is permissible. We have treated this matter at length elsewhere.

The point here is that anyone who postulates intermediaries between Allah and His creatures—like the courtiers who stand between a king and his subjects—is a mushrik (polytheist). In fact, this was the very creed of the idol-worshippers: they maintained that their images represented prophets and righteous people and that these figures served as means of drawing closer to Allah. It is the same kind of polytheism that Allah reproached the Christians for when He said, “They have taken their rabbis and monks as lords instead of Allah, and also the Messiah, son of Mary; yet they were commanded to worship only one God. There is no deity but Him. Exalted is He above all that they associate with Him” (9:31).

He likewise says, “When My servants ask you about Me, I am indeed near. I answer the call of the suppliant when he calls upon Me. Therefore let them respond to Me and believe in Me, so that they might be rightly guided” (2:186)—meaning: let them comply with My commands and prohibitions, and let them believe that I answer their prayers when they beseech and humble themselves before Me.

And He, the Exalted, says, “So when you have finished, devote yourself, and to your Lord turn with longing” (94:7–8). And He says,