Thread by @IbneKhan01

❝HELP ME, O SERVANTS OF ALLĀH!❞

Nabī ﷺ said, ❝If you lose something or if you want a helper and you are in such a place where you don’t find anyone to help then one should say, ❛Help me, O Servants of Allāh! Help me, O Servants of Allāh!❜ As there are servants of Allāh

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whom we do not see.❞

This is recorded by Ţabarānī in Mújam al-Kabīr from Útbah ibn Ghazwān, after which he states:

❝That has been acted upon.❞

[Vol. 17, pp. 117-118]

RasūlAllāh ﷺ said, ❝If your mount flees in the desert, then call out, ❛Stop it, O servants of Allāh!❜ For Allāh has present those who will stop it.❞

This is recorded by Ibn al-Sunnī in Ámal al-Yawm wa’l Laylah from Ibn Masúūd.

[pp. 303-304]

RasūlAllāh ﷺ said, ❝When there befalls a difficulty upon you in travel, then he should call, ❛Help, servants of Allāh!❜❞

This is recorded by Bazzār in his Musnad and Ibn Abī Shaybah in his Muşannaf, from Ibn Ábbās.

[Vol. 10, pg 155]

Imām Abu’l Ĥasan Nūruddīn Álī al-Shāfiýī al-Haythamī [735-807 AH / 1335-1405 CE] records the same narration in Majmá al-Zawāyid wa Manbá al-Fawāyid and then writes:

❝It’s narrators are thiqāt [trustworthy].❞

[Vol 10, pp. 138-139]

These narrations all strengthen one another and so they are accepted, furthermore the fact that scholars acted upon them also demonstrates this.

Now, it may be asked, who exactly are these servants of Allāh whom we are told to seek help from?

Mullā Álī ibn Sulţān al-Qārī al-Ĥanafī [d. 1014 AH / 1605 CE] writes in Ĥirz al-Thamīn, regarding the meaning of ❝O servants of Allāh❞:

❝The intended is the Angels, or the Muslims from the Jinn, or Rijāl al-Ghayb, who are named the Abdāl.❞

Muĥammad ibn Álī al-Shawkānī [1173-1255 AH / 1759-1839 CE], whom the Wahābīs take from, writes in Tuĥfah al-Dhākirīn:

❝In the Ĥadīth there is evidence of the permissibility of Istiáānah [seeking help] with those whom a person does not see from among the servants of Allāh,

from the Angels and the righteous Jinn, and there is no harm in that, just as it is permissible for a person to seek help from Banī Ādam if his mount becomes unmanageable or runs loose.❞

[pg. 202]

Alahazrat Imām Aĥmad Riđā Khān al-Ĥanafī al-Baraylawī [1272-1340 AH / 1856-1921 CE] writes, as recorded in Fatāwā al-Riđawiyyah:

❝These three Ĥadīths destroy Wahābiyyat, that came from the narration of three Şaĥābah رضی الله تعالٰی عنہم. They have been accepted and acted

upon by the akābir úlamā’a e dīn رحمہم الله تعالٰی since the ancient past.❞

Let us now look to which of the akābir ulamā’a e dīn accepted this and acted upon it.

Ábdullāh ibn Aĥmad ibn Ĥanbal states:

❝I heard my father saying: I performed Ĥajj five times, twice riding and

thrice on foot, or twice on foot and thrice riding. Once when I was on foot, I lost the way, so I began to say, ❛Show me the way, O servants of Allāh!❜ I kept repeating this until I was back on track.❞

[Masāyil Imām Aĥmad ibn Ĥanbal, pg. 245]

Imam Yaĥyā Ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī al-Shāfiýī [631-676 AH / 1233-1277 CE] writes in Adkhār, after quoting the second narration:

❝I say: One of our great Shaykhs in īlm narrated to me, he lost his riding beast, I think it was a mule, and he knew this Ĥadīth, so he said it,

thus Allāh brought it to him immediately.

I was once with a group, and my animal fled and they failed to find it, so I said it, thus I found it immediately without any means besides this statement.❞

[pg. 192]

Thus we see that these narrations are accepted and acted upon.

As for those who claim it is shirk to ask help from angels, jinn and in general from anyone other than Allāh, then we ask them a few questions.

1. Is the instruction of RasūlAllāh ﷺ, an instruction of shirk?

2. Did those who acted upon it, such as Imām Aĥmad, commit shirk?

3. Is seeking help from angels and jinn shirk?

4. If you consider it shirk, then do you claim to understand tawĥīd and sūrah al-fātiĥah better than RasūlAllāh ﷺ, the salaf and the khalaf?

5. If we act upon this narration are we mushrikīn?

6. Does this call come under worship?

7. You claim there is no point in asking other than Allāh for help and to do so is shirk, what do you have to say to this?

For any Wahābī who wishes to point out that two of the narrations contain weakness in their sanads, then there is no benefit or point in doing so, as the other narration is sound and the different routes through which this is narrated all strengthen each other.

Not to forget that it is accepted and acted upon by scholars throughout the ages, and so the individual weaknesses of some of these chains has no affect on the acceptability of these narrations.

In addition, it is permitted to act upon weak narrations in such matters.

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