Anas: “No one was dearer to them than the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and his family and grant him peace. Yet when they saw him, they would not stand up for him, knowing his dislike of that.”

When Mu‘ādh prostrated before him, he forbade him and said:

“Prostration is appropriate only for Allah. Were I to command anyone to prostrate before another, I would command a wife to prostrate before her husband, because of the greatness of his rights over her.”

When the heretics who had gone to extremes concerning ‘Alī and believed him to be divine were brought before him, he ordered them to be burned with fire. Such is the way of Allah’s prophets and His righteous servants. Only those who seek supremacy and corruption on earth allow others to go to extremes concerning them and exalt them without right—people such as Pharaoh and misguided religious leaders whose aim is supremacy and corruption on earth.

Going astray concerning the prophets and the righteous, taking them as lords, and associating them with Allah occurs in their absence and after their deaths, just as the Messiah and Ezra were made partners with Allah. This further clarifies the distinction between making requests of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and his family and grant him peace, or a righteous person during his lifetime and in his presence, and making requests of him after his death and in his absence.

None of the early generations of this community—in the time of the Companions, their successors, or the successors of their successors—deliberately sought to offer prayers and supplications at the graves of the prophets, made requests of them, or sought their aid, whether in their absence or at their graves. The same applies to devotional stays there.

Among the gravest forms of associating partners with Allah is for a man to seek aid from someone dead or absent, as mentioned by