearly what he is saying. I am not disregarding what he wrote in previous 70 pages, but the subheading says القول الفصل meaning 'the final/conclusive say'. Allama Abdul Hakeem Sharaf Qadri is clearly summarising the previous 70 pages in this paragraph with a few key points: 1) Seeking help from the Prophets and Awliya is not shirk. 2) Allah is the actual helper. 3) It is better, الاحسن , not to ask from anyone except Allah. If the Shaykh did not mean better with the usage of 'Ahsan', what did he mean? We can't force our pre-conceived notions to what Allama Sahib said. 2) As for the claim that he might have not even written this is a claim that needs to be backed up by evidence. Everything was written by him except for this paragraph? That seems inconceivable. Mufti Akmal who was one of his students quotes this passage in one of his videos. 3) I am not against Istigatha. I agree with what Allama Abdul Hakeem Sharaf Qadri writes. I know he considers it permissible but I feel like his القول الفصل was a warning or caution to the readers or those who practice Istigaatha. 4) I would disagree with the claim that saying it is better not to ask from anyone except Allah is like saying 'our opinion is better than the teaching of the Prophet prace be upon him'. There is a world of difference bewteen saying Ya Rasool Allah صلى الله عليه و سلم and practicing Istigatha even if you agree Istigatha is a form of Tawassul. The two can't be equated. How is saying 'Ya Rasool Allah' which is mentioned in the Hadith anyway equivalent to saying 'Ya Fulan Awliya, help me' in a time of hardship? Even if you believe Allah is the actual helper. These two can't be equated. Allama Abdul Hakeem Sharaf is also clearly talking about Istigatha in this paragraph anyway because after he says it is better to not to ask from anyone except Allah he ALSO says يتوسل بالانبیاء و الأولياء Which shows he was saying it is better to ask from Allah than to do Istigatha. He is NOT talking about Tawassul. This is further clarified when he says أو يطلب منهم أن يدعوا الله الله أعلم القول الفصل I am just a beginner student of knowledge, actually I don't even consider myself a student of knowledge and i respect aH for the tremendous work he has done. This was just to create a dialogue on the issue and shouldn't be deemed as disrespect. As a layman i feel like our communities should be told that yes Istigatha is permissible and yes it is not shirk and yes we have evidence for this but we should not over do it. Everything has a limit, we should ask Allah first and practice Waseela and Istigatha should be limited.
the snippet you have quoted, and one ambiguous phrase, which i am not sure if he really wrote it and if so what did he mean by it! because it goes against the entire chapter of 70 pages! --- this snippet is from allamah sharaf's book: "min aqayid ahl al-sunnah" the book is 388 pages and is a reply to the slanders of ihsan ilahi zaheer (alayhi ma alayhi) the book has 7 chapters - each refuting the mubtadiys of the day and their vicious campaign against sunni ulama: (given below is the summary from shaykh sharaf's own preface and plan of the book) the topic covered in each chapter is as follows: 1. life of Prophets in their graves (and life of righteous muslims, awliyaa) 2. miracles of Prophets and awliya - mu'jizah and karamah - and their ability to dispense (taSarruf) in the Kingdom of Allah, by His Permission. 3. on the matter of tawassul and refutation of jabir jazayiri's hapless critique of the hadith of bilal ibn harith. 4. tawassul and isti'anah (intercession and seeking help); an analysis of these concepts 5. the city of knowledge: that is RasulAllah SallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. the immense knowledge that Allah ta'ala bestowed upon him. (also knowledge of awliya, by the means of RasulAllah SallALlahu alayhi wa sallam) 6. that our master SallAllahu alayhi wa sallam is nur and that he is the first to be created; he was a human (bashar) and that he did not have a shadow. 7. the issue of "hazir-nazir" / present and seeing. ==== the two inter-related issues of tawassul and isti'anah are nearly a hundred pages. chapter 3 is about 30 pages and chapter 4 is 70. however, in this edition of the book, chap-3 and chap-4 are labelled as: chap-3, part one and chap-3, part two. while it makes sense as they are related - this appears to be the 'taSarruf' of the publisher because the list of 7 chapters was provided by the author himself. ==== anyway. the phrase of shaykh abdul hakim sharaf is to be taken in the overall context of the 100 pages of the discussion. regardless, the aqidah of shaykh is that which he explicitly articulates in the same book on pg. 183-184 and throughout this chapter, in various places he cites ulama and the permissibility of isti'anat. as for the phrase itself - the shaykh certainly didn't mean it was 'better'. recently, a brother shared that shameless zameel quoted waliyuddin iraqi to deny isti'anat. sub'HanAllah! numerous ulama - far more pious and greater in knowledge allowed it and practised it. what's more, the hadith of uthman ibn Hunayf explicitly allows calling upon RasulAllah sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam (istia'anat=calling for help= form of tawassul). if one says, it is better not do it - it is as if they are saying: our opinion is better than the teaching of RasulALlah sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. even though they did not say it, nor did such a thought cross their minds, but that is the implication. when RasulALlah sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam TAUGHT you to say: "ya RasulAllah" and you say, "i prefer the other option" - you must ask yourself where you stand. ===== regardless, mawlana sharaf raHimahullah was proving the permissibility and the desirability of all this, yet a stray phrase is touted as his aqidah! some quick citations from the same book, same chapter. imam subki: imam abdu'l aziz dihlawi specifically on the aayat: "iyyaka nasta'ayin" - when we don't deem anbiya awliya as helpers by themselves and we only consider them as means, tawassul - this "asking" them is actually asking help from Allah! common sense didn't touch the wahabis-devbandis with a 20-ft pole and therefore they keep jumping into hoops to justify tawassul but deny isti'anat/istighatha. --- mawlana sharaf cites this hadith and explains the meaning of isti'anah: === continuing on next page is the comment from ali al-qari: "it is understood from this that the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam told him to ask absolutely (for anything) because ALlah ta'ala gave in his power to give to anyone whatever he wills from Divine Treasures..." ---- another clear citation from imam subki. one from samhudi: p.146 ___ one from ibn amir al-Hajj, p.162: === from imam ibn al jazry, the famous imam of qira'at and the author of al Hisn al Hasin, p.198: ===
Why can't we take Allama Abdul Hakeem Sharaf Qadri's stance on istigatha? 'It is clear from what has preceded that seeking help from the Prophets and the Awliya, with the permission of Allah, isn't shirk or kufr like what the innovators of our time claim. It is clear that the actual helper and the fulfiller of needs is Allah. It is better to not ask from anyone EXCEPT from Allah and seek Waseela with the Prophets and the Awliya".
