a Muslim should know that the terms “means of approach” and “seeking nearness” have become ambiguous and confused in people’s usage and understanding because of the proliferation of misguided desires and the spread of religious innovations. It is therefore necessary to distinguish their meanings and accord each its proper due. One must know what the Book and Sunnah state concerning this matter and what it means, as well as what the Companions said and did in this regard. One must also know what the innovators have introduced into this terminology and its meaning. Misconceptions in this area have multiplied, while misguided desires and religious innovations have become widespread. Consequently, numerous invented practices with no basis or foundation have been included under the meaning of seeking nearness. They did not exist in the time of the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—and were unknown in any of the supplications commonly recited among them.
The most dangerous manifestation of this, past and present, is calling upon the dead and the absent, seeking their aid, petitioning them, laying one’s needs before them, and asking them to fulfill needs, relieve distress, heal the sick, and the like—and then calling all of this “seeking nearness.” Such people have used the term as a pretext through which to propagate these acts of disbelief and grave forms of misguidance. In reality, these practices constitute seeking nearness to Satan, not to the Most Merciful, and lead to misguidance and falsehood, not to truth and guidance. They are a form of major shirk that expels a person from the faith—we seek refuge in Allah.
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah—may Allah have mercy on him—said: “If he says, ‘I petition him because he is closer to Allah than I am, so that he may intercede for me in these matters, for I seek a means of approach to Allah through him just as one gains access to a ruler through members of his inner circle and his aides,’ this is among the practices of the polytheists and Christians. They claim that they take their religious scholars and monks as intercessors, seeking their intercession in obtaining what they desire. Likewise, Allah has informed us that the polytheists said: