The correct conclusion is that they are blessings in one respect, though not complete blessings in another. As for the blessing of religion that one should seek, it consists of what Allah has commanded, whether obligatory or recommended. This is the good that should be sought, by the agreement of the Muslims, and it is the true blessing according to Ahl al-Sunnah, who hold that Allah bestows the blessing of actually doing good. The Qadariyyah, by contrast, hold that He bestows only the capacity to do it—a capacity equally suited to doing good or its opposite.

The point here is that Allah has not commanded any created being to ask another for anything except what benefits the person being asked: an obligatory or recommended act. He—glorified is He—requires nothing else of His servant, so how could He command someone else to ask that servant for anything else? Indeed, He has forbidden a servant to ask another for his wealth except out of necessity.

If the person making the request intends to benefit the person being asked, or to benefit both himself and that person, he is rewarded for it. But if his intention is merely to obtain what he wants, without intending that the person being asked should benefit, then this comes from himself. Allah never commands such a request; rather, He has forbidden it, since it is merely asking something of a created being without intending to benefit him or serve his interests. Allah commands us to worship Him and turn to Him in hope, and He commands us to do good to His servants. Yet this person intends neither: he does not intend to turn to Allah in hope and supplicate to Him, which is prayer, nor does he intend to do good to created beings, which is zakat (almsgiving).

Although a servant may incur no sin through such a request, there is nevertheless a difference between what he is commanded to do and what he is permitted to do. Do you not see that, in the hadith concerning the seventy thousand who enter Paradise without being called to account, he said:

“They do not ask others to perform ruqyah (healing recitations) for them.”

Yet requesting ruqyah is permissible. We have discussed this at length elsewhere.

The point here is that whoever posits intermediaries between Allah and His creation, like those that