saying, “Worship Allah and keep away from every false deity.” 1
Worship takes many forms: the prescribed prayer, almsgiving, fasting, the pilgrimage; speaking truthfully, discharging trusts, honoring parents, maintaining kinship ties, fulfilling covenants, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong; striving against disbelievers and hypocrites; showing kindness to animals, orphans, the needy, travelers, and to those held in bondage—whether human or beast; as well as supplication, remembrance, and Qur’an recitation. All of that is worship. Likewise, loving Allah and His Messenger, fearing Allah, and turning penitently to Him are acts of worship; and so too are sacrifice, making vows, seeking assistance, and seeking deliverance.
Every variety of worship must therefore be directed exclusively to Allah, without partner. Whoever turns any part of it to other than Him—such as one who calls upon someone besides Allah, or sacrifices or vows for other than Allah, or seeks aid or rescue from a dead person, an absent one, or even a living person present in matters that only Allah can accomplish—has committed major shirk, the grave sin that will not be forgiven unless he repents. It makes no difference whether the act is offered to an idol, a tree, a stone, a prophet, or a saint, living or dead, as is done today at tomb-shrines erected over graves. Allah is not pleased that anyone be associated with Him in His worship: not a near-standing angel, nor a sent prophet, nor a saint, nor anyone else. The Exalted says, “Indeed, Allah does not forgive that partners be associated with Him” 2; and He says, “So do not invoke anyone alongside Allah” 3; and He says, “Do not associate anything with Him.” 4
Regrettably, graves have today—in some lands—been turned into idols worshipped besides Allah by people who lay claim to Islam. One of them may call upon other than Allah anywhere, even when not at a grave—such as when he exclaims, “O Messenger of Allah!” on rising or when startled by something strange, or when he says, “Help me, O Messenger of Allah!” (or, “O so-and-so!”). If they are reproved for this they respond, “We know these persons possess no power, but they are righteous people who have…"