“When you sought help from your Lord, and He answered you.”

In the supplication of Moses, peace be upon him, we find:

“O Allah, to You belongs all praise; to You complaints are brought; Your assistance is sought; from You deliverance is sought; and in You we place our trust. There is no might or power except through You.”

Abū Yazīd al-Bistāmī said: “A created being seeking deliverance from another created being is like a drowning person seeking deliverance from another drowning person.”

Abū ‘Abd Allāh al-Qurashī said: “A created being seeking deliverance from another created being is like a prisoner seeking deliverance from another prisoner.”

Allah Most High has said:

“Say, ‘Call upon those whom you claim besides Him. They have no power to remove harm from you or to shift it elsewhere.’”

“Those whom they invoke themselves seek a means of drawing near to their Lord, striving to be the closest. They hope for His mercy and fear His punishment. Indeed, the punishment of your Lord is something to beware of.”

Some of the early generations explained that there were people who invoked angels and prophets, so Allah Most High said: “Those whom you invoke are My servants, just as you are My servants. They hope for My mercy, just as you hope for My mercy; they fear My punishment, just as you fear My punishment; and they seek to draw near to Me, just as you seek to draw near to Me.”

Thus, He, glorified be He, forbade invoking angels and prophets, while informing us that the angels supplicate for us and seek forgiveness for us. Nevertheless, we may not ask them to do so.

The same applies to prophets and righteous people. Even if they are alive in their graves, even if it is supposed that they supplicate for the living, and even if reports to that effect have been transmitted, no one may ask them to do so. None of the early generations did this, because it is a means leading to associating them with Allah and worshipping them instead of Allah Most High. This differs from asking one of them during his lifetime, for that does not lead to associating partners with Allah; and because what the angels do, and what the prophets and righteous people do after death, occurs by Allah’s command governing creation