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As for someone saying, “You belong to such-and-such a spiritual master, and he is your master in this world and the Hereafter,” this is a reprehensible innovation, both because he has devoted himself to someone other than Allah and because the statement “your master in this world and the Hereafter” has no basis in reality.

If he means that they will be together in Paradise, that is for Allah to decide, not him. If he means that the master’s intercession on his behalf will be accepted, no one intercedes for another except by Allah Most High’s permission. If He permits his intercession on that person’s behalf, it will be accepted; otherwise, it will not. Merely saying, “You are my spiritual master in the Hereafter,” does not make him an intercessor for the speaker—and this is assuming that the master is among those entitled to intercede. It has already been explained that the foremost of the messengers and of all creation will not intercede until Allah permits him to do so, after others have declined. How many claim to be spiritual masters, yet have deficiencies in knowledge and faith known only to Allah Most High!

As for the saying:

“If any of you expected good from a stone, Allah would benefit him through it,”

this is a saying of polytheists and fabricators of lies. Idol-worshippers expected good from their idols, yet both they and their idols became fuel for Hell, as Allah Most High says:

“Indeed, you and what