It has also been reported that whenever his nephew asked him for something by the right of his father, Jaʿfar, ʿAlī would give it to him because of the right Jaʿfar had over him. The right owed to a relative remains after his death, as in the hadith:

“A man said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, is there anything I can still do to honour my parents after their death?’ He replied, ‘Yes: supplicating for them, asking forgiveness for them, fulfilling their promises after they are gone, and maintaining the ties of kinship that you have only through them.’”

Another hadith, narrated by Ibn ʿUmar, states:

“Among the finest acts of filial devotion is for a man to maintain ties with those his father loved after his father has departed.”

Thus, maintaining ties with a deceased person’s relatives and friends after his death is part of fully honouring him.

The statement of Abū Hanīfah, his companions, and other scholars—that it is not permissible to ask Allah Most High by a created being, whether by the right of the prophets or otherwise—encompasses two things, as explained above.

(The first) is adjuring Allah, glorified and exalted is He, by that created being. This is prohibited according to the great majority of scholars, as explained above, just as adjuring Allah by the Kaʿbah or the sacred sites is prohibited by scholarly consensus.

(The second) is asking Him by that created being. Some people permit this, and reports to this effect have been transmitted from some of the early generations. It also occurs in many people’s supplications. However, everything narrated from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, concerning this is weak—indeed, fabricated.

There is no established hadith from him that might be thought to support their position except the hadith of the blind man, whom he taught to say:

“I ask You and turn to You through Your Prophet Muhammad, the Prophet of mercy.”

Yet the hadith of the blind man provides no evidence for their position, for it explicitly states that he sought to draw near to Allah only through the supplication and intercession of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and he