“When distress befalls you at sea, all those you invoke are lost to you except Him.”

And the Exalted said:

“Say, ‘Tell me: if Allah’s punishment came upon you, or the Hour came upon you, would you call upon anyone other than Allah, if you are truthful?’”

“Rather, Him alone you would invoke, and He would remove the distress for which you invoked Him, if He willed, and you would forget whatever you associate with Him.”

And He said:

“We certainly sent messengers to nations before you, then afflicted them with poverty and hardship so that they might humble themselves.”

“Why, then, did they not humble themselves when Our punishment came upon them? Instead, their hearts hardened, and Satan made their deeds appear attractive to them.”

The Prophet—may Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace—supplicated for rain for his Companions, both with and without a formal prayer. He led them in the prayer for rain and the eclipse prayer. He would also offer qunūt supplications during his prayers, seeking victory over the polytheists. His rightly guided caliphs followed the same course after him, as did the leading religious scholars and the shaykhs of the Muslims. They have continued upon this path.

Hence the saying: “Three things have no foundation: the Bāb (Gate) of the Nusayrīs, the Awaited One of the Rāfidah, and the Ghawth (Succour-Giver) of the ignorant.” The Nusayrīs make claims of this kind about their Bāb, asserting that he sustains the world. That individual does exist, but the Nusayrīs’ claim about him is false.

As for the awaited Muhammad ibn al-Hasan, the Ghawth residing in Mecca, and the like, these are fictitious and do not exist. Likewise, some claim that the Qutb (Pole), the all-encompassing Ghawth, supplies Allah’s allies with aid and knows them all, and make similar claims. This is false. For Abū Bakr and Umar