with beautiful, wide eyes, the youths, and other such things. Is it permissible to swear by these created beings because one must believe in them? Or is it likewise permissible to ask by invoking them?
It is therefore clear that, when asking by invoking a means, if what is invoked is not a means by which the supplication is answered, there is no distinction between invoking one created being and another, just as there is no distinction between swearing by one created being and another. All of this is impermissible. Thus, its impermissibility is clear, as those scholars who held this view have stated. And Allah knows best.
As for the words of Allah Most High:
“Previously, they used to pray for victory against those who disbelieved,”
the Jews used to say to the polytheists: “This Prophet will soon be sent, and we shall fight you alongside him and kill you.” They were not adjuring Allah by the Prophet himself, nor asking Him by invoking him. Or they would say:
“O Allah, send this unlettered Prophet so that we may follow him and kill these people alongside him.”
This is the established account among the scholars of Quranic exegesis, and it is what the Quran indicates, for Allah Most High said:
“Previously, they used to pray for victory.”
Praying for victory means seeking help to prevail: asking for triumph and victory. Seeking triumph and victory through him meant asking that he be sent, so that they could fight their enemies alongside him and thereby gain victory. It did not mean swearing by him or asking by invoking him. Had that been the case, they would have gained victory whenever they asked by invoking him or swore by him. Yet that was not what happened. Rather, when Allah sent Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, Allah granted those who believed in him and fought alongside him victory over those who opposed him.
What some commentators have mentioned—that they used to swear by him or ask by invoking him—is an anomalous report that contradicts the many widely transmitted accounts to the contrary. We have mentioned some of these in “Proofs of Prophethood” and in the book “Seeking Help