Deifying the Messenger (peace be upon him) and many of the socalled Awliya' (pious people) is practiced everywhere by many ignorant people. Any one, who knows people's real life and the religion of Allah with which He sent His messengers and revealed His books and for which He created humans and jinn, can easily find such deification. Deification that many ignorant people commit is dedicating some acts of worship to the Prophet (peace be upon him) or any of the creation, such as supplicating to him or seeking relief, support, cure of the patients and victory over the enemies from him or other acts of worship.
And I (Allâh) created not the jinn and mankind except that they should worship Me (Alone).
Allah (may He be Praised) expounds in these Ayahs that their supplication to anyone other than Him constitutes associating others in worship with Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He). He illustrates that this is a form of major Kufr (disbelief)
Moreover, Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) sets clear that the worst misguided person is the one who supplicates to anyone other than Allah, confirming that the angels, messengers and others to whom people supplicate apart from Allah will disown their worshipers and that they are unaware of that. Allah (may He be Praised) says:
And who is more astray than one who calls on (invokes) besides Allâh, such as will not answer him till the Day of Resurrection, and who are (even) unaware of their calls (invocations) to them?
And when mankind are gathered (on the Day of Resurrection), they (false deities) will become their enemies and will deny their worshipping.
And the Day whereon We shall gather them all together, then We shall say to those who did set partners in worship with Us: "Stop at your place! You and your partners (whom you had worshipped in the worldly life)." then We shall separate them, and their (Allâh's socalled) partners shall say: "It was not us that you used to worship." "So sufficient is Allâh as a witness between us and you that we indeed knew nothing of your worship of us."
The Ayahs that stress this meaning are numerous and known, and the Ayahs we quoted above are sufficient to explicitly show that `Ibadah (worship) is Allah's right alone and cannot be offered to anyone other than Him. Scholars must make these facts manifest to people and explain to them the meaning of Tawhid (belief in the Oneness of Allah; monotheism) with which Allah sent His Messenger Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the messengers before him. They must teach them the things that they do not know and warn them against Shirk. Also, Muslim rulers must carry out the orders of Allah in His slaves and prevent them from worshiping others or violating the rules of the Shari`ah (Islamic law) according to the commands of the Qur'an and Sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him). They may seek the help of the true scholars in knowing the points that they are ignorant about in the Book of Allah and Sunnah of His Messenger (peace be upon him). In this
lies their glory, honor and safety in this world and in the Hereafter. It was authentically reported that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said:
If Allah wants to do good to a person, He makes him comprehend the religion.
The best among you (Muslims) are those who learn the Qur'an and teach it.
One who guides to something good has a reward similar to that of its doer.
In a wellknown Athar (narrations from the Companions), `Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) and `Umar ibn AlKhattab (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "Allah fulfills through the rulers what He does not fulfill through the Qur'an." Imam Malik (may Allah be merciful with him) said: "The affairs of this Ummah will not be set aright unless it follows the guidance of the early generations." This great statement becomes the opinion of the majority of scholars; the thing, which set aright the affairs of the early generations of the Ummah and with which they led and guided people and ruled the world, lied in the observation of the Qur'an and Sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and referring their disputes to both Allah and His Messenger, not to people's opinions and personal reasoning. Again, the affairs of the end of this Ummah will not be set aright without this matter that sets aright the affairs of the early generations. We implore Allah to guide Muslim rulers and scholars to adopt that and unite them on the truth. We ask Him to set right the affairs of the Muslim public, endow them with understanding of religion and entrust their affairs to the best among them. Indeed, Allah is OftGiving and Generous.