and earth?” And as He Most High says:

“Allah made it only as good tidings for you, and so that your hearts might be reassured by it. Victory comes only from Allah.”

And He says:

“If you do not support him, Allah has already supported him when those who disbelieved drove him out, one of two, when they were in the cave and he said to his companion, ‘Do not grieve; indeed, Allah is with us.’”

The meanings affirmed by the Book and the Sunnah must be affirmed, and those negated by the Book and the Sunnah must be negated. If expressions conveying these meanings, whether by affirmation or negation, occur in the words of Allah and His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, they must be accepted. If they occur in someone else’s words and his intended meaning is clear, he is judged accordingly; otherwise, he must be asked to clarify his meaning. An expression in the words of Allah and His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, may have a sound meaning, yet some people may understand it differently from what Allah and His Messenger intended. Such an understanding must be rejected.

For example, al-Tabarānī related in his al-Mu‘jam al-Kabīr:

“During the Prophet’s lifetime, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, there was a hypocrite who harmed the believers. Abū Bakr al-Siddīq said, ‘Come with us so that we may seek relief from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, against this hypocrite.’ The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, ‘Relief is not to be sought from me; relief is to be sought only from Allah.’”

By this statement, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, meant only the second sense: asking him for something that Allah alone can do. Otherwise, the Companions used to ask him to supplicate and seek rain through him. Thus, in Sahīh al-Bukhārī, Ibn ‘Umar said:

“At times I would recall the poet’s words as I looked at the face of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, while he prayed for rain. He would not come down before a gutter was gushing with rainwater:

‘And a fair-faced man, through whose countenance rain is sought from the clouds,
A refuge for orphans, a protector of widows.’”

These are the words of Abū Tālib. Accordingly, scholars who have written about the names of Allah Most High have said: Everyone subject to religious obligations must know that there is no source of relief and no giver of relief in the absolute sense except Allah, and that every