the rain-seeking prayer: that the leader of the Muslims asks some of the scholars and the righteous to take part with the community in turning to Allah and beseeching Him, exalted is He, to relieve His believing servants of their hardship. Imām Ibn Qudāmah never intended—indeed we are certain it never even crossed his mind—the false meaning that al-Būṭī and the rest of the innovators foist upon his words when they try to force the juristic terminology to bear it.

How can al-Būṭī claim such a fictitious consensus and cite Ibn Qudāmah and others in its favor when Ibn Qudāmah’s own statement uproots his interpretation from the ground up? Does he not understand the writings of the scholars? Or is he simply advancing whatever hollow assertions please him without consulting the books or reading the scholars’ words—confident that his readers will imitate him blindly and will neither verify nor examine what he says?

By Allah, it is truly regrettable. It is one of the gravest calamities we witness in the current state of the Muslim community, and without doubt a major cause of their backwardness, weakness, and decline. This condition cannot possibly change unless they abandon stagnation, certain forms of Sufism, rigid madhhab-based jurisprudence, and scholastic theology, and return to the true guidance of Allah embodied in the Qur’an and the Sunnah, so clearly elucidated by the noble Salafi call.

6 – His error in claiming that the blind man’s tawassul was through the Prophet’s ﷺ standing with Allah:

We shall conclude our response to Dr. al-Būṭī by pointing out his mistake in alleging that