By Br. Abdullah Mujahid
The purpose of Mankind, the sole reason behind our creation, is to worship Allah Alone:
"And I created not the Jinns and men except that they should worship Me (Alone)." [51: 56]
Worship has been defined by Ibn Taymiyyah as being: "a term which comprises everything that Allah (s.w.t) loves and approves of from the apparent and hidden sayings and deeds."
The main condition for such worship to be accepted however, is that they must be solely made for the Sake of Allah, and no one else. This is the essence of Tawheed, and the Kalima itself, which declares boldly that there is no deity worthy of worship except for Allah.
And Du'a (supplication) is undoubtedly a part of worship, as Ibn Abbas said, "the best forms of worship is the du'a" [Munthir and Ibn Haakim].
To Allah belongs certain rights, among these including to slaughter in His Name, to prostrate before no one but Him, and to direct Du'a to no one but Him. In this regard, the scholar Ibn Rajab said: "Know that it is an obligation to invoke Allah Alone in Du`a, and not His creation... Admitting (and showing) humility and meekness can only be revealed to Allah, Alone, for this is the essence of worship."
Ibnul Qayyim said: "And from the types of Shirk, requesting needs from the dead, and Istighaathah from them and direction (of the call) to them, and this is the original of the Shirk of Mankind. Since the dead has his deeds cut off from him, and he cannot cause upon himself any good nor bad, let alone whoever seeks help from him, or asked him to seek intercession from Allah on his behalf. "
Calling upon the dead represents a hollow attempt to seek help from a creature who can benefit the caller nothing. Allah Says: "If you call upon them, they hear not your call, and if (in case) they were to hear, they could not grant it (your request) to you. And on the Day of Resurrection, they will disown your worshipping them" [35: 14]
