people devoted to worship and asceticism. They recount stories and dreams concerning these practices, but all of this is from Satan. Some of them compose poems invoking the dead, seeking their intercession and calling upon them for help, or include such appeals in their praise of the prophets and the righteous. None of this is prescribed, obligatory, or recommended, by the consensus of the imams of the Muslims. Whoever performs an act of worship that is neither obligatory nor recommended, believing it to be obligatory or recommended, is misguided and has introduced a bad religious innovation, not a good one, by the consensus of the imams of the religion. For Allah is to be worshipped only through what is obligatory or recommended.

Many people speak of benefits and advantages in these forms of polytheism and argue in their favour on the basis of opinion, personal experience, imitation, dreams, and the like.

These people may be answered in two ways:

The first is through scriptural texts and consensus. The second is through analogy, experience, and reflection, explaining the harm involved in these practices, for their harm outweighs whatever benefit is imagined to lie in them.

As for the first, the answer is:

It is known as an indisputable fact of the religion of Islam, established through mass transmission and the consensus of the early generations of this community and its imams, that these practices are neither obligatory nor recommended.

It is also known that neither the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, nor any prophet before him prescribed that people invoke angels, prophets, or righteous people, or seek their intercession, whether after their deaths or in their absence. Thus, no one should say:

“O angels of Allah, intercede for me with Allah. Ask Allah to grant us victory, provide for us, or guide us.”