remain in his place when the Prophet ﷺ directed him to stay there. Why so? It was entirely out of their veneration for their Prophet ﷺ, their refined courtesy toward him, and their certainty of his right and his superiority. Hence, if the Companions—may Allah Most High be pleased with them—would not accept following anyone but the Prophet ﷺ in prayer whenever that was possible, even though they had already begun the prayer in his absence, how could they possibly abandon tawassul through him ﷺ after his death—were that still attainable—and turn instead to tawassul through someone else? And just as Abū Bakr refused to lead the Muslims in prayer, it is self-evident that al-ʿAbbās would likewise never have agreed that people make tawassul through him while leaving off tawassul through the Prophet ﷺ, had that option remained open.

Note: From another angle, this also lays bare the feebleness of the thinking of those who claim that he ﷺ is alive in his grave with a life identical to ours. For if that were so, there would have been no acceptable reason for the Companions to turn away from praying behind him ﷺ and pray instead behind someone who could never come close to him in rank or merit.

Nor should anyone object to what I have established by citing the statement attributed to the Prophet ﷺ: “I am alive—fresh—in my grave; whoever sends blessings upon me, I return his greeting,” and then arguing that this shows he ﷺ is alive like we are, so that if we seek tawassul through him he hears us and responds, our objective is achieved and our desire fulfilled, and that there is therefore no difference between his state while alive and his state after death. I say: let no one raise such an objection, for it is invalid on two counts:

First, from the standpoint of hadith criticism: in brief, that narration in precisely those words has no foundation, and the word “ṭarī” (“fresh”) exists in none of the books of Sunnah whatsoever. Its meaning, however, is conveyed in several authentic reports, among them his ﷺ saying: