the removal of his affliction, the securing of some benefit, the healing of his illness, or anything of that sort, has fallen into the gravest and most dangerous form of transgression in supplication. Hence Allah Most High says: “Who is further astray than one who invokes, besides Allah, those who will not respond to him until the Day of Resurrection and are heedless of their invocation?” 1

The substance of the commentators’ explanation of this verse is that Allah Most High has ruled that no one is further astray than a person who invokes besides Allah one who will not respond to him until the Day of Resurrection. The rhetorical question in the verse denies that, among all those who have gone astray, anyone could be more profoundly misguided than one who worships and invokes other than Allah. He abandons calling upon the All-Hearing, the One who answers, the All-Powerful, and instead calls upon a weak and helpless being who has no power to respond. Allah Most High says: “To Him alone belongs the true invocation. Those whom they invoke besides Him do not respond to them in any way. They are merely like one who stretches out his hands toward water so that it may reach his mouth, though it will never reach it. The supplications of the disbelievers are entirely in vain.” 2 This is the most dangerous and harmful form of transgression in supplication.

Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyya—may Allah have mercy on him—said: “Such people are the worst of transgressors, for the gravest transgression is shirk (associating partners with Allah), which means directing worship where it does not belong. This transgression must therefore be included in the words of Allah Most High: ‘Indeed, He does not love those who transgress.’” 3

What transgression could be greater or more severe than for a servant to direct Allah’s exclusive right—which may not be directed to anyone besides Him—to a created being who has no power even over harm to himself