Why do Ismailis pray to the Imams? Why do so many Muslims regularly call out to the Prophet and Saints for help? Is this prayer permissible in Islam or is it idol worship?
In this new article I explain how Sunni and Shii Muslim thinkers understand and justify this mainstream Muslim practice known as Istighatha through the Quran, Hadith and Islamic metaphysics.
“This chapter has endeavored to elucidate the practice of intercessory prayer known as istighātha in Islamic thought and practice. Istighātha is a type of intercessory prayer in which Muslims pray to or address a call for help to an
intermediary figure such as the Prophet Muhammad, the Shiʿi Imams, or the Sufi Saints. Today, due to the pervasive influence of Taymiyyan and Wahhabi-
Salafi theology, there is a widespread impression among Muslims and non- Muslims alike that calling upon the Prophet or Saints for help amounts to shirk (associating partners with God). This chapter first demonstrated that
istighātha was widely popular in pre-modern and contemporary Muslim society in the form of shrine visitation and popular devotional practices. Sec-
ondly, we argued that the practice of istighātha received widespread theolog-ical and legal approval among both Sunni and Shiʿi Muslim scholars. In other
words, istighātha is a mainstream Muslim practice that the majority of Sun-nis and Shiʿa approved of. Third, we surveyed some of the scriptural references
that Muslim scholars in the Sunni tradition used to argue for the legitimacy of istighātha. These include numerous Quranic verses and reports from the Sunni
ḥadīth corpus in which individuals seek the Prophet’s prayers, blessings, and intercession. Finally, the last section illustrated a metaphysical rationale for
107 Buehler, Arthur F., Sufi heirs of the Prophet: The Indian Naqshbandiyya and the rise of the
mediating shaykh, Albany: suny Press, 1998, 41. For the primary source, see Mīr Khūrd, Muḥammad b. Mubārak, Siyar al-awliyāʾ, Lahore: al-Kitāb Sūfī Foundation, 1978, 337. “yā muḥammad, yā ʿalī” 695
intercessory prayer based on the Islamic Neoplatonic metaphysics upheld in the Avicennian, Ismaʿili, Akbari, and Sadrian intellectual traditions. From this
metaphysical perspective, God is timelessly eternal and immutable; the act of petitionary prayer does not change God or cause Him to bestow more bless-
ings upon a creature. Rather, God eternally and continuously emanates His blessings upon all creatures at every moment through His single creative act
known as the Command of God or the Muhammadan Reality. Every created being receives a share of God’s blessings based on its own spiritual capac-
ity to receive them. Prayer and supplication are meant to help a human soul increase its receptivity to what God is always bestowing upon it. However, in addition to supplicating God directly, it is beneficial for a Muslim to seek God’s blessings from those perfected human souls who are already at the high-est level of spiritual receptivity—the Prophets, the Imams, and the Friends of
God. Their souls, which are constantly receiving an influx of blessings from God, can transmit His blessing and succor to less perfect souls by extending
those divine blessings to them. This has the overall result of helping the suppli- cant’s soul become more receptive to God and resolving his or her immediate
difficulties. Overall, there is a strong historical, scriptural, and metaphysical basis in Islamic thought for the popular practice of istighātha or intercessory
prayer. Far from negating the concept of tawḥīd, prayers like Yā Muḥammad or Yā ʿAlī express the deeper metaphysical truth that all created entities and
all creaturely help manifested throughout the Cosmos are radically dependent upon God, Who is sole independent Reality and self-sufficient Originator of all help. To recognize God’s transcendent unity and the manifestation of His eternal action through various intermediaries, the highest being the Muhammadan Reality reflected in the Perfect Human, amounts to a more complete expression of tawḥīd, as al-Qūnawī taught: “God’s influence and His life-giving succour (madad) flow through the Perfect Man and, by virtue of his manifestation therein, into all stations, presences, worlds and spiritual states.”108 Yā ʿAlī madad.
by Dr K Andhani
Full piece
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10FD7is ... p=drivesdk